(2020-09-10) Bulldogger's Monkeywrench
Creed visits Daisy with mixed news, things take unexpected turns.
Players:
daisy..creed..

Damn the rain. Mostly a wasted day. Daisy had managed to get some work done but she'd gotten muddy doing it and the truck had almost got stuck in the northern pasture. Now she'd showered though and the old truck was parked by one field, still muddy. Stepping out of the bunkhouse, she's still got wet hair and she's wearing a pair of cut off jeans that are now shorts, threadbare in a few places and kind of unevenly cut. A green tank top is pulled over. On her feet are her worn cowboy boots, not wanting to step out in the rain barefoot. Once outside, she tilts her head back to look at the sky and scowls at it before trekking her way to the truck parked a distance away.

As she's getting out, she'll see his truck pulling up towards hers. Creed was there and with the rain, not much dust to kick up other than some mud for the fenders and flaps. He'll probably beat her, parking his truck next to hers as she treks over towards it. His door opens, he hops out of the cab and his work boots plot onto the wet ground there. A jacket is worn against the wind, with his brimmed hat to keep rain off his face at least. Spots of wetness on shoulders and hat indicate he's been running about in the rain. Not far enough from his last trip or errand for it to dry up. When he looks around he notices her, and turns to meet her, closing the distance left between her and vehicles. "Hey, there you are Daisy," his lips might curl a little to see her. "I ain't interrupting anything?" He looks around to be sure, or unsure what she may have been intending, but he's here for her obviously.

Oh she does notice the truck and figures it's for one reason. The reason brings a scowl to her features but she continues the trek while he parks near her truck. As he gets out and walks towards her, she pauses in her advancement to watch his approach. "Here I am," she counters on return, lifting a shoulder in a light shrug. "Nothin' important, no. Just forgot my cell phone in my truck after working. What's brings you out here today?" Not even bothering to guess, fairly sure she knows the answer anyway.

Pulling up short of her personal space, Creed nods, then looks to her truck. "I'll walk with you." Its not far away, he just came from there, he turns to start towards the trucks. "Well, some developments have happened." He says, looking ahead, down at the ground, then occasionally here way. "Met with my new neighbor, over at the commune." A measure of her features, see what she was guessing at or not. "They can spare a few acres maybe for me to build a facility next to that farm I picked up." It was more a farmhouse, with barn and chicken coop. "Still have my bid in here too." So options in a way for him, but its left open ended for her input or reaction. He can't imagine all she's going through either way, or how she's processed over the last few days. Just there it was from him.

Daisy doesn't argue the offer of the walk back with him, she just walks along, the rain drizzling over her already wet hair and her freshly clean clothing. The mention of the developments have her hesitating but only a brief second before she continues on, closing the distance to her truck. Once there, she doesn't immediately open the door to collect the ohone. Instead, she turns to face him as she leans against the wet metal. "Are you buying the commune land then?" Ignoring his mention of the bid in on her property just for the moment, all the while attempting to keep her expression clear.

While the rain is a little warm with the front moving along, Creed can sense the coolness between them on this topic. "I'm thinking about it," says creed as he looks at where her body touches the wet metal. "Its not the sort of thing you just decide without talking to a partner." He lifts his eyes to her eyes ther. "Its suitable for the riding complex, I already have the few acres from Blake, a couple from the commune will be a nice fit right there." He wants to discuss it with her, he looks her way as water collects on his hat then drips down his brim joining other drops again rushing to the ground.

It takes all her willpower not to cross her arms over her chest, but Daisy looks.. confused. Perhaps a touch vulnerable and not all together without a touch of hostility. "If you found land for your venture, then you should take it. I'm sure the Morgan Creek billions would offer you a buffer. I know there are more bids on this place. I've pretty much overextended myself, called in all the favors I could, owe everyone else favors I may never be able to repay and used every hail mary possible. My ranch is out of my hands now. I'm sober, I've thought about it. I think a clean break, just ripping the bandaid off and leaving it behind may be for the best. I can't stomach someone else making the decisions here and just working it. This was my future." Tilting her head back slightly, trying to hide that vulnerability and pushing the hostility further to the forefront, she gives a careless shrug that belies every thing else she's said thus far. "It was all too much work anyway. I'm tired of it." Liar. Now her arms cross and she looks almost defiant. "Either you or your brother is going to buy the land. It's no longer my decision."

Creed stands silent as he listens, she lets it out and is completely honest. "Damnit woman, you're stubborn." Which is true, and one of the reasons he's probably being open to her and discussing some partnership. "I can take the land and buy here. I didn't drink and gamble much at all away of what I took home from my rodeo time." And probably some inheritance along the way even. "If my brother moves in, it won't be your decisions for what happens to the place. If I'm here, its yours, just we're partners." A pause to look at a nearby door mirror, seeing something in that reflection, "Shit, could be good. An outfit raising its own athletes." Bulls he means, "Could be good for growth. I here, but I need to know if you want to partner up and figure this out together. You did a lot of good, had a lot on your hands was all. It happens to everyone." Except the Morgans. "Its still your future, if you're willing to work with a partner too. Last thing to help against Sawyer. He's waiting to scoop it up. If I didn't go to school with the VP at the bank, he'd have beat me to the punch."

"I.." Daisy is at a loss to what she really wants and what pride would allow her to take. Again, she tilts her head back slightly before looking down at the ground. "I want the land. I want to keep it. I want to run it. I want to do so with the proper funds so that I'm not trying to do everything. I don't want your brother to have it. It'd just kill me." She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath. "I'll accept your offer if you give me the terms on paper, and I agree with them." Opening her eyes, she lifts them to his. "Just let me know soon, the bank won't wait forever."

"Fair enough," he says as she opens up honestly. "Still have just over a week, I can get something before this week worked up." Creed moves a step closer to her. "We'll find a lawyer that works for both, keep the business end fair after if you agree to the draft?" That's up to her of course, he just doesn't want to make the lawyerying his choice out of fairness. He lifts a hand up, puts it to the side of the truck sort of near her, not quite leaning onto it himself just a little. "If things go a little south with all this, you at least consider staying around here too. This town wouldn't be the same without you." A slight turn of his head, profile from her vantage, as he looks off east towards the town from where they're standing, though he probably doesn't mean the town would change.

The rain keeps coming, but it's not a violent storm type by any means, just the warmish drizzle washing over her. The drops cling to her hair and to her eyelashes as she lifts green eyes to his, searching them a moment for something. Perhaps sincerity on his offer. "If you have something drafted, I will look it over. I'll even read the small print." Apparently she sees something there, something real and genuine, because she gives a ghost of a smile. The last of the request though has it faltering slightly. "I make no promises on if the venture fails.." It's as good as it is going to get though when he turns and leaves her his profile, she continues to study it, to study him. "You left the town when you had the chance." A soft spoken observation…

His head dips down once with affirmation, a dip of his chin to agree, look it all over. Creed stands in the warm rain, some making it to his face through his hat, and he's good with that. A sort of cleansing even. As she comments on him taking his chance. "What I did, I'd probably do it again. I was young, it was like an adventure." A shrug from him, he doesn't open up about the past much, the talked about it a little before. "Now, here I am, halfway to the grave nearly and what do I have to show for it. A quiet house to myself, my closest neighbor a mile or more away on even a good day. It could all fail, the ranch, the riding outfit. Any ride is a crap shoot depening on how you're feeling and how the other athlete is running that day. I didn't have a chance to share that part of my life, I missed out." His gaze comes slowly back around to her as he says that, looking into her eyes if she meets his.

"Adventure," Daisy muses quietly without a single bit of wistfulness in her voice. Nope! None! "What's it like out there in the world? What's it like.. not failing?" The ranch had always been her life and taking care of her family had been something that had fallen to her. Ugh, listening to herself now though, she doesn't like where it's heading so she does an about face. "I've never wanted anything else, really, other than the ranch." Though, like him, her eyes lift towards the town in the distance and perhaps further beyond that. "I suppose anything beyond our boundaries never really mattered to me anyway, I've always been content to stay here on the ranch. But you, you've gone out of bounds, did what you wanted, explored the unknown. Maybe you could tell me about some of your experiences or something sometime." Looking back towards him a brow lofts, "Halfway to the grave? You're not that old yet, Creed. Are you? Speaking of, why don't you have a wife and 2.5 kids in tow by now?" Eyes meeting his when he looks at her.

As she talks he listens, finding her profile as he turns back her way first. "Who says I didn't fail, I just failed with a little more security under me. That's part of living I suppose." He studies her angles until she's finally meeting his eyes with hers. "I was too busy being out there, that adventure. It was a lot of road time, from place to place. I'd go to the big events try to make some dollars, then I'd go to smaller events to get more support. I rode more than PBR just to have that security I was talking about. No time for a wife and kids, I wasted that time on riding and trying to get better at riding. I'd be happy to share some of that with a partner." Like he's just not delving deep into his life on the road, good and bad, with strangers. "You willing to share some of your experiences?" He could say more, about more adventure out there, but he's more studying her eyes now, until his eyes trail down to look at her lips. Folling the lines of that profile he'd seen moments ago to get there.

Daisy doesn't have to feign interest when he tells her some of his past. Listening, she was fairly good at that, so she doesn't interrupt even when he changes the subject back to her. The direct question though, sort of demands a response, but she puts that off momentarily to comment on things she had learned about him. "So there was a lot of variety." Not so much a question as an observation. "I guess I don't see it as wasted time," she comments to his mention of wasting it on riding and getting better. "You were living, experiencing things that most people don't get to do. Not everyone is cut out to be a husband or a wife. Or a parent." Just mostly leaving it at that. "My experiences? You know the drill, you grew up on a ranch. A bigger operation than most, but a ranch all the same." As his eyes trail lower, she gets where they are going and steps forward enough to tuck a finger beneath his chin to lift his eyes back to hers and off her lips. "Creed Morgan, if we're going to be business partners, we're going to keep things separate. We're either business partners or.. we're not."

There is an indifferent shrug of his head as Creed hear's hear talk about his life of variety and not wasting time. A slight clench at his different life being assocaited to not cut out to be a husband or a parent and such. That doesn't sit well with him, but maybe she was right. He may have something to say on experience of hers and his still but she addresses business partners. Lifting his chin to have his full attention. This time its more visible in the way his jaw tightens on both sides. "That doesn't sound like separating them, that sounds like a choice of either/or." His hand that went near the truck, not quite a lean near her comes off, or clenches into a fist to push off with his knuckles. She closed some distance to get his attention, he stands up straight to give a inch or two more space back between them. "You're probably right, I'm not cut from the right cloth to be a husband or a parent. I guess I better choose business for both our sakes." He takes a step back to turn for his truck, "I'll consider the details, we can get together and see if that's feasible to you?" He's taken the step back but pausing to see her thoughts on this business venture now that he's helped some of the separation, even if he didn't want to.

Funny enough.. or not.. she had mentioned wife in the mix there too, which made it both, not centered on him. Daisy studies him, the clenched jaw, the fist, the distance. Dropping her hand to her side she looks a little helpless a moment, confused certainly, before the stubborn prideful mask slips back into place. "Fine, that's perfect," her tone is more clipped, especially when she notices he is leaving. "Yes, send it to my lawyer if you like, he'll get with me on the matter if that's what you prefer." Taking it even a step beyond now that there is tension between them. All sorts of tension. She doesn't stand from her leaning position on the truck despite being soaked now from the rain, her body stiff with that tension now too. "You have my number." Or did he?

He's there ready to go, and she gets colder too. "You know," he says, pausing where he is to look a little more at her stiffness, her body tension. "I don't want to make a choice between them. My choice was to figure some way to work with you and get closer. I don't think separating them out fits the bill. You decide what it is you want and how this could work or not. I'm just a greedy Morgan wanting both." He stands, inhales, collects himself then glances more to the ground than anything else. "I ain't good with this stuff but I want to be. Cut from the cloth or not, you figure out who you like, and figure out family as it happens. That's the adventure. If you make enough extra to go see the world you do that, if you can only afford to see the world here in Calaveras, you do that." He breathes in again, slowly exhales. "I can find your number, I don't know your lawyer." A shrug though. "I'm hinting and saying at what I want, you decide what you want. If its you running this ranch by yourself, we'll figure that out. Sounds like I don't fit in the picture I'm painting in my mind, fair enough, I'm overstepping."

<FS3> Daisy rolls Presence: Failure. (6 1 2)

While he makes it clear what his preference is, Daisy doesn't back down.. at first. As she listens though, her shoulders slump. Pride was a lonely companion and she'd lived it long enough. Her whole demeanor changes and she shoves her hands in her pockets, suddenly looking very.. tired. "I've never had the time to date." Her voice is soft, uncertain. "I wasn't saying you weren't husband or parent material. I was more self-directing the comment, that's why I said wife also. I don't want to go see the world. My whole world is here. This is all I have ever wanted." A sweeping motion with her hand as she pulls it out of her pocket, to encompass the ranch. Him? Who knows? "I just don't want to run it alone. I've never wanted to do it alone."

Creed hears her and lets the rain fall before him, his head turned down enough that its more a trickle off the u-bend front of his hat. "Its a predicament we're in then," he admits to her. "We don't have much free time to date so much, and it is what it is with the bank." An inhale through his nostrils, they flair just a little bit. "I'm trying to figure out what you want and if I fit in. I just don't want to go all formal and cold, like its the bank and the lawyer and all business. I ain't here to tell you what to do. I got some land to get going on that outfit. I'd like to help you and see if there may be some us somewhere in it this. If not, I ain't going to use the title as leverage or some weird shit, I'm not that sort of guy." Then he turns to his truck, "Just let me know." And he's walking around the front of his truck to get into the cab.

"I'm trying to figure out what I want too. I'm afraid to hope for more." It's said as he's rounding the truck, spoken softly.. and with the rain possibly missed. A little louder, over the sounds of mother nature, she calls out, "I won't go all formal and cold. We'll do this partnership. One of my requirements though is you do your business here, on this land. Grow crops or whatever on your other land, but this one we'll keep as a working ranch along with the building and all you need to make it the training facility you're wanting. There's plenty of land. Part of the reason I went broke is I wouldn't split it up and sell any off. I've still got it all. So.. YOU let ME know." She's laid down what she wants, she watches as he goes to get in, letting him muse over it.

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