A/N: Thanks to everyone who favored/reviewed/alerted this story! I am really grateful for all your enthusiasm and kind words :) But I do have a question since I'm new here, does anyone know how the how BetaReader thing works or gets set up? I would be really interested in getting another set of eyes as I go along!

Well I hope you all enjoy this next chapter! Happy Reading!

Rachel lies in bed at night, unable to get to sleep. You'd think it'd be easy, with the lack of lights and constant noise of the city, but that's the exact reason she can't sleep. It's weird to think that silence can be louder than anything.

But she just lies there thinking about Puck. She thinks about his eyes and how green they are. She also thinks that green eyes are totally underrated. Then there's his arms, muscular and toned, but not bulging out so much that he has the same stance as a gorilla. Those arms would feel very nice wrapped around her, she's sure. She thinks of his smile next, which almost feels like it's a secret just between the two of them. And then there's his slow, deep voice that's laced with a country twang that makes her sigh.

She finally falls into a peaceful sleep with thoughts of Puck and all his attributes. And she may dream of him throughout the night and all the things he could do to her.

The next morning she's drinking coffee on the porch when she sees him arrive in his pick up truck. He hops out and before running out to Joe, he waves to her and she waves back. Rachel waits until he leaves to giggle to herself. She doesn't think she's had a crush like this since she was fifteen. It's kind of fun though and no one can fault her for having a crush on Puck.

Rachel watches him the next couple of days and she learns his daily routine. He's there at eight in the morning, has lunch around noon, and leaves by five or six. She's talked to him some but it seems like its been a hard couple of days for him and Joe from what she can see. It's probably hard to work those long days in this summer heat. But she gets a wave and smile in the mornings, light conversations as he stuffs his face at lunch, and they usually talk about something useless or silly for a couple minutes before he leaves.

It's the fourth day and Rachel is hanging out with the horses when he comes in. She sees that it's only just past three and he looks like he's getting ready to leave.

"Hey" She calls out to him.

He smiles and walks over, "Hey"

"You done early today?"

"Yea thank God, I felt like I was gonna die, it's so hot today." Puck says as he wipes some sweat off of his forehead.

Rachel looks at him and thinks he's so hot everyday.

"Well what are you going to do with your day now?"

"Dunno" he shrugs.

"Well, I remember from when I was younger, there's a creek here and I'm not sure if I remember exactly where it is-"

"I know where it is." Puck interrupts.

Rachel smiles and says, "Good. Well as I was saying, I was thinking about going since it is so hot out today. If you're not doing anything, you could to join me if you like. I mean, you don't have to but if you're not doing anything-"

Puck laughs and says, "Yea, let's go."

After Rachel stops in the house to change into her bathing suit, she follows Puck to the creek. She more nervous about trying to keep her cool rather than being around Puck in her bikini. After years of dancing and a rigorous exercise schedule, Rachel knows she has a good body. She can admit that because she works hard to keep it that way.

He's in the water as soon as they get there and she can see him looking out of the corner of her eye as she takes her clothes off. She smiles to herself and runs into the water, diving in. As soon as she's in the water she feels relief from the hot summer day. When she comes back up from underwater she sees him swimming over to her.

"This was a good idea" he says with a sigh.

Rachel pushes her hair out of her face and says, "I'm full of good ideas."

Puck lets out a laugh, "Oh really?"

"Yes. Why are you laughing?" Rachel asks and she's sure if she wasn't treading water, she'd have her arms across her chest waiting for his answer.

Puck shakes his head and says, "You're just, I don't know I've never met anyone like you before."

Rachel doesn't know what to make of that. "Is that a bad thing?"

"No."

Rachel looks at him trying to figure out what he means, but he's smiling at her so she can't help but smile back.

The next day she goes into town with a huge smile on her face. She hasn't stopped thinking about Puck since, well, since she met him really, but more specifically now about their afternoon at the creek.

Nothing crazy happened. He never tried to kiss her and never said anything inappropriate. Rachel's not used to boys being such gentleman. If she was there with any of the boys back home they wouldn't have just tried something, but would have just expected it. Part of her likes that things seem to be going rather slowly, but the other part just wants him to be anything but a gentleman.

They ended up sitting on the grass next to each other just talking. She learned his real name when he tells her some crazy story imitating his mother yelling, "Noah Samuel Puckerman, I brought you into this world, I can very well take you out of it!"

Rachel laughs and asks, "So you're name is Noah?"

"You caught that?" he says with a laugh in his voice.

"Yea and I like it better. Can I call you Noah?"

Puck raises his eyebrows as he looks at her, "Does it matter if I say no?"

Rachel thinks about it for a second and says, "Nope."

Puck rolls his eyes and says, "Whatever, just don't call me late to dinner."

Rachel laughs so hard she can hardly breath and tells him that was the corniest thing she's ever heard and he just shrugs and says, "You like it."

Rachel laughs thinking about it now as she's walking down the street. She thinks this is the cutest town in the world and so much different than where she's from. Everyone takes their time and is in no rush to get anywhere. The strangers you pass always offer a smile, nod, and some times even a hello. That doesn't even happen in New York with people you know.

She sees Puck coming out of a store a couple shops down and her smile grows. However, it quickly disappears when she sees the prettiest girl she's ever seen walk out behind him and take his hand. She's tall and blond, but not in the fake bimbo kind of way. She has almost no makeup on but still looks like she could be on a cover of a magazine. Maybe their just friends. Friends can hold hands, right? But then she sees him turn his head and kiss her right on the lips and her stomach drops.

Before she can escape, Puck sees her and calls out her name. Good thing she has years of acting experience because all she wants to do is leave to sulk in her own self pity - but she pastes on a mega watt smile and heads over to him.

"Hey Rachel, this is my girlfriend, Quinn" he says with a smile.

Rachel takes the hand Quinn offers and says, "Nice to meet you."

Quinn is smiling and is practically bouncing when she says, "Oh you too! Puck was actually just telling me about you. It must be so great living in New York City. Gosh, I can't even begin to image. You'll have to tell me about it sometime!"

"That sounds great" (That does not sound great.) Rachel says with her most convincing fake smile, "But I gotta run, I'm picking something up for my Aunt Sarah, but I'm sure I'll see you around!"

Quinn gives her smile that is truly genuine and tells her, "It was really great meeting you!"

Rachel wants to vomit. "You too."

Puck says he'll see her Monday and she sees them walk away. Puck put his arm around Quinn's waist and can hear him call her 'baby' and Quinn giggle. Rachel really just feels like sinking into a hole and never coming back out. She just walks home and gets in her bed and rethinks everything and how stupid she is for misreading all of Puck's actions.

She realizes that none of their interactions were really anything more than friendly but she was blinded by her crush and read way too much into them. They also didn't know each that long or that well. But there was just something, like an instant connection that she felt with him.

She tells herself that she just needs to get over it. She still has the whole summer and plenty of time to find someone else to have this summer fling with. She also thinks it wouldn't be bad having him as a friend, even if she can get a smile on her face from just thinking about him.

Rachel sees him again on Monday and as much as she's trying to get over her crush it's hard when he looks the way he does. He comes into the barn as a complete walking cliche. He's wearing pair up muddy boots and a Stetson is perched on top of his head.

So, don't blame her when she's a little on edge. She already decided that she's not going to try to seduce him like Kurt suggested, she's just not that kind of girl. She would hate if someone did that to her, so why would she do that do someone else? Especially to someone who seemed so nice and unsuspecting. Rachel doesn't know Quinn, but she can tell she's not like the girls in New York who can sometimes seem completely soulless. She just has to be able to look at him, try to keep her cool, and not read into every smile and laugh he throws her way.

"Sorry about Quinn the other day, she can get a bit overexcited sometimes." Puck says as he swaggers on over her way.

"It's okay. She's seems really nice" Rachel says, hardly looking him in the eyes.

"She is." Puck says with a proud smile on his face that makes Rachel's stomach turn.

"How long have you've been together."

"Three years."

She sends him a small smile and nods.

"You okay? You seem weird."

"I seem weird?" Rachel doesn't mean to sound so defensive, but being called weird isn't something you hope for.

Puck looks like he feels bad and says, "No not weird like that - Just, like you're usually talking a mile a minute and right now you're, you know, not."

He puts his hand on her shoulder, shakes it, and tells her, "Cheer up, Broadway."

Her heart skips a beat, finding this nickname he just came up very endearing. It's probably because of his accent because Rachel hates nicknames. She also can't have his hands on her for one more second or she thinks she might melt right there in front of him. So she just pushes his hand off, fakes a look of disgust, and says, "Noah, you're hands are filthy."

He just laughs and says sorry. But she can see mischief in his eyes when he pulls out the water bottle in his back pocket and starts taking off the cap. Before Rachel can realize what he's doing, he splashes it all over her.

Rachel screams and Puck starts laughing harder than she's ever seen him laugh. She gives him a look that, if it could, it would kill. He turns and runs and Rachel runs right after him throwing hay (it's the only thing she could throw) and he throws it back.

They both stop after a few minutes, out of breath and laughing. Puck puts both his hands up in a truce. Rachel laughs and brushes the hay that sticking to her off. Puck brings his hand to her forehead and brushes off a stray piece that was left there. She feels a jolt in her stomach the second his hand touches her skin. She looks at him and says, "Thanks."

He just nods and gives her this look that she's not sure how to read, but it makes her stomach twist and she thinks for a second her knees might give out on her. But he just takes a deep breath and says he's gotta go and he'll see her tomorrow.

Rachel huffs after he leaves and thinks this might be the most frustrating situation she could have on her careless, stress-free, lazy summer in the south. She sure find a cowboy, but this perfect cowboy had a perfect girlfriend. She has to stop reading into something that's not there and that's not going to happen. And what just happened was nothing. She should not read into that at all. Right? Right.

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