Country Lovin'

Chapter 2

FIVE YEARS EARLIER
I sit down at the freshly wiped bar. I can hear someone laughing in the kitchen but I'm too nervous to call them over to take my order. The person that was laughing walks out of the kitchen and spots me. He wears an old tattered baseball cap, a long sleeved plaid button-up, and blue jeans. He spots me and makes his way over to where I'm sitting. His hair is a golden blonde and his eyes are crystal blue. I'm instantly intrigued by his tall figure and handsome features. 

"What can I get-", He realizes who I am and stands a little straighter. " Wait, you're the new sheriff's daughter, ain't ya? Sage, is it?" He speaks with a deep southern accent and I'm entranced.

"Ugh..." I'm speechless from the very fact he knows my name.

"Well, what can I get ya then, Sage? I'm Reed by the way." I look down at the menu but nothing looks appetizing to me since I'm so nervous.

".....I'll just take a sweet tea, please. Oh! Can you put the lemon on the side?" I ask like a blubbering idiot.

"Sure thing, you don't want anything else to eat?" Reed questions like I'm extremely skinny or something, which I'm not.

"No thanks, but can you also not put too much ice in it? Maybe like three or four cubes only?"

"Yes ma'am!" He goes into the kitchen and comes back with my sweet tea perfectly like I asked, a plate with a lemon on it, and another sweet tea.

"Here ya go! Just like you asked." He pulls a red, metal stool up from my side of the bar and puts it across from me on the other side of the bar. He grabs two straws, puts one in the second tea, and hands me the other. Reed takes a sip of the other tea and sits on his stool. "So, will you be a senior at Foxview High this coming year?" He asks casually like he isn't supposed to be working.

"Actually I'll be a junior. How about you?"

"I'll be a senior. So, tell me about yourself!" He says like we have known each other all our lives.

"Well, what do you want to know?"

"Do you play any sports? Were you in any clubs at your old school? I don't know, what do you do in your free time?" He lists off several questions like it was obvious I would've known what they were.

"I was in the book club....I like to read?!"

"That's pretty cool, anything else?"

" I like to hike! Me and my friends used to make a challenge of it. Whoever got to the top of the mountain without stopping was the winner." Thinking of my friends made me miss home.

"I like to hike too!"

"Well, we have something in common."

"Yeah, I also play guitar!"

"Oh, that's nice! Do you write songs?" I always wanted to date a musician.

"Well, I've tried. But I've never really been inspired by anything great enough to write a song about."

"I'm sure you will one day."

"I think so too, and I think it'll be pretty soon." I didn't have time to reply because someone yelled at Reed from the kitchen.

"Reed! Get to waiting tables!"

"Well, that's my call. But, why don't you come in here next Tuesday as well and we can go out and do something after my shift."

" Why only next Tuesday?"

"Tuesday is the only day I work, I have to go. Be here at 4 p.m. And wear tennis shoes and something comfortable."

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"Hey Sage, did you meet anyone while you where out in town?" My momma asked me when I walked in the front door of our new house. She was unpacking boxes of our stuff.

"Yeah, did the moving van come while I was gone?" I asked wondering where all my stuff was.

"Who'd you meet? And yes honey, you're stuff is in the first bedroom on the right upstairs." She answered like she had heard my thoughts.

"Some guy, I'll tell you about it later. I'm gonna go unpack my stuff."

 I walked upstairs and went into the room. The walls were painted a soft yellow and my bed was set up opposite the door. There was a window beside my bed, and my old, white curtains were already hung up. I went to the window and looked out across the backyard. There was a huge weeping willow tree and a white picket fence around the length of the house. I turned back to my room and looked at all the boxes, 6 in total. How I had managed to fit all of my stuff in 6 boxes was a mystery. I opened the first box that said clothes on top. I then unpacked all the clothes and laid them on my bed to be sorted.

By the time I had unpacked all my boxes my stomach was growling so I went downstairs to look for something to eat. I found my momma in the kitchen as well and she had a slice of pizza halfway to her mouth when she saw me.

"Hey, where'd you get pizza?!" I demanded since she hadn't told me anything about it.

"You're dad brought it in for supper." She told me with a ashamed look on her face.

"Daddy's home?! When did he get home?"

"Just a few minutes ago, he went to take a shower."

"Well I'll wait for him to eat with him."

"Suit yourself." She replied smugly.
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When my daddy finally got out of the shower we sat down and ate supper together. And we talked about his new job.

So dad, how do you like being sheriff now?" He had been a deputy back home. When the sheriff of this town died from a heart attack, he came to the town and took the job over. And off we went moving from the town we had always lived in. To say I was upset was the least bit of it.

"It's different, and I'm still getting used to it. But, the other officers have really welcomed me." He answered with a smile on his face. I could tell he was going to really enjoy his new job as sheriff. So I pretended to be happy in this new town for him. And I was actually starting to like it here since meeting Reed.

"Well I'm sure you'll fit right in and be the best sheriff this town has seen." He nodded at me and went back to eating.

"So, Sage tell me about this "guy" you met in town today!" My momma interrogated. My daddy's eyes shot up from his plate and he looked me right in the eye.

"What "guy"?!"

"Don't worry Daddy, just some boy asked me out next Tuesday." I told him while my face grew redder than a tomato.

"Absolutely not! You're too young to date!" My daddy replied laying the law down.

"Oh, come on Preston she will be 17 in a few months, I think she can go on her first date." I was so surprised that I didn't say anything to them.

"No, she is too young." Daddy argued.

"She can go, just one date though."

"Fine, one date, but that's all!"

"Yippee!! Thank you momma, thank you daddy."