Pony Girl

Chapter 3

      “Well Susan and Lilly I got to get on down to the bank and then I will be back on the farm later on this afternoon. Yall gonna stay in town or head on back to the house?” Granddaddy asked me and my mom. “Well I don’t know about Lilly here but I am going to the house I need a nap. I’m not used to getting up so early and I about tired.” mom answered. I smiled at them and said, “ I guess I will walk back to the house I don’t want to ride. Plus I need to walk off all that fattening food I just ate. They both nodded to me and I started down the road towards the house. I let mom take all my shopping bags with her so I wouldn’t have to carry them all the way back to the house. It was starting to get real hot outside so I was glad I bought some new shorts and tanks to wear. I was definitely going to change when I got to the house. That is one thing about Texas it is so freaken hot in the summertime.
    As I was coming around a curve in the road an old red pickup truck started to slow down right beside me. I looked and it was the guys from the restaurant. The long haired one rolled down his window and grinned at me. “Well hello there good looking  looks like you could use a little ride couldn’t you?” he said to me. “No, no thank you I am just fine walking.” I replied to him. “Well if you say so. I guess I’ll be seeing your beautiful self later on then. Huh?” I just gave him a look of disgust and turned my head and kept walking. The truck sped on by and I looked after it and was thankful they had left. I swear I cant stand cocky guys. It is such a turn off.
    As soon I got to the house I took off my hot and sweaty clothes and changed into some white shorts and a plain red tank top and some red cowboy boots. Cowboy boots are the only thing I didn’t ever give up and plus they are super cute! I pulled my long dirty blonde hair up and let my bangs fall on my forehead. I didn’t worry about makeup too much. I never put much on except for when I was partying. I studied my features in the mirror as I washed my face from the sweat from walking all day. I had a nice tan, chocolate brown eyes, and was about 5’7. My friends back home used to call me pixie Lilly cause they use to say I was as cute as a pixie fairy. I used to hate when they called me that but now I really missed it.
I walked outside and headed towards the barn where all the horses were in their stables probably feeding. I knew Granddaddy wouldn’t be in there cause it always took him a long time at the bank and probably stopped to talk to the mayor at city hall. Those two grew up together and were really good friends. I knew mom was already laid down for her nap cause when I was walking out of my room I could hear her loud snoring down the hall.
    I looked around the barn, it was my favorite smell, of horses hay and feed. I know weird right but it just smelt like home and brought back so many memories of when I stayed here in the summers. I use to love horses and rode all summer long and would always enter the kids shows and I was pretty good always coming in first or second place. I smiled and realized I actually missed it. I gave up on anything horse related when Nana died but now that I am here standing in the middle of the barn I know now I could never fully give it up. It always was a part of me.

  

  I looked around at all the horses and nameplates on the outside of their stalls. Granddaddy must have built on some more cause he now has twice as many horses than he did when I was little. I heard some grunts coming from where the outside dirt arenas were. That’s where a lot of the training took place for the horses and where you would break in a new horse for riding. I walked out of the barn and stopped dead in my tracks. It was the boy from the restaurant whose face I could not see. But standing there looking at him trying to break a new horse in I could see all his handsome features. His was muscular, tall probably about 6’3, had short blonde hair that had a curl to it, and he had amazing light green eyes. He had on some wrangler blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and of course some old cowboy boots. He was attempting to climb a black horse’s back but was bucked off instantly. He grunted as he hit the ground and when he looked up he noticed me standing there watching him. He jumped up from the ground, dusted himself off, and grabbed his cowboy hat from the post it was sitting on.

     “You must be the famous Lily I keep hearing Mr. Collins talk about“, he said as we came face to face. “Umm, I guess so. Looks like that young horse there has given you a run for your money, I said. He laughed and looked towards where the horse was walking around the arena trying to calm down from the extensive training. “Yeah that horse has given me loads of trouble. He is a very stubborn horse. He is new, only been hear for a little over a two months. I still haven’t been able to get up on him without him throwing me to the ground.” I looked at him and noticed how extremely gorgeous he was. I blushed when he realized I hadn’t said anything and was still staring at him. “Yeah, he seems to be a little hard-headed“, I replied, still blushing. “so what’s his name?” I asked him. “My name is Cade, nice to meet you Lilly, he said as he stretched his hand out to shake hands. I giggled at him. “Well nice to meet you too Cade, but I was asking what the horse’s name was. He stopped shaking my hand and blushed. “oh I thought you meant mine. I smiled at him as he looked me over. “His name is Midnight.” He started to walk back towards the horse and grabbed the rope that was dangling from the horse’s neck. The horse whined but didn’t give Cade any trouble. They walked over to me. “Do you want to help me wash him up or are you busy? He asked me. “Sure I would like that”, I said looking down nervously playing with my hands. I don’t know what overcame me. I usually wasn’t so shy around guys. But he was so good looking and he made me nervous. We walked back towards the barn but went around to the side where there was buckets and a watering hose. He tied the horse to a post and begin to fill one of the buckets up with water. “I’m gonna go get some sponges from the supply room if you would just wait here and finish filling the bucket up. If that’s okay with you.” he said. “yeah sure”. I replied.

     I stood there admiring the tall black horse. He was completely black except for white diamond shaped spot on his forehead. His mane was long and wavy. Midnight was really a beautiful horse. I went to cut the water off just when Cade came back holding two big yellow  sponges. He handed me one and we started bathing the horse in silence.  I finally decided to break the silence. “Those guys you were with… so they are you friends.” He looked at me and replied “ Yeah they are. But don’t let Jake get to you. He’s just a pain in the ass but he’s a good guy. He said talking about the long haired guy who had talked to me earlier in the truck. I laughed, “Well he sure doesn’t waste any time and sure the hell isn’t shy.” Cade chuckled. “yeah he is a big ladies man and whenever he gets the chance he always tries to turn the charm on.” I rolled my eyes at him, “Charm ha, I don’t think so.” Cade just laughed and we continued to bathe the horse. When we were done Cade took the horse back to his stall while I sat on a bench near the ring, waiting for him to get done.

Cade’s POV

As I put Midnight in his stall and walked out of the barn I thought about the pretty long haired blonde waiting for me outside. I thought she would be snooty and uptight since she was from New York but she actually seemed like a sweet girl. She definitely was beautiful and according to my friends she was hot as hell. I swear my friends could be pigs especially Jake. But I have been friends with Jake, Colby, and Adam since we were young so I was stuck with them. Lilly had long blonde hair, amazing brown eyes that reminded me of melted chocolate, nice full lips, and a lean body with all the right curves. She was every guys dream.
    I looked around outside to find her and saw her sitting on a bench outside of the dirt arena. She had her head down and hadn’t noticed me yet so I just stood there admiring the view. Yeah I know creepy but I just couldn’t take my eyes off her. There was something about her that I couldn’t wrap my head around. She finally looked up and started walking over to me. “Are you finished with all your work duties?” she asked.
“Yeah that’s it for the day”, I replied. “So, what do all the young people do in this little old town for fun?” she said to me. “Well there is nothing really to do around here, no movie theater, no bowling alley, so all the young folks ride out by the water tower and hang out. We play music, drink, dance, and have us a good ole time”, I said to her. She looked at me like I was crazy and I just couldn’t help but grin at her. “That’s it, that’s all ya’ll do around here?”, she asked. “Well yeah that’s all we do on the weekdays during the summer, but on the weekends is when we get down. We ride over a couple towns away and go out to the bars down there,” I said. “Oh my God this is going be the worst summer ever. I cant believe my mom dragged me here. I am not cut out for this crap!”, she exclaimed. I took a step back, “Lilly it’s not that bad, you just got to get used to it. We actually have a lot of fun here and plus their will be some horse shows. Mr. Collins told me how you were a good rider and used to win 1st and 2nd place all the time.” “No! I do not ride anymore and I will continue not to. Sorry I just… I gotta go. With that she stormed off and left me there looking at her back in confusion. What the hell did I say to piss her off? Maybe I was wrong, maybe she is snooty and uptight.