Willows and Oaks

2.4

Hello Darlin- Conway Twitty

The next morning was exactly what Addy needed after all the stress the past week or so had caused her. She woke up to Tate jumping up and down begging for the two of them to get to work digging more of the dinosaur up, which she quickly obliged to Tates and wished. She gladly helped the young boy dust off the prehistoric creatures bones while listening to him ramble on about the species, what color it was , then about what Jurassic Park movie was the best. Addy watched him in amusement as he went on and on in excitement, seeing him so happy was a welcomed change especially considering how frightened he was yesterday when they went to war against the rattle snake. After a little while Monica came and rescued Addy from the task , telling Tate it was time for lunch she brought the two kids inside. Monica and Addy started discussing Addys college search when her uncle came through the front door . Walking in he stopped to ruffle both kids hair and then giving Monica a kiss , Addy watched them embrace each other and felt that typical love struck feeling inside her , Addy loved love , she has dreamt of it since she was a little girl. Although she yearned so badly for it Addy was indeed a smart girl she had never had a boyfriend, she was waiting for the connection , she sees it between her parents , between Monica and Kaycee, she just hoped that one day she would find that someone for her. Kaycee joined the group in lunch and they had a great time discussing her plans for college and her plans to work on the ranch. After awhile Kaycee volunteered to drive her back home saying he had to drop something off to her grandfather anyways, hugging both Monica and Tate she said her goodbyes while making her way to the truck.

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Pulling up to the ranch she could see her father and grandfather down by the corrals, so Kaycee and her made their way down.

Rip looked over seeing his daughter coming to stand with him, "Hey baby, how was Monica and Tate? You have fun ?" Leaning in to pull Addy into a big hug she smiled looking up at him," they were great, " Addy looked over at her uncle who was looking back at her she decided that the snake issue actually did not have to be brought up due to everyone getting along this evening ," just helped Tate with his dinosaur and talked to Monica about school ."

John Dutton leaned forward to be part of the conversation," Addy Girl we should sit down and look through the colleges around here , I'll help you get that information together." Addy beamed up at her grandfather a bit surprised that he wanted to be involved in helping her choose a school," she walked over to hug him and said ," That sounds great, does tomorrow over breakfast sound good?"

" You know it does , Addy Girl"

A sudden shout came from the man on the horse in the corral , looking more closely she saw that he was actually duct taped to the saddle on the bucking horse. Looking between her father and the rest of the ranch hands watching she knew better than to question it. Shaking her head in amusement, looking back at her father ," Where's mom ? Feeling any better ? " 

Rip chuckled thinking about yesterday mornings horse trough situation," she is somewhere on this ranch , where at not so sure ," She sighed with a soft smile and then told both of the men next to her she was going on her search for her mother. Walking towards one of the barns , just at the same moment one of the ranch hands started walking in the same direction. Addy stopped going to grab the gate in the yard to open for the both of them , he suddenly jogged up to it swinging it open first. She heard him panting and raised her head to to look up at him, her breath caught in her chest when her eyes locked on his. Addy wasn't a creep and normally she doesn't let boys get the satisfaction of them knowing she think they are attractive but my goodness, this boy was beautiful. He was tall, with dirty blonde hair slipping a bit out from under his black cowboy hat, with these gorgeous blue eyes that instantly drew her in. He had a old fashioned mustache that reminded her of the old western movies she would watch with her grandfather as a child but boy did he pull it off, Realizing it had been quite some time of her gawking at him, she sputtered out a response, " Oh - uh ... thank you but there was no need to run over I could have gotten the gate ." God she was a mess sputtering and not able to stop stuttering in from of this boy god must have built with his finest instruments .After a moment of silence she looked back at his face seeing he had a rosy blush rising on his face and to her enjoyment he also seemed to be openly checking her out as well.
He collected himself and straightened up then in a deep husky breath she heard him speak for the first time ," I don't know where you are from Ma'am but a man never lets a beautiful woman open the door; and can i just say it was worth running over - you were worth running over for ." He ran a shaky hand over his cowboy hat and raised the corner of his lip in a nervous smile.