Cree (My Way Series - Book 1) (Volume 1) (7 page)

Sam: I just dropped a lil bit’ a rib on my phone so I licked off my screen

Sam: I wasn’t planning on going on a run today but those cops came out of nowhere!

Sam: I’ve said it before Milly and I’ll probably say it again. Peeing outside makes me happy.

C
HAPTER 9

The Pirate and Princess Invade

Business has been miserably slow the last four weeks. Lacey warned me that during harvest our town would turn into a ghost town. Coffee business has been steady enough. Thank god people were addicted to that shit.

Lacey and I had been keeping ourselves busy with creating our Halloween costumes instead of bar-hopping. We’re dressing up as Woody and Buzz Lightyear to hand out candy to little ghouls and goblins for the town’s annual Businesses Do Trick or Treat event. Our costumes are quite scandalous for being cartoon characters and involving youngsters. I claimed Buzz, and Lacey was more than happy to dress up as a slutty cowboy cartoon figure.

I wore a green tutu with white tights and boots. (Yep, trying to bring the badass back one Halloween costume at a time!). Lacey tried to convince me to revamp one of my green bras into a top. I passed. Instead, I wore a green tank top that we blinged the shit out of. I made a wide belt to wear similar to Buzz’s and a kick ass headband instead of a helmet. Lacey had no problem sporting a brown bra with fringes for her top. I made her wear a tiny vest over the top of it to de-slut it a wee bit. I didn’t want her giving the old ladies heart attacks and the tweens hard-ons.

We had hordes and hordes of trick or treaters. We each had our own bucket and were passing out candy as quickly as we could.

“Trick-or-Treat,” came a sweet little voice from behind me. I turned to find the sweetest dressed little Belle the Princess. It was Annie! Standing next to her was Cree, who was dressed up as a pirate, complete with a parrot on his shoulder. He had grown dark stubble on his face, which was sexy as hell and complemented his pirate garb quite nicely.

Next to him was a blonde woman with mile long legs and the perfect body. I guarantee she ate air for two out of her three daily meals. She wasn’t wearing a costume, but was dressed up in a beautiful silver sundress with her hair piled on top of her head, and killer red high heels. She was completely stunning and picture-perfect. I totally imagined someone like her as Cree’s wife. Well, shit, this was the moment—I was going to meet Mrs. Fitzpatrick and I was dressed up in a skimpy, homemade Buzz Lightyear costume, for shit’s sake.

“Belle! We have been waiting for your arrival all afternoon,” I said as I stuffed a heaping handful of candy in her bucket.

“You have?” questioned her little voice.

“Why yes! The Beast stopped by earlier and left us with strict instructions to let you get anything your little heart desires here at The Shop.” Annie’s little eyes lit up with joy.

“Did you hear that, Daddy?”

“Yes. What a kind Beast you have, Annie,” replied Cree.

“Oh, all my girlies at the country club are raving about this place. I have to check it out!” howled Blondie.

Lacey led Annie and Blondie into the store. Awkward!

“Then there was a pirate and Buzz…” said Cree, laughing.

“Ahoy, me hearty! So why isn’t your wife dressed up?”

He started laughing uncontrollably.

“What’s so funny? I just asked why your wife didn’t dress up. It’s not like I cracked a joke.”

“Dolly, I don’t have a wife. It’s just me and Annie. I’ve been a single father since she was born.”

Holy shit! The hottest motherfucking guy in town isn’t married…glory, glory…hallelujah!

“Wow!” was the only word I could muster up.

“I don’t even have a girlfriend. Erica is someone my butthead little sister set me up with. I’m going to kick her ass next time I see her.”

“Oh,” I mouthed.

“If I have to listen to Erica name drop or tell me all about the fancy labels she owns one more time, I may be forced to stick this sword up her ass,” he said while flashing his plastic sword.

I started laughing hard. “Well, shiver me timbers! I have to admit, I secretly nicknamed her ‘Bitch Face’ the moment I saw her with you.”

“Nice. I do like your dirty mouth,” he said.

“If it makes you feel any better, matey, I’m kind of thrilled you don’t have a girlfriend or wife, for that matter.”

“Well, shiver me timbers. Is that so?”

“Aye, aye, Captain, ‘tis so.”

“I do believe that this pirate just set his sights on a new booty to claim,” he said in his best pirate voice.

“Yo ho ho! Scally wag. I hear she’ll make ya walk the plank to get to the booty, though!”

Bitch Face Blondie came bouncing out of the store and announced to everyone in ear shot on Main Street, “I have no clue what all the fuss is about this little hole in the wall. It’s just a glorified thrift shop.”

Okay, I’m going to kick her ass now!
I'm not too proud to kick a girl in her biscuit, and that's exactly what Miss Bitch Face deserves. I also wasn’t above throwing down in a green tutu on Main Street. I knew I had Lacey for back up, and between the two of us, this bitch would be dog food by morning.

Before I had the chance to beat the ever loving tar out of Erica, Cree started to defend The Shop. Erica let out a blood curdling screech when Cree was trying to tastefully apologize for her behavior.

“Oh. My. God. It's Devon: Governor Reed's son! Devon! Devon!” she hollered. She turned to Cree and whispered in his ear and then shot off like lightning diarrhea.

“Looks like I have just been officially ditched. Ladies, would you like to join Annie and I at the bonfire down at the lake?"

“As long as that bitch won't be joining us,” Lacey said.

I elbowed her in the ribs and nodded towards Annie, who was snapping on her new jewelry set.

***

We spread out on a blanket by the river with our chili dogs and caramel apples. The food was absolutely amazing. Poor Annie was dying to check out her candy, but Cree insisted on making her eat three bites of her dinner before candy. Lacey and I joined Annie’s team, convincing Cree that it was inhumane to make little princesses eat dinner on Halloween night. The girls won the war!

Cree made a big deal about surveying Annie’s loot before she dug into it. I was on to his game; I watched him sneak all of the Snickers bars out of the bucket. Oh, he was a sneaky little pirate! We watched the bonfire’s orange flames dance on the water, and laughed watching Annie devour her candy. The fire’s smoky perfume filled the autumn air. There was a large tent and dance floor with country music blaring from it, and all sorts of local vendors selling food around the lake.

Cree’s sister Willow joined us, along with his best friend Greyson. Willow was a short spunky little thing. You could definitely tell that she was related to Cree with her brown hair and blue eyes. She was reveling in the afterglow of burning her brother by setting him up on a miserable date.

“Seriously, Willow, do you just live to torture me? There was no way in hell you would think I would like something like her.”

“Oh, Cree, sometimes you are just too easy to mess with.”

“You are truly evil, Willow. You better sleep with one eye open.”

“Hey! I’m going to take Annie over to the scavenger hunt!”

Just like that, Willow and Annie bounded off to the scavenger hunt. Lacey and Greyson went in search of more food. Lacey was dying for a strawberry cream funnel cake. So here we were again, the pirate and Buzz.

“Gotta love sisters.”

“I wouldn’t know, I don’t have any siblings.”

“Count your lucky starts for that, Milly!”

“It was pretty lonely growing up with just my Poppy.”

“Poppy?”

“Yeah, my grandpa.”

“I see. Uh, Milly, I really like you…”

Cree grabbed my hand, shook his head and started to lead me to the dance floor. I tugged back gently on his hand to get his attention.

“Cree?”

“What? I like you, and I’m better at dancing than that awkward shit that was about to go down on the blanket. I’m not very good at this. I just want you to know that I haven’t stopped thinking about you since I heard those dirty words fly from your mouth that day in your store. Harvest is almost over and I plan on drinking a lot more coffee, if you know what I mean.”

“Wow! Captain, you’re pretty persuasive. I was going to ask if you really thought you could keep up with me on the dance floor.”

“Somebody Like You” by Keith Urban started playing and Cree took me into his arms. It was a fast upbeat song, but Cree held me tight as he moved his body with mine around the dance floor. His presence and arms wrapped around me almost made me forget that we were dressed up in silly costumes. The front of my green tutu was pressed up against him and my arms were wrapped around his neck.

I mindlessly started playing with his long hair that was escaping underneath his bandana. I fit with Cree, and I damn sure liked the way I fit with him. I had the biggest and probably the goofiest grin plastered on my face as we danced and stared into each other’s eyes. The words of the song were very descriptive to how I felt about Cree at that moment. Cree bent down and put his lips on mine. He placed the softest and sweetest kiss on my lips, and I physically melted in his arms. The sweet masculine scent of him lingered on my lips and it tasted better than anything in this world.

“I need someone like you, Milly.”

The song ended and Annie came bounding out onto the dance floor with Willow. We all danced to the next three songs, laughing and twirling around together like a bunch of crazed nuts. We returned to the blanket to devour more food and candy. By the end of the night, Annie was huddled up in her daddy's lap moaning about her tummy. We said our goodbyes and parted ways. Lacey and I walked hand in hand back to my apartment. I lazily laid my head on Lacey’s shoulder and let out a loud sigh.

"You are so in love with the pirate," Lacey said, and I didn’t argue.

C
HAPTER 10

Coffee with Dolly

I worked the coffee shop the next morning, dreaming about Captain Sexy. I burnt myself twice and screwed up three orders. I really needed to get a grip. I was bent over restocking the bottom syrup shelf when I heard a truck pull up to the window. When I straightened, Cree was at the window. Holy shit, I had just given him an eyefull of ass. I hope he enjoyed it.

“Well, of course it would have to be you sitting at my window while my chunky ass was straight up in the air.”

"Don’t ever call your ass chunky! It’s amazingly plump and so nice to stare at. By the way, great customer service you’ve got there, Dolly!”

“We aim to please around here, Captain!”

I found it is so easy to talk to Cree. Our conversation flowed with ease. He always called me Dolly. I usually wasn’t big on nicknames, but he could call me whatever the hell he wanted to. We talked for the next 20 minutes; him perched on his door and me hanging out the drive-thru window like a love-struck teen.

I asked him where he had been hiding out and he explained that he inherited his family’s 10,000 acre farm. He told me farming 10,000 acres was like farming a small country. He received a call on his cell phone and informed me that duty called. I didn’t want to say goodbye or watch him leave, but I did.

Later that afternoon, I was rearranging my window display when the bell chimed at the front door. I installed a bell to prevent any cussing accidents like the one Cree walked into the first time I met him.

“Milly!” screeched little Annie as she ran at full speed to hug me.

“Hey! How are you?”

“Good. Daddy asked if I wanted to get an Italian Soda. I told him no, but he told me I really wanted one. I just got done with kindergarten.”

“Really? Did he now? Your daddy must be really thirsty.”

I glanced over at Cree, who was just shaking his head. I mouthed the word “busted” in his direction.

“Well, let’s get you hooked up! You can tell me all about your day, and I will make you a delicious drink.”

I let Annie join me behind the counter to help make the soda. I even filled her mouth with whipped cream when Cree wasn’t looking. Her giggle made my heart skip a beat!

“Daddy, look what Milly did.”

Just like that, the little rascal sold me out. Cree just chuckled and shook his head. We all settled down at a table with a drink that Annie and I made. Cree listened as his daughter rattled on about her day in kindergarten. His eyes told the story of how much he was completely in love with her. This sight of the two pulled at my heart strings.

Cree excused himself to answer a phone call. While he was on the phone, Annie and I played dress up. She sported a cheetah and hot pink tutu with a matching headband and pair of high heel flip-flops. She was having the time of her life prancing in her new outfit up and down the aisles. Cree ended his call and informed Annie that they needed to go meet a pivot salesman on the farm.

“I’ll see you two around then. Thanks for coming in for a drink.”

I insisted that Annie keep her outfit, claiming that it was good advertisement for business. Cree just shook his head and tried to pay me for it, but I wouldn’t allow him. He hoisted Annie up on his shoulders and gave me a quick wink, before heading out to his truck. I couldn’t peel my eyes off of his loose-fitting jeans that hung off of his hips as he walked out. I was quickly growing a new fondness for his light blue jeans.

The next week went the same. I had a very sexy coffee customer at 8:15 every morning and then two Italian Soda customers at 3:30. I told Cree about Frances and my failed marriage during the visits. I even talked to him about Sam. He just listened to me spill my guts about my past. I explained Betsy and my bucket list thingy to him as well. I felt like I could tell Cree anything and he would just listen. He never tried to fix my problems or analyze all the rights and wrongs in my life. He could have easily added up all my past sins and dumped me on my ass in a heartbeat.