Read Colorado 02 Sweet Dreams for Free Online Page A

a house in Carnal eventually and would need money to set that up with furniture and the like and the money I had wouldn’t last forever. I couldn’t make it on twenty-three dollars a day plus the terrible hourly rate I got. I was going to have to step things up somehow.
    I walked to Betty and smiled.
    “Thanks, I like your sundress too,” I told her.
    “Momma always put me in a skirt. Said, she had a girl, no girl of hers would wear pants and, as you can see, she had a girl.” She grinned at the spray shooting at her flowers and kept talking. “I can count on one hand the times I been in pants. Don’t know why. What Momma did just took and I never think about puttin’ on pants.” Betty finished sharing a random piece of her life, looked my way then nodded to my top. “You’re good with color. I notice you always pick the right ones. Perfect for you.”
    I looked down at myself.
    I was wearing my last pair of the three pairs of jeans I owned, these slightly more faded and beat up than the others I’d worn the previous two days to Bubba’s. I’d had them awhile and I actually hadn’t worn them for some time because they were getting too tight. They fit now, for some reason, were even a bit loose so I went with them. I also had on a pale pink camisole over which I wore a nearly see-through kelly green blouse. It had a little ruffle around the rounded collar and the cuffs of the short sleeves. It also had tiny ruffles and pin tucks down the front of it and teeny pearl buttons, a lot of them. I paired this with silver stud earrings in the shapes of little daisies, a bunch of silver bangles on my wrist with dangly daisies or roses on them and a pair of kelly green, suede flats with a big flower on the rounded toe.
    “Thanks,” I said to Betty.
    “Uppin’ the class at Bubba’s, you are,” Betty smiled at me.
    I’d told her yesterday when I chatted with her before walking to the bar that I was working at Bubba’s.
    Thinking on it, her comment wasn’t exactly welcome albeit kind.
    Thankfully, Tate had left before I got back from the storeroom on day one and hadn’t been around day two. But Krystal, who had been my bartender both days, hadn’t thawed (not even a little). Having briefly met both Tonia and Jonelle, I noted they were worse than Krystal on the Frosty Front.
    The only people I figured liked me were Jim-Billy, Nadine (another regular who showed around four each day so far) and Dalton who showed at five thirty both days.
    Dalton was very good-looking too, longish, dirty blonde hair that nearly hit his shoulders; lean body but without the bulk and power of Tate’s; just a couple of inches taller than me unlike Tate who had to be four or five inches taller than me and I was five foot nine; and Dalton wore jeans like they were invented solely for him and thus he needed to be consulted by all and sundry for his approval before they could don a pair. Last, Dalton had an easy smile that he flashed a lot and I could tell straight away it was genuine.
    Even with the half and half mix of those who might like Lauren and those who didn’t, I didn’t think me wearing a blouse that cost more than two pairs of Levi’s was going to be jotted in the good column during my job evaluation. Then again, I didn’t have many t-shirts and I figured Krystal’s Harley tanks, being authentic Harley Davidson gear, weren’t exactly cheap.
    “I should probably go to the mall. Get some stuff to fit in with everyone else,” I suggested to Betty.
    She stopped the spray on the hose and yanked it down to the pot in front of room fourteen with me following all while advising, “Hon, you look sweet. Be yourself. Only thing you can be.”
    I filed that away but still figured I should up my t-shirt inventory even though Tonia and Jonelle didn’t wear t-shirts. When I met Tonia, she was wearing a tan piece of soft, triangular suede covering her breasts held in place with nothing but a thin strap around her back and another one