Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any of its characters.
Summary: AU Finchel. This wasn't how she expected her summer to be. The selfish and spoiled actress from New York never thought that spending her summer on a horse farm in Texas with her cousin Puck would be a good idea. And she would have never guessed that she would fall for someone like Finn Hudson. But even Rachel can be wrong sometimes. Based off Finchel prompt.
Rated M for language and possible smut.
A/N1: All mistakes are mine! Enjoy!
Cowgirl Up!
Chapter 4: Trying the Cowgirl-style
To be totally honest, Rachel is terrified, and that's not a common feeling for her. She has always been a confident young woman, maybe too confident sometimes. It's not unusual that she throws her second place trophy's in a wall or a trash can, because a second place trophy is a sign of failure to her.
And she's now scared to possibly death because of the silly little thing called a horse. It had been kind of cool yesterday when she fed them but it's not the same thing. Taking care of a horse is fine, but sitting on it and actually ride is a different story.
So she is now standing outside the stable, pressed into a rather uncomfortable pair of riding breeches, waiting for Jennie to show up so she can get this over with. She is shifting her weight from the right foot to the left and then back again as she plays with her long braid.
She hears the stall door open with a loud squeak and Rachel sighs out a 'finally' as she turns to the person that is standing in the stall entrance. But the person isn't the one she expected. No, it is that boy Finn who works for Jennie who she met briefly yesterday in the stable.
Rachel studies him a little. He is dressed the same way he was yesterday; a long sleeved shirt with square pattern. The sleeves are roughly rolled up to his elbows and makes him look even more like a cowboy than he already does. His jeans are saggy and washed so many times that their color has begun to fade from black to a dark gray color. Only this time he also wears this brown cowboy hat that covers his brown hair.
He smiles at her, and he would probably wave if it weren't for that he holds two horses, one in each hand. His hands are tightly wrapped around the brown leather straps that she thinks is called reins. The horses are cleaner than they were yesterday and their manes shines in the bright sunlight. Both horses are wearing saddles that are tightly strapped around their rounded bellies.
She could recognize the two horses he is holding. The first one is the chestnut colored horse Zoey. Her black eyes glimmer in excitement and her ears prick happily.
The other horse Finn's holding is his horse, the beautiful black one. Flicka, she remembers as he approaches her with the horses walking beside him.
"It's nice to see you again, Tiny Rachel." he says and Rachel rolls her eyes. "Are you ready to go riding?"
Rachel exhales deeply. "Where the hell is Jennie? I thought she was going to be the one teaching me." she says, glaring a little. Finn smiles a cute crooked grin. "Well Tiny, it certainly looks like your plans have been changed. Jennie had to run some errands down in the city and she will probably not be back before dinner. So she asked me to help you."
Rachel whimpers a little under her breath. Great, now she's stuck with Mr. Sunshine the Cowboy. Her day can't really become better. "So, are you ready to ride?" he asks again.
Rachel sighs. "So ready I can be, I guess. Come on." She grabs Zoey's reins, assuming that Finn is going to ride Flicka, and begins to walk towards the outside sand arena. She wants to ask why they can't be inside the first time, it seems a lot safer to land on somewhat soft ground instead of hard, gritty sand. But she decides not to, she doesn't want to seem weak and wimpy, especially not in front of the ray of sunshine called Finn.
When she stands in the arena that is surrounded by a neat white fence, Finn comes back from leaving Flicka in the paddock and hands Rachel a black riding helmet. The outside of the helmet is soft like velvet and black as the night. The inside is made of soft red cloth. She looks up to see Finn throwing his cowboy hat off his head and replacing it with another helmet. He smiles at her as he walks towards her. "You look like you need some help." he says smiling and takes the helmet from her.
To her own surprise she only nods. No pissed off Rachel telling him that she can do it by herself, in the worst kind of way. Maybe it's because he looks really good in a riding helmet, or the fact that she has completely fallen in love with that cute smile of his.
Slowly, Finn places the helmet on her head. She feels how gentle his fingers are when they buckle the straps under her jaw. She looks up into his warm whiskey eyes, and she can feel herself melt into them and...
"So, how 'bout we get you on one of those horses?"
The spell breaks as he speaks and Rachel shakes her head a little. Wow, that was all kinds of weird. But she straightens her back and approaches Zoey. "Of course." she says and pulls down the stirrups before she puts her left foot in the left stirrup as she grabs the saddle for support. She can hear Finn say "Hey, maybe I should help you with that, it's kind of hard..." but she's already about to hoist herself up in the saddle. And to everybody's surprise, she does it without a problem and without help.
Rachel feels really tall where she now sits on Zoey, and in a way it's scary but in a weird way it also feels exciting and familiar. She notices how Finn let out a surprised laugh, and that laugh makes her want to melt into a puddle. "Wow, you fixed that excellently. Are you sure that you haven't been sitting on a horse before?"
She nods and he grins before he walks up to her and Zoey. "Okay Rachel, let's begin with the basics. To make your horse walk you just press your heels against her belly and she will begin to walk. To steer her you just tug at the rein gently in the direction you want to turn. To make a halt, just tug the reins backwards with both hands." He grabs her hands to show how she has to hold the reins and Rachel feels a shot of electricity shoot through her body. She stiffens a little under his touch but he doesn't seem to notice, he just continues working with her hands so she holds the reins right.
"Try to make her walk now, Rachel." Finn says and let go of her hands. Rachel does as he tells her and lightly press her heels against Zoey's belly. She can feel the horse move beneath her and her body stiffens again. She has seen people get thrown off horses on TV and it's not a delightful sight.
But after a couple of laps inside the arena she slowly but safely begins to relax where she sits on the horse back. This isn't so hard, she thinks and smiles proudly. She can see Finn standing in the corner of the arena, smiling at her. "Good work, Rachel!" he shouts out as she rides by. "Now come here and halt in front of me."
Rachel steers Zoey so she walks towards Finn and she easily makes her halt in front of Finn, who stands with his arms crossed over his broad and muscular chest. "That was really good, Rachel." he says. Rachel smiles confidently.
"Okay, so now we're gonna try to trot. To get Zoey to trot you just kick with both feet. I'm also gonna teach you how to do the rising trot. Rising trot basically means that you sit down in the saddle every other step and stand up every other step. You're back has to be straight but at the same time you have to be very relaxed. Shall we try it?"
Rachel nods, the proud smile still plastered on her face. "Yes, let's do this."
"Great. Also look at Zoey's shoulders if you're insecure about when to rise or when to sit. When her shoulders go forward you rise and when they go back you sit."
Rachel nods again, trying to process all the new information she just got. Rachel does as Finn says and soon she gets Zoey to trot. The first thing she realizes is how bumpy it is. She's trying to do as Finn said, the rise thing but it just won't work. Mostly because she's bumping here and there and when her helmet falls down over her eyes, she panics. She accidentally drops the reins and her feet falls out from the stirrups, flying free. The only sound she can hear is her heart thumping loudly in her ears and she actually thinks that she's about to die, or at least get seriously injured.
But suddenly everything just stops. It doesn't feel like she's fallen off or something, so that has to be good. She can feel how someone grabs her helmet and carefully lifts it from her eyes. The first thing she sees is Finn. He's got a small smile on his face, but it doesn't really reach his eyes. No, his beautiful eyes look concerned and a little bit worried. Could he be worried about her? She could not remember the last time someone showed any kind of feeling towards her that wasn't something that looked like hate (well, except for her dads, but they don't count). But this boy actually looked worried about her, and it actually felt good to have someone else than her dads that cares about her.
"Are you okay?" he asks softly. Rachel shakes her head no and not until now she really feels the shock from the, maybe not so big but big enough for her, event. "Come on, let me help you down." he says and grabs her by her waist and once again she feels this electricity flood from where his hands touches her. He carefully lifts her off the horse, his strength amazes her a little bit. Sure, she's not that big, only 5'2 tall, weighing 125 pounds, but she would still be hard for him to lift with only his arms.
He sets her down on the ground and the first thing she does (besides taking Zoey's reins in a firm grip) is hugging him. She can feel how his muscular arms wrap around her in return. She is surprised by how much she likes it. She has never really hugged a person before, not even her dads. She has never really liked physical contact, that was at least what she thought. But the feeling of his arms around her, she resting against his broad chest wasn't so bad. It was better than not so bad, it was great. She whispers a small 'thank you' before she pulls away from him. She immediately misses the warmth of his arms, even though it is around 80 degrees outside in the sun.
"So Rachel, do you want to take a short ride in the forest? I mean we don't have to but I would actually prefer it, since I tacked Flicka up and I put on this silly helmet." he says and blushes a little. Rachel smiles. "Then why did you put it on if you think it's silly? You knew you weren't going to ride until at least I was done."
He chuckles as he looks down at his boots. "Honestly I don't know." he looks up at her again. "But how 'bout we just go for a quick ride? Please?"
He looks at her, with eyes that reminds her of a puppy's and for some bizarre reason she can't resist them, even though she nearly had a near death experience. "Okay, but we must only walk."
He smiles brightly, looking so young. "Of course. Come on."
He begins to walk out of the arena, picking up his hat on the way. Rachel pulls up the stirrups before she follows him with Zoey in a tight grip. She looks at him as he jogs towards the paddock where Flicka is grazing. Rachel never thought that she would say this about anybody except herself, but she has to admit that Finn is perfect. Prince Charming number one. He's nice and caring and extremely handsome. And now when she thinks about it, she want him to be hers.
When she enters the paddock she sees that Finn has already changed Flicka's halter to a bridle, ready to ride. He is just done tightening the girth when he sees Rachel. "Are you ready?" she asks as Finn grabs Flicka's reins. He nods. "Yup. Let's go."
A/N2: Hey guys! Update! Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I actually think that it turned out pretty good, I mean I don't really know much about horses, only the basics because I'm interested about horses and I would really like to take riding lessons if my parents would let me. Anyways, I hope that I spelled most of it right and got the right words into the right place. If I didn't, please tell me.
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Until next time!