Carson sighed heavily.“Are you always this difficult?”
She wasn’t being difficult; she just didn’t need or want his help.“Excuse me?”
“Never mind, I already know the answer to that.”He said that as if he knew anything about her.“Let me give you a ride home, and you can call a tow.They’ll probably take a while; it’s a hot day, and your groceries aren’t going to make it.”
She’d had the same thought.It was the middle of summer, and it was a hot day.Her frozen food wasn’t going to last long.Her only option was Carson.She didn’t know where Sandy was or how long it would take her to get here.It looked like she was going to be stuck with Carson a little while longer.At least her house wasn’t too far away.Too far to carry all of her groceries though.
“Thank you.”She got out of the car as she popped the truck.Carson reached into the back and started grabbing her grocery bags.
He easily carried the multiple bags as well as his own to his truck parked a few rows back and set them in the back seat.
“Where do you live?”he asked as she climbed in.
Allie gave him her address.She lived in a small community on the outskirts of town.It wasn’t very far from the store.Maybe twenty or so minutes away.“I hope that’s not out of your way.”
“Not at all.”Now why did it feel like Carson said that just to make her feel better?
Chapter 5
It wasn’t the complete truth.Her house wasn’t along his way home, but she wasn’t putting him out either by more than a few miles.It was the least he owed her after their last few confrontations.He had been an ass.It shouldn’t have taken Sandy or Allie to point it out to him.
Yes, what he had been working on had been important, but it wasn’t like him to be rude to others.He should have rescheduled, but when he got in the mindset of work, everything else just faded.
He had just brushed Allie off as a bad date, an inconvenience.As if Sandy had just set him up for amusement or something.Dating had never been a priority for him.He found a woman when he was lonely, otherwise he was dedicated to work.He had been that way ever since Jenny shattered his heart with her rejection.
An IED had struck his Humvee when his team had been out on patrol.The scout had missed it, and it tore the Humvee apart like a toddler with wrapping paper.
The military had told him he couldn’t do his job anymore and that he could go.It had been a dark point in his life.For the first time, he didn’t have a purpose.Then Colonel Weber had recruited him for these black ops missions.The Colonel didn’t care that he was injured or couldn’t see as far as he used to.He didn’t care that his hearing wasn’t perfect or that he didn’t have full range of motion in his right arm.He was part of a team again, with others like himself.Others that the military felt were no longer fit for duty and were forced to retire.
Some were missing limbs, others loss of vision in one eye, and others less noticeable injuries.but all had been discarded just the same.
When he’d gotten this job, he had poured himself into it.Determined to save the world again.To prove himself still capable despite his burns and his right arm being pinned under rubble and without its full range of motion anymore.
It was Allie’s words today that had really struck him.“I don’t need a reason to help people.”
Now he was starting to see what Sandy was talking about.He could see a different kind of woman hidden under the surface.
He had been so wrong about her.One look and he had judged her harshly.He’d thought her uptight and frigid.Her hair was still up now, but he could see her looking more relaxed today than he had last week.
She had a compassionate heart, helping that woman and her son pay for their groceries.It hadn’t been something he’d thought about.
Funny, he thought about saving women in shipping containers or stopping bad guys in foreign lands, but he didn’t ever think about those suffering in his own backyard.How many others couldn’t afford their groceries while he ignored them?
He didn’t have to go to distant lands to help people.Shay, Luke’s girlfriend, had been rescued right here in town from a club that sold women in the back.
“So is Allie short for anything?”he asked, breaking the silence in the truck.
“No, my mom didn’t want a name that would get shorted or renamed so she just shortened it.People just assume it’s short for Allison or other names where I get called Annie for short.”She gave him a side-eye.He knew it was for the dig when he’d kept calling her Annie.
“I’m sorry, Allie, for my behavior last week.It was inexcusable.”He had apologized more than once already, and he would keep on apologizing until she forgave him.
She didn’t say anything.Just sat, staring forward in her seat.
“I was rude and a jerk, and I’m sorry.I get so involved in my work that sometimes I don’t notice what’s happening around me.I should have rescheduled but didn’t.”As much as he hadn’t wanted to date, he should have at least given her his attention for an hour to get through a meal before considering the dinner a wash.
Allie stared straight ahead out the windshield; he wasn’t sure she’d heard him until her next words.“Answer me one thing, Carson.Was there really an emergency or did you take one look at me and change your mind?Just tell me the truth.”
He could hear the strain in her voice as if she were precious glass and one wrong move would make her shatter.Sandy had warned him that she had had some bad dates in the past.One had even ghosted her.So, she’d probably thought his behavior had been no different than the other guys just looking for an excuse to get out of dating her.
