Redneck Crazy

Chapter One

WHAT IN THE HELL OF IT!!!!"

That was my typical morning wake up call. I busted out laughing because, when you live in a house like mine, you learn to live in the moments as they come. Why my dad was hollering this at the top of his lungs, I wasn't sure that I wanted to know.

"SADIE! WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT DRIVING MY TRUCK?!?"

Uh-oh. I had totally forgot. Awwww crap. I really should've had Tanner buff out that dent. I rubbed my pounding temples and drug my fat ass out of bed. Really shouldn't have gone to that tailgate last night either. I was already regretting those last three shots. "God Sadie....you are so fucking stupid sometimes. You should really be more careful." I told myself as I walked across the hallway to the bathroom. "I mean seriously, who the hell starts a duel with pink lawn flamingoes? I know, you were under influence of substances illegal to your age group, but....." I totally lost my train of thought, because there was somebody parked in my driveway that I never expected to see again

I saw that perfectly shaped booty outlined in his Levi jeans, his beautifully tanned biceps bulging out of a flannel shirt cutoff, and that dirty old cowboy hat pulled down low over his green eyes. He was bent over assessing the damage on my dad's tailgate.

"Darrell?" I asked tentatively.

He turned and looked at me with those intense green eyes that used to make my heart stop in just one look. I raced down the hallway, out the screen door, and without a second thought launched myself into his arms. I hugged him so tight I couldn't breathe.

He hadn't changed at all. Everything about him was familiar. The way he wrapped his arms around me and drew me close. The feel of his body pressed to mine. Even the way he smelled. It was all everything I had missed in the last few months, since he had moved out of Manifest and all the way to Nashville looking for work.

He had always wanted to be a country singer and after he had graduated last May, he immediately headed out in his red beat up truck to go chase his dreams. My thoughts drifted back to ten months before....

"Please don't leave me behind." I had sobbed into his shoulder. We were curled up on the beach holding each other for what I knew was going to be the last time.

"You know I don't want to baby, but I have to. I have to go live my dreams, leave my mark on this world." He said his voice cracking with emotion, absently tracing a heart on my thigh.

"Take me with you"

"You know I want to, but I can't. Sadie you need to stay here and graduate, go to college, be a nurse, live out your own dream."

"I don't care about all that. I'd give up everything in a heartbeat just to stay with you, to wake up in your arms every morning, I don't care. I don't need those scholarships. I'm not even sure that I want to be a nurse anymore...." My words were cut off by a kiss. A bittersweet, emotional kiss that told me nothing I could say was going to change his mind.

"You need to go your way, and I'll go mine." He said looking into my eyes with such love I thought my heart was going to explode.

" I can't do it without you. You're the only reason I have my own way."

"But you're stronger, better now. You can do anything you put your mind to. I love you, more than you could imagine, but this is for the best. You don't need me anymore." I looked into the eyes of the boy I'd loved since I was thirteen, the boy who understood every corner of my mind. He knew every single secret I had in this world, every curve of my body, he'd been there with me through everything.