Chapter Fourteen: Eyes on the Finish

"Grandpa, have you seen Shane?" Amy closed the screen door and peeled off her raincoat. Heavy rain was pelting the roof of the Heartland house, and Amy was soaked. Jack was sitting in his armchair reading the newspaper, his glasses low on his nose.

"No, I haven't seen him." He said, standing up. "I hope he's not into some trouble. You sit down to read the paper for five minutes…" He walked off grumbling to go find him. Amy hadn't seen him all day. When she woke up that morning, Shane was gone, although a pile of half-smoked cigarettes were lying on the loft floor to tell her he had spent the night there.

Taking off her boots, Amy got herself a glass of water and sat down at the kitchen table. She had been so busy that day, she had hardly stopped to take a break or eat. She had ridden Foxtrot, who was coming along nicely. He wasn't spooking at the low fences anymore at all, and Amy thought that tomorrow or the next day she would try him over some taller and wider ones.

Then she had taken Spartan on a nice trail ride. She hadn't done that in a while and it felt great. She had only wished Ty had been able to come along, but he was at work. She walked into her room. Beginning to organize the stuff on her desk, her eyes came across something that looked unfamiliar.

"What is this..." She murmured, picking it up. It was a wedding magazine, full of dresses and bouquets and ideas for the venue. "Lou!" She said, smiling knowingly. Lou had never been very subtle with her hints.

Caleb picked himself up from the dirt, taking a second to regain his breath and put his hat back on before he yelled, "That was awesome! Let's do it again!" The bucking bronco had bucked him right off into the dirt after a few seconds, but it was something that always gave Caleb an adrenaline rush. It was the most fun way that he knew of to make money-the rodeo, that is.

"No, I think that'll be it for today." One of Caleb's rodeo buddies said. They had been practicing today, but he yawned and said, "I'm tired and I need to study." "Dude, college is making you lame." Caleb said, clapping him on the back as they handed the horse off to another guy to be put out to pasture and went to their trucks.

Ben, Caleb's friend, shrugged. "My mom is making me go." He said. "She said if this rodeo thing doesn't work out, I can always fall back on a business degree." Caleb chuckled and shook his head. College just wasn't his thing; he could tell that from the months he'd spent following Ashley around while she was at college.

The thought made him wince, but also become happy inside. Ashley. The name had gone from making him ridiculously happy, to angry and disillusioned, to happy again. He wasn't exactly sure what to think about it. All he knew was he was glad it had happened.

"Ty, I thought we could do something different today instead of going over to your trailer. How about when you get off of work you meet me at the house? Love you, bye." Amy left the message on Ty's voicemail and looked at the overwhelming stacks of wedding magazines and website suggestions that Lou had given her.

Amy had gone to Lou intending to tease her about putting the wedding magazine in her room on the sly, but she had left with an armful of wedding information. She hadn't exactly asked for it, but that was okay. It could always be fun to look through them with Ty, even if they didn't end up using anything from them.

A few hours later she and Ty were sitting in the living room, the stack of magazines sitting in between them on the couch. "Who gave you all this stuff?" Ty asked, looking at the stack. "Guess." Amy said. Grinning, he said, "I should have known. Lou." Amy nodded. "Yeah. I didn't really ask for them, but they'll be fun to look at, right?"

"Absolutely." He picked up one and flipped through it, coming to picture of a wedding that was in a castle. "Hey, look at that." He said. "We could have a wedding like that." Amy laughed. "I don't think so." She said. "Yeah, I don't think so, either." He said.

They continued flipping through the magazines. Amy grew tired of looking at the elaborate settings and catered wedding foods. "Ty," She said, "I don't know about you, but I want the wedding to be simple. With just our close family and friends, you know? Not four hundred people and maybe outside...and we could just have snacks and dancing afterwards."

Ty nodded thoughtfully. "I like that idea." He said. "Hey, you know where we could have it?" He asked, growing excited. "Where?" "The old jump course. I love that place." Ty said, turning to face her. "Oh, that would be so nice!" Amy said. "We could just move the jumps out of the way for the wedding and then set them back up, right?"

"Right." Lou walked into the room just then, carrying Katie on her hip. "Hey," She said, looking suspiciously at Amy and Ty as they immediately stopped talking, "What have you two been up to?"

"Oh, nothing," Amy said, trying to hide her excitement. "Just looking at these catalogues." Lou smiled. "If you guys need any help with the wedding, any at all…ask…" "I will, Lou." Amy said. "Thanks."

She left, and Amy turned back to Ty. "Let's start planning now." She said.

"One, two, three" Amy counted the strides underneath her breath as they approached the jump. She had set up the taller jumps today for Foxtrot, and she was hoping for good things from him today-like no spooks.

Pushing her weight into her heels and rising up into two-point position, she felt Foxtrot rising up over the jump. When he had come back down on the other side, Amy dropped the reins for a second of pure happiness, patting him soundly on the neck. "Good boy!" She said.

He seemed fine with the jumps now. Amy had never figured out exactly what had been the source of his problem, but after a few weeks work with her he was doing just fine. She figured in another two or three days he would be good to go to return to his owner.

They jumped over three more jumps nicely before Amy slowed him down to a sitting trot. She cooled him off and dismounted, leading him back to the barn.

Yesterday she and Ty had set the date tentatively of their wedding as a month from now. They had decided that they didn't want a huge or over-elaborate wedding, and they didn't want it to take forever to plan. Even though Ty was still in college, they wanted to move forward with their life as a couple. And Amy had realized that the busyness at Heartland shouldn't make her prolong the wedding date; she would just have to find a way to work her schedule so everything would fit.

Amy knew that if she let the planning go on too long, then Lou would try to take over completely, even if she was just trying to help.

"You did well today, Foxtrot." Amy said, rubbing his muzzle as she slipped off his saddle and saddle pad. She was so excited for what was to come.