CHAPTER 2
Amy pulled her left boot out of its stirrup and swung her leg over the horses back to dismount. "Don't you take off on me!" she told Spartan as she looked him in the eye and patted his neck, looping the reins around the horn of his saddle to keep them from getting tangled in his hooves.
There was a thin, smooth sliver of granite exposed above the dirt in the center of the pasture. Amy had discovered it as an adventurous eight year old while exploring the ranch on one of the first trail rides her mother ever let her ride alone. The young cowgirl constantly searched for cool places hidden within the ranch and had learned back then how the sun warmed the rock and made it a great place to lay back and watch the clouds drift by for hours at a time. Being swallowed up by the high grass all around her, as alone as one could get on her grandpa's ranch, gave the girl an escape from all things real and present and left her to daydream about growing up to be a rodeo star, just like her dad, or her mother for that matter. Tim Fleming was a rodeo legend. He used to tell his young daughter tall tales of his great rides on broncs all over Canada and the USA, and brag about the four all-around national championship buckles he still had on display at Big River Ranch where he lived just down the road from Heartland. Amy was too young to remember much about her mother roping or barrel racing at all of the local rodeos, but it was not unusual for her to win a few buckles of her own, keeping them on display in her office in the barn where her proud daughters kept them to this day.
Spartan made a lazy circle around the rock, his tail swishing with contentment and occasionally nickering to his rider as she rested only a few feet away.
Serenity found her outstretched and slowly winding down her up tempo daily pace, watching puffy white clouds appear from over the mountaintops, floating across the clear blue sky in constantly changing shapes, and eventually growing smaller in the distance over the eastern prairies. It was an amazing escape for the now fully grown country girl. The whisper of the mountain breeze making its way through the grass swaying toward the low lands farther down the foothills was nature's medicine for the soul.
Days like this one usually eased her into a state of relaxation that was hard to find any other way or in any other place, but today, events of the last year and a half crowded their way back from bottled-up memories and began to replay themselves in her mind, letting the unwinnable game of second guessing start to push the pleasantness of the moment away.
It had been more than a year since anyone in the Heartland family had seen or even heard anything of Ty Borden. Amy and all of her family and friends had looked everywhere and asked everyone they could think of for any word as to his whereabouts, especially in the past few months. When Lou called the University of Calgary where the promising veterinarian was supposed to have started the last two years of his courses in the fall, they told her that Ty had called the administration office to inform them that he would not be back for further classes, that he was leaving the area. There was nothing, not even a clue as to where he might have gone.
14 MONTHS AGO
The young couple had come to a rough patch in their relationship for various reasons. They were in a stage of their lives when things were changing rapidly and neither of them was comfortable with uncertain situations. They were happy together, but admittedly neither had learned to stop holding something back from the other. It must have been due to fear which was aggravated by the loss each of them had experienced as kids. They both held the notion that if they were to let go and completely give their heart to someone, then control would be lost in a very important part of their lives and it could cause them be hurt again.
Ty was pushing hard to keep his grades up and had worked a deal with one of his classmates who lived on campus to stay overnight three nights a week so as to cut down on time lost during the hour long drive back to Hudson every evening, only to study all night and drive all the way back to Calgary early the next morning for his classes. The busy student was so exhausted from his schedule of classes and work at Scott Cardinal's vet clinic that it was difficult to find time to spend with his girlfriend. He often fell asleep during their time together, mostly on the sofa at the ranch, never going out on a proper date any more.
Amy was now concerned about the free time Ty might use to socialize with other students at the campus. She had seen the way some of the girls flirted with him on occasion, and it really got under her skin.
Everything in their lives had turned into a predictable funk, leaving each of them bored and increasingly irritable, until one Wednesday afternoon while Amy was on the jumping course with a client's horse and a fancy pickup truck pulled into the driveway and parked beside the fence of the arena. The door popped open to reveal the good looking, fast talking, world renowned horse trainer as he stepped out and walked across the grass to prop his foot on the lower rail of the gate. He leaned across the top with his trademark grin.
"Hey, Miracle Girl! How's life been treating you?"
"Chase Powers….What brings you here?" she cautiously assessed his purpose for coming back around after all of this time.
Chase had made it obvious that he was attracted to Amy. They were part of a colt starting competition a couple of years ago called "Ring of Fire", in which Amy won out, helping to further build her reputation of becoming the "Miracle Girl", as she was known. They had done a few more competitions on tour together at Chases' request and while he made some attempts to take Amy out on dates, she turned him down repeatedly. She was wearing the promise ring Ty had given her, and eventually Chase went on to greener pastures and hadn't been seen in these parts for over a year.
"I need to talk to you about a business proposition," he offered to her, again with that broad grin.
"Oh? And what might that be?" she cautiously asked.
And then, the pitch, "Well, I am going to start marketing colts as a package deal….ready to go for all those cowboy wannabes out there." He held up his hands in a theatrical gesture, "Come to Chase Powers and get a gentled, trained, tacked-up horse for the wife and kids to ride on weekends. A Chase Powers Signature Horse! One easy step and you're in the cowboy business!"
Chase hooked his right foot onto the second rail of the fence and leapt over it into the arena beside the now even more curious rider while continuing to sell his idea, "I'm telling you, Amy, it can't go wrong!" he proposed. "What I need is a trainer who can handle several colts at a time…..to take care of getting them ready for the clients. So….are you interested?"
"I guess I would need to know exactly what it is that you need me to do, and…, I would need to think about it," Amy mused.
"OK, but don't take too long, 'Miracle Girl'! This deal is hot and needs to start pretty quick….'Make hay while the sun is shining', as they say." With that, Chase turned toward his truck and yelled over his shoulder as he hopped over the fence to leave, "Talk to you Saturday? Maggie's, at noon?"
"OK, I suppose I can do that….see you then," she said.
During his middle of the week trip home from school, Ty was trying his best to keep his eyes open and attention toward his girl.
"Amy, what are you thinking about?" Ty asked. "Seems like your mind is somewhere else this evening."
"Yeah," she replied, "I guess I have some things to think about."
"Like what? It must be serious to take your thoughts away like that."
"No, not really serious, but it could be a great business opportunity that I heard about today," answered Amy, not really wanting to start a likely argument when she revealed the business proposal to her sure to be jealous boyfriend.
"Wouldn't have anything to do with Chase Powers, would it?" he bluntly asked.
'Uh-oh,' she thought.
"Maayybee…," she stalled, suddenly on the defensive. "How did you hear about him being back in town so fast?"
"Well, you know…, bad news travels fast."
"Ty…..just stop it! Why do you always have to butt heads with Chase every time he comes around?"
With that, Ty stood up and walked to the front door and opened it, and without looking back, "I've got some studying to do for a big test on Friday. I'll see you after that, OK?"
"Yeah…..OK. Good luck with that test!" she said while she dejectedly followed him to the door and slumped against it, watching him slam the door of his old blue truck and head up the hill turning toward the city, in spite of this being the night he usually went to his old loft to sleep because of staying up late with his girlfriend.
Ty considered Chase Powers a threat from the first time he laid eyes on him. He believed the boisterous cowboy took advantage of his girlfriend's good nature and that she was a little too naïve to handle a wheeler dealer of his caliber, and every minute he was in the same province was a minute too long. He could sense that Amy was attracted to the often advertised 'Trainer of the Stars'. How could she not be? The self-proclaimed 'Number one horse trainer in Canada' was everything most starry eyed young cowgirls would have thought admirable in a man. He was famous, handsome, rich, and he made his living working with some of the best horses in the country. Chase Powers could give the 'Miracle Girl' anything she asked for, and would have done it too, if Amy would have let it happen.
A vibration in her pocket jarred the sleeping cowgirl back to the here and now.
"Hello?"
"Amy, Mrs. Gilbertson is here with 'Rebel'. I can see how he gets his name!" Lou filled her sister in. "Caleb is having quite the time trying to get him in the barn. I think he is just going to put him in the paddock until you get here and decide what you are going to do with him, OK?"
"That will be fine, Lou. Just tell Caleb to leave him be, for now. Give Rebel a little grain and water. Let him get settled in and I will be there in about 30 minutes," she said.
Amy's life had changed in so many ways since her first love and best friend left Heartland without as much as saying goodbye. She understood why the troubled young man who came to live with her family felt so angry and alone when he arrived at the ranch. She knew how hard it was for him to overcome his childhood experiences, learn to trust in anything good in life, or to believe that he deserved to be happy, but she mistakenly thought he, and they, had outgrown all of that. 'That had to be the reason he wouldn't even give me a chance to explain.' she was thinking to herself.
The jilted cowgirl had gone over and over in her head the details of the days before he disappeared. Those all-consuming thoughts became a hindrance to her ability to interact with her clients horses in the first months after he left. Only after more urgent challenges demanded her full attention was she able to put them to rest and try to move on.
There were no government records of Ty working anywhere in the country. His phone was cut off. None of his friends had heard a word from him. He had vanished.
'Damn, what are the odds that Dad would find him now, after all this time, and so far away?' she thought.
