Page 40 of Unlikely to Stay
“Yep.I was terrified I was going to screw something up.Or plan something you’d hate.So they provided an answer.If you don’t like what we’re doing, blame it on them.I can’t be held accountable.”
CC rolled her eyes.Leave it to her friends to play matchmaker.“Duly noted.”
With one of his adorable dimpled-smiles, Brant pulled out of the alley behind the café and headed south.A few minutes later, he put his car in park, turned off the ignition and twisted in his seat so he was facing her.
“Please tell me they weren’t lying when they said you like this place.”
CC couldn’t keep from beaming.Brant had brought her to Parker Creek, her favorite place in the world.
Colleen’s smile was infectious.It crinkled her eyes and wrinkled her nose and made her even more adorable than she already was.Last time Colleen had been up close and all in his personal bubble, he had noticed her eyes.Those gorgeous sapphire blues could charm a man to do anything she asked.They were the eyes stories were written about.What he hadn’t noticed before was the adorable smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose and apples of her cheeks.He loved freckles and was glad that, for all her wild color choices for hair, she hardly wore any makeup.It would have been a shame to cover up those angel kisses.
“Ilovethis place!”she said.“Breckin, Annie, and I used to come here all the time as kids.We’d hunt for crawfish and swing on the rope over the water.”
An enormous maple tree was on their side of the bank, its branches so long they almost spanned the width of the creek.“See that tree?We used to see who could get to the highest branch before chickening out.I always won because the other two are afraid of heights.”
Brant had never seen this side of her before.Smiling, excited, carefree.Every time he saw her she usually had a frown on her face or was running in the opposite direction.To have her smile at him…it set his world atilt.
“Why’d you guys come here?”he asked.“It seems an awfully long way for three kids to walk.”
Colleen shrugged her shoulders.“We live in Parker.What’s gonna happen to kids who live in Parker?Besides, we needed a place of our own and it’s only a couple of miles from Annie’s farm.”
“Why did you guys need a place of your own?”
Colleen got out of the car, walked over to the large maple and leaned against its trunk.“Well, Breckin was raised by a single dad because her mom died of cancer when she was two.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah.Annie was raised by her white trash parents before her dad died when he drove his drunk ass off a bridge.Her mom abandoned her soon after and she went to live with her crazy granny Sophie.”
“That sucks, too.”
“It did.They needed this place.”
“What about you?Did you need this place?”
Colleen sighed and ran her hand up the ancient bark of the tree, almost as if held her and her friends’ secrets.“My parents were hippies.Hardcore hippies, in fact.They marched on Washington, D.C.They protested Vietnam.They smokedlotsof marijuana and were all about the free love.Then we left and wound up in Parker.My dad finally got tired of my mom and all her hippie ways and took off with one of the bartenders at Griff’s.It was just Mom and me after that.I was destined to be a weird kid just by my upbringing.”
Brant chuckled.“Did you dye your hair as a kid, too?”
Colleen’s eyes widened.“Yes!I figured if people were going to make fun of me because my mom dressed like a flower child and hung peace sign wind chimes in the trees in our front yard then I was going to make my hair happy.”
Brant grinned.“What’s your natural hair color?”
“Mousy brown.”
“I bet it’s not mousy.”
Colleen returned Brant’s smile.“That’s because you’ve never seen my natural hair color.”
“Do you plan on bringing it back soon?”
“Nope.”
“I didn’t think so.”
Colleen turned to face him, a twinkle in her eye.“So did you just bring me out here to look at the creek and tell you how awkward I was when I was younger?”
“No.”