New Friends

Amy watched as the gentleman unloaded the hay and came over to where Amy was grooming one of the horses adjacent to a water hydrant. He quietly took a drink of water.

This man reminded Amy of her grandfather a bit - hard working, yet quietly determined in his ways.

Amy asked, "Can I help unload the hay", and the gentleman smiled. In less than a couple minutes, they had unloaded the 20 bales of hay.

Brigitta came out of the stable. "Hey Amy, have you met my neighbor - Dean Richards? He is from up the canyon at Mountain Meadows and bails the hay in the canyon. He happens to make hay delivers for me."

Mr. Richards shook hands with Amy and said, "Good to meet you. Your first name is Amy?"

"Yes, Amy Fleming. Good to meet you too Mr. Richards."

"Always nice to have new faces here in the canyon. Welcome to Rist Canyon. Are you helping Brigitta this summer?"

Amy could tell a sincere welcome when she heard it and said, "I am a student at CSU for the summer and Brigitta is letting me board here at her stables."

"Well you should enjoy the mountains here. Where are you originally from?"

"I grew up on a farm near Hudson, Alberta. My grandfather, sister and I still run the farm."

Mr. Richards had a faint memory of the town named Hudson. It sounded familiar. Perhaps the details would come to him later.

"Well, I better get back. No doubt my wife is waiting for me back at home with dinner. Good to have you visiting here Amy."

"Thanks"

Brigitta add, "Perhaps we will get over to visit Dean".

Dean said, "sounds good, we'll keep the wine chilled", as he turned and hopped in his truck and drove away down the fire road".

With that, things started to wind down for the evening; Amy was feeling better about being here in Colorado, away from family and Ty. She still missed them though.

Brigitta showed Amy around the stables and after dinner, Amy did homework for her summer classes, included biochemistry where she struggled. Amy pulled out her cell phone and found that there was no signal. She expected this problem, as the terrain was similar to the foothills around Hudson.

Amy fired up her laptop and to her amazement, there was a high speed Wi-Fi signal. Ty had emailed Amy asking how she was getting along. Now excited, Amy emailed Ty about her change in living arrangements, the drudgery of homework, her future work with the Arabians and meeting welcoming neighbors.

Before Amy sent the email, she thought about how to sign the message. She typed, "yours truly and always, Amy.

Amy went to sleep more relaxed and ready to face the next days ahead.

Ty was in the ranch house sitting at the table with Jack going over the chore list for tomorrow. The workload was hectic since Amy had left for summer school, but tolerable. At 9:30 pm, the family's laptop in the kitchen chimed that new email had been received. Ty jumped up excitedly, expecting a nightly email from Amy.

Guessing the situation, Amy's grandfather said, "Well Ty, what does Amy have to say?"

"Let me read it first Jack. I'm not a mind-reader ya know."

Chuckling, Jack smiled at Ty. Jack had grown to trust Ty over these past 4 years and looked at him as part of his family. Jack had 'gone to the wall' for Ty over the years and that trust had been rewarded more time than he could count.

Ty loved working at Heartland and was training to become a vet. Harboring hopes that Ty would be a long term member of the family, Jack supported Ty in ways he would probably never know, yet Jack kept his firm demeanor with the young man, who had turned 22 years old recently.

"Jack, you're not going to believe it. Amy has to be one lucky girl. She writes here that she found a horse ranch just up the Rocky Mountains to live - with her summer school advisor Professor Erhardt."

"Amy has a way of finding her way to the open country", snickered Jack.

Ty exclaimed, "That is not all. The ranch is a horse stable with Arabians and riding trails. Oh and high speed Wi-Fi".

"Things certainly are falling into place for our girl, wouldn't you say Ty."

Ty was very happy for Amy. Before she had left on the bus for Colorado, Amy had expressed nervousness in being away at the CSU college campus. But more than that, Ty sensed Amy would miss her rural life and being around horses - other than those at college.

"You know Amy needed a great summer school experience and she is seeing a part of a dream come true. I just hope she does not get too attached to the Colorado Rockies", said Jack.

A tense feeling welled up inside Ty, as he wondered if Amy would forget their relationship.