"Rise and shine beautiful," Adam said softly in my ear.

I woke up and looked over at my alarm clock. It was four a.m.!

"Are you serious?" I asked.

He just laughed.

"Of course I am. Now get up sleepyhead."

Even in the dark, I could see his beautiful face and his perfect smile.

I got ready and we went downstairs quietly and put our luggage in my car.

When we got to the barn, we took all our stuff out of my car and into the truck that we were taking on the trip. It was our white truck that we use to pull the trailer and it usually stays at the barn.

We were done feeding by five-thirty and I brought Flint out of his stall to get ready.

"Is there anything I can do?" Adam asked.

I looked around for a moment.

"Uh, yea. You can put an extra bag of shavings in the trailer and make sure he has enough hay for the ride over today," I said happily. I was more than excited to be on the way.

"Ok," he said with a smile and walked off.

I couldn't help but think how grateful I was to have a guy who was so helpful.

After I'd got Flint prepared for the long trailer ride and Adam had hooked the trailer up, I walked him out of the barn and loaded him in the trailer.

We made sure we had everything and the barn was all right, and headed out.

I was a little tired and couldn't help but yawn.

"Do you want me to drive?" Adam asked thoughtfully.

"Can you pull a horse trailer?" I asked.

He just laughed.

"I've pulled trailers before you know," he said with a grin.

"But with a living animal inside?" I asked skeptically.

"No, but I'll drive careful. You look like you could use some extra sleep."

"Thanks," I said sarcastically.

I was tired though, and I let Adam drive. At least for the first three hours.

We stopped after that and got some breakfast. It was also good to let Flint rest for a while.

We were back on the road now and Adam had a worried expression on his face.

"Livi, I need to talk to you about Sean."

I could tell in his voice that this was painful for him to talk about, so I grabbed his hand to comfort him.

"You can tell me anything," I said reassuringly.

He took a deep breath.

"You know how Sean was in the accident." He paused for a moment. "Well, while my parents went to get us something to eat, Sean told me what really happened that night. You see, he had told my parents that he was at a friend's house and he was driving him home when a guy ran a stoplight and hit them. But the truth is completely different. Later on that night Sean told me that he had been at a party. Him and his friends had been drinking that night. It was his friend who had actually ran the stoplight, and Sean got hit. His friend was unharmed and they said that if the truck that hit had been going even a couple of miles faster, Sean would have died."

Adam was upset and I couldn't blame him. Just the thought of Sean dying was enough to put tears in my eyes. But I couldn't quiet figure out where Adam was going with this.

"It's just that, Sean is only a year older than me and he's drinking, out having sex with random girls, partying, and, I don't want to be like that by next year. I don't want to be doing those things like he is. And, I'm afraid I'm turning into Sean."

He was looking at me now, and I was speechless.

"Adam, I can't believe you would even think that you are remotely close to acting like your brother. Ya'll are complete opposites. And people get into those bad things by the people they let themselves get close to and the influence they have on them. And I know that you are hanging around the right people who aren't going to get you into those things Adam. I mean, Jessica maybe mean but she's not stupid enough to be doing those things. And neither are you." I paused for a moment. "And I'm not saying your brother is stupid. He is just hanging around some stupid people who are having a big influence on him."

He was looking at me now, with his beautiful eyes, filled with pain and relief.

"Wow Livi. You really know how to make me feel better."

I just looked at him and smiled.

"The key to high school is the people you hang around with. It's that simple."

He squeezed my hand and leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.

"Thank you," he said with a smile.

I couldn't help but ask him a question that was on my mind.

"And do your parents know what he's doing?" I asked hesitantly.

Adam looked disappointed.

"No, and I've known for about six months now. But after this accident happened, I think it's time they know the truth."

I looked over and gave him a reassuring smile.

"I think so too," I said.

We traveled another nine hours. Stopping every so often to let Flint rest and to get something to eat.

It was so pleasurable, getting to spend this many hours alone with Adam, just like at the lake. I couldn't help but ask him if he felt the same way too.

"Do you like traveling like this together? I mean, getting to have alone time with each other?" I asked.

He just looked over and smiled at me.

"This is my second favorite time to be with you. When we feel we're so alone because we're hours from home," he said grinning.

"And what's the first?" I asked curious.

His smile was covering his whole face.

"My favorite time to be with you is when I'm holding you in my arms."

I was completely speechless. That was the most amazing thing anyone had ever said to me.

I leaned over and kissed him. That was all the words I needed to say right now.

We finally arrived at the show grounds.

Adam parked the trailer and unloaded Flint while I went to sign in. When I went into the office, Jessica was in there. Oh great!

"Hey Livi!" she said with a fake smile.

"Hey Jessica," I said annoyed.

"Can you believe it?" she asked.

"Believe what?" I said annoyed.

"That we're in the same division! How fun is this going to be!"

I was getting tired of this stupid little act she was pulling.

"It'll be awesome Jessica. Now, if you'll excuse me I have to go take care of my horse."

I walked out, glad to be away from her and her stupid act.

I walked down to where Flint's stall was and started unpacking everything. Adam was already there and had set some things up. In this sport, most people that ride are teenage girls. Well, let's just say that every teenage girl in that entire barn was staring at him and hoping to God he wasn't with me.

It made me feel good inside, to have a guy that is so great and who cared for me the same as I did for him. Every girl here just cared about his looks, but I cared about more than that. I mean, don't get me wrong, Adam is breathtakingly gorgeous, but I love his personality, coolness, and basically everything about him. And I know that I couldn't live a day without him.

"Are you alright?" Adam asked with a laugh.

I guess I had just been standing there looking stupid. Nice going! I tried to recover.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine," I said.

He gave me a kiss on the cheek and right then, every girl that was looking at him had turned away in disgust. I couldn't help but laugh.

"What are you laughing about?" he asked curiously.

"It's just, every girl here has been staring at you the minute we pulled up. As soon as you gave me a kiss, they looked away."

He just laughed.

"I guess I just can't help but dazzle people."

I was laughing now.

"Okay, don't get full of yourself!"

We finished unpacking everything in front of Flint's stall and we decided to go out to eat.

It was only Thursday night, so there wasn't many things I had to do, and the grounds weren't busy yet. So after I wrapped his legs and but a blanket on Flint for the night, we decided to leave.

We went out to eat at this Mexican restaurant, and headed back to the hotel.

By the time we had gotten our luggage into our room and settled in, it was close to nine. I was more than ecstatic to get some good sleep tonight.

I took a quick shower and got in bed to watch T.V. I waited for Adam to get out of the shower and get ready for the night.

When he came out, I asked him to come lay beside me. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my lips, and I kissed him back.

We just lay there, kissing each other and really getting into it. It was such a good feeling because, we were completely alone and Adam wasn't hesitant at all. Neither was I! I couldn't get enough of him.

I was kissing him back, being persistent, and he suddenly got a little softer and more careful. I could tell he was about to pull away and I kissed him even more.

Adam pulled his face away from mine.

"Come on Livi, we're in a hotel room by ourselves with our parents hours away. Have a little self control," he said sternly.

"I'm sorry, I can't," I said with a laugh.

He couldn't help but smile.

"You know, it's pretty sad when the guy has more self control than the girl," he said with a laugh.

I couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh well, it's good for a guy to have self control."

"Yeah, but it makes it twice as hard when the girl he's in love with doesn't have any," he said. "And I think your Dad is having enough anxiety as it is just thinking about us being alone in a hotel room together for three nights," he said with a smile.

I shook my head.

"He trusts me. He knows I won't do something like that," I said reassuring.

Adam gave me a light kiss on the forehead.

I decided to bring up the subject on my mind.

"Thank you," I said softly. "For coming here with me and spending so many days out here with me."

He wrapped his arms around me even tighter.

"There is no place I'd rather be right now than here with you," he said with his beautiful smile.

He placed a kiss on my lips and pulled his head back to look at me. His eyes were absolutely gorgeous and I loved every second of being here with him.

He looked like he was going to say something important, but I couldn't figure out what he was thinking. Then, he said something that I had been wanting to hear for a while now.

"I love you Livi," he said softly.

I couldn't breath. Adam loved me. He loved me just like I loved him, and he wanted me to know exactly how he felt. There was only one answer my heart could give him.

"I love you too Adam," I said breathless.

I gave him a kiss, and this time, he kissed me back, and more urgently than before. We couldn't get enough of each other and now that we knew exactly how each other felt, there was nothing stopping us from giving our hearts to each other.

We were still kissing when my phone rang.

Adam groaned when I pulled away.

I just laughed.

"I have to answer it. It might be Dad and if I don't answer, he'll probably have a heart attack."

"Fine," he moaned.

I couldn't help but laugh when I answered the phone.

"Hey Dad," I said.

"Hey Livi. How's everything going?" he asked worried.

"Fine Dad," I laughed. Adam was kissing my neck.

"Why are you laughing?" he asked.

"Uh, Adam and I are watching a funny movie," I lied.

I could here the distress in his voice.

"How was the drive?"

"Fine Dad. We're pretty tired so we're going to go to bed," I said trying to get him off the phone.

"Okay," he said worried. "By Livi. And tell Adam I said hi."

I just rolled my eyes.

"Okay Dad. By!"

I flipped my phone shut and turned to Adam with a stern face.

"You were talking about me not having any self control, and you almost gave my dad a heart attack!"

He just laughed and kissed me.

"Sorry," he said with a smile.

He started to get up off my bed and turn off the light. When he was in his bed, I heard him turn over onto his side. I stared up at the ceiling, thinking about tonight.

"Adam?" I asked, hoping he hadn't gone to sleep.

"Yeah?"

"You're definitely not your brother," I said with a smile.

"Why is that?" he asked curious.

"Because if you were your brother, you would have done more with me tonight than kiss me," I said hesitantly.

I could here relief in his voice when he spoke.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he said with a smile.

"I know I'm right," I said back.

We both laughed and then I rolled over onto my side.

"Good night," I said softly.

"Good night," Adam said back.

Before I could think of anything else, I had already fallen asleep.