Chapter 4: Sharing New and Old Experiences

About ten days later, Mitch called Amy while she was taking Spartan for a ride.

"Hi Amy! How's it going?"

"Hi Mitch! Spartan and I are just out for a ride."

"It's a beautiful day for it! Wish I was there with you!" Amy's heart skipped a beat at Mitch's admission. "So do you have anything planned for Saturday around lunch time, a long lunch?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"Have you ever had Pho?"

"Pho? What is it?"

"It's pronounced fŭh and is a Vietnamese soup that is absolutely delicious and super healthy! Some college friends introduced it to me, and I'd love to share it with you! There's a restaurant in Okotoks called Pho Hoai we could go to. We could meet where we did last time, and there's a place nearby on my property where you could park your truck, and we can head out from there."

"That sounds like an adventure! Let me see what I can arrange to be able to get away without raising too much attention and work out someone to watch Lyndy. I'll let you know as soon as I can."

"I'll be looking forward to hearing back from you! Have a great ride! Hope to see you soon!"

"And I you," Amy replied as she broke into a happy smile.

As Amy rode home, she began trying to figure out how she was going to get away for 4-5 or more hours without lying or raising suspicion. 'Is there something I could pick up for the ranch or Lyndy in Okotoks? Or wait, the herbs I've gotten from the Cree lady! That is perfect because I'd be the only one that could shop for them. And no one would question how long I might end up visiting with her. Now I need to figure out something for Lyndy.'

When Amy got back to the house, she sought out Katie. "Katie, do you think you'd be able to babysit Lyndy for me on Saturday from about 11am till I get back around dinner time? I will pay you. I need to make a run to Okotoks to get some herbs."

"Sure, I don't have anything planned yet. I can even check to see if Parker wants to help me. And we can just charge you as if it were only one of us, and we'll split it."

"That would be great! Thank you so much!"

"Of course! We love hanging out with Lyndy."

Amy's plan was working. She was so glad! She texted Mitch, "Plan is in place, Lyndy taken care of, but we'll need to make an additional stop while we are in Okotoks. Shall I meet you about 11:15am?"

Mitch was surprised to hear back from her so soon but was delighted! "Great! That sounds perfect! Til Saturday…. ?"

Saturday finally arrived, and Amy decided to dress a little nicer than normal but not dressy enough to arouse questions. She got Lyndy squared away with Katie and Parker who'd said yes to helping. When she got in the truck to head out, she felt a long-ago familiar feeling of butterflies. 'Where are all these feelings at seeing Mitch coming from?!' She wasn't sure, but she liked it!

When she arrived, Mitch said, "You look really nice today!"

"Thank you, Mitch!" Amy replied with a smile and was glad she'd taken a little more care this morning. Once they were on their way in Mitch's truck, they caught up on what all they'd been doing workwise since they were last together. Amy also told Mitch about the stop they'd need to make to back-up her excuse for being away for the afternoon. He grinned at her creativity and complimented her plan.

"So tell me more about the Pho, is it?"

"You're going to love it! The basis of the soup is beef broth with onions. The broth takes about six hours to make. They bring you your choice of very thinly sliced raw meat, usually beef or chicken, bean sprouts, rice noodles and several kinds of fresh herbs such as cilantro, basil, ginger, and some vegetables, etc. You put all that in your bowl, and then you pour the steaming hot broth over it, and because it is so hot, it 'cooks' the thinly sliced meat right in your bowl. You add a little lime juice and siracha if you want, and your tastebuds are in for a delight! And it's even better when served with Spring Rolls."

"Mmmm, that sounds really interesting and delicious. I'm anxious to try it!"

When they arrived at the restaurant, Mitch opened Amy's door and ushered her inside. They were seated right away and made their order. They decided to go with the beef for their meat. Amy was thoroughly enjoying this new experience, and they were served very quickly. As Amy watched Mitch assemble his bowl, she followed suit. Once everything was in, Mitch poured the broth for both of them, and they gave it a minute or two to cook and slightly cool. Mitch held back as he watched Amy take her first bite and was very satisfied with the look on her face – one of surprise and pure pleasure. He was thrilled to be able to introduce her to a new experience and share it with her! As they continued their meal, they began to pick up from where they had left off in their last conversation.

"So Mitch, we've shared some about our pasts. I was just curious…other than Lou and Maya, have you dated anyone else?"

"Just the occasional date in high school. And after high school, I went to college for three years before deciding to join the military. So I occasionally dated in college, but nothing was ever anywhere near serious until Maya and Lou. It feels so strange to have been engaged twice now, yet never making it down the aisle. But I see now that Maya and I were just too different, and I think I started dating her to try to get over Lou. I felt horrible when I called our wedding off. I hated doing that to her and ruining what was supposed to be the best day of her life; something I have to live with. However, I do understand that she has now met someone else that she is serious about, so I'm happy for her. And with Lou, she always had something going on that seemed to take priority – her career, Maggie's in New York and then becoming mayor. Don't get me wrong, I think your sister is an amazing person, but I just never seemed to have top priority with her. And so far, no one has ever felt like the right fit." Amy looked at him with concern in her eyes, yet her heart was slowly opening up and holding out a glimmer of hope. "So enough about me, what about you?"

"Well, over the last year or so, there was a guy named Finn that for a while, it seemed like we might grow close, but he had a lot going on in his life, and I just wasn't ready to move on. And believe it or not, my first 'boyfriend' for a very brief time was Jessie Stanton, Val's son. I was only 15 at the time." Mitch looked at her with a slight bit of surprise. "But that ended rather abruptly because of Ty. We were at a party one night, and Jessie had had a little too much to drink. Ty had shown up. This was very shortly after Ty started working at Heartland. And the reason he started working at Heartland was actually because of my mom. She sometimes took on troubled kids as hands on the ranch. Anyway, a situation happened that night when Ty thought Jessie was hurting me, so they got into a physical fight. I left angry and on-foot in the cold, and Ty pulled up and drove slowly beside me til he convinced me as to why he'd punched Jessie, apologized and talked me into getting in the truck with him – his old blue one. That night was the very beginning of our friendship."

"So he wasn't one to back down, was he?"

"No, and it got him into trouble more times than not, but I think that also came out in his passion for the things he believed in. Anyway, after some rough on and off years that also involved a few other people – Caleb for a nano second, a guy named Chase and a European tour that involved a prince named Ahmed for me…"

"Wait, wait, wait…a prince? How do I not know about this?"

"That's a story for another day. And for Ty, a girl named Carrie Ann from his past, one named Kit and another named Blair. We finally worked through all the issues that had plagued us and had a beautiful winter wedding at Heartland. In fact, I guess you could actually say we were engaged twice. So it seems we both kind of have the two time thing in common. Only mine was with the same person." They both lightly chuckled at that. "That was about a year or so before you showed up."

"Sounds like you and Ty had quite the journey."

"Yes, it wasn't smooth sailing for us. But once we realized that we could be ok on our own, but we preferred doing life together and then truly committed to each other, …well, you saw us." Amy could feel that if she continued to say anymore, she was going to get emotional, so she changed the subject, "Mitch, thank you for the wonderful new food experience! Let's keep this one on our list to come back to. I guess we should finish up and go get the herbs so I don't return home empty-handed."

Mitch could sense that Amy was needing some space from the very personal subject they'd touched on, so he tried to lighten things up, "Yes, we should try to get back on the road home before too many people can think too long about where you are and what you are doing," he said with a wink.

The place for Amy to get the herbs was on the way out of town just off a side road, so it didn't take long for them to get there. As Amy spoke with her friend, and they gathered the herbs she could use, Mitch was fascinated with Amy's and her friend Aiyana's knowledge of all the uses for the herbs. He loved all the deeper things he was learning about her. He was appreciating the term "Miracle Girl" more every day. And he marveled at how circumstances can so change how you see a person in ways you never had before.

At a moment when Mitch got distracted browsing the shop, Aiyana leaned over and whispered to Amy, "Your friend is quite a hunk! Are you two a thing?" Amy felt her cheeks heating up but responded, "Yes, he is! And that's something we are trying to figure out, but I think we might be heading to be 'a thing,'" Amy winked.

The drive back held easy conversation and felt way too short to both of them. When they got back to Amy's truck, Mitch helped her transfer her "excuse" to her cab, then he walked her to the driver's side and opened her door. She turned toward him, suddenly aware of her "smallness" so close to his masculine frame and felt secure as he enveloped her in a goodbye hug. They agreed to continue to keep in touch.

A/N: Spoiler alert with Season 16 - As of tonight's broadcast of Heartland S16E10, we are left hanging with how the writers are going to resolve the Finn storyline and also a cliffhanger with Jack.