Treasuring Allie (Rebel Renegades #3)

Chapter 1

Allie sat in the booth of the restaurant, fiddling with her cup of water as she checked the watch on her wrist for what felt like the tenth time in a few minutes.

Her date was late. Twenty-four minutes and forty-five seconds if she were to be exact.

Most people would have left by now and called the date a wash, but this was the first date she’d been on in ages, and her friend had set it up, so she owed it to her to try and give the guy a chance.

Sandy, her best friend, had been singing this guy’s praises for months, telling Allie that he would be perfect for her. Allie didn’t share the sentiment. She was the epitome of ‘always the bridesmaid, never the bride.’

Men always overlooked her for tall, blonde, rail-thin women. While she wasn’t a giant at five foot ten, she wasn’t short. She didn’t have blonde hair but red. Bright, fiery red. It had been a source of ridicule by nasty girls in school and earned her the name ‘stop sign’ or ‘fire truck.’

She had tried dying it to make it darker over the years, but the color never stayed long, and it started damaging her hair. Eventually, she stopped caring and just accepted the fact that her hair would always be this color and unruly.

Allie wasn’t skinny, but she wasn’t fat either.

She had a sweet tooth and rarely said no when doughnuts or other pastries were brought into the office.

There was a slight roundness to her frame, but when she looked at some of the other women who starved themselves and worked out for hours on end to look like they’d just come out of a concentration camp, she figured she’d rather have the slight roundness.

Allie checked her watch again. Maybe she should just order. She was already out and dressed up. Well, in her business clothes. She had just left the office and hadn’t had time to go home and change. Her hair was tamed back in a bun. Not a strand out of place—not an easy feat.

First thing in the morning, she looked like she’d stuck her finger into a light socket. It was always curly and sticking out everywhere.

Allie looked around for a waiter when a man in a white shirt, black leather jacket, and blue jeans caught her eye.

Light brown hair that was swept off the side of his face like he’d run his fingers through it a lot during the day.

She couldn’t see his eye color because he was looking down at his phone.

He had a well-trimmed beard. His clothing was loose, but she could tell he was well muscled.

Several women in the restaurant turned from their partners to ogle him. This man could be a cover model on the books she read.

He stopped about a foot away from her and looked up from his phone. Brown eyes like warm hot fudge. Those eyes darted around the room.

For a moment, she fantasized about them landing on her and then turning molten as he looked her up and down before striding over to her, taking her by the hand, and dragging her home for hot intense sex.

Okay, so she read a lot of romance novels, and she was a bit sex-starved. A girl could fantasize though.

Only those eyes did land on her. She felt hypnotized when they did. She couldn’t move. Could barely breathe. The man looked at her hard as if he were studying her. As if he couldn’t figure her out.

She wasn’t complicated. The same as any other woman. Allie liked to cook, and while she didn’t like to clean—who did—she did it, so she didn’t feel like she lived in a pigsty. She was a simple woman with simple needs. She just wanted to be loved.

The man walked up to her. Her eyes followed him, and she had to tilt her head back. He was easily over six feet tall.

“Annie?”

Oh, so not her date.

“No, my name is Allie. Allie Sunbright.”

“Then you are who I’m looking for. Carson Townsend.” He held out his hand.

This was her blind date? Wow, Sandy really hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d said he was handsome. Carson was gorgeous. Far more handsome than the last guy she’d dated.

Carson looked at her expectantly. Oh yeah, he was holding out his hand for her to shake. Get it together, girl.

“Nice to meet you.” Allie mentally chided herself. The guy was going to think she was a total weirdo, and they’d just barely met. She needed to get a grip. So, he was gorgeous? Big deal. Looks faded; it was a brain she was more intrigued by than a panty-melting smile, though it didn’t hurt.

She reached up and shook his hand, noting the roughness of it. This was not a desk man, but an outdoorsy guy. A man used to hard work.

“Sorry, I’m late. A work thing came up.”

Well, at least he hadn’t ghosted her. It had happened before. More than once sadly, but now wasn’t the time to think about that.

“Not a problem.” She smiled; she knew all about work things that came up and stole your time and attention.

“Have you ordered yet?” he asked, sliding into the booth across from her.

“No, I was just about to.” She looked around for the waiter again. “You can use my menu if you want to browse what they have.”

“I’ve been here before. I always get the same thing.”

She was about to ask how often when she noticed him staring down at his lap. “Is everything alright?”

Carson’s head snapped up, looking like a guilty schoolboy. “Great, so you work with Sandy?” he asked, though she noted his hands stayed under the table. He hadn’t bothered taking his jacket off either.

“Yes, well, not in the same department, but yes.” He wouldn’t care about the details of how she was an executive director and Sandy an investment banker.

“Uh huh.” There he was again, looking down at his lap.

“You know you’re not actually looking at me right now?” Call it good manners or common courtesy, but one should look at another person when talking to them.

Those brown eyes rose to meet hers. “Sorry, work stuff.”

“That can’t be put off for an hour so we can have a conversation and eat dinner?” she inquired with a raised eyebrow in challenge, but managed to keep her tone neutral. She was proud of herself for that much.

She knew all about taking her work home with her, but even she could put it away for an hour to eat a meal. Why agree to go out with her if he couldn’t give her the time of day?

Carson didn’t say anything but lifted the phone from his lap and placed it on the table next to him.

Allie could hear the phone buzzing several times as they stared at each other.

A muscle under his eye twitched. She knew he wanted to look down at it, but he kept his gaze locked on hers.

It was like they were having a staring contest.

“Mr. Townsend, always good to see you. Are you both ready to order?” a waiter asked, coming up to them.

“I’ll have my usual,” Carson replied, looking up at their waiter.

“And for you, madam?”

“I’ll have the sirloin medium rare with a baked potato and house salad, ranch on the side.” The waiter took her menu and left.

“Hey, I noticed you made eye contact with him.” Allie pointed her thumb in the direction of the retreating waiter.

Carson held his hands up in surrender. Allie hoped that meant he would give her just a smidge of his attention.

“Good choice on dinner,” Carson commented.

“What did you get?”

“The porterhouse with vegetables and mashed potatoes.”

“Sounds good.” She didn’t know anything about the different cuts of meat but was trying to make polite conversation.

“Mmm hmm.” His focus went back down to his phone, scrolling through it.

“How often do you come here?” Oh my god, that sounded like a pickup line.

He just shrugged. “Not all that often. Maybe once a month or so.”

“I’ve never heard of this place before.” She looked around, taking in the dark atmosphere. Dim lights, reclaimed wood wall paneling. Several couples laughed and conversed with each other. They were having a much better time than she was.

“What?” he asked, looking up at her again.

“I said—”

His phone lit up and started buzzing. He finally broke eye contact to look down at it and then back at her. “I’m really sorry, I need to take this.”

He answered as he slid out of the booth and stepped away before Allie could protest. Her mouth opened as she watched him walk away, the words still forming on her tongue. She snapped her head back forward to look back down at the table.

First, he was late, and now he was spending the first half of their date on his phone.

Had he even listened to a word she’d said?

She tried not to be too angry about it. Tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.

She knew what it was like when work emergencies came up, but he was definitely not making a good first impression.

Allie sat there for several minutes waiting for Carson to return. The waiter came with her salad, which helped distract her. Carson returned when her salad was finished and pushed toward the edge of the table to be picked up.

“I’m really sorry Annie,”

“It’s Allie,” she corrected.

“Allie,” he amended.

“It’s fine. Is it your work that keeps contacting you?” She wasn’t trying to be nosy, but she was curious about what was holding so much of his attention.

“Yeah, there are a few issues I’m trying to work on.”

“What do you do?”

“Government work.”

Well, that was rather evasive. “What kind of government work?” She picked up her water glass and took a sip.

“I can’t talk about it,” he stated, looking uncomfortable.

Can’t or won’t? She supposed she could take her pick.

She opened her mouth to ask another question when his phone went off again. Seriously? She tried willing him with her mind to ignore the phone and instead focus on her. To not ruin the rest of their date.

“I’m so sorry, Annie.” He answered his phone and slid out of the booth again.

“It’s Allie,” she said to no one since Carson was already gone again.

The waiter arrived at their table with their food. “Do you mind boxing this up for me?”

The waiter looked startled for a moment but quickly schooled his features. “Of course, madam. I’ll return with it in just a moment.”

Allie didn’t care what the waiter thought of her for leaving with her food. For her, this date was over. She would not sit here another moment having the person across from her glued to his phone and not even bothering to look at her for most of their date.

There was only so much she could take. If these weren’t red flags, she didn’t know what was. She was definitely going to give Sandy an earful when she called her on her way home.

The waiter returned a moment later with a brown paper bag with handles on the top and their restaurant name on the side.

“Thank you.” She smiled in what she hoped was a friendly way and not a scowl. It wasn’t the waiter’s fault that her date was a jackass.

She debated forking him with the bill, but thought it might be rude. She could hardly call this a date. Not even a meeting. She didn’t know what to call it. Allie pulled out her wallet, set down some money that should cover her portion, and walked out.

She saw Carson standing outside the door talking heatedly with someone on his phone, but he spoke low enough she couldn’t hear what was being said until she heard him mention the word ‘date.’

“I’ll be there soon. Let me wrap up this stupid date Sandy set me up on.”

Stupid date? That’s what she was? Wrap up? As if it had been a hardship for him to go out with her. And how would he know if it was stupid or not? He would have had to give her more than ten seconds of his time to find out.

Allie thought about calling him out on the street corner, but he wasn’t worth it. She stormed past him; he didn’t even notice her as she walked by. She pulled out her phone and called Sandy on her way to the parking garage.

“Hey, I didn’t expect to hear from you so soon. Everything okay?” Sandy asked, sounding concerned.

“No.” Her throat tightened, and Allie could feel the heat of tears threatening to spill, but she refused to give in to them. Especially in public.

“What happened?”

“It was horrible, Sandy. First, he was late, then he was glued to his phone the whole time. He barely said more than a handful of words to me. He walked off twice to take phone calls, so I just left. Then I heard him say to the person on the phone that it was a stupid date.”

“What?” Sandy practically shouted. “Oh, Al, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, Sandy.” It was her fault for setting them up, but it wasn’t Sandy’s fault the guy was a douche.

“I feel like it is. I’m the one who set it up. I thought you guys would get along great.”

Yeah, as great as bulls and China shops.

“Well, I appreciate you trying, but no offense, never again.” She was done with blind dates. She wasn’t done with trying to find the one, but she would find the guy on her own. No more set-ups.

“Do you want to come over for some wine and ice cream? I have it on standby just in case. Wine to celebrate or ice cream to cry over.”

That made Allie smile. Leave it to her friend to think of everything. “I’ll be over there shortly,” she replied, getting into her car.

Alright, wine and ice cream, here she came.