"The Rush of You"
The three friends sat around the Ritter's kitchen table. Kris rested her head on her folded arms that were planted on the table and Matt stared at both Junior and Kris.
"Okay, who was that?" Matt finally asked.
Knowing how Kris felt about Mack, Junior answered for Kris by saying, "Just someone from Kris' past looking for revenge."
Kris silently thanked Junior through her eyes and he held onto her hand tightly. Still confused, Matt shook it off and said, "He better not come back here. It isn't good for the 'dude ranch'." As he said it, Matt shuttered. He never condoned the idea of Raintree abandoning horse racing to become and dude ranch and every time he thought about it, he only hated it more.
"I'm really sorry, Matt. I'll do something about him," Kris explained, although she had no idea what she was going to do.
Unable to stay around Junior and Kris any longer, Matt rose from the table and said, "I have to get back to the dirty dozen. Kris, at three we need to run Nosering."
Kris nodded in agreement before Matt walked out the back door. Junior sighed heavily as his head fell on the table. Kris took his hand and signaled for them to go for a walk.
Junior grabbed the picnic basket and blanket that he brought for lunch from the backseat of his Porsche and the engaged pair found a spot not too far away from society and enjoyed being alone.
"He knows about us, doesn't he?" Junior said as he opened the picnic basket. Kris slowly nodded her head and Junior lowered his head and sighed.
"He was more mad I didn't tell him straight out," Kris explained. After a long pause of silence, she said, "I never wanted to come between you and Matt's friendship."
Immediately seeing where Kris was going with her words, Junior said, "No, no no. If I had to choose between my family and Matt and the Ritter's or you, I'd choose you."
Kris covered her blushing face with a smile and looked off into the distance to see the Davis mansion. "But what are we going to do Junior? We can't live at Raintree and your dad hates me, so we can't live at your house."
"So we'll have to find our own place. But until then, we'll stay in my room. My dad won't notice and besides, I think he's finally warming up to you. He helped you get another meeting with the racing board, didn't he?"
"Let's just hope his efforts will pay off," Kris said. Junior stared into Kris' eyes and for once she couldn't tell what he was thinking. "What?" she said with a small chuckle.
"You love being a jockey, don't you?"
"The rush you get when you're neck in neck with another horse, just waiting for an opening so you can break through and win, it's…indescribable," Kris explained with excitement in her eyes from just thinking about racing again.
Junior smiled and said, "It sounds like how I feel when I'm will you."
Kris smiled widely as she leaned over to kiss his perfect face. Everything was perfect. But she could only question how long this perfect time would last.
A/N: So it's kind of a cliffhanger there, but that's what makes it so grand. The next chapter is pretty short so I'll try to get two up tomorrow, but no promises. Review please, they make me happy.
