“You talking about that young thing that came in here with the gaggle of women the other night?” she asked.
Creek growled and ignored her question. “Don’t you have customers that need something, Sarah?” he demanded.
Tucker and Saeger both smiled with interest. “We saw her briefly. We also saw her walk out, not giving our man Creek here the time of day.”
Sarah chuckled and crossed her arms under her ample bosom. “She was a doll. Prettiest little thing, and she blushed like a cutie whenever she looked over at our boy here. And yeah, he was looking all the time.”
“Sending out the silent messages?” Tucker asked, elbowing Saeger in the ribs.
“More like screaming, he was,” she laughed with a cackle. “This boy was hit hard by that lady.”
Saeger turned to look at his friend who was scowling like a panther. “A lady, eh? That’s different.”
“Back off,” Creek growled again. “Last warning.”
The men didn’t care. “So what did she look like?” They asked Sarah, knowing that Creek wouldn’t give them anything.
“Brown wavy hair, bluest eyes this side of the Pacific. Cute in a sexy kind of way.”
The men’s eyebrows went up with that description, and they both turned to look at their friend. “Cute?” Saeger asked.
“Brown hair? Blue eyes? I thought you were a blond man.”
“I have work to do,” Creek said and smacked his laptop closed. He walked out of the bar and moved back to his motorcycle, storing his computer in the storage compartment and speeding away from The Rotten Apple. Once he was back in his home office, he settled into his leather chair and looked out the windows.
The view from this room, or any room in his house on top of the mountain, never failed to soothe him. Down below was the tiny town of Winthrop, Alaska where small houses perched as close together as they possibly could. There were more mountains across the water in front of him but the town was in a valley fed by a deep ocean channel. It kept the town protected from some of the harsher winter storms but still allowed the fishermen and women to easily get in and out with their boats during fishing season. Fish were the primary source of income for the small town. And although the channel gave the fishermen easy access to the rich ocean waters, that didn’t mean it was easy to get supplies to the town.
Saeger had brought in several cows, which were protected year round by a large warehouse. The cows provided milk for the town’s residents while the enormous warehouse grew vegetables year round. Tucker had developed and constructed a sort of windmill that generated heat, keeping the plants warm and also generated a sun-like light that helped the plants grow. It had bothered both men that the parents had to pay ten dollars a gallon for milk and rarely had fresh fruit and vegetables for their kids, so the four of them had fixed that problem quickly. That effort had spawned other ideas, and the whole enterprise was now self-sustaining. The cows and greenhouse produced its own energy, and even earned a profit now, all of which was turned back over to the town to build additional infrastructure.
The wind turbines Tucker had invented were how all four of their mountain homes were heated as well. Creek had to give it to Tucker, he knew how to invent something for just about every environment. He found a problem and solved it with one of his inventions. Once that problem was solved, he marketed the solution and made crazy profits.
Creek pressed a few buttons on his keyboard and several large monitors flashed to life. He tried to focus on work issues, but in his mind, he was thinking about a lovely brunette with beautiful, blue eyes and soft, blushing cheeks.
Violet shivered as she thought of the night ahead of her. He’d really asked her out? She looked down at the box sitting on the shelf and smiled, wanting to jump up and down with her excitement. He really had! He’d driven all the way here, just to ask her out to dinner!
For a moment, she wondered what had happened to Boobie Barbie, but then banished the buxom blond from her mind. Violet refused to let her insecurities eat away at her excitement for the upcoming evening.
“How many orders came in today?” she asked her stepfather, George.
George tossed a well-used napkin into the trashcan and started to reach for the computer.
“That’s okay!” Violet called out, seeing his still-greasy fingers reach for the computer keyboard. “I’ll look it up.” She shifted the keyboard towards her since George, obviously wasn’t going to get his butt off of the stool he’d pulled behind the counter earlier today.
Why had she agreed to give her stepfather a part time job?
Oh yeah, because she’d felt sorry for him!