Chapter 4
Allie went through the grocery list in her hand and checked everything in her cart against her list, even though she’d already checked them off as she’d gotten them. It didn’t hurt to be thorough. The last thing she wanted was to get home and have to come back because she’d missed something.
There was only one item left to get. She just needed black olives and then she was done. She came around the corner and headed down the aisle only to see an empty spot where sliced black olives were. Just her luck. She needed those to make the dish she was bringing to a potluck this week.
Allie looked up on the top shelf to see if, by some small chance, some were up there. Stockers put extras on the top shelf sometimes if there wasn’t room. She took a step back and looked. There. She spotted a can laying on its side.
She reached up, but it was just out of reach. Her fingertips barely grazed the side of it. She looked around but couldn’t see an employee to ask for help.
She was going to have to climb the shelf to get it herself. Using her foot, she pushed back a few jars of pickles and stepped up, her left hand gripping the shelf just under her shoulder, and reached up with her right.
Allie couldn’t see the can but blindly reached for it only to end up pushing it away. Great. Allie’s hand darted back and forth trying to search for it, but she was coming up empty. She’d have to go up another shelf.
It wasn’t that she was scared of heights, but she wasn’t sure these shelves were built to hold products and human weight.
Allie stepped up on the next shelf. She could hear the groan of the shelf under her foot. Standing up, she could see the can now. She had managed to push it all the way against the back wall. Of course, she did.
Allie reached for it, and only her fingertips could touch it. She rose on her tiptoes, not wanting to go up another shelf. If she still couldn’t reach it after this, she’d have to find an associate with a ladder.
Allie leaned forward and rose on tippy toes, jutting her arm forward, and she managed to bounce the can off the wall, roll it toward her, and catch it. Allie stepped down but misjudged how far down the next shelf was and slipped.
She hadn’t been prepared for the sudden lack of gravity, so her grip was loose as she went down. She prepared for the jarring impact when she’d hit the linoleum floor, but two strong arms caught her before she fell completely.
They held onto her until she had both feet on the ground before relinquishing her. “Thank you,” she said, turning around to thank her rescuer properly, and froze when she recognized her rescuer. It was Carson. Out of all the people for her to see today.
It was her off day, her hair was up in a messy bun because she hadn’t wanted to deal with styling it, and she wore a plain tank top, cut-up jeans, and her grey converse sneakers. Not her most glamorous look. Not that meeting him in a business suit would have been any better.
He wore a black long-sleeved shirt today, black jeans, and combat boots.
He’d forgone the jacket this time, so she could see all of his muscles.
And oh my, there were many of them. All stacked upon each other.
He had a physique one usually saw on body builders.
It wasn’t an attribute she was normally drawn to, but it was hard to look away.
“You’re welcome. You should be more careful.” If he recognized her, he didn’t let on. That was just as fine with her. It had been an unremarkable date for her too.
“Thanks,” she said in an even tone while inside she was cursing him. Ass. It wasn’t like she had planned on slipping. Normally, she was a lot more sure-footed. She just hadn’t looked down before blindly stepping down.
His gaze looked her over as if he was studying her then opened wide in recognition. “Annie, right?”
Asshole. Still couldn’t get her name right. “No, that is not my name,” she hissed between gritted teeth. If she was a woman prone to antics, she’d slap him for continuing to get her name wrong, but her mother had raised her better than that.
Besides, he wasn’t worth the energy. He’d obviously already forgotten about her. What was the point of correcting him when by the time she left the store, she’d be a nothing but a memory again.
“I have to go.” She shook her head at him as she placed the olives in her cart and walked past him. How Sandy had ever thought they would get along was a mystery to her.
“Allie!” He snapped his fingers as he suddenly recalled it. “Wait,” he called after her, but she didn’t. They didn’t have anything to say to each other. She’d prefer they never saw each other again.
“Allie,” he repeated, jogging to catch up to her as she got in line to check out.
He had a basket slung over his forearm. He had a few groceries in his basket.
Was that all he was buying? That didn’t look like enough food to feed someone for more than a few days.
Apparently, he was not a weekly shopper but more frequently.
No thanks, she hated going to the store more than necessary.
“What?” She almost felt like calling him the wrong name to see how he liked it but bit back the retort. She would not lower herself to his level.
“I want to talk to you about our date.”
“You call that a date?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Sir, you can check out in this lane. You have fifteen items or less,” a female cashier called out to him.
“I’m good, thanks,” he responded, though he didn’t even look at her.
His focus was on Allie. She was not going to give him kudos for that.
Though it was an improvement from the last time, it didn’t mean he was off the hook for his behavior.
“It was a bad date, I admit that. Like I told you, I was dealing with a work emergency, and I couldn’t give our date my full attention. ”
“So why not just reschedule instead of being glued to your phone the whole time?” She didn’t know why it mattered.
She should just chalk it up as another failed date in the long line of them and move on.
It wasn’t like the few sentences they’d shared together had been riveting.
She should have just accepted his excuse—lame as it was—and let it go, but the question was already out before she could rethink it.
She must be a glutton for punishment. That was the only excuse she could think of for asking.
He opened his mouth, but no excuse came out, not that she was expecting a good one. She’d heard them all before. She’d been on more bad dates than good over the years. She didn’t know why she kept going on them. Maybe some stupid hope one would turn out good.
She wondered if there really had been an emergency or if that was just his excuse to get out of the date. Not that the reason mattered anymore.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but your card has been declined,” the cashier told the woman in front of her checking out.
The woman looked to be in her early twenties and couldn’t be any taller than five feet.
“Oh dear,” the woman said, her hands shaking as she checked her wallet.
There were a few dollar bills in it, but not enough to cover the groceries.
The woman looked down on her luck. She had a small boy with her, looking up at his mom. “Can you try again?”
The cashier didn’t look happy about it and even looked back at the line growing behind them.
“Come on,” someone grumbled behind Allie.
The cashier ran it again. “I’m sorry, it’s still declined.”
The woman looked crestfallen as she rechecked her wallet. “I’m sorry, buddy,” she said to her son.
“Wait,” Allie called out. “I’ll cover her groceries.” She reached into her wallet and pulled out her card.
Both the woman and cashier looked at her, shocked. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t have a way to pay you back,” the woman said hesitantly.
“Don’t worry about it.” Allie smiled reassuringly at her. The woman and her son needed to eat, and Allie had plenty of money to cover the woman’s and her own groceries.
“Thank you,” the woman said, tears glistening in her eyes.
“You’re welcome.”
“Why did you do that?” Carson asked when the woman had left. Allie started putting her groceries on the belt.
“Because I can.” She shrugged. Did she have to have a reason to help others in need? “They looked like they could use a hand, and I was in the position to help. Are you saying you wouldn’t have?”
Carson’s silence was all the answer she needed.
“I guess that’s the difference between you and me. I don’t need a reason to help people.” That family didn’t look like they’d had a decent meal in a long time. That little boy needed the groceries the mom was trying to buy. The mom looked like she’d skipped quite a few meals so her son could eat.
She wasn’t stopping world hunger, but every little bit helped. She knew it made a difference to those people.
Allie paid for her groceries and left. Carson hadn’t said anything to her since she’d told him that she didn’t need a reason to pay for someone else’s groceries. It was just as well. She’d prefer to forget about Carson Townsend.
“Allie, wait,” Carson called after her as she reached her car.
Oh my God, could this man not just leave her alone? First, he avoided her, and now she couldn’t get rid of him. At the end of her patience, Allie slammed her truck closed and whipped around and snapped, “What, Carson?”
“We haven’t finished our conversation,” he remarked, not looking upset in the least about her outburst. Was he that used to women snapping at him that he didn’t notice? Wouldn’t surprise her.
“What conversation?” In her opinion, there was nothing more to talk about. It was a bad date that neither one of them wanted to repeat—there, end of discussion.
“About our date.”
“If you can call that a date.” She still didn’t know what to call it, but a date was not it.
“How many times do I have to say I had an emergency I was dealing with?” he questioned, his voice getting strained like he was starting to get upset.
Good, she was upset with him too. She hadn’t shown it at the time, but she was livid with him.
And if it hadn’t been bad enough, now he wanted to add salt to the wound by bringing it up and daring to call it a date when it hadn’t been.
“And how many times do I have to say, if it was that big of a deal, why not just reschedule?”
Once again, Carson didn’t have a comeback. She knew why, and she didn’t want to hear an excuse. It’s not you, it’s me. Something came up. She’d heard them all. Maybe she should write a book about the failures of dating. A lesson for women to learn from. Men to avoid. Signs to watch out for.
Allie took a deep breath and said in a calm voice, “Look, let’s just write this up as we aren’t compatible and go about our lives pretending we don’t know each other. You’re already one step ahead because you can’t remember my name.”
Carson flinched at her direct hit but didn’t contradict her.
“Goodbye, Carson.” Allie got in her car and started it. Well, tried. It wouldn’t turn over. Oh no, not again. She peeked out of the corner of her eye to see Carson standing next to her window. Could this be any more embarrassing?
He tapped on the window with his knuckles. Allie tried starting her car one more time, but it was dead. All she heard was the click of the key in the ignition.
“Allie,” Carson called out, his voice sounding muffled through the glass. She opened her door since she couldn’t turn on the car to roll down the window. “Let me give you a ride home.”
“No thank you, I’ll call a tow and figure something out.” Allie didn’t want to spend any more time in Carson’s presence.
“Allie, let me give you a ride home,” he said more sternly, as if he wasn’t asking but telling her.
“I’m fine, really.” She could call Sandy to come pick her up.
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?