It had been a month since they had kissed. Sean was getting impatient with her. He loved her and he wanted her NOW! He was in the barn loading his saddlebags for his trip to Louisville.

"Marita is here" SH
Sean turns, sees her and goes back to loading his saddlebags. He has an attitude with her.

"You still making that trip to Louisville?" Marita asks.

"Yeah, we got one chance at that horse Clay's got his eye on." Sean says as he continues with his saddlebags.

"Oh, I just thought....that with your Aunt Regine arriving and all...that maybe you'd..." Marita says.
He interrupts her.
"I think Pa's happy to have an excuse not to stay." He turns to give her a quick smile.

Sean turns back to pack and she says, "All right well...be careful. And come home safely." Marita says.

He turns back again to look at her, slightly nods her head and barely smiles.
"Why are you acting so concerned about me when you wont even tell me you love me" SH is hurting
"Maybe I read her kiss wrong. Maybe she doesn't love me after all" SM

Marita is a little hurt by Sean's cool reception, but figures he has a lot on his mind.

In Louisville

Sean meets an attractive woman.
"I'll get Marita out of my system" SM
"It'll never happen" SH

Sean loses his mind while in Louisville and sleeps with this attractive woman. After it is all over, he accepts that Marita is here(in his system) to stay.

"Marita is still the only one for me" SM
"Told you" SH
"Should I tell her about this" SH
"I'd think about that if I were you" SM
"It will be good to get home. Home to Marita" SH

Back Home
**********************

Sean hurries to put away his things so he can go and find Marita. He finds her in the garden tending to her precious flowers.

"Hey" Sean says.
Marita looks up and smiles "Hey" she says excitingly.
"See she doesn't even have an attitude with you even after the way you treated her earlier" SH
"You are lucky to have a woman like this who loves you, even if she has not admitted it yet" SM

"I followed your orders" Sean says.

"What orders?" Marita asks.

"I came home safely" he says.

"I'm glad you did" she says.

He proceeds to tell her about the trip (excluding the attractive woman of course!) and she tells him about the events surrounding Regine's visit.

**********************

Sean dismounts Ahab and leads him to the stables. As he turns to head for Marita's, he runs into Lexy, who is coming to check on her new pony.

"What happen to your head Sean?" Lexy questions.

"I fell off my horse." Sean says and keeps going. He doesn't want to be questioned by Ms Nosey right now. He is too embarrassed. Fighting Clay because of Vivian! How insane!

"Fell off your horse?" Lexy muses. I'll get to the bottom of this. She watches Sean going in the direction of Marita's house. She will follow him after she checks on her pony.

Marita sees Sean coming. "Hey" he says.

"Hey" Marita responds.

Marita sees the cut on his forehead but decides to let him tell her what happened.

"Will you look at this for me?" Sean points to his injury.
"I want to be pampered" SH

"Sure." She looks at it and goes into the house to get ointment.

Sean sits on the table and waits for Marita to return as he contemplates how stupid he acted. He really didn't want his brother getting involved with Vivian but Clay is a grown man. Besides, he needed to be worrying about how to get Marita to admit she loved him. Marita comes back while he is still deep in thought.

"This might hurt." Marita warns. She touches his wound with the ointment.

Sean winces. "It's fine." Sean says between gritted teeth.

Lexy arrives with a puzzled look on her face. "I don't understand how you fell off your horse." Lexy says as she puts her hands on her hips and observes Marita taking care of her brother.

Marita looks at Lexy.
"That's what he told her" MM
Marita looks at Sean.
"Let's see you get out of this" MM

"Well...." Sean can't come up with a response.

"You've never fallen off your horse before."

"Yeah, well..."

"Maybe you should talk to Pa about it."

"NO" Sean interrupts and gives her a look that says "Let's keep this quiet". "I don't think that's going to be necessary. I'm fine." he insists.

Lexy is skeptical but says "OK."

Lexy turns to leave and looks once more at Marita taking care of her brother.

After Lexy is out of hearing range, Marita asks, "This horse's name wasn't Clay Logan by any chance was it?" Sean turns to look at her. "Alice told me you went out looking for him." The daggers are getting sharpened!

He couldn't lie directly to her, so all he does is grunts as he turns to look straight ahead.

"So, the two of you got into a fight over VIVIAN." Marita wanted to know.

Sean looks at her for a split second. "Yeah, I guess you could say that." Sean says sheepishly. He's on the hot seat now.
"I hope she doesn't think I have feelings for Vivian" SM

"SO what's this about? You..... still have feelings for her?" Marita says.
"I knew he was just nervous about marrying Vivian. He loves her" MM

Sean looks at Marita.
"No" Sean says.
"No baby, I have feelings for you!" SH

"Are you sure?" Marita needs to know.
"LORD, please let him be sure" MH

"She is jealous!" SM
"Yeah", Sean turns to her and grins.
"OH I know she loves me now. I just wish she would admit it" SH

"Give him a little reminder so that the next time he wants to fight over Vivian, he'll think twice" MM
Marita applies one more dose of the ointment with a "little" extra pressure.
"If you didn't love him, you would not be jealous" MH
"Ummp. I'm not jealous" MM

"OUCH!!" Sean yells.

"Serves you right" MM
Marita smiles sweetly and innocently at him while her eyes are throwing the sharpened daggers at him.
"Told you you were jealous" MH
"OK! I admit it. But that's ALL I'm admitting" MM

"I love this jealousy thing" SM
Sean smiles back.

To Be Continued.......