Cree (My Way Series - Book 1) (Volume 1) (11 page)

I made Annie a cute little peasant dress in a whimsical pink, red, and green swirl pattern, with hearts and paisleys peppered all across it. The dress had bell sleeves with a sash belt that I attached a matching flower pin to. I also made her three pairs of matching ruffled tights in varying colors, and bought her a new pair of boots to wear with her dress. I really wanted her to wear a shiny red pair of ballet flats, but the girl wanted boots! So she got boots. I made several matching headbands and hair flowers. I warned Lacey that I would cut her if she didn’t use one of the headbands or flowers in Annie’s hair.

Whatever Annie didn’t want to wear that night she could have, or I would put it in The Shop. I laid out Annie’s outfit on Cree’s bed, and I teared up at the thought of dressing sweet little Annie for her concert. She was so excited to sing for us tonight. I remember being excited for school concerts and plays, but I never attended them because Poppy was always working. Tonight would be my first school concert.

“Penny for your thought, beautiful.” Cree wrapped his strong arms around my waist and pulled me back to him. He started kissing my neck before I could answer him. I let out a loud satisfied moan of approval.

“Thank you for sharing her with me. I love her so much!”

“Thank you for loving her.”

“It’s a pretty easy job, but
you
on the other hand…”

I started giggling as Cree’s fingers tickled my ribs, and he bit down on the back of my shoulder, growling.

“Yep, Captain, you make it pretty darn hard to love ya,” I said with a wink.

“Daddy, Daddy! Aunt Lacey said I need to take a bath!”

“Let’s go, princess—bath time for you!”

Cree let go of me and scooped up Annie in one arm and carried her like a sack of potatoes to the tub. She was squealing with delight the whole way. I joined the two of them in Cree’s master bathroom, sitting back on the closed toilet seat. Bath time was a sacred ritual shared between Cree and Annie—they sang songs, played games, and had a certain way to wash Annie’s hair without getting any water or soap near her eyes. I loved watching their interactions. Tonight Cree was Santa Claus, caking a soapy beard on his chin as he leaned over the tub playing Barbies with Annie.

“Santa needs to know if you have been naughty or nice this year, little girl.”

“I’s been extra nice, Santa.”

“So what do you want for Christmas, wee one?”

“Remember, Santa! I wrote you a letter telling you. Miss James said she mailed ‘em to you at the North Pole.”

“You’re right, I do remember getting a letter from an Annie, but refresh my memory! Or I will be forced to dump this water on your head!”

Annie busted out into a fit of giggles.

“Okay, Daddy or Santa or whoever you is.”

Holding her little chubby fingers up, she started to list her wishes off one at a time.

“I want new Barbies, a new dress, girl Legos and a goldfish.”

“Well, I will put the order in with my elves immediately.”

Cree passed off Annie to us ladies to get her all decked out for the concert. We kicked Cree out of his own bedroom. He didn’t argue because he was eager to escape down to the living room to watch the football game.

Thirty minutes later, I went downstairs to find my very handsome Captain sprawled out on the couch, watching the game. He was wearing his trademark light blue faded jeans with a black button up dress shirt that wasn’t tucked in. He had his bare feet propped up on the coffee table, and his netted trucker hat propped to the side. I padded my way over to him, crawled up into his lap and straddled him. We started kissing, groping and moaning.

“They’re coming down in five minutes. Annie wanted to surprise me too, so I got kicked out.”

“So quit talking and keep kissing.”

I giggled into his mouth and planted a longer seductive kiss on him as I grinded up against his crotch. Then I hopped off of him to grab my phone. I wanted to be ready when our Princess made her grand entrance.

“Jesus, Milly! Are you trying to kill me?”

“No.”

“Look at this! What am I supposed to do with it?” he said as he pointed to the tented erection in his jeans.

“Oh, poor baby! Would it help you to know that I’m wet and hot for you, too?” I teased

“You’re evil.”

“Think about dead puppies or you sister naked,” I offered and then laughed.

“Milly, I swear…”

Cree headed to the downstairs bathroom to do whatever he needed to do. I kept checking the time on my phone—I didn’t want Annie to be late for her first ever Christmas concert. Cree returned to the living room, but kept his distance from me, which made me laugh. Six minutes later…

“We’re ready,” hollered Willow from upstairs.

My Annie came prancing down the stairs, shining brighter than the star on top of our tree. Her smile was contagious and she instantly lit up the room. She ran into her daddy’s arms and hugged him tightly. He pulled back for a second to look at her, and I captured the perfect picture on my phone. He then kissed her, and I captured another perfect picture. We all posed for pictures in front of our Christmas tree. Cree finally rounded up his flock of wild chicks and trailed us outside. The smell of hairspray and perfume in his truck was toxic, but Cree was always a good sport and never complained.

Lacey had a special corsage made for Annie to wear during her concert, and Willow gave her a beautiful bouquet of white lilies right before her performance. We bought a dozen roses for Annie’s very sweet teacher, Miss Fallon James. It was her first year teaching, but you would never tell by the way she handled her class. I was armed with my phone, taking still pictures and video clips. Cree was videotaping the whole concert beginning to end. Lacey had her fancy camera out, zooming in on Annie, and Willow was just watching. Willow had tears streaming down her face as she watched her niece prance up to the stage, and I knew she was thinking about her parents being here.

Annie’s class sang the normal traditional Christmas songs. I know I’m biased, but Annie was the cutest kid up there. She stood right in front of the microphone, so her little voice rang throughout the auditorium. Towards the end of the kindergarten program, I noticed that Annie was getting very nervous and fidgety. I thought I even spotted her eyes starting to water up.
Oh, no, I hope she is not getting sick!
Cree craned his head to look at me, and I knew he was noticing the same thing.

“Maybe her tummy hurts,” I whispered. We both shrugged at the same time.

The music teacher started to talk on the microphone before the students started singing their next song.

“Thank you all for coming out tonight. I have to say, working with the kindergarten is the brightest twenty minutes of my day. These kiddos just love to talk about their mommies, and the gifts they think they’ll be getting for Christmas. So here’s one last special song dedicated to all their special mommies. Your child will be returning to their seat with a special gift for their mommies after they sing, ‘I Caught Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.’ Enjoy the rest of the elementary concert. Thank You.”

My heart instantly flopped onto the cold ground. My poor Annie… I knew exactly how she was feeling. My tummy would do somersaults every time a teacher would announce that our moms needed to fill out a paper or attend a PTA meeting. Just the mention of the word “mom” would make you feel like a misfit stooge and inadequate to say the least, when you didn’t have a mom who loved you. My heart hurt for her in that instant and it broke when I glanced over at Cree, who had his jaw and fists clenched into tight balls. He tried his best to make everything normal for his baby girl, but there were just some things he couldn’t protect his baby from. This was one of them, and it was playing out in front of the entire town at the school Christmas concert.

Annie made it through the song without any tears. Her sparkles remained, but her vibrant smiled had vanished. She picked up her package and watched all of her classmates bound to their moms. She tucked her head down to her chest and stepped off the stage with her little package cupped in her hands. She froze at the bottom of the stage with her shoulders hunched and shaking. She was frozen with terror and grief and had no one to turn to.

Without thinking, I bolted from my chair and raced my way through the mazes of parents, chairs, toddlers, and other kindergarten students. My legs couldn’t move fast enough to make it to my sweet Annie. The closer I got to her, I could see and hear her sobs escaping from her body. When I reached her, I grabbed her around the waist and hoisted her up into full-on hug. Her little fragile body clung around my neck as I stood up.

“I’m here, Annie. I’m here for you. I love you. I want to be your mommy tonight.”

Her sobs continued as we made our way back to our seat. She kept her head glued to my shoulder, and her arms were locked tight around my neck. I made it back to my chair and Cree tried to take Annie from my arms, but she wasn’t going to let go of me.

“It’s okay. Just leave her be.”

Annie stayed glued to me through the third grade performances. She finally poked her head up and wiped her nose on my shoulder, leaving behind a trail of fresh snot on my pale yellow sweater.

I looked down at her and smiled. “There’s my baby girl. Next time use your daddy’s shoulder—he’s into that kind of stuff”

She giggled and said, “Okay.”

“Now, where’s my present, twerp?”

“Milly, thank you for being my mommy tonight.”

“You’ll always have me, kiddo, whether you like it or not. Now give me that present before I tickle you!”

I scrunched my fingers at her, teasing the sides of her ribs lightly. She handed me a little box that was wrapped with red paper. You could tell that she wrapped it by the sheer amount of tape that was used. It had a purple gift tag on it, with her handwriting scrawled across it.

To: Milly?

From: Your Daughter? Annie

The words on the box made me cry. I wiped away my tears and started to open the box. Buried deep down in yellow tissue paper was a clay poinsettia attached to a pin. It had been formed and painted with Annie’s little fingers. I could make out her delicate little fingerprints all over the flower, just like they could be found on my heart. She made me proud because she had glittered the shit out of the little pin. I turned it over in my hand. On the back, in her little princess writing, it read:

I lov you Milly

“Don’t tell your daddy, but this is the best present anyone has ever given me.”

“Thanks.”

“No, thank you, Annie. I love you so much.”

I took the pin and pinned it to my knitted beanie that I had been wearing everywhere this winter. I squeezed her tightly and placed a kiss to her forehead. She remained snuggled up on my lap for the remaining performances. When the concert was over, Miss Fallon James rushed over to Cree, apologizing for the music teacher’s lack of judgment for the performance. Cree reassured her it was okay.

“Hey, honey, we want to get some pictures of Annie on stage. We’ll be right back.”

I carried Annie over to the stage and posed for several pictures, while holding her snuggled up to my chest. Then Lacey snapped some of Willow and Annie. Then she took some of Annie standing center stage with her biggest cheesy smile. We asked another parent to take a picture of all of us together on the stage.

I wanted Cree in a picture. I looked around, trying to find him. It took me a minute before I spotted him standing in the back of the auditorium. The biggest smile spread across my face at the sight of my man with my blinged-out cheetah print purse thrown over his shoulder, Annie’s pink coat over his other arm, and a bouquet of flowers in his hand. He was a true gift, and he loved me unconditionally.

I noticed a leggy bleached blonde trying to weasel her way into a conversation with him. Cree just kept nodding his head and smiling. I recognized the lady from Lacey’s salon, and remembered overhearing her brag about being the president of the booster club. I watched her laugh and pet Cree’s shoulder, as she was desperately vying for his attention. Little did she know that Cree only had eyes and room in his life for two women… and she was not one of them.

I made my way over to him with an evil plan hatched. Cree was mine and this skank was about to find that out. I instantly wrapped my arms around his neck and laid a sloppy wet kiss on his lips. I didn’t wait for her to quit talking to start my kiss; I interrupted her mid-sentence. I grabbed his ass and squeezed it hard. Cree couldn’t keep a straight face and was smiling through the whole kiss.

“Hey, we’re ready to go eat,” I said as I hung off of him.

I put on my beanie, then grabbed my purse and Annie’s flowers from Cree’s hands. He smacked my ass and then grabbed it for extra measure, as he followed me over to our girls. We were both giggling about our naughty behavior.

C
HAPTER 16

Tamales & Tinsel

We had all settled into a comfortable routine. I spent every night at Cree’s house. Actually, Lacey did, too—she just didn’t sleep with us. At first, I was nervous about staying the night and waking up in Cree’s bed. I just wasn’t sure about how he felt about it or how it would make Annie feel. Cree always insisted on being as honest as he could with his daughter. Ninety percent of the time, the little squirrel would end up cuddled between us in the bed. Olive was always cuddled up in bed with us, too.

We had melted into a unique little family, and we were hell-bent on setting new traditions for every holiday. We decided on making tamales for Christmas Eve, and having a slumber party in the living room dressed in Christmas pajamas. Annie only had one day left of school before she was on Christmas break.

The girls and I signed up to be the “room mothers” for her Christmas party. The night of the Christmas concert all three of us made a secret vow to never let Annie feel like she didn’t have a mother to turn to and share her love with. Willow was dead set on giving Annie’s class an “epic” holiday party. She dumped at least two hundred dollars into buying all sorts of toys and candies for the kiddos. I was just hoping that the three of us could refrain from using our foul language for a couple hours, and that Lacey didn’t scare any little kids off with her tattoos and piercings.