The next morning she did her chores which were feeding the horses and mucking out stalls and went into the house. Her stomach was growling. She got an orange and a saskatoon berry muffin and went out for a trail ride. The cold, crisp morning air felt fresh in her lungs.
The trees were bright yellow and orange and there were barely any clouds in the sky. Amy felt good being out again on the trails. She hadn't done it in a while. She rode along the fast flowing river and up the small hill to the road.
Amy walked back to the barn and untacked and groomed her horse and went inside the office to see her mom working on paperwork. "Good morning Amy," Marion patted her daughter on the shoulder, "Were you out for a ride?"
Amy's mom always knew what she was up to. "Yeah it was nice. I haven't done it in a while." She told her mom that her and Soraya were going out at 1 and went to get ready so Jack could drive her into town.
She threw on some nice jeans, a belt and a striped purple t-shirt, put her boots on and went with her grandpa to town. On the way there Amy told Jack about her ride and about Ty coming to Heartland. They would just wait and see what he'd be like.
They arrived at Maggie's and Jack got some feed and went on his other errands. "Hey, haven't seen you in a while!", her friend hugged her. They've been friends since grade 2. The girls sat down at a table and both ordered vegetarian chili and a chocolate milkshake.
"So what do you think Ty would be like? He might be hot," Soraya said in a dreamy tone.
"Oh shut up," Amy joked as she slurped her milkshake. Both of them talked a while until Jack got back, and they said goodbye. Along the way back Jack asked, "What's on your mind Amy?"
"Oh, well just that a person who's on probation coming here as a ranch hand. Why would mom get someone on probation for a ranch hand? I told her if she thought it was a good idea to go for it, but now I'm second guessing myself."
"Well it will be good to have some help around here now that your school is starting up soon. You need to focus on school and another helping hand would be nice, so we don't have to do everything ourselves. And plus I'm getting old, so I can't be runnin' this ranch all on my own you know." Jack responded looking at Amy and smiling. She smiled back.
Once they came down the road to Heartland, they checked the mailbox at the entrance and parked in front of the house. Amy went into the barn and turned out one of the clients horses into the field with the others. Marion worked miracles on abandoned, abused and problemed horses.
She had a natural gift and someday Amy knew that she would work with horses and inherit that gift too. Already Amy knew lots about horses and watches her mother's ways with them. Interrupting her thoughts about horses, she heard a truck on the road coming in to Heartland.
It was an old classic blue truck with rock music blaring inside. She wondered if that was the new ranch hand Ty. She could tell already that she was going to have to get used to him. He got out of his truck once he parked and looked around looking for someone.
Then he saw me and came towards me. "Hey, I'm looking for Marion Fleming," he said. He was pretty cute. Ty had brown hair, greenish eyes and was quite taller than her. "Oh, that's my mom. She's in the barn," Amy stared at him.
Ty smiled and went into the barn office. He looked like a nice guy. She wondered what he did wrong. And the way he looked at her made her stomach flip upside down. She went into the barn to hear them talking. She stood in front of the doorway. "Oh Ty is it?," Marion greeted him. He nodded she could see he was nervous.
"Welcome to Heartland. You will be helping around the ranch as a ranch hand so you're going to learn to be a hard worker. You'll be staying in the loft of the barn right up the stairs," Marion smiled. He went past me and up to the loft with his stuff. "How long will he be staying here?" Amy asked her mother.
"As long as he needs to. He's going to finish his probation here. And after that he can go wherever he wants." Amy nodded and went out to the stables and Ty came down the stairs from the loft. "Hey," is all he said. Amy smiled in greeting, and he left the barn to get more stuff out of his truck.
The family were at the table eating steak and veggies. Everyone sat in a comfortable silence while they ate their dinner until Lou broke the quietness, "So Ty, how are you liking it here so far?," she asked.
"Yeah it's pretty nice here," Ty smiled and dug into his food. Everyone finished their plate and Amy and Ty did night check on the horses. She told Ty what to do like feeding and watering the horses, and taking some horses in on cold nights like that evening.