"Just a sweater?" Stacy pleaded. "Look, she's cold!"
Margot shivered, and Allie relented.
In the car, Allie logged back into the rideshare app then decided against it and closed it. She still had all that money from Carter. It had been more than enough to cover food, bedding, and the vet bills. The leftover amount was more than what she would earn driving for the rideshare company in a week. She sighed to herself.
"What wrong?" Stacy asked as she dug through the bag of goodies they had bought for Margot.
"Just wish I were born rich is all," Allie said as she drove them back to their apartment.
"Maybe you can land a nice officer," Stacy said. "But not Carter. He's mine, so hands off!"
Allie laughed. "I wouldn't dream of it."
After returning to the small apartment she shared with Stacy, Allie logged onto her computer and started working on that week's homework for her actuarial science and statistics double major. She tried to concentrate on the complex mathematical formulas, but she kept letting herself be distracted as she perused the internet for photos and information on Carter Holbrook. There were pictures of him in his cousin's wedding and older pictures from his little cousins' funeral.
Allie read that their mother, Danielle, had died a year ago. She was killed by Carter's father when trying to kidnap Grant Holbrook, Carter's long-lost cousin.
"Their family sure is complicated," she muttered to herself. Margot lay at her feet, fed, clean, and warm. Allie reached down to pet the dog, who grumbled in her sleep.
"Glad I don't have a family to deal with." Allie had run away from home almost eleven years before when she was still in high school. Her mother's creepy husband had come into her room one night when he thought she was sleeping. She hit him in the head with a lamp, and he tried to strangle her.
There was a story in the paper the next day about a girl Allie's age who disappeared and was found dead weeks later. The girl's stepfather was arrested. It was a wake-up call, as Allie didn't want that to be her. So she stole all the money in her stepfather’s wallet, packed up her things, and headed east. She was going to try to go to New York City but only made it as far as North Carolina.
"It's nice here, though," she told Margot. "Rent is cheap, the internet is pretty fast, and the Marine Corps base means there's always people to buy alcohol."
It was a little lonely, though. She didn't dare date any of the marines. They were all patrons at her bar, and she had a strict rule of not dating customers. Ever. She had tried it once, and it had gone horribly, terribly wrong.
She flipped back to the tab of Kate and Grant Holbrook's elaborate wedding. Wistfully, Allie let herself daydream about becoming rich and marrying a handsome man. She would live in a beautiful house and have a fun and carefree existence, and all of her problems would be solved.
4
Carter
That weekend, Carter flipped through the photos of Margot that Allie sent him. The little dog looked happy and safe. One of the pictures was a selfie of Allie and the dog. The hard-nosed bartender looked young and pretty in the photo. Carter was so used to seeing her all in black in a dimly lit establishment.
She is really attractive,he thought. Her toned arms and her full chest were prominent in the picture. Carter fantasized about what it would be like to run his hands down around her chest and let them settle on the narrow waist and slightly curvy hips.
Carter smiled. He had solved his dog problem and had a pretty girl's picture on his phone. He was riding high on his good mood, but a text from his brother brought him back down to earth.
We should talk. Free at 3?
Mark knew he was free at three. There wasn't anything else going on. He wrote back.
Fine. I'll meet you at your office.
Carter double-checked his uniform to make sure it was neat then started the long walk over to his older brother's office.
Captain Mark Holbrook was waiting out in front for him. Carter saluted his brother, and they went inside the building.
"Hardly anyone’s here on account of it being Saturday," Mark said, turning on the light in one of the conference rooms. "I have some work to finish up, though."
"Working on your PowerPoint skills?" Carter sneered.
"Ha ha, very funny. I heard you recently acquired a dog," Mark said, sitting down at the table.
"Wow, good news sure travels fast around here," Carter said, leaning back in a creaky chair. "It must be a slow week."
"You can't have pets in the barracks, Carter. You're almost out—can't you keep it together until January? Then you'll be free to waste your life as you see fit."
