Chapter 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 was 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.
“No one’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 power point 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.”
“Screw you,” Carter said and lowered his voice as another officer in the building that day gave them a strange look through the window of the conference room. “At least I actually was deployed and saw combat. You’ve spent your contract sitting behind a desk.” Carter saw his brother’s face redden. He knew it was a sore point for him. He felt bad going for the kill but he hated it whenever his family talked down to him.
“You and Dad,” Carter said, “all you do is complain about me. I never did anything to you. I certainly don’t have a bunch of kids running around like Uncle Walter.”
“Grant isn’t a bunch of kids,” Mark countered, “just one. And you better not have any kids!”
“I use protection!” Carter bragged. “I go through boxes of condoms.”
“You are out of control,” Mark said, a disapproving look on his face.
It was a lie. Carter didn’t like casual hookups, though he certainly pretended to. He was scared of running into someone like Danielle, his now deceased Aunt who had murdered his baby cousins and her own parents by setting fire to her house. She had also almost killed his cousin Grant and his then-fiancé, now-wife Kate. Carter didn’t trust any of the women who hung around the Les DesChamps base. He knew they only wanted his money.
Carter always consoled himself that he would find a nice girl and settle down once he was out of the military. He was fast approaching thirty, though, and he wasn’t sure if that would ever happen.
Mark rubbed his temples. “I didn’t call you here to argue.”
“Of course not,” Carter said, “You just want to berate me about my future plans.”
“You need to think about it,” Marks said. “I was talking to Dad earlier this morning—”
Carter made a disgusted noise. “If Dad wants to tell me something why doesn’t he call me himself instead of going through you? I’m so tired of him. I don’t even want to go home for Thanksgiving.”
“Your leave was already approved,” Mark reminded him.
“I don’t have to go.”
“Then you lose it.”
“So what?”
“Just come,” Mark said. “Grant will be back. You guys can talk about your post-military plans. You could go work at Holbrook Enterprises, maybe move into a sales role?”
“I’m not going to be some road warrior sales douche,” Carter said crossing his arms.
“Kate wants to set you up with one of her friends,” Mark told him.
“Who?” Carter was interested despite himself.
“One of the Davenport sisters.”
“And I bet this is a Dad-approved suggestion?”
Mark pursed his mouth but didn’t say anything.
Carter smiled bitterly. “Of course it is.”
“Mom wants to see you. Stop being so selfish,” Mark said standing up.
Carter jumped out of his chair. “So that’s it conversation is over, huh?”
“I have to finish reviewing my code for this drone software program I’m writing,” Mark said.
“Great. Glad I wasted my time coming over here,” Carter snapped at his brother. “Don’t bother walking me down, I can see myself out.”
Carter fumed as he marched back to his barracks.
He hated his parents, and he knew they didn’t like him much either. He was supposed to be born a girl, according to the family stories. His father had wanted a son and a daughter for a perfectly balanced nuclear family. Instead they had to deal with Carter and all of his screw-ups.
Now his father probably wanted to have a respectable daughter-in-law, just like Kate, Grant’s wife. Carter liked Kate, he really did. She was the ideal upper class wife—good parents, well educated, smart, capable, and well dressed. He was sure the Davenport sister was just like her.
Carter entertained the thought of wooing the Davenport sister. Maybe his father would finally like him, and his mother would surely be happy. Nancy always tried to pretend she was hip and progressive, but Carter knew she really was set in her ways and only wanted things to be trendy up to a point.
His whole family was all gun-shy about Danielle, his Uncle’s sociopathic deceased wife. Any potential partner he or Mark brought home would be under intense scrutiny.
“I should just bring the trashiest girl I can find and freak them all out during my mom’s perfect Thanksgiving,” Carter said to himself. He chuckled imagining some junky girl chewing with her mouth open, stealing the silver, and making rude jokes.
“Too bad I don’t know anyone like that,” he said to himself. “I would pay good money just to see my parents’ reactions.”
His phone buzzed and he opened it to see another picture of Allie and Margot heading to the Wildcat bar to set up for another night of debauchery.
A grin spread slowly across Carters face as a dangerous idea formed in his mind.
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