“If Barry’s cooking didn’t scare her away, you have nothing to fear,” Rob joked, and the others joined in laughing except for Barry, who scowled at them all.
“I didn’t burn anything the last time.”
“There’s always a first time for everything.”Luke chuckled before sobering and turning back to Carson.“Do you want to be with Allie?”
“Yes,” Carson answered honestly.
“Then you know what you have to do.”
Chapter 30
Allie sat on the couch reading a book.Attempting was more like it.She had read the same paragraph four times, and she didn’t remember any of it.She finally gave up on it and set it down on her coffee table with a huff.She’d been trying to keep herself busy since breaking up with Carson.
She buried herself in her work.Staying late and looking for projects.Anything to keep her from sitting at home and moping.Sandy had tried talking to her, but Allie had brushed her off.No amount of ice cream or wine could make her feel better.
Allie felt as if her heart was shattered.She had been falling in love with Carson, and he’d ruined it with all his secrets and that damn Charlotte woman.
She was over her anger with the woman kissing her man.Carson was handsome, and any woman would lose her head over him.It just hurt that he’d allowed Charlotte to touch him whereas she couldn’t.Carson hadn’t even denied it.Didn’t explain himself.He’d just stood there and looked at her and never said a word.
It was as if he hadn’t cared how upset she was.It wasn’t so much the scars and Charlotte.It all boiled down to secrets.You couldn’t have a relationship on a foundation of lies.
For once, Sandy didn’t even have any sage advice.She was clueless about Carson’s secrets.She didn’t know Charlotte.Sandy felt it was still Carson’s story to tell about his scars, but Allie had learned about his horrible ex Jenny.The woman had said terrible things to Carson when he was healing from those wounds.It explained why he was so sensitive about them.
Did he think she would be so cruel if she saw the full extent of them?If he did, then he didn’t know her very well.
Sandy also told her that she was the first woman Carson had dated since Jenny.Sandy had set him up over the years, but he’d only gone on one date and forgot about them afterward.
It made Allie feel special, but she still wasn’t willing to overlook the secrets and lies.She sighed in disgust at herself for letting him overtake her thoughts again.“Forget about him.He hurt you.You don’t want to be with someone who constantly lies to you.”She had been in enough bad relationships to know she deserved more.
Obviously, if he was doing secret spy work for the government, he couldn’t tell her exactly what he did, but the least he could do was admit he did it.It wasn’t like she was going to run to the press and put it in an announcement.
Allie stood up, looking for something else to do to occupy herself.There had to be dishes to clean, dusting, and laundry.Her list came to a halt when she noticed a truck parked along the curb in front of her house through a crack in her blinds.A truck she recognized.She could see someone inside it as well.
Allie didn’t know how she felt about Carson showing up.She hadn’t heard from him since she’d broken up with him, and he’d said he was going out of town.She expected him to be gone longer than two days.
Well, she wasn’t going to quickly forgive him like last time.She also wasn’t convinced she was ready to completely give up on him yet.If he was willing to at least share some of his secrets and let her touch him, she knew they could reconcile.
She stood there in indecision when his truck lit up, and she saw him get out.Allie moved away from the window and waited in front of her door, listening to hear his approach.She heard his heavy footsteps as they came up the front stoop then nothing.Allie barely resisted opening her door to see if he was still there.After several moments, she heard footsteps again, but they were leaving.
Allie squared her shoulders and stepped away, heading for the kitchen.She looked around for something to clean butwasn’t finding anything.Then she heard a knock on the door.Allie turned around and looked at the door, feeling her heart in her throat.Her steps were unhurried as she approached the door and opened it.
“Good evening.Allie, right?”a stranger asked, smiling at her.He appeared to be in his late thirties with long dark brown hair that flowed down over his shoulders.He had a jagged scar down his right cheekbone and a large scraggly beard with white peppered throughout.Two other men stood behind him on either side.Allie felt her senses go on high alert.
“You have the wrong address.I’m sorry.”She started to close the door, but he placed his hand on it, preventing her from closing it.The stranger’s smile dropped.
“No, my dear, I don’t.You and I need to have a chat.”He started to press inside her door, his followers right on his heels.
Chapter 31
“Judging by the look on your face, she didn’t forgive you,” Jack said when Carson walked into the office the next morning.
“I didn’t talk to her,” he confessed, setting his things on his desk before flopping down into his chair.
Jack got up from his and saton the corner of Carson’s desk.“What do you mean, you didn’t talk to her?We had this discussion yesterday.You were going to apologize and tell her everything.”
“I did go to her place, but I couldn’t bring myself to talk to her.”He had sat on her curb for a good twenty minutes, watching her through a part in her curtains.She looked good.Happy even.He drank in the sight of her like a parched man in the desert finding water.
It had only been two days since he’d last seen her, and yet it felt so much longer.He’d gone through the speech he’d prepared a million times in his head before finally getting out of his truck and stopping in front of her door with his knuckles raised toknock, but froze at the last minute.
