AN: Sorry about the wait again. My friend Kerrie's bachelorette party was this weekend and I am only now fully recovered. I drank more vodka in one night then I have the entire time I have been of age. I am including my twenty first birthday in that figure. I don't recommend drinking that much. I have several bruises I am still trying to figure out where they came from along with a number in my phone. There are several things about the night that I don't remember and many that I wish I could forget. I am going to try to write again tomorrow so that I can update a little sooner this time. Anyway now that I have board you with my weekend and week thus far on with the chapter. Please read, enjoy and review.

Chapter 13 Maple Bacon Apple Goodness

I have never had a dream like that where the star of my fantasy was someone that I knew. I had a few dreams staring one Hollywood hunk or another but never a friend. It got me thinking. I had never thought of him that way well not to the point where I thought it could go somewhere. I remembered the way it felt to wake up in his arms and the way he smelled. Sunday had been great and I was looking forward to spending more time with him. I blushed thinking about what it would be like to actually have him touch me the way he had in my dream. I smiled to myself as I got up to deal with the day. I dressed quickly and made my way down stairs. I also thought about how he became sullen and detached Monday morning at breakfast. He obviously still had issues with that for lack of a better term skank. Then there was still Alcide. I had not given him a chance yet and I really liked him. Daddy and Hunter were eating cereal and watching cartoons in the living room.

"Hey baby girl Jason called he is running late so Alcide is going to come pick you up." He said with a smile.

"That figures when is he going to be here?" I asked heading to the kitchen in search of my own breakfast. Before Daddy could answer there was a knock at the door. It was Alcide along with a huge cup of coffee and a bag of doughnuts for Duke's. If I was not afraid of the amount of weight I would gain I would eat Duke's maple bacon apple fritters every day. They are one of the most sinfully delicious breakfast pastries I have ever eaten.

"I come baring gifts." He says placing the goodies on the table.

"If I didn't already know better I would say you were trying to butter me up." I dig into the bag the second it leaves his hand.

"I was wondering what you had planned for later tonight?" He asked.

"I had not really planned on doing anything but showering when I got home. Why?" I take a bite and moan.

"Ahhh…Um" Alcide licks his lips and shakes his head before continuing. "Sam's going to have a live band in tonight and I was hoping you would want to go." Sam was the owner and bar tender of the local bar and grille Merlot's. They served booze and burgers. I had worked there for a few summers during high school.

"Oh that would be fun. I have not seen Sam and the gang for ages and I will most definitely need a drink after today." I smiled at the thought.

"Good then its settled. We should get going I don't want Jason to complain that I was slacking on my duties." He stood up and pushed in his chair. I finished scarfing my fritter.

"Daddy we are leaving." I went into the living room to say good bye.

"Ok baby girl remember that Gran is making dinner and you are both expected to be there." Daddy said in a serious tone. I knew better than to skip a meal at Gran's.

"We will love you Daddy. You two have a good day." I said heading for the door. The ride to Hadley's didn't take long at all. Jason and Hoyt were already in the kitchen cleaning out the fridge and cabinets when we arrived. We worked for a good four hours straight before we took a break for lunch. The boys had gotten the kitchen entirely cleared out and all the odds and ends packed up. They had also taken care of the living room. I had taken on the task of cleaning out her bedroom. It was harder than I thought to stay detached from my task. She had albums full of pictures of all of us from over the years. There was one that had me crying when I found it. It was of Hadley, Aunt Lynda and me. It was around the time I turned nine. I had spent the night at their house and we had stayed up late playing with makeup and watching movies. I had forgotten all about that night but Hadley still had all the pictures. I sat and cried for a few minutes thinking about everything that she was going to miss out on. Alcide came back to check on me apparently I was a loud crier. He gave me a hug which felt way better than it should have. After my cry I got back to work packing up all of her albums and books. Her clothes were another thing that I was not sure what to do with. I know that I would not feel right wearing any of it but I did not want to get rid of what little Hunter had left of his mother. I finally just put it all in to some more boxes. I figured we could always give it away latter if nothing else. After lunch we got back to it I finished in her room before moving onto the bathroom. The boys gathered what little was still in Hunter's room to take back as well they started to make trips out to the trucks filling them up and driving. By four we had everything packed up and most of it out. The furniture was going to be split between Daddy's, Jason's and Gran's everything else was going to Daddy's. We all took showers after our last trip to Daddy's. I put a little bit of extra effort into my appearance when I got out. I took the time to curl my hair in nice ringlets. The guys were all waiting on me when I came down. They each had a beer in hand and were laughing at something on TV.

"Wow Sook you look way too good to be to be going out with the likes of him." Jason gesticulated when I walked in to the living room.

"Yeah you should be going out with a movie hot star instead." Hoyt added with a smirk.

"Oh I don't know I think Alcide is pretty hot all on his own." I blushed just a little sitting down on his lap. "We need to get going Gran is likely to have the table all set waiting for us." I mentioned looking at the clock. I rode over to Gran's with Jason just so he could harass me some more about my date with Alcide.

As I had said Gran had everything on the table waiting for us when we got there. Gran made a big production out of sitting Alcide next to me at the table. I probably would have found it cute if I had not been embraced by her comments. Between Gran and Daddy it sounded like they had our future totally planned out by the end of dinner. It is not that I did not expect them to be enthusiastic about us giving it a go but more that I didn't want to disappoint them if we did not work out. I knew better than to think that Alcide would not still be a part of my life if we didn't but it still bugged me how they were acting.

I was ecstatic to leave when dinner was over. Gran reminded me that she was expecting me to go to church in the morning since I was home so Alcide needed to make sure I got home at a decent hour. Alcide and I had a fun time chatting on the way to Merlot's. I was starting to see just how nice it would be to call Alcide my boyfriend. I mean we had a lot of history we had practically know each other forever. Which in all honesty was both a good and bad thing, we knew each other so well that we did not have any of that awkwardness of a first date. The flip side to that was that we had less to talk about. I received a warm welcome from Sam. At one time I had thought he was the cutes guy in the world. You know one of those crushes you get on an older guy that you know will go nowhere but you still hold onto like a life raft. Alcide and I drank a bit and danced to the live band. They were a local country band that played mostly covers. They were actually pretty good but then again that might have had something do with the fact that I was kind of toasted when they started playing. Alcide was a much better dancer then I remembered. We both needed a break after the fifth song. I went up to the bar to get us another round.

"I don't know why you are wasting your time with him." A snarly voice said to my left. I looked over to see Alcide's on again off again paramour Debbie.

"Really why is that?" I asked.

"He is just going to come crawling back to me just you watch. What he and I have can't be trumped by a little harlot like you." She gave me the fakest smile.

"Then why can't you two seem to say together longer than a minute? If you will excuse me I need to get back to my date." I picked up the pitcher and made my way back to the booth Alcide was sitting in.

"Mark my words bitch. This will be your one and only date with him. He belongs with me and he knows it." She yelled.

"Sookie I am really sorry about her. There are days where I question what I ever saw in her." Alcide apologized and poured us both a drink.

"No problem really, it's not like you are still hung up on her or anything." I said taking a swig of my beer. He didn't agree or disagree with me he just got quiet but looked to the bar where she was standing. We sat there not talking for a few songs. I knew that the silence between us was my answer. They may be broken up but he still cared about her. I had already figured out with one guy this week that I wanted to come first so I would not put myself in a situation where I was not. No matter how much I liked Alcide he was just another Preston. They were both using me to an extent to ignore their feelings. Our date flat lined after the Debbie sighting. I think we both came to the same conclusion about the same time. I kissed him on the check when he dropped me off. Daddy noticed my lack of a smile when I came in.

"Baby girl are you alright?" He asked from his chair.

"No but I will be." I assured him making my way up the stairs to my room. It was sobering really to think I was not enough, for not one but two guys. With that depressing thought I crawled into bed and fell asleep.