Ding Dong!! Is She Dead? (19 page)

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Back at Justin’s house, they unloaded everything into his living room so that Allie could sort and organize it into something useable. After two hours, they had all of the orders sorted according to her route. Allie still hadn’t had a chance to read her emails or check on her team’s status. She only had a few team members so it didn’t take long for her to look over all of her updates and see who needed some help with any problems that had come up.

Answering a few minor questions, it seemed like everyone was doing okay after the weekend. Allie sent a quick message to everyone, thanking them for placing their orders and to let them know that she would be out of pocket for most of the week. If there were any emergencies to call the Nova customer service line or Mrs. Pat so that they could handle the problem as quickly as possible.

Justin had sat watching Allie efficiently organize a very chaotic mess into a business system that would let them get it all done before the customers had to leave work for the day. Picking up his extra gun to put in the truck, they loaded up and went to deliver her orders.

Not quite as jolly as she had been the week before, Allie still chatted and took care of their orders. Since it had been hectic the week before, there hadn’t been as much time to collect everyone’s orders so when Allie showed up this week most of the ladies had their orders written down and ready for her. This was one of the nice parts of getting to know your customers’ needs, because they started shopping on their own without having to be shown all of the wonderful sales all the time. A lot of Allie’s customers didn’t have a chance to look at their books until they were home for the evening or on a break at work. She split up her rounds each week so that she was able to see different people and not overwhelm them with specials or offers all of the time. There were a few places that she tried to get to every week, like Dollie’s salon, since so many different people came through each week.

Justin opted to sit out in the truck for this delivery since he knew it would include lots of speculation about his presence. Sure enough as soon as Allie stepped in the shop she was assaulted with questions.

“Who tried to attack you on Friday night? Was there anyone in the car with you? Where have you been all of this time? We were worried about you.”

The words were jumbled up since they were coming from all directions and were hard to hear because of the hair dryers and running water. Realizing that Allie hadn’t responded, the room fell silent waiting to see what she had to say.

“I helped a friend out last week and when I left work on Friday someone broke into my car and tried to choke me.” She pulled the scarf from her neck for dramatic effect.

“Oh, my goodness. Your attacker did that?” Dollie, who was the owner, came over to examine it up close. “Looks like the attacker got mighty close to doing you in as well, dear. The attacker certainly didn’t want you to help that friend out any more that’s for sure.”

Allie figured the best way to answer their questions was to finish the story. “There was an officer that had been watching over things at the Three W’s and he attacked her as well. She was stabbed several times and is recovering at the hospital for now. The police aren’t sure who did this to either one of us, but they are doing their best to find them.”

“It just so happens that an amazing man came to the rescue of the officer and then he took me home with him. He claims that it was for my own good. I wasn’t able to get better acquainted that first day, but he is kind of growing on me.” Allie waited for the knowing looks and raised eyebrows from the older ladies, but they didn’t.

“Justin was a perfect gentleman and kept his hands to himself. He took me out for lunch with his family. Now, we may have to actually have to go on a few dates to get to know each other, but I would love to adopt his family, The Greenleys. Does anyone have the scoop on their family bio? Don’t hold out on me, ladies.” Allie figured that there had to some skeleton in the family closet somewhere.

“Oh, sugar, did you manage to hook the youngest Greenley, Justin?” Ignoring the looks from the other ladies, Ms. Dollie continued, “His family is just sweet, there are a few crazies in any family, but we all love his family, don’t we ladies?” Dollie raised that eyebrow to let the others know they could chime in with their opinions now.

The ladies all started telling stories about the charity work that his mother did with her church. How handsome all those sons were and didn’t they get that from their daddy?

“So what you are telling me, ladies, is that I should run out to the truck where he is waiting…” Allie trailed off as all the ladies raced for the window to peek out at him. Justin just waved from the cab of the truck, smiling slightly.

Snapping her fingers, “Ladies, hello? I should take him home and keep him?” Allie thought that their reaction was a very good indication that she had picked out the right ranch hand to be rescued by.

One of the ladies who was in her early 50’s, answered Allie’s question. “Honey, any one of us would do that in a minute. All he would have to do is give us the go ahead and we would be all over that.” Followed by a chorus of uh huhs and oh yeahs.

Now, that the story was out, Allie hoped that the ladies would excuse any mess ups that happened with their orders in the coming weeks; and chalk it up to lovesickness. Not the she was in love, but with everything going on that would be a good excuse if a few things were done wrong.

Waving bye to all the ladies and promising to be back next week, Allie was glad that it was over with. While she loved what she did, she knew that everyone had an opinion about how her life should be lived. While most people were well meaning, she knew that putting her story out there herself would allow for all of the gossip to run its course so that by the time this was all over with the subject of what had gone on with the Nova lady’s love life would be old news. Already the subject of Justin had eclipsed the accident and who had been out to get her, hopefully that had caused enough of a diversion.

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Justin had no idea what the ladies had been looking out the window at, but knew that asking Allie was not a good idea when she came out of the building with a smile plastered across her face.

Allie climbed in relieved, “Whew, that’s done. Can we go back to the Double G Ranch now? I think that I have finished with everything for today.”

Allie just didn’t know what to tell him about the salon ladies who evidently had the hot’s for him. “So all of those ladies have the hot’s for you and I’m not really sure how that works. I mean I have really appreciated all that you have done, but I blew you off to start with. I know that you could be out there dating anybody else who was really in love with. I mean here I am taking up your whole day to run my business and you seem just fine with it. I don’t get it. How could you want to be with somebody like me? I am just asking for trouble all the time, it always seems to find me. No, truly, trouble seems to seek me out and I don’t know what I do that keeps bringing it into my life. That is part of why I haven’t really date much, I don’t really trust other people or their motives.”

Allie finally turned to look at Justin, who had continued to drive straight to his apartment. He was listening and hadn’t uttered a single word since she had started her tirade. He pulled into driveway and found his parking spot. He turned off the truck and took her hand since suddenly she had gone speechless only a moment before.

“I’m not sure where this is coming from suddenly, but I know that we have been brought together for a purpose. I have enjoyed being single, but I have really enjoyed being with you the past three days. It was nice not having the pressure of sex clouding up the get to know you process. Not that I don’t want to do it, but there is always so much emphasis placed on it that it kind of makes it hard to know if someone likes you for who you are or if they just like the bedroom you. I think I want to continue to get to know you and when you are ready to go further, just say the word. I liked you when I saw you at the bar and wanted a date then remember. There is something about you, which makes people want to know what makes you tick. So I’m gonna go get us some dinner and maybe we can talk inside while I try to find what the mystery is.” Justin leaned over and gave a quick kiss, almost friendly in nature.

He hopped out and went around to her side. He opened her door and held out a hand to help her down. Accepting it, she climbed down and landed right against his chest. Looking up at him when his arms went around her to steady her, she realized that they did have chemistry which could be a good thing.

“I’ll take you up on that dinner and maybe we can get to know each other better. With all that’s going on I’m not sure that I’m ready for a bedroom playmate, but I will let you know when you have a green light.” Allie tried to step back, but was held tightly by Justin’s arm.

“I am really good at being patient so just don’t think that you can get rid of me, when I’ve just found a sleeping partner that has no demands.” He released her and took her hand to walk her in the apartment. “Why don’t you decide five things that are life changers for you and I will think of what mine are so we can discuss them over dinner, how does that sound?” Justin grinned at Allie as they opened the door and turned the alarm off and continued the conversation. “I’m mean what if you were one of those girls that left the toilet seat up or squeeze from the middle of the toothpaste instead of the end? We need to compare notes so that we are on the same page.” Wiggling his eyebrows at her, it defused the tension that they were both feeling.

“Here is my gun, just in case you need it. What I think you really could use is a little alone time. I know that you are used to being with people during the day, but you have a lot of hours where you don’t have to worry about being the real you.” Justin and Allie completed searching the apartment and found nothing to worry about.

“Thanks for understanding about stuff that I don’t even realize about myself. I haven’t really had any time this past week and really appreciate the moment to be quiet. I’ll be fine while you are gone.”

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After their discussion, Justin left Allie and continued to have a discussion about it with himself. Justin needed to think about everything that Allie had brought up. Driving to Chili’s to place their order for dinner to go, he thought about how much his life had changed in just three days.

Three days ago he had girls fawning all over him, which according to Allie might not stop no matter how much he was committed to a relationship. See right there, in a relationship, that wouldn’t have crossed his mind. He had always enjoyed being able to sample all of the different flavors that the world had to offer without buying the whole carton. Now, the only flavor he seemed to want was Allie.

Allie was such an enigma, self-confident in so many ways, yet doubting her self-worth. He smiled just thinking about the way she had jumped in to help her friends when they needed her without any thought for her own well-being. From what he had seen so far she was building a business by helping others as well. She seemed to believe she could help others and improve their lives. Yet the idea that someone would like her and want to stick around made her close down. It made him wonder what had happened in her life that she wouldn’t know how to be loved or that a long term relationship could work out to her advantage. Allie was having a hard time responding to a loving family, she just didn’t seem to understand that not everyone was going to stab her in the back. Well, this week it might be true, but he was going to do his best to protect her.

Again, Justin had to shake his head, I’m thinking in the long term. Not that he had been ready to settle down, but Allie really intrigued him. He hadn’t been bored yet and they had been together non-stop for three days. He didn’t plan to start the 50 years count down, but now the thought was not as horrible as he had first thought.

Promising that he wouldn’t do anything rash, he went in to pick up the order and head back to see what life changers Allie had come up with.

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J.D. had not been able to get back over to the hospital to see Mike a.k.a Bubba. Now, that it was Monday afternoon and he had worked all weekend, he finally had a few hours to run over and check on him to see how things were going. When he got there, Mike was in a room of his own since they had decided that he was holding his own.

Since he was not on the critical list anymore, they just had him on hydrocodone now instead of the really good stuff that made him sleep most of the day. If J.D. hadn’t know what his friend really looked like he would have walked right past his room. His whole face was a massive bruise and there was a bandage around the top portion of his head. Certain that they had all of his ribs wrapped up to help them heal. J.D. realized how close his friend had come to dying.

Mike looked up when he heard J.D. approach. Since he had been so foggy for the past several days, Mike had taken to watching the nurses routine so he could keep track of what day it was. A cop never really forgot how to watch the surroundings. So when J.D. showed up, Mike was relieved that he hadn’t been caught with all that he had done over the weekend.