Hmm, ok, so I realised with the last chapter I neglected to say a couple things, like I HATE Beyond the Horizon and A Winter's Gift. I have read both. But I hate them. So this is sort of my way of working it out, getting the ending I want! lol
Chapter two – New Horses, Old Feelings
Amy groaned as she rolled over and hit the off button on her alarm clock. She was used to getting to sleep a little later at college than she could at home, but it was worth the effort. She dragged herself out of bed, grabbed a clean t-shirt and jeans, and headed for the bathroom, a hot shower was what she needed to wake up.
She went to open the bathroom door and found herself staring at Ty's bare chest. Apparently he'd had the same idea as her, only he'd beaten her to it. He had jeans on but that was it. His hair was still wet and messed up from being towel dried. Amy shook her head slightly and blinked before meeting Ty's eye. "Sorry" She managed but Ty just laughed.
"Why do I get the feeling you are still very much asleep?" He joked. Amy gave him a tired smile and put a hand on his chest to push him aside and realised his skin was still damp. Ty obliged and moved out of the way. "I'll have hot coffee waiting for you when you get downstairs, might wake you up!" Amy just closed the door in his face in response.
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Amy appeared in the kitchen a little later and Ty handed her a cup of coffee as he'd promised. Amy gave him a warm smile and took a sip before putting her boots on to head out and start the morning chores. "Thanks Ty," She started as they headed towards the feed room, "Sorry about before, not used to getting up this early again!"
"Not a problem" Ty smiled, "Give it a few days and you'll be fine. Then I'll be expecting you to make me coffee!" He laughed and dodged as she tried to hit him. "Careful! Don't spill that coffee, I put a lot of effort in to that!" He joked.
"Yeah, you poured a few coffee grounds and pressed a button. Very hard work!" She said sarcastically and Ty laughed.
They worked in silence for a few moments preparing the feeds, before Ty spoke up again, "Oh, I meant to tell you, Joni called a yesterday morning."
"Really? How's she doing?" Amy asked curious. The former stable hand had left Heartland a couple of years ago to return home and use some of what she'd learnt at her mothers horse farm. She had been in touch quite a bit since then and things were going well for her.
"Good, really good, she said. She's going to come visit soon, with her boyfriend. Sounds like things are really serious with them."
"It does." Amy agreed, she knew Joni had started seeing him a little after returning home, but didn't really know much about him other than that his name was Tony. "That's cool, would be great to see her again. Do you know when she'll be coming?"
"Not exactly. She'd been hoping to come down next week but one of the stable hands at her yard had a bad fall and won't be back at work, and that may well leave them short staffed and therefore Joni would need to stay. But she's hoping they can get someone in temporarily for a couple of weeks. She's gonna call and let us know though." Ty said with a shrug.
"Well, hopefully they'll find someone then." Amy said as she finished mixing the last feed.
Just as they finished distributing the last of the feeds, a car pulled in to the drive and Jason, the stable hand, jumped out. Jason had started working at Heartland just a few months ago, since Joni, they'd had trouble finding someone suitable to replace her.
Jason was 24 and had been around horses most of his life. He was pretty good with them, but he didn't have very much experience of natural horsemanship or alternative therapy's but he was willing to learn. They had had a second full time stable hand, Susie, until a month ago when she'd discovered she was pregnant and decided to quit, so they were still looking for someone to replace her.
"Hey Amy!" Jason called as he strode over, "Welcome back! It's good to see you"
"Thanks Jason, its good to see you too." She added, but with less enthusiasm. When Amy and Jason had worked together over Spring break without Ty around, Amy had quickly realised that Jason liked her, in the more than friends way.
He'd only just started working for them at that point and Amy had told him clearly when he'd asked her out, that she wasn't interested. He'd been disappointed, but Amy had assumed that he'd get over her and that would be the end of it. She'd been wrong. He still had a thing for her and he'd asked her out a couple times since then too.
It was annoying for Amy, but she figured there was nothing she could do about it. She'd made it clear she wasn't interested and he wasn't pushy about it, just a little over friendly. Maybe being around her for the summer would sort it out.
"Morning," Ty said coolly, "Can you start on the stables in the back barn please." He phrased it like a question, but his tone said he was telling, not asking. Amy frowned slightly and Jason seemed a little taken a back but he nodded and headed around the back.
"What was that?" Amy asked curiously. Ty had talked about Jason in their may conversations, saying how he was getting on and everything, and Ty seemed to get on well with him, he wouldn't have said yes to hiring him if he hadn't.
Ty avoided Amy's gaze and tried to shrug it off turning away from Amy to help with the barn. But Amy wasn't going to let him get away with that, she jogged a couple paces so she was in front of him and stopped him with a hand on his chest. "Ty?" She asked, her eyes searching his.
Ty sighed before replying "I just don't like the way he is with you. You've made it clear you're not interested, but still he flaunts that he likes you. I just want him to get the message loud and clear that it isn't going to happen and that he should stop being so forward about it. It isn't going to happen so he should just keep his feelings to himself." He said quietly looking almost nervous, as though he thought Amy would have a problem with what he'd said.
Amy smiled and hugged him, "Thanks Ty." She pulled back but kept her hands on his forearms "I really appreciate that. Hopefully it will help. I don't really like it either. But he is a decent guy and he's a help around here." She admitted. "He doesn't give off that 'sleaze' vibe you know?" She asked with a slight frown as if working out for herself it that made sense.
"Yeah" Ty laughed at her expression, "I know what you mean. As far as guys who don't get the message go, he's harmless."
"Exactly!" Amy said smiling. Ty smiled back at her and nodded.
"Most of the horses will be done eating now, lets get on and turn them out so we can get these stables clean." He said heading for the nearest stable.
"Agreed!" Amy stated following suit.
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Later on that morning, Amy approached Cam's stable with a head collar in hand. She and Ty had decided last night that it would be a good idea for her to work with him instead of Ty after he took to her so well the previous afternoon.
"Hey boy" Amy murmured as she reached him. She spoke softly to him as she entered the stable. Cam backed away his head high so Amy stopped just inside the door and allowed him to get used to her presence for a few moments before offering her hand to him and slowly approaching him side on so as not to appear threatening. Cam allowed Amy to lay her hand on his neck and Amy decided to just work t-touch on his head for a little bit first to settle him down.
Cam slowly relaxed under Amy's experienced hands and Amy got lost in the familiar rhythm. Cam's head dropped down and he looked almost asleep and Amy decided that was enough for the moment. She'd come back and do another session with him this afternoon. Quietly she left the stable and went to find Ty.
"Hey," She said as she caught up with him leading Casper, a dark bay Welsh section D cob who had come to them for some schooling and to be re-homed, towards the pasture. Ty looked over at her with a small frown.
"Aren't you going to work Cam?" He asked.
"Later. He didn't really like me coming in to the stable so I just worked some t-touch on him for a while to settle him down. I'll do another session with him this afternoon."
"Ok, sounds good." Ty said looking thoughtful, "Do you want to do a session with Casper then instead?" He stopped the gelding and turned to Amy, "He could really do with someone actually getting on him and working him" Ty said with a smile. Both he and Jason were too tall and heavy to work the gelding who had had some minor back problems.
"Yeah sure!" Amy said taking the lead line Ty offered her "you've been lunging him right?" She asked as she turned the gelding to walk back a little way so she could tie him up to a ring on the wall of the barn.
"Yeah we have. He's been doing really well, just really needs someone to get on him and work him so we can figure out what he really needs in a new home." Ty said following Amy back up the yard towards the tack room.
"Ok, I'll give hi a light work out then, just see how he feels." She said picking up a grooming kit and his tack.
"Sounds good. I'm going to groom the couple of horses still inside then." Ty grabbed another grooming kit and headed towards the front stable block. Because it was summer and the weather was dry and hot, most of the horses spent the day outside, apart from a few who couldn't be out for that long, or were going to be working this morning.
Amy liked the little horse a lot. He was really friendly and inquisitive. He butted her hand with his head and tried to nibble the brush in her hand when she started using it on him making Amy laugh.
Once he was brushed, she gently slid the soft snaffle bit in to his mouth and slipped the bridle over his head. He stood quietly while she placed the saddle on his back and did the girth up. Amy smiled at the eager expression on his face and his quickened gait as they headed towards the arena.
She gently swung up on to his back and adjusted her stirrups. Then she put him trough his paces, asking him for simple transitions and basic school movements. After about 20 minutes, she pulled him up and let him walk on a long rein to cool down. She glanced towards the gate catching movement out of the side of her eye.
Jason smiled at her from the other side of the ring. "He looks good" he called.
Amy gave him a half wave but kept Casper heading in the same direction, away from the gate. When she circled him back around and stopped him near the gate, Jason spoke up again.
"So, are you going to re-home him now?" He asked leaning on his forearms on the gate as Amy ran her stirrups up and loosened her girth.
Amy thought for a moment before replying "Yeah, we'll probably start looking for someone now. He's doing really well and there's no real reason for him to be here now." She smiled thanks at Jason when he opened the gate for her and Casper.
"Do you think it will be easy to find him a home?" He asked walking back up the yard beside her.
"That depends really. He's a really nice horse, so he's be good with someone who doesn't have a lot of experience, but at the same time he needs someone who can keep him thinking. He's a smart horse and he'd probably get bored if he were just to go on trail rides a couple times a week or something." Amy answered.
"What about his back? How does that affect getting the right person for him?" Jason asked.
"Well his back isn't actually too much of a problem. It does mean he can't jump because he'd be likely to injure it or strain it at least which would be a big problem. And long term he shouldn't be carrying a rider who is about you size. The occasional time wouldn't really hurt, but there wasn't any point risking it, which is why you and Ty haven't ridden him since he's been here." She explained as she removed Casper's tack.
"On the surface he does seem like he would be easy to re-home, but he actually may not be. There are a lot of things that need to be taken in to consideration with a horse like him. But we'll find someone, even if he has to stay here for a while first. Better that then letting him go with the wrong person" She threw a smile Jason's way as she brushed Casper off. "Right, I'm going to turn him out," She looked at Jason, "Shouldn't you be doing something?" She gave him a playful frown.
"Oh, yeah, right. Back to work then!" He said lightly. But there was something not quite right. Amy thought he seemed a bit annoyed that she wasn't allowing him to stay and work with her and that she'd effectively told him to go away. She shrugged it off though and laughed again at Casper's eagerness as they got close to the field gate.
She slipped the head collar off him inside the gate and was happy to see him trot away and stop beside Jasmine to say hello before dropping his head to graze. The two horses grazed peacefully before Sundance charged towards them sending them cantering across the field. Amy laughed at the antics of her beloved pony "Bad Sunny!" She pretended to scold him when he reached her. He threw his head over the fence and nudged at Amy's pockets searching for treats.
"Ok, ok, give me a sec" She laughed digging in to her pocket and pulling out a couple of horse cookies.
"You spoil that pony." Ty said from behind her.
Amy turned and smiled at him, he had Jacob, another livery, with him. Amy gently pushed Sundance away and opened the gate for Ty who smiled gratefully at her. Jacob was a 7 year old black cob who had been left in a field until he was three and then handled by someone who was put off by his lack of manners and didn't do very much with him. He was a friendly enough horse, he just acted like an unbroken 2 year old.
It was taking quite a lot of time to teach him how to behave because he had been taught form an early age that he could push people around, so he had no respect for them. But he was slowly improving with firm handling. Everything you did with him had to be a lesson for him, there couldn't be any short cuts or allowances. Ty held him tightly and made him stand still before he released him.
"He really is a handful huh?" Amy said. It had taken about two minutes to get Jacob, or Jake as he was generally called, to stand still.
Ty laughed, "Yeah you could say!" Ty closed the gate behind him before he spoke again. "How did Casper do?"
"Great! I think we should start looking for a home for him. I think he will be fine with the right person." She answered leaning on the gate beside Ty.
"That's good. Can you tell Kelly the details when she gets here?" Kelly worked at Heartland in the afternoons taking care of the business side of things. It had taken them a while to find someone who could replace Lou when she'd left, because they needed someone who was happy to handle that side without pushing and trying to change things.
Kelly had turned up late for her interview, in sports gear and told them that she could only work part time even though they had advertised for someone to work full time. But after 10 minutes with her, Amy and Ty were both convinced she was right for the job, and they had been right. She had designed a new website for Heartland and had a page for horses looking for new homes with lots of details on the horse and what they were looking for with the owner which had proved to be a big help with re-homing horses.
"Yeah, no problem." Amy replied. Kelly just needed firm details of what sort of home they were looking for, for Casper, she had files containing all the details of the horses at Heartland.
They spent the rest of the morning working with a couple of other horses before heading in to grab lunch with Jason, Nancy and Jack. They were about to head back out and start working the horses again when Kelly arrived so Ty and Jason heading out while Amy spoke to her about Casper.
When she was done she headed out to do a second session with Cam. This time when she entered the stable he backed off, but relaxed after just a couple of minutes of t-touch. Carefully Amy slipped the head collar over his head and led him down to the ring.
The geldings rich coat shone deep copper in the sun. He seemed quite happy to be out of the stable, but he was still anxious and tense. Once they were in the ring Amy took him to the center of the ring and released him. She sent him away to the edge of the ring and flinched at the confused, hurt and scared look that appeared in the gentle gelding's eyes. But she knew it was necessary to make him go through this for him to trust her fully later on.
She squared her shoulders to Cam's and drove him on around the ring at a canter. After several circuits his stride steadied and Amy saw the first sign of join-up, his inner ear was focused on her. She smiled inwardly but kept him going. She stepped in front of his movement, sending him spinning around and cantering in the opposite direction. His inner ear stayed directed at her though and after another few circuits he slowed down to a quick trot and lowered his head. Another couple of circuits and his muzzle was almost touching the ground and he began to make chewing motions with his jaw. Amy's heart leapt, he was telling her he wanted to be friends, he wanted to join her and not be stuck on the outside.
Amy turned away from him, dropping her shoulders and making herself as non-threatening as possible. She held her breath and after a slight pause, heard what she'd been waiting for, the sound of his footfalls in the sand as he moved towards her. She felt like jumping for joy when he nudged her shoulder with his muzzle. But she stayed quiet and slowly turned around to rub his face, being careful to keep her eyes averted from his.
Then she turned and walked away from him across the ring testing the new bond they'd formed. To her delight he followed without hesitation. She led him around the pen for a couple of minutes before stopping and rubbing his face again. Then she re-clipped the lead line and led him back to the stable. She spent some time brushing him and working t-touch on him before turning him out. Amy was really excited by how well he'd accepted her but knew that he still had a long way to go before he'd be ready to return to his new owner.
Walking back up the yard, she saw Jason leading Shalou towards the arena to ride her. Amy smiled seeing the mare swish her tail in annoyance as Jason checked the girth before mounting. She'd come to Heartland after her previous owner had died. She was getting on in years and was generally quite grumpy. Ty thought it was just more her temperament rather than a problem they could fix and from meeting her yesterday and hearing about her over the last week or so, Amy agreed. She was another horse they'd just started looking for a new home for but Amy knew it would be harder than finding a home for younger, friendlier Casper.
Continuing up the yard, she glanced in to the open hay barn as she passed, she was surprised to see Ty in there. She checked her stride and entered the barn and stood in front of Ty. "You ok?" She asked concerned. It wasn't like Ty to be sat around staring in to space like he was now.
He sighed and smiled sadly, "Yeah I guess." He said unconvincingly. Amy moved and sat beside him on the hay bale.
"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked quietly, assuming he was upset about Heather, but not really sure that she wanted to hear him talk about missing her.
"I don't really know what there is to say." He said sounding lost. They sat in silence for a few moments before he spoke again. "I've put four years in to the relationship and suddenly there's nothing there, and the strange thing? I'm more upset that I realised there hasn't been anything there for a long time rather than that she's gone."
Amy looked at him and studied his features. He looked tired and there was that same look in his eyes he'd had yesterday when they were talking, the sadness and confusion was there, but there was something else too, something she couldn't decipher.
"I'm just wondering when I stopped paying attention. Things were fine between us, we were happy with how things were, they have pretty much been the same for the last couple of years. And for some reason I didn't see that that was a problem." He frowned.
"I'm so confused by it Amy. I mean, the night we split, I was talking with you, and after a few minutes it didn't occur to me to tell you."
"Really?" Amy said surprised. She'd assumed it had happened the day after they'd last spoken on the phone, and that's why she hadn't been told before she got home.
"Yeah really." He laughed self-mockingly. "Seriously Amy, what's wrong with me?"
"Nothing," Amy answered without hesitation. She wrapped her arms around him and rested her cheek on his shoulder, "Nothing is wrong with you. I think things were fine, and it wasn't strange that you didn't notice your feelings had changed. You still loved her, you just weren't in love with her." She said, surprising herself. "And it just took something like that to show you."
Ty shifted and Amy dropped her arms from his shoulders and rested one hand on his thigh as he looked at her. "You're not just talking about Heather are you?"
Amy blinked and thought for a second, "No, I guess I'm not" She said quietly, almost sadly, looking at the floor.
Ty wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him. "I don't really know what went wrong with us. I meant what I said to you before you left, about waiting for you."
"I know" Amy said simply, wrapping her arms around Ty's waist and hugging him. "I don't know what went wrong with us either. But we never talked about it did we."
"Probably should have" Ty added making Amy smile.
"Yeah, probably should have!" she agreed. "I really think you're being hard on yourself" She said going back to the original topic, not really sure she wanted to get in to a discussion about their relationship right then as it was likely to be painful for them both.
"Thanks." Ty smiled and looked down at the brunette in his arms, "I think maybe its time we did talk about it. I think more than four years is long enough to wait. We've talked almost every other day for the last six months Amy, we've talked about almost every other aspect of our lives, but never that. Or Heather." He added with a small frown. "I guess that should have been a clue!" He laughed, "I just never really thought about her when I spoke to you."
"Funny, I pretty much forgot about her when I talked to you too." Amy said quietly. Ty stared at the top of her head for a moment, then he lifted her chin up with his finger tips until her grey eyes met his deep green ones.
They stayed that way for a few minutes before the sound of horseshoes approaching made them both jump and turn to the entrance of the barn. Jason was the other side of Shalou as he led her past and didn't see them. Both of them breathed a sigh of relief and then wondered why. It wasn't like they were doing anything wrong, they were just two close friends who were talking.
They both looked at each other sheepishly, avoiding the others eyes. "Guess we should get back to work" Ty said clearing his throat.
"Good plan." Amy said standing up and heading for the door. "Oh, I joined up with Cam" She said realising she hadn't spoken to him about it. She told him about it and how Cam had been after as they headed up the yard. By the time they reached the front stable block, both had shed the weirdness from their conversation and worked normally together for the rest of the afternoon as if it hadn't happened.
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Thanks to all who reviewed!
HorsieLoverGirl – Thank you! They will, eventually!
rainpaint – you know what I think already, but thanks again! I'm looking forward to seeing how those things play out too! lol
pony lover – glad you like it so far. Lou isn't at Heartland anymore, its not a very interesting part of the story, but it will be explained more at some point in the next few chapters.
Alyssa – Thanks! I'm glad you like it so much. And you're very right, so much left unsaid. Will get to it, at some point!
My Forgotten Dream – Yeah, I really don't like Heather either. Don't worry, she won't be around or mentioned too much more.
Alf08 – Yeah its Amy/Ty, or will be eventually! This chapter might well have been more of a clue to that.