Sawyer knows exactly where her life is heading. The plan for her senior year is full of horses, friends, school, and more horses. She's been working on the family horse farm for most of her life and she couldn't be happier to be there teaching, trai...
"Oh God, tell me you didn't sleep out here last night," I laugh as I walk into the feed room before dawn the next morning.
"No, you're the only one who feels the need to sleep in a barn," Autumn laughs. "Plus Oliver made me go inside after twenty minutes of listening to me gush about Will." She scoops grain into buckets, "But, enough about me how was your night?" she asks with a wink.
"Full of pathetic crying. Mom never even texted me last night," I say dejectedly.
"You had that beautiful boy in a parental free house, overnight, and nothing?" Autumn looks at me skeptically. "You guys are kinda cute," she smiles at me.
"Shut up. We've been dating for like a month. I'm just not ready yet," I say stacking the buckets as she passes them to me.
"I've said it since day one, you have more restraint than me. That boy is gorgeous."
"Yeah, for now I'm just enjoying this beginning phase. There's no stepping back to it once we cross that line. Can't blame me for drawing it out a little." I pick up my stack of buckets, "Speaking of beautiful boys, lets get this done quickly so we can go back inside where the beautiful boys are sleeping in."
"Sounds like a plan," Autumn laughs. "Twins are cleaning stalls since we fed right?"
"Yes!" I call back to her as I walk away to dump grain to the fussing horses.
"I feel ridiculous by the way," Autumn calls from the other side of the barn.
"Why?" I call back.
"Nothing like doing barn chores in homecoming hair," she snorts with laughter.
"Dibs on the shower," I call back before she can say it.
"Ugh!" is all I hear in response.
"You can use Mom's shower if you can't wait for me to be done," I laugh. She's right, sleeping in homecoming hair was a bad idea. I was just so tired when we got home last night all I wanted to do was collapse into bed.
"I'm going to ride Will later," Autumn says when we meet in the middle. "Want to ride with me?"
"Sure. It should be pretty quiet for a Sunday. I agreed to give Sarah an extra lesson for taking care of the kids yesterday, but everything else was cancelled since Mom is gone," I tell her.
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I'm putting the clean dishes away a when I see headlights coming down our narrow little road. I watch as they turn down the driveway. I glance at the clock on the stove, it's a little after 11pm. She made it home before Monday, I guess that's a plus. I watch from the bay window as Mom gets out of Mark's Blazer and pulls her bag from the back seat. She waves and he leaves.
I blink.
Yes, he's driving back down our driveway. He's LEAVING. He never leaves. A miracle has occurred!
Mom comes in through the mudroom. "Oh Sawyer," she startles. "I thought everyone was probably in bed."
"I was just cleaning the kitchen before I went to bed," I say. "How was your trip?"
"Oh, it was fine. Nothing special," she says as she walks over and sits down in one of the bar stools. "How was your week? Everything go okay?"
"Lessons and everything ran fine here. Homecoming was really good," I tell her.
"Do you have pictures?" she asks hopefully.
"Just a couple that Autumn took on my phone. Andy's mom took a bunch at Autumn's house, but she hasn't sent them to me yet," I say pulling my phone out of my pocket.
I show her the pictures of me with Kenzie, then the ones of Andy wish Seeker. She talks about how nice we both look and how pretty my dress is. I scroll over and show her the pictures of us with Rosie and then us with Rosie and Treasure. "Does that boy have no fear?" she laughs about Andy being brave enough to deal with Treasure.
"Oh and Autumn's surprise went off without a hitch!" I tell her. "She was so excited. Wait I have it on video," I scroll over and let her watch the video.
"She's so happy!" Mom exclaims. "I'm so happy for her. How does the horse seem?"
"Will? He seems great. I think Grant should watch himself this year in the large ponies. Once she has him fit again I think she could easily take him the the 'A' shows with us. He's really talented."
"That's nice. Sawyer," she pauses.
"Yeah?"
"Never mind. I'm glad you had a great week," she says glancing down.
"Tell me about your trip," I beg. That's the thing about Mom, I can be so mad or frustrated, but as soon as we're alone together everything falls back into place.
"The beach was pretty. I haven't been to the ocean front in years. It's just cold enough that it's not overrun with tourists, so it was nice and quiet. We ate at some good restaurants." She glances down again, "Otherwise it was just a standard long weekend." Mom smiles, "Well I think it was, I don't have anything to compare it to from this decade."
I laugh, "I'm glad you had fun. You look relaxed."
"Thanks, I am. I should make more 'me time' during the week. I'm just always running around stressed about one thing or another," she says standing up. "I'm going to bed, back to the real world in a few hours." Mom leans over and kisses me goodnight.
