Stacy laughed at her bluntness, “Well, you made some excellent choices. You have very good taste. Could I make a few suggestions on a couple accessories? Not to pressure you to buy any more, but if you’re looking for a total makeover I really think you’ll like them. And they’ll totally make the clothes look even better.”
“Sure, thank you.”
Allie followed Stacy over to a section that was set back to the left of the counter. It was there, Allie discovered the wonderful world of necklaces, bangles, costume jewelry, belts (turns out they could actually be worn just for the cuteness factor and not just to hold up your skirt), and oh my gosh…purses!
“Oh my gosh, I think I want all of it!” Allie squealed happily.
Stacy just laughed, “Well you just take your time finding what you like, and I’ll start ringing up the rest of your items. Is there anything that you’d like to wear out of the store that I can set aside for you?”
“Oh yes, please! I’d love to finally get out of these clothes. The jeans and the cute, sky-blue henley, I think it was called. The one with the design down the left side.”
“Absolutely. I’ll ring them up and then take the tags off so you can change whenever you’re ready.”
“Thank you so much!” Without even thinking Allie embraced the other woman. Stacy just laughed and hugged her back, and then returned to the counter to start ringing up and folding the clothes that Allie picked out.
Allie selected what she wanted from the accessories section, and then walked back over to where Stacy was waiting for her to add them to her pile. Stacy pushed the jeans and shirt Allie requested toward her, “Go ahead and change, I’ll finish adding up the rest of what you wanted.”
With a grateful smile in Stacy’s direction, Allie grabbed the clothes and returned to the changing room. It felt so amazing to be out of the clothes that she had to wear for so long. The long sleeved, high-collared, baggy shirts and the long flowy skirts (because showing curves, shoulders, or ankles would obviously cause men to lust after her and sin), all they did was make her feel trapped. To be free of them now felt so wonderful.
Allie left the dressing room in her new outfit and made her way back to the front counter where the rest of her purchases were waiting. She pulled some of the cash she had stolen out of her purse and paid for the items.
“So are you just passing through?” Stacy asked her, “I don’t recognize you from around here.”
“Just moved here actually,” Allie smiled back. “I rent the apartment above the diner.”
“Oh, well then welcome to Serenity! I’m sure we’ll being seeing a lot more of each other in that case.” Stacy laughed and gave her a little smirk, “It is a pretty small town, so we tend to be all up in each other’s business.”
“I’m Allie Kensington,” she introduced herself, “it’s very nice to meet you.”
Stacy put the last of the items in her bags and pushed them all toward Allie. Excitedly snatching them all up, Allie looked back up at Stacy, “Thanks again, so much! I hope to see you again soon.” Stacy gave her a wave as Allie walked out of the store.
Allie was surrounded by the different bags she carried, and it made her laugh. This shopping thing was fun. She definitely saw more of that in her future. Allie started to make her way back to her apartment. It was such an eventful day. And tomorrow she was going to start her new job in her new town. Things were definitely looking up.
Chapter 6
Allie woke up the next morning eager to get started at her new job. To say she woke up early was an understatement, by the time she was showered and dressed in one of her cute new outfits (black jeans and a really funky graphic tee), Allie still had about two hours to kill before she had to leave for the shelter.
With an idea in mind, Allie made her way downstairs and into the diner. She waited for Annie to finish up with the customers she was waiting on, and then made her way over to her. “Annie, can I ask a huge favor?”
“Of course, darlin’.” Annie bustled back toward the kitchen grasping the latest orders for George with Allie following next to her.
“I was wondering if I could use your office computer just this once so I’d be able to order a laptop. I’ll only go to whatever site you approve, and I won’t download or mess with anything.”
“Of course you can, sweetie, don’t worry about it.” She gave Allie her sweet, motherly smile, “You can just go on back. The computer’s already on so just shake the mouse around a little. And the wifi password is written to the right of the keyboard. You can go ahead and write that down for yourself so you can use it when your new laptop arrives.”
“Thank you! I’ll try and finish up really fast.”
“Don’t you worry about it, take your time, sweetie.”
Allie made her way through the doors connecting the dining area to the back and walked down the hallway to the small office area off to the side. She sat down and pulled the chair up to the desk. Like Annie had told her, she rattled the mouse to get the computer to wake up. Once the screen popped up, Allie opened an internet browser and did a search for laptops. She wasn’t very picky. Honestly, she just wanted something that was reliable and preferably as light as possible so she could carry it around. Their old computer at Free Indeed was a piece of crap, so technically anything at all would probably be an upgrade. And the wifi was like a miracle compared to their old dial-up.
Back in Free Indeed, any time anyone was on the computer it always had to be supervised by a second person. It was the watcher’s job to make sure you didn’t go to any evil sites or spend too much wasteful time that should be spent doing something more productive. Computer time was always meant to be productive and educational, not a time to play games or watch videos, or anything fun. It really made going online more trouble than it was worth, so she tended not to use it any more than absolutely necessary.
Allie clicked through websites and models until she found one from a reputable site that looked like it would work perfectly for her. The price was good too. After doing a quick skim over the reviews to make sure nothing looked too concerning, she added it to her cart, arranged for same-day deliver, and swiftly checked out. One more thing to cross off her list.
Allie turned the computer back off and pushed back her chair from the desk. She made her way back out to the main dining area and gave Annie a little wave of thanks before she walked outside. It was closer to the time she was supposed to work, but still not quite. Since she still had some time to kill, she started walking around her new town to take in whatever sights there may be to see.
Even though she had only been here a couple of days now, Serenity was very quickly becoming more of a home than Free Indeed had ever been. She missed her left behind siblings something fierce, but that didn’t make her regret her decision to leave. The thought of being married to Paul by now made her whole body shiver. Something was wrong with that man. There was something in his eyes, whenever they looked at her or when he watched the little children around the fellowship, there was an evilness inside. The way he just coldly stood there and held that man who was begging for his life, Paul didn’t even flinch when her father pulled out the gun and shot him.
She couldn’t just leave her brothers and sisters in that environment. Especially when there was a whole big world out there to show them. She would need to save every dime she could so eventually she could get a bigger place, and then maybe she could go back to Free Indeed and sneak them out to come live with her. They would all leave in a second, except for maybe Caleb. He was seventeen now, and he seemed pretty ensconced into their community.
Enough time had passed that Allie figured it was pretty close to when she was to start work. So she began walking in the direction of the shelter.
Allie made her way to the front door and stepped inside. Before she could even clear the door threshold, a friendly voice greeted her, “Hi, I’m Rayne!” Allie’s head jerked around to see a petite brown haired, brown eyed woman about her own age walkin
g toward her. “I wasn’t waiting here for you like a stalker, I promise,” the new woman laughed, “I just happened to see you walking toward the door and wanted to introduce myself.”
“Hi, I’m Allie Kensington,” Allie returned her greeting.
“Yep, I know, Dory told me all about you when I came in this morning,” Rayne gave her a welcoming smile. “I’m your other co-worker, the louder and more interesting one.” Rayne ushered Allie through the waiting room area as she continued, “Come on back, I’ll start showing you the ropes.”
Allie followed Rayne to the back and was her shadow throughout the day as she learned how to care for and feed the animals, process the paperwork, and all the other tasks that they would share. The more she talked to Rayne, or listened to her talk, the more she liked her. Rayne was just a boisterous, bubbly person who you couldn’t help but like. Allie found herself beginning to open up to her as they conversed throughout the day. She still wasn’t at the point where she could talk about her past, but maybe if things continued as they were, and Rayne and Dory developed into the friends that they were looking to be, then just maybe she could tell them about why she wound up in Serenity. She did, however, talk all about her current life in town and where she was staying. Which brought up another question.
“Why is it called BB-Dub’s anyway?” Allie inquired, “It’s not either of their initials.”
Both Rayne and Dory laughed in response to her question, “Have you seen Annie?” Rayne asked her.
“Well...yes,” Allie replied to the obvious question, not seeing what that had to do with anything.
“They named it after Annie because she’s a BBW.” Rayne laughed. At Allie’s confused look, she explained, “A Big, Beautiful Woman...BBW. So they call it BB-Dub’s for short.”
“More like a proud, sassy, kick-ass, beautiful woman,” Dory countered with a laugh, “but that doesn’t flow as well as a name.”
Allie joined their laughter, “It’s perfect! I love it.”
“Yep,” Rayne continued, “Annie and George are special people. They’re like the mom and pop of the entire town.”
“They’ve been so good to me since I got here, and they didn’t even know me. I really owe them a lot.”
“You don’t owe them a thing,” Dory smiled, “they love to take care of their family, and by joining Serenity that makes you a part of this family.”
Allie smiled. The thought of having a family again was almost too good to be true. But the way the locals were treating her, it just sucked her in and made her want to be a part of this close-knit community.
“And speaking of names, I like the name of this place. Yips & Wiggles is so cute.”
“Ha!” Rayne snorted, “Dory actually wanted to name it Shits & Giggles, but didn’t think that would go over too well with the town council. So Yips & Wiggles is the next best thing.”
Allie burst out laughing, and the other two quickly joined in. Yep, she liked this town very much.
She continued to shadow Rayne as they moved from one task to the next. Allie learned so much she felt her head was going to explode. But she loved the animals. There was a small Norfolk Terrier mix named Wash who was absolutely adorable. He just loved to play and run around the fenced in backyard, and Allie loved to exercise him and watch his little legs dart around after one thing or the other. He was fast becoming one of her favorites at the shelter.
Allie really liked her co-workers too. Dory and Rayne were quite possibly total opposites, but neither of them let it affect the friendship they had. Sometimes Allie liked to just sit back and listen to them interact with each other. Their debates were always lively and fun, even when Allie didn’t understand what they were talking about, which seemed to happen quite a bit. There were so many things that just seemed commonplace for them, that she couldn’t even relate to because Free Indeed had kept them so sheltered from the outside world’s influences. It was frustrating, but Allie was determined to be naive no longer. If Free Indeed was against it, she was going to look into whatever it is and make her own determination...with discretion of course. Gosh, she didn’t have any intention of going too crazy. And Dory and Rayne were the perfect people to help her learn about what the real world was like.
“Oh my gosh!” Rayne exclaimed in shock, her mouth dropping open with surprise. “Isn’t she a little young to even know what a BJ is?”
“Yes!” Dory continued, “For the love of all that’s holy, my daughter is only eight years old. They do not need to be talking about that type of thing in elementary school.”
“Absolutely not!” Rayne blurted out.
Allie nodded in agreement. Granted she had absolutely no idea what they were talking about, but from they way they were talking it sounded like she should, so she just nodded.
Dory then let out a big sigh, “I wanted to march on over to that school and have an intervention in the principal’s office. But apparently that would cause extreme humiliation, so I had to settle for having the talk about not being intimidated by peer pressure. Gah, kids are growing up so fast these days!”
They both shook their heads in disgust, so whatever they were talking about had to be bad. Allie sighed, there was so much that she had been sheltered from at Free Indeed. They thought they were protecting the people of their fellowship, but all they were doing was making them intentionally naive. Instead of helping their group prepare for and exist in the real world, they wrapped them up in a protective bubble. Which was fine as long as one never left that bubble, but if they did for any reason, there was no way they were prepared to face the world.
They finished up all of their assigned duties for the day, and then before she knew it, it was time to leave. “You did so great today,” Dory told her, making her feel even better about her day. “We’ll see you bright and early tomorrow.” Turning to smile at Rayne as well, she told them both, “Have a good night.”
Allie and Rayne walked out of the shelter, with Rayne locking up behind them. Rayne climbed into her car that was parked out front, and with a wave drove off. Allie smiled and waved back, and then turned to walk back to her new home.
As she walked up the stairs to her apartment, Allie saw a brown box waiting for her outside her door. She quickly let out a little squeal of excitement. Not only was it her very first laptop, but it was the very first package she’d ever had delivered just for her.
She snatched it up and quickly let herself inside. Unable to contain her excitement, Allie tore the box open as fast as she could and ripped out the bubble wrapped filler. She reached down into the box and lifted out her brand-new, shiny laptop. After removing it from its packaging, she grabbed the power cord to plug it in and then powered it up.
As soon as the screen turned on, she connected to the internet with the information Annie provided her earlier and opened a browser window. She typed: what is a bj, and then hit the search button. The results quickly came back and filled up her screen. Clicking on the first link, Allie’s eyes widened as she started reading the opening paragraph, “Oh my.” she muttered. “Today was a very educational day indeed,” she snickered as she continued to read the article.
Chapter 7
As the days passed, Allie was settling into her new job very comfortably, and she loved every minute she got to spend with the animals. The more she got to know them, the more special they became to her, and Allie found herself looking forward to going into work to spend time with them.
Each day she made a point to spend one on one time with Reavers. Even if it was something as simple as sitting next to his crate on her lunch break and talking to him. The dog still growled and snapped at her, but it was considerably less than the first time she had met him. So it was a definite improvement. Allie decided to make it her personal goal to help Reavers get used to human interaction. Maybe someday he’d be ready to join a family of his own. All she had to do was get him over the urge to bite them first.
She was also becoming closer every day to her two new friends Dory
and Rayne. It was nice to have women who she was free to talk with about anything and everything, and not to have to worry about being judged or ratted out to her father.
A couple of days into her new job, she noticed Rayne reading a book on one of her breaks. She could make out the scandalous cover from across the room, and it piqued her interest. It reminded her of the romance novels she used to sneak late at night in her room and read after everyone else had fallen asleep. She had loved those books. The sexy, confident heroines and the alpha, bad-boy, swoon-worthy heroes.
“What are you reading?” Allie asked while passing by.
“Oh, this book is one of my favorites,” Rayne smiled back at her. “I’ve probably read it a dozen times, but it’s still just as good. Have you read it?” She closed the book and handed it over so Allie could take a closer look.
“No, I haven’t. It’s been awhile since I’ve read a romance novel. I used to have to sneak them in because my father didn’t approve.” Allie explained.
“Take it. You can borrow it and bring it back when you’re done.” Rayne stated matter of factly. “And then I can lend you the rest of the books in the series.”
“I’d love that! Thank you so much! I’d forgotten how much I liked to read just for pleasure until I saw you reading it now.” Allie thought back to all the times her father wouldn’t let her up from her chair until she finished reading between two to three chapters from the Bible. It had turned her off to reading until she had been grocery shopping one day and walked past a display with a book that practically screamed at her to buy it. From that point on, she had been hooked on romance novels. She wasn’t able to purchase a bunch of them because her father would have noticed the missing money, but when she was able to sneak one that was on sale into her cart, she would read it over and over again until the pages were wearing thin.
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