Chapter 8 #2
“I don’t remember.” She grabbed her glass of water and took her time taking a sip while looking around the restaurant. It was fairly crowded, full of tourists, no doubt.
“Allie, you’re lying.”
Her eyes fell back to meet his penetrating gaze. She set her glass down, feeling her throat dry up. “How would you know?”
“Performing seals are trained to spot lies.”
“I’ll have to remember that.” She was a terrible liar anyway. Sandy had warned her long ago that she should never play poker.
“I prefer honesty, Allie.”
“As do I. I’m a terrible liar, and I don’t make it a practice of doing it.”
“Then don’t be bashful. Tell me what you wanted to be as a child. If you tell me yours,” he sat back up, leaning across the table, “I’ll tell you mine.” He ended with a mischievous grin. How could she say no to that?
“I wanted to be a horse trainer.”
Carson blinked but didn’t otherwise show any reaction to her dream. “What’s so embarrassing about that?”
“I don’t know.” She looked down at her hands again bashfully.
She remembered the teasing she used to get.
People made fun of her, telling her she’d smell like horse shit all day and no one would want to be around her.
“What did you want to do?” she asked instead, not wanting to linger on that painful memory.
“Astronaut.”
Allie was having a hard time seeing him in a big old space suit walking on the moon.
“What?” he questioned.
“I have a hard time seeing that.”
“What? You can’t see me fighting off space aliens set on taking over the planet?”
“That I can see.” She could see it crystal clear. Laser gun and all. “The soldier in you defending others. Not so much discovering distant planets and walking on them. You seem a man of action, not a man of scientific discovery.”
“Fair. Well, I can’t see you with horses all day.”
“As opposed to a boardroom telling people they need to invest in our company and products? I liked my plastic horses and thought it would be fun to have a real size one to brush its hair and ride. Until I saw the real ones. They were a lot bigger than my toys and then came the fear of being kicked by one.”
“That would hurt.” His eyes widened, and his head nodded in agreement. “So, how did you end up at your company?” he inquired before taking a sip of his water.
“Unexpectedly. While going to school for business, I had to give a presentation. One of the reps for the company was there. They were so impressed, they offered me an internship, and I rose through the ranks once I finished school. Sandy was hired shortly after we graduated. So now I make the deals, and she closes them.”
“Sandy has always been a smooth talker.”
“That I can imagine. I’ve heard her smooth-talking get her out of a sticky situation a time or two.” Some situations Allie had put them in, but there was no point in bringing up those incidents.
“I could write a novel of her stories.”
“I’m sure the same could be said about you.” She gave him a coy grin. Sandy had told her a few stories. Ones she wasn’t entirely sure were true or not.
Carson gave her a side-eye. “Do I want to know what lies she told?”
“You tell me if they’re lies. I heard about you staying out past curfew and breaking into the school gym.” She started ticking off the stories on her fingers. “Let’s see, there was also the prank on the boys’ lacrosse team. And how about—”
“That was her,” Carson interjected, pointing his finger at her. “Sandy instigated all of these situations. I just had her back,” Carson explained, holding his hands up in defense.
“Oh.” She blinked in mock surprise, sure there was more to it than that.
“Yes,” he said in all seriousness, but Allie wasn’t buying it.
“What about dancing with Sandy at prom because the boys used to like to tease her? Or coming to Sandy’s rescue when her car got a flat?
Was that Sandy’s instigating?” she asked, though she already knew it wasn’t.
Carson was a kind man. He may not like others knowing it, but he was a good guy.
It could be a tough guy act, not wanting others to see vulnerability, but she knew.
“Well, those instances were—” He cleared his throat, looking around uncomfortably. “Peculiar circumstances.”
“Uh huh.” Allie didn’t believe him for one second but didn’t refute him.
Their food was delivered to them, and they dug in which kept conversation light.
“I had a really good time today,” Allie stated when Carson pulled up to the curb in front of her house an hour later.
There had been a small debate about who was going to pay for lunch, but she’d finally relented and let Carson on the promise he would let her get it the next time.
She hoped there would be a next time. She’d had a lot of fun today.
“Me too.”
“Even though you got paint on your shirt and your arms are covered in bruises?” She still felt bad about that. If they ever had another competition, she was keeping it between them.
Her gaze lowered to his arm resting on the middle console. Several angry red welts were visible on his arm. His chest had taken several hits. It was a good thing he had been wearing armor. He would have been covered from waist to neck in bruises.
“It was still fun.”
“Yeah, it was.” She smiled, remembering their day together. It was all in all a pretty decent date.
They fell into a long silence. “I should get going. Bye, Carson.” She opened the door and hopped out.
“Hey, Allie,” he called.
“Yes?” She spun around, eager for this day not to end quite yet.
“Do you want to get together next weekend? Maybe go for that hike?”
“Yeah, sounds good,” she replied as cool as a cucumber. Inside, Allie was giddy as a schoolgirl who just got asked out by the hot jock and she the nerd.
“Okay,” he nodded, “It’s a date. I’ll talk to you before then.”
“Bye, Carson.”
“Bye, Allie.” He waited until she opened her door before driving off, waving at her as he went. Allie leaned against the door, watching him as he drove away.