Chapter 2
Creedence
There was no feeling like this.
The feeling of when you are wild, free, in love, all rolled into one.
And the only thing that caused that feeling... was being on a motorcycle.
I was sitting in front of my daddy on his Harley with my arms thrown up, my long brown hair billowing out behind me.
My daddy was chuckling.
Age 7
“What is it, princess?” my daddy asked.
“How come mommy didn’t love me?”
Ever since I started school, I’d noticed more and more that my family was different.
Way different.
Way different in a way that made it feel as though I was the odd one out all the time.
Yes, I had the best daddy in the whole world. Yes, I had tons of uncles who were my daddy’s brothers. But... still.
Daddy sighed, “It’s not that she didn’t love you, Cree. It’s that she didn’t know how to. She was messed up for a long time, baby.”
“So should I try to love her for both of us?” I asked.
“Only if you think she is deserving of that love,” he said.
Age 9
My mom wasn’t deserving of that love.
Age 11
My legs swayed beneath me as I tried to hold in my smile.
Uncle Walker really shouldn’t have taught me a few tricks.
Because the pile of bills on the table was about to be mine.
Uncle York sighed, then turned his cards face down and tossed them to the side, “I’m out.”
Uncle Cotton smirked, “Raise twenty.” Then he tossed a twenty-dollar bill on the table.
Uncle Cooper followed, along with Uncle Xavier, and then I did.
Uncle Dale nodded, then said, “Call.”
Uncle Cotton showed us his straight; his high card was an eight.
Uncle Cooper sighed, then shook his head, “Pair of queens.”
Uncle Xavier smirked, then laid down four nines.
Uncle Cotton sighed.
Uncle Dale chuckled, then laid down four tens.
All eyes came to me, then my dad called out, “She’s about to hand y’all your asses.”
That was the moment I smiled.
“Fuck,” Uncle Cotton muttered.
Dale smirked, “That’s my girl.”
“She was mine first,” my dad growled.
Uncle Walker leaned back in his chair and winked at me.
Uncle Cooper sighed, “Damn.”
I showed them my hand.
“In your honor, a royal flush.”
Age 13
“Should have known when I saw your last name; you’re the spitting image of him. But don’t you worry. You won’t sweet-talk me as your father did,” Ms. Hampton said.
That was the first class I failed.
Age 15
I threw my backpack down on the floor and turned to glare up at my dad, “Really?”
He winced, “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t know she would be rehired.”
Ms. Hampton had been fired after I failed that class two years ago for her actions.
But somehow, she had been rehired, and I was back in her class.
However, to help combat the she-witch, my dad had found me a tutor.
She was the sister of Uncle Xavier, and she had just left after our second session together.
“I like her, Dad,” I shared.
He looked down at me with all the love he felt for me shining in his blue eyes, “Yeah?”
I nodded, “Yeah.”
He winked, then nodded, “Good.”
Oh yeah.
I knew what that meant.
I kept my face as expressionless as his, but inwardly, I was squealing like a cat who ate the canary.
***
It’s been a few weeks since Ms. Strickland started tutoring me, and I can’t believe how much I’ve grown.
I was working on my math homework when a cell phone rang.
It was Ms. Strickland’s phone.
Anyone who needed proof that I was indeed his daughter, all you had to do was witness the moment we both changed into the same person at the look of shock, and then sadness that appeared on her face.
And then... everything else was a blur.
Getting out of the house.
Climbing into the truck.
Driving to the hospital.
Walking into the elevator.
Approaching the room.
The only thing that wasn’t a blur....
Seeing the boy who was lying in the hospital room, beaten black and blue with bandages around his waist and head.
He had dark brown hair, the same shade as mine.
And even though his face was beaten, you could still see how beautiful he was.
But nothing could have prepared me for seeing the most stunning pair of mossy-colored eyes... and that was when I knew.
Who meets the love of their life at only fifteen years old?
Me. That’s who.