Page 15 of The Captain's Little Girl

CHAPTER6

“The bride was so sweet,” River said. Her face was drawn with exhaustion after serving the large crowd with Cricket and herself as the only two waitresses.

“I’m glad we helped,” Cricket said with a nod as she let her hair out of the ponytail that had held her shoulder-length hair away from her face while she worked. She rubbed her scalp to ease the headache that had blossomed over the long evening.

“Great job, ladies. The bride’s family was very thankful. They asked me to give you these.” Russ held out two envelopes.

“Really?” River opened the flap and stared inside. When she looked up at Cricket with wide eyes, Cricket rushed to open hers.

“There has to be a thousand bucks in here,” Cricket guessed, riffling through the stack of crisp hundred-dollar bills.

“You did well. Thank you for coming in,” Russ said before returning to the cleanup that he’d excused the waitresses from doing.

“What are you going to do with your money?” River asked.

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll tuck it away for a rainy day. My car always needs repairs,” Cricket said with a heavy sigh.

“Good idea. I’d really like to go blow it. Maybe one new outfit?” River suggested.

“Or there’s a pair of shoes in the window downtown that I love,” Cricket mentioned as she tucked the envelope into her bag.

“Doniphan says he’ll be here in two minutes,” River shared when her phone buzzed. “I’m hungry. I bet Daddy will scramble me some eggs.”

Cricket’s stomach growled hungrily. “Mark didn’t have anything fresh at home. He said you all trash the food that can spoil from the team’s fridges when they get deployed.”

“His is the only one we still have to worry about. The rest of us live in our daddies’ houses,” River pointed out.

“I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks for taking care of Mark.”

“We just rotated. It was easy. Now, you’re in charge,” River informed her.

Beep. One single toot of the large truck horn made Cricket look up with a smile. Mark. She started forward and stopped.

“I don’t want to leave you alone,” she said to River.

The slam of the vehicle door made her glance back to see Mark walking toward them with a fast-food bag in his hand. Instantly, her mouth watered as he opened it.

“Eat,” Mark ordered as he handed her a burger before pulling another one out for River.

Cricket bounced up to her toes to kiss him before tearing the wrapper open to take a big bite. “It’s so good,” she mumbled.

“Chew, baby girl,” he directed, rubbing her back. “I wondered if you’d get a dinner break.”

“We grabbed a few hors d’oeuvres in the back when we could, but I think we ran a million miles,” River exaggerated just a bit.

“A million?” Doniphan drawled as he walked up.

“Daddy!” River ran forward to kiss him. “Maybe not a million, but my feet feel like it.”

“Looks like we had the same thought,” Doniphan said with a laugh as he held up a bag from a different fast-food burger joint.

“We’ll eat those, too,” River assured him as she took another bite of the burger in her hand.

“You two are hungry.” Doniphan passed a burger to Mark to hold for Cricket.

“And tired,” his little girl confessed.

“Let’s get you home,” Doniphan said, steering River toward his car in the parking lot.

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