As Amy stepped out of the taxi, Lou, Grandpa, Joni, and Ty all hugged her at once.
''Wow. I didn't know you guys missed me this much!''
''So,'' Ty asked. ''you wanna go see your boy, Spindle?''
''Actually, a good cup of coffee would be nice.'' she suggested.
Ty gave her a confused look. She looked puzzled for a minute then grinned.
''You guys go ahead and fix the coffee. I'll stay and look at Spindle with Ty.'' She winked at him. Ty smiled back akwardly.
They walked to the barn. ''You sly dog.'' she said once they reached it. ''You just wanted to talk to me alone. That's why you mentioned the horses.''
''Yeah.'' Ty played along.
Aftew a few minutes of her talking about college, they went inside for coffee.
''Ben's coming over later.''
''Yay!'' Amy said way too excitedly. ''Cool.'' she said calmly.
Ty started to get suspicious, but quickly cleared the thought from his mind. Amy was his girlfriend, she was just excited. But a little voice in the back of his head told him something was wrong...
''Heeeeeey!'' Ben burst through the door in his signature cocky way. Ty was disgusted. Who bursts through a door with a pose?
Ben hugged everyone but when he came to Amy, he cleared his throat. They akwardly stared at each other for a few moments, then decided on a shake.
Ty was suspicious at this also, but he concluded that it was just his hate of Ben rising up.
''Hey, Ty.'' he said with not too much enthusiasm.
''Hi.'' Ty replied back cooly. He had always felt like Ben was the cockiest boy and was always worried he would steal Amy away.
Tension crackled in the air, then Lou suddenly broke the silence. ''Welcome back!''
''It's been awhile, hasn't it?'' Ben asked with a too-wide grin.
Ty rolled his eyes. He pushed his chair out. ''Well, i'm going to check on the horses.''
''Me too.'' Amy said, and quickly pushed out her chair.
Outside, she caught up with him. ''Hey. Seemed like you didn't like Ben coming that much.''
Ty sat on the training ring fence and sighed, ''Not exactly. Why?''
''I don't know, he's been gone from our lives for so long; I was trying to gauge your reaction.''
Ty laughed, ''Good luck. I'm gonna go work with Spindle.''
''Alone?''
''No, Joni will be there.''
Amy gave him a sideways look, but then kissed him good bye and went into the house.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: this is eventually going to be an Amy/Ty story, but it won't SEEM like it at first. Yes, nothing would make Amy not want to see her horses, but some things have ''changed'' while she's been at college. If you haven't noticed already, she's kind of turning into a kindof Ashley Grant or ''Amy Grant'' haha. But, no, things aren't as hopeless as they seem...