“That’s awesome.Where’s your building?Sounds like ithas to bepretty big to house all of you guys.”
“It’s on the other side of town; I’ve told you that.”
“Right, well, Jack seemed nice,” she remarked after a moment’s pause, changing the subject since she wasn’t getting the answers she wanted.
“He’s great.All the guys are.”
“No women in your office?What about Charlotte?”She knew she shouldn’t be jealous of this faceless woman, but she was curious about her.
“Not in our department.She works in another state.I never actually see her.”
“As a SEAL, I assumed you were only used to working with men.”
“I was, but I’ve learned to adapt.I hope Jack wasn’t too forward with you.I know he can be a bit of a ladies’ man.”
“He was…” Allie took a bite of food as she struggled for the right word.“Fine.Very confident with women, but he was a gentleman more or less,” she quickly added so Carson didn’t think she found his friend offensive.
“More or less?”he asked with a quizzical brow.
“He was a bit overly flirtatious.It was more directed at Sandy than me though.I think he does it to rile her up.”If anyone bickered like siblings, it was those two.
“Yeah, they have an interesting relationship.”
“It’s not love-hate, but more like siblings who enjoy annoying each other.”
“I agree.It’s most entertaining sometimes.I’m glad you got along with Jack.We should plan something, a get-together for you to meet everyone else from my office.”
“That would be cool,” Allie responded evenly, while on the inside she was jumping up and down.She was finally going to meet the guys he worked with.
“I’ll arrange a cookout at my place and invite everyone over.”
“Can Sandy come?”It would be nice to at least have one other person she knew.“If it’s okay for Sandy and Jack to be in the same room together.”
“They haven’t drawn blood.Yet.So that should be fine.How does this weekend sound?”
“I don’t have any plans.”She never had plans other than to hang out with Sandy.“So, sure.”
“Great.I’ll make the arrangements.Now, how about that dessert?”he asked as he set his fork down on his empty plate.
Allie looked down at her equally empty plate.She knew she’d been hungry, but she hadn’t realized just how muchuntil her plate was all but licked clean.“Let me rinse these off, and I’ll bring back the ice cream.”Allie gathered their plates and took them into the kitchen.She wassetting them down when she felt something behind her.She turned to see Carson standing a few feet away.
“I came to offer some help.”
“I don’t need help with the dishes.”She chuckled.She’d beendoing her own dishes for years.Allie could manage quite easily on her own.
“With two people doing them though, they’ll be done twice as fast,” he reasoned.Ah, the sooner the dishes were done, the sooner they could get to dessert.
“Alright, you can help.”
Carson stepped up next to herat the sink.He made her large kitchen suddenly feel very small.“What do you want me to do?”
“I’ll wash, and you can dry.The plates just need to be rinsed off and put in the dishwasher.The leftover spaghetti needs to go into Tupperware, and the pots and pans rinsed and dried.”He might not mind letting such thingssitting out, but not her.
Carson waited for Allie as she cleaned off the plates and handed them to him to put in the dishwasher.
“They go in the back facing the sink.”
“You even put them in a certain way?”
