Sam and Jake sat on a huge flat rock that overlooked Witch Rock Lake, so named for the witch-hat-shaped rock in the middle of the small lake. As Sam sat between Jake's legs, with his arms wrapped around her, she remembered when life was simple and she and Jake had used to race their horses to the lake.

Now she was a freshman at Northern Nevada University and Jake was a senior at the same college. Jake had gone to a larger school in Reno for a mere 2 weeks before he had realized that Sam was his life and being away from her was like scuba-diving with an empty oxygen tank. Or riding a broncy horse without a saddle or bridle. It was impossible for him to live without her. So he had transferred his few credits and moved to the campus only 45 miles from Darton.

Jake had been able to live at home after his first year, and drive to NNU three days a week for classes. He was still training horses for Wyatt, Sam's dad, and in Jake's mind things were as they should be.

Sam sighed and leaned back into Jake's chest.

"Jake?" she asked tentatively.

"Hmmm," came the almost drowsy reply.

" Do you remember the day you came home from Reno?" Sam questioned.

"Like yesterday," was all the pensive cowboy said.

Sam rested her head in a special spot on Jake's muscular chest and closed her eyes, remembering the day that Jake had come back.

*Flashback*

Sam was standing in the barn glaring at her Mustang pony, sometime during the previous night, Ace had managed to catch his new personalized web halter on his water bucket hook, and as a result had bent the tongue of the buckle, and broken the noseband. Sam was fuming; she had just invested 45 dollars in the halter, against her father's advice. She didn't want to think about telling her dad that Ace had broken the new piece of tack. She turned and walked into the tack room and removed Ace's old blue halter from its hook and went back to the pony's stall to put it on him. Sam was just leading Ace from his stall and clipping him into the crossties when she heard gravel strike the side of the round pen and a pickup engine stop. Sam was sure it was one of the hands coming back from town with parts, feed or the mail so she didn't bother to walk to the big double barn doors to see whom it was. Even when footsteps came closer to the barn she didn't think twice, and kept grooming her little sorrel. But when someone grabbed her from behind and spun her around she dropped the dandy brush she'd been holding and gave an immediate squawk. Before she could do anything else, someone's lips met hers in a passionate kiss. As Sam pulled away from the kiss she smelled the familiar scent of Jake Ely, equal parts Axe deodorant and Black and Blue cologne by PBR ©. Sam was stunned, Jake was supposed to be away at college, not standing here in her barn on a September Saturday morning. Before Sam could think about it she wrapped her arms around Jake's neck, twined her fingers in his hair and gave the shy cowboy a tender kiss. When the two finally broke apart they could only stare at one another. It was then that they both seemed to find their voices.

"Jake, I-I…what…" Sam trailed off as Jake spoke.

"Sam, I l-li…aww damnit all to hell, Sam I'm in love with you and I couldn't last another day in Reno." Came tumbling out of Jake's normally quiet mouth.

Sam just looked at Jake for nearly a full minute before she took one quick step into his arms and laying her head on his chest she started to cry, not a lady-like weeping, but full-on snot-running-down-her-face tears-soaking-Jake's-tee-shirt bawling. Sam had spent the two weeks since Jake had left, kicking herself for not telling him how she felt at the send-off barn dance and bonfire the Ely's had thrown for him. She had also spent a major portion of that time flinching each time "Hillbilly Nation" started to play on her cell phone, and then frantically checking the caller ID in case it was Jake. And for the last fourteen days since he'd left, she'd cried herself to sleep each night, while her Grandmother had hovered worriedly outside her door trying to decide if she should say something to the distraught girl or let Sam's grief run its course.

And while Sam had been at home trying to keep living without Jake, Jake had been stuck in one lecture hall after another in Reno, pounding out mile after mile on the outdoor track each evening after classes, trying to drown the memory of Sam's sorrowful face in his rearview mirror—the last thing he had seen as he'd driven his beat-up old truck out of her yard and onto the highway to Darton. But each day it had gotten harder and harder for him to disguise the fact that he felt like crying every time he saw a petite auburn haired girl in jeans walk by him in the food court, or jog by him on the Oval, or sit next to him in his classes. Jake had never been an emotional person, but this had been the most exhausting two weeks in his entire life. A vicious cycle, of study-study-think about Sam-think about Sam-think about Sam, had taken over his life. But now here he was in the old familiar barn at Riverbend Ranch with the slim girl wrapped in his arms, and although she was crying, this felt like the most right thing he'd ever done in his life, it was the same comforting sense of relief he'd felt when he'd gotten back on Witch after he'd broken his leg a couple years before. A sense that this was his purpose in life, if he never did another thing than hold Sam it would be completely all right.

Sam quit crying, but she refused to leave Jake's embrace, and the couple stood in the middle of the dusty barn for over an hour before they heard Gram ring the dinner bell, and finally broke apart. Sam looked desperately around for some way to clean up before she went indoors for lunch. Jake sensing her mission, pulled a handkerchief from his jeans pocket and handed it to Sam. Once she'd taken a few seconds to wash her face with the hankie and some water from Ace's bucket, and Jake had grabbed a flannel shirt from the seat of his truck, to hide the wet front of his shirt, the two walked towards the ranch house where Wyatt was scraping his boots.

R&R, let me know what you think so far, I have a couple more chapters written, and ready to post. But I'd like some feedback before I put them up. Thanks.