299 Days: The 17th Irregulars

Chapter 173 Kellie Is in Love

“I’m in love, dude,” Wes said to Grant one morning as the Team was getting into Mark’s truck to go out to the Richardson house for training. Just as Wes said that, a beautiful girl in her early twenties came out of the yellow cabin.

She had light brown hair and was in perfect shape, something Grant could tell from her shorts and tank top. He tried not to pay too much attention to her because she was half his age, but damn, she looked fabulous. She came running up to Wes and hugged him.

“When are you done with work?” she asked Wes, practically making out with him as she spoke. “I’ll be waiting for you,” she said extremely seductively. Grant knew what Wes had in store for him after work; hours and hours of it. He was a lucky bastard.

“I’m done around dinner time,” Wes said. “We’ll be back as soon as we can,” he said, trying to be semi-business like with Grant around. Wes realized that he hadn’t yet introduced his girlfriend.

“Grant, this is Kellie,” Wes said. She snapped out of her love trance and broke off from her hug of Wes. She turned to Grant and tried to act polite, even though she was a little annoyed that someone was distracting Wes from her.

Grant put out his hand and said, “Pleased to meet you Kellie. I’m Grant. I live over here,” he said pointing to his nearby cabin. “I work with Wes.”

Kellie saw Grant’s pistol belt and his military-contractor looking clothes. Like the Team, Grant was wearing 5.11 pants and had a Raven Concealment holster, which set him apart from the local guards, who usually wore hunting clothes. She realized this Grant guy must be one of the Team, although she hadn’t seen him around and he was older than the other guys. He must be a boss or something. She vaguely remembered one of the Team saying something about a “Grant” guy being a judge and on the Team, or something. She figured she better be nice to him so Wes didn’t get in trouble at work. She needed Wes to be home where she could… do more of what they had done all night.

“Nice to meet you, Grant,” she said. She paused a moment to be polite and then went back to hugging Wes. She just wanted to hold him. She didn’t want him to leave because she was afraid he’d get in a gun fight and not come back. She kept telling herself not to fall for some military guy, or whatever it was the Team did out there, but she couldn’t resist. Wes was so cute and he was new.

Kellie recalled how she met Wes a few weeks ago. She had grown up at Pierce Point with the local boys. She’d dated some and done the usual dumb teenage stuff with them. She had a steady boyfriend, Ethan Meecham, for about a year, but he was so small-time, just a Pierce Point boy. She had decided to break up with him before the Collapse started, but she didn’t have the nerve to do it. When Ethan went off to guard duty at the gate, Kellie was relieved. He’d be busy with that and not have any time for her.

Then she saw them; a pickup load of cute guys. New guys she hadn’t seen before, and they came with guns. Way cooler guns than the hunting guns everyone else had. The guys in the truck had military looking clothes; not camouflage or uniforms. They looked like they were professionals, but not soldiers… like guys in all those movies she’d seen. She was amazed at how calm and confident they looked as they drove by. Luckily, they were driving slowly so she could get a good look at them. One of them smiled at her. He was so cute. She fell in love with one look.

Kellie thought it was great that the guys in the truck were riding around and looking for bad guys, who they would shoot if they had to. They weren’t afraid of anything.

Kellie was drawn to that: She had some bad guys in her life she wanted people to go get. She wanted to be protected, and these were the type of men who would do that. She felt so safe just seeing them. It was a peaceful and exhilarating feeling. Nothing could hurt her when they were around.

It was a momentary feeling, though, because they drove by and then they were gone. She had to meet them, just had to. She would do anything to meet them, especially the cute one who smiled at her.

She was in her yard when they drove by. Once they were gone, she panicked. How could she meet them? Were they gone for good? She was terrified she’d never see them again.

Kellie found her mom, Sheila, hoping that she would know who they were. She frantically described what she’d seen and asked her mom who they were.

“The Team,” her mom said. “Some guys from Olympia who are out here doing police things. Nice guys. I met them at the Grange a few nights ago. Were you scared by the guns?” her mom asked. Sheila still thought of Kellie as her “little girl.”

“No, I wasn’t scared,” Kellie said. She remembered that her mom still thought she was dating Ethan so she stopped herself from saying that she wanted to meet the cute one, the smiley one.

“I just wanted to make sure people with guns were OK to be here,” Kellie said.

“Oh, they’re OK to be here,” Sheila said. “We’re lucky to have them. They apparently trained together before all of this, like a SWAT thing or something. I’m not really sure,” her mom said.

“The Grange?” Kellie asked. “Are they at the Grange?”

“Yeah,” Sheila said, “for the meetings at 7:00. They eat there, too,” Shelia said, starting to figure out why Kellie was so interested in meeting them. She saw this as an opportunity to get her daughter out of the house and do something productive.

“You could volunteer to help serve meals at the Grange. It wouldn’t kill you,” Sheila said.

“Great idea, mom,” Kellie said. It had been about ten years since Sheila had heard her daughter say that.

“Great idea?” Sheila said, in complete shock at what her often unruly daughter had just said. “I love hearing that.” They hugged. Her little Kellie, the one who listened to mom, was back. Maybe these boys on the Team were actually going to be a good thing for Kellie, Shelia thought.

“I’ll go up to the Grange now and volunteer,” Kellie said, impulsively grabbing her car keys.

“Whoa,” Sheila said. “Gas. There’s no gas to just drive around. Remember? You need to walk. It’s only about a mile.”

“Sure,” Kellie said. “Sounds good, Mom.” It was another shocking statement from the rebel child.

“I gotta change,” Kellie said. Kellie got in her sexiest shorts and tight fitting tank top and put on some makeup.

Kellie came out and Sheila said, “You look fabulous. You’ll be the most beautiful kitchen helper there.” Kellie realized she was being obvious about her true intentions with the kitchen helping, but loved that her mom was in on it. Kellie hugged her mom. She hadn’t done that in a couple of years.

Kellie started walking, which was something she hadn’t done in so long. She was accustomed to driving anywhere and everywhere.

Before the Collapse, Kellie had a job in Frederickson at a local supermarket, Martin’s. Her job sucked, but she was one of the few her age who had one during the horrible economy. Being beautiful might have had something to do with that; customers liked having a pretty girl around. She’d been working there part-time in high school and then, after she graduated two years ago, she went full time.

Her mom wanted her to go college, but Kellie didn’t see any point to it. There were no jobs and the economy was terrible. She didn’t feel like going to college only to graduate with tens of thousands of dollars of loan debt and no job prospects. .

Now, the economy was virtually non-existent. She quit going to her job in Frederickson when gas hit $12 a gallon and there was way too much crime in town. When it became obvious that life as they had known it was essentially over, Kellie started worrying about her future. Would she just sit at home and eat that awful deer meat, which is all they had? She couldn’t drive anywhere and be with her friends. Her little brother was so annoying. She needed a life.

Then the truck went by and that boy smiled at her. That’s what she needed; a new and wonderful life could be hers if she could only get that boy. And he was so cute and new and exciting. It would be perfect. Everything would be perfect.

Kellie walked up to the Grange and received a warm welcome from the ladies in the kitchen. They were happy to have a new volunteer and put her straight to work.

It was dinner time and people started coming in for dinner. Kellie saw a big Asian guy with a gun wearing those contractor-looking clothes. She realized that the Team must be there, and her heart stopped when they walked in. She looked quickly to see if he—the boy who smiled at her—was with them. Sure enough, there he was. He looked great all sweaty and dirty with all those guns and all that gear.

She decided to be forward. He probably was getting lots of offers from other girls, so she needed to snag this guy.

Kellie walked right up to him and said, in her sexiest voice, “Is there anything you’d like?” and winked. That was pretty obvious.

The other guys laughed and teased Wes, but he was just silent, staring at this beautiful woman who obviously liked him. Wes was a proper Southern gentleman. Courtship was a subtle dance where he was from. But, then again, a gorgeous woman was coming on to him. There was no harm in that. Subtle wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

“Hi,” is all Wes could manage. The guys laughed at him for that, too. “I’m Wes,” he managed to add.

Wes stuck out his hand. She shook it with a soft and gentle shake and kept staring him in the eye with her most seductive look, which was intoxicatingly powerful. No guy could resist it.

“I’m Kellie and I just wanted to meet you,” she said. Their handshake was still going; they were basically holding hands now. They were just staring at each other.

The guys quit laughing at Wes. They realized that this was a very serious moment for him and this hot girl. They were happy for him. Wes had apparently snagged a great girl and they didn’t want to ruin that. They were silent for a few seconds, waiting for Wes to say something.

“You asked what I’d like,” Wes finally said. “I’d like you to join me for dinner, ma’am,” he said in his Southern accent. There. He’d put some subtle courting back into this encounter.

Kellie smiled a huge smile. She started to hug him, but caught herself. It was too early for that. She needed to let this play out a little more, even though she wanted to hug him. A lot.

The Southern gentleman in Wes took over. “I will be serving you tonight, ma’am,” he said, in what could be a reference to dinner…or whatever else might happen later that night. He left to wash up and then went into the kitchen to get a plate of food for Kellie. The guys moved around so Kellie had a seat next to Wes, of course.

At dinner, Wes and Kellie had the most amazing conversation. They talked about everything. Wes found out that Kellie lived with her mom and younger brother. Her dad had left them a few years ago, which was a good thing since he regularly hit Kellie and her mom. They were still worried that he would come back, although they heard he was in jail. They also knew that the jails had been emptied.

Wes sensed that this was one of the reasons Kellie was so attracted to him. She wanted a man to protect her from any bad people who might come, like her dad. This bothered Wes. He didn’t like the sexist idea that a woman needed a man for protection. He had been raised that men and women were equal. Well, they are, he thought. But why deny that this woman is looking for something if he had it? Kellie wanting to feel safe was not a terrible thing. Everyone wanted to feel safe. Wes desired it, too. He wanted to be with the Team since he was so much safer with them around.

Wes realized that he, too, was attracted to her for a sense of safety and protection. It wasn’t safety and protection from bad people, though. It was a sense of safety and protection that he could provide for someone. He could help Kellie by making her safe. He could help her. He could make her life spectacular. He wanted to do that. He wanted to be the best boyfriend ever, or maybe the best husband, if life provided him that opportunity.

Whoa. It was way too early to be thinking about that, he said to himself. Then he took it all in. The conversation, how fabulous she looked, how he had been put in this place at this time with her. He just knew this was it. He’d met the woman he’d be with for the rest of his life.

One by one, the rest of the Team finished dinner and were taking their plates into the kitchen. They were talking with the Grange ladies and others while all the other diners were finishing their meals. But not Wes and Kellie. They just sat there, talking and laughing, until their butts got numb on the picnic table benches in the Grange.

“Hey, Wes, you comin’?” Ryan asked, which startled Wes back to reality.

“Oh. Yeah,” Wes said. “Wait. Goin’ where?”

“Back to the ranch,” Bobby said, referring to the yellow cabin.

Wes looked back at Kellie. He didn’t want to leave her, but Kellie didn’t want to be the only girl out at the cabin, either. She wanted to be the most popular girl at Pierce Point by inviting her friends to meet these guys.

“I have some friends who would like to meet the other guys,” she said with another wink.

“Female friends, I’m hoping,” Wes said with a smile.

Kellie nodded slowly and said, “Some girls you guys will like to meet.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to disappoint your friends,” Wes said. Could this be going any better?

“Why don’t you tell my colleagues about your friends?”

“Can I bring some of my friends over to meet you guys back at the ranch?” Kellie asked the Team.

Ryan blurted out, “Are they hot like you?”

Everyone laughed, including Kellie.

“I think you’ll be happy to meet them,” she said, using body language that suggested they were as hot as she was.

“We’ll be back in about an hour to pick you and your friends up,” Pow said with a giant smile.

“OK,” Kellie said and hugged Wes for the first time. He felt so strong when she hugged him. He returned the hug, warmly and softly, but strongly. She felt amazing to him, so soft and so outrageously sexy.

“Let’s go,” Ryan said. The Team started walking out and Wes made an effort to break off the hug with Kellie and walk out to show the Team that he wasn’t smitten. He actually pulled it off, which surprised him. He was being deceptive because he was, indeed, smitten.

“See you in a while,” Wes said to Kellie, who just stared at him with puppy love eyes.

After the Team left the Grange, Kellie got her phone out and started texting the girls. She was glad that texting was working then; sometimes texts wouldn’t work for a day or two.

In about twenty minutes, Kellie’s friends started showing up. She made sure there was one girl for each guy. The guys came back earlier than the one hour estimate and took them back to the yellow cabin, but as soon as they got to the yellow cabin, they had to go out on some mission or something and said the girls had to go back. Luckily, about two hours later, the guys returned and picked them up, bringing them to the cabin, yet again.

The next events of the day were pretty predictable. Wes had a private room in the cabin. After about two minutes of small talk, he and Kellie tore each other’s clothes off. What followed was amazing. Kellie had never been loved like that. Ethan was nothing compared to Wes.