a/n: I SHOULD be updating TP… and I was. I had like five pages and I absolutely hated it because Ty's character wasn't… Ty! And that I cannot have. So, I deleted it and am hoping that by updating this I will be able to get TP Ty back into bad-boy mode because, seriously, he's been slacking off recently and that is just disgraceful. Sorry but hope you like this chapter anyways!

Review!

-Steph

Oh, and before I forget: I know I'm basing Ty's tattoo off of one of Austin Winkler's… lead singer for Hinder. Amazing band and HOTT guy. I'm absolutely in love with this tattoo so it just seems natural to give it to Ty ;)

Disclaimer: Everything recognizable belongs to Lauren Brooke.And Austin Winkler gets FULL credit for his tattoo… he-he…

Rodeo Stoner

Chapter Three—Rebel Cowboy

Well, Wyoming really was gorgeous, I'll give them that. The sky was cloudless and bright blue, mountains or other spectacular rock formations were all around us, the rocks were all different colors. There were still trees though, not the kind of big, leafy things you'd find back home in Virginia, but they were still trees. It was like the perfect mixture of desert and non-desert, if that makes any sense.

The car dad rented wouldn't have been my first choice, it was a silver (more like gray) Jeep Cherokee, and not the newest version either. It could have been worse I suppose.

Lou, Abbey and I were all smushed into the back seat and all our bags were piled in the trunk. To spare the details, it was a pretty tight fit. Abbey was napping in the middle, Lou was listening to her iPod and doing some summer work for Princeton and I was just listening to my iPod. Mom and dad had some kind of music playing on the radio but, well, it wasn't my kind of thing, the iPod was much better.

"Are we almost there?" I moaned as I shifted my seat.

"Five more minutes," mom said back.

I leaned my head against the cool glass of the window and watched the scenery pass. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of driving in place, we turned up a gravel driveway, the sign hanging above read 'New Hopes Ranch'. It was quite a… sweet name as my mom continuously said.

"Oh, girls!" mom said from the front seat. "We're here!"

I turned off my iPod and Lou tucked her papers back into her bag. Abbey bolted straight up just as I was about to wake her and said, "Are we here?"

"Yes, Abs," mom said, turning in her seat to smile at us, "we're here."

"Yay!" Abbey clapped her hands excitedly and peered over me so that she could see out of the window.

I decided that it wouldn't hurt anything if I were to look around, too. On either side of the gravel driveway that we were driving up was an empty field. At the end of the driveway, the gravel fanned out and was lined with small cabins. The road continued to the side (that's the way that dad went). There was a main barn and on the side there were several round pens that seemed to ultimately form one seeing as none of them were closed off and they were all attached.

The horses were your standard trail horses—there were Quarter Horses, Paints and maybe a few once mustangs and several draft crosses. The horses were all different colors and sizes but they all appeared to be semi muscled… though not really well worked, if that makes any sense. They were, really, standard trail horses, sturdy and tough but not particularly amazing.

I noticed two guys working, they were both mucking out a section of the round pen. Now, these two guys were complete opposites. Both of the guys were young, but only the first looked like you typical western, ranch working cowboy. He wore jeans, cowboy boots, a worn in cowboy hat, a plaid shirt tucked into his pants and had a bandana tied around his neck.

Now, the second guy…? Well, he was wearing a pair of dark, semi fitted jeans and a brown t-shirt with some kind of big, black design on it that due to the distance and the faded quality of it I couldn't make out. Those weren't so bad; he still didn't look too cowboy-ish though. His hair was dark and long, almost completely covering his eyes in the front but it didn't touch his shoulders. He had broad shoulders and, if his arms were any indication, was extremely well fit. Not overly like bodybuilder or football player muscles but, he certainly wasn't scrawny. On his right arm I thought I could just make out something winding around his arm, starting at the wrist and ending somewhere under the sleeve of his shirt… can anyone say serious tattoo? He looked ridiculously out of place next to Mr. Cowboy over there… in fact; he looked as about fit for a ranch as I was fit for… a Brittney Spears look-alike. Yes, I know, bad comparison but it's the only thing I could think of at the time. Here, let me try again: his fitting in on the ranch was like me fitting in with Ashley Grant and her groupies. That's more accurate.

Both of the guys glanced up as they heard the car pass. Mr. Cowboy glanced at Tattoo Guy but Tattoo Guy seemed to care less and went back to his work with a furious passion. I've never seen anyone jam a pitchfork into the ground quite that hard before.

Dad pulled the car over at the bottom of a steep hill that led (where else) up to a farm house.

Mr. Cowboy came running over after propping his pitchfork against the fence. Dad got out of the car to meet him.

"Hello, sir," dad said.

"Hello," Mr. Cowboy said back in a friendly manner. "My name is Adam."

"I'm Tim and that's my wife Marion," dad pointed through the opened door to my mom who smiled and waved. "And my daughters, Lou, Amy and Abbey," he gestured back to us.

"Nice to meet you," Mr. Cowbo—er, Adam—said.

"Do we have to go up to the house to sign in or anything?" dad asked Adam.

"No, if you could turn your car around and park down by the cabins though," Adam said, gesturing back the way we had come. "I think you're in Apache."

"We are," mom called from inside the car. It was moments like these that I remembered exactly why I was supposed to be embarrassed around her. "I have it right here on the reservation printout!" and she even wiped out her yellow plastic folder titled 'Summer '06 Yellowstone/Grand Tetons family trip'.

Adam nodded good naturedly and (thankfully) refrained from making any comments on mom's folder. "Well, Apache is the third cabin in, the door's open for you."

"Thank you very much, Adam," dad held out his hand.

Adam shook dads' hand. "No problem, sir. Enjoy your stay and remember that we have a barbeque every Wednesday night down by the fire pit and there's a continental breakfast in the house every morning from six to eleven."

Dad thanked Adam again before he got back into the car. The car turned around and, using the safety of the tinted windows, I looked closely at Tattoo Guy. I could have sworn I caught the glimpse of a pair of Converses… could that even be right?

I couldn't help but wonder what was up with Tattoo Guy. Here he was, working in Wyoming on a ranch but he seemed to be rebelling the cowboy way… hmm, a rebel cowboy. Soraya would like this guy… though she did seem partial to her cowboys.

My musings were cut short as dad said, "We're here!"

Well, it didn't look too bad from the outside. I grabbed my book bag and my duffle bag and followed mom, dad, Lou and Abbey up the three stairs and into the cabin. Well, the entrance got a bit crowded. Somehow I managed to squeeze by and follow Lou into the "kids' room" as mom called it.

It wasn't a particularly large room; there were three twin beds along the wall, a couple shelves and a bar for hanging stuff. Abbey immediately claimed the bed by the window and Lou took the one in the middle, leaving me with the one on the end that just so happened to be placed conveniently in front of the door. Oh well, more bag space too the side.

There was a door in our room that led to a small bathroom. Sink, toilet and a shower that I swear came straight from my old camp. Yeah, nice. It wasn't dirty; it was just the kind with the plastic walls and, like, no pressure.

I walked through the bathroom and out the other door and ended up in… mom and dads room. Nice spread this place's got. Mom and dad had a full size bed and a little dresser type thing. There was a mini fridge and an old looking phone. No TV though.

Yeah, it was pretty small… and my home for the next two weeks. Wooooonderful. And I had my family, a bunch of cowboys and a rebel cowboy for company… oh, and any other guests that we didn't scare out of the place.

Abbey bounded out of our room and jumped onto mom and dads' bed. We were awarded with a rather loud creak. I caught the look mom and dad shared. Hey, at least I don't get the squeaky bed; they deserve it for making us spend two weeks here.

The obnoxiously loud squeaking got softer and softer as Abbey steadied her bouncing. "I want to see the horsies!" she declared.

"Girls," mom turned to Lou and I. Uh-oh. "Take Abbey to go see the horses, please," she added.

Lou and I consented without a fight because, I think this applies for both of us; there wasn't a thing to do in that little cabin.

Abbey skipped ahead as Lou and I walked at a leisurely pace to the round pen.

"I'm hoping one of these workers is cute," Lou said out of the blue.

"Um," I said, not expecting that question at all, "okay."

"What?" Lou shrugged. "Don't you?"

"Um," I said again, "I hadn't really thought about it."

Lou laughed. "Of course you have, Amy," she insisted. "Haven't you heard how cowboys are supposedly all hot and macho-macho manly types? Especially without shirts and a Stetson…" Lou trailed off.

"Alright," I laughed, "now you're sounding exactly like Soraya."

Lou snapped out of Lou-Land. "Smart friend you've got."

"Yeah, okay," I shook my head.

We had reached the round pens by that time and Abbey was already pressed up against the fence, holding her hand out to one of the horses. She had picked the part where most of the drafts were congregated. That's nice. I felt slightly relived to see Adam standing next to her.

I know we live on a horse farm and all but we don't have drafts or draft crosses and, well, seeing your little sister next to a draft horse is kind of unnerving.

"Hey," Lou said as she sidled up to Adam. Well, I hadn't thought she'd put her plan into action with the first guy she saw… well, I suppose Adam was good looking enough. He had dark hair and dark eyes; he was tall and well built. If he lost the shirt then he'd be Lou's definition of the perfect guy. "Adam, right?"

Adam eyed Lou up and down and then smiled. "Yeah, and you are?"

"I'm Lou," she placed a hand on her chest and smiled. Typical Lou. "And that's my sister Amy and my other sister Abbey," she pointed to me as she said my name and Abbey as she said her name.

"Nice to meet you," Adam said. "Hey, I was just about to ask your sister if she wanted to feed the horses any treats. Would that be okay?"

"Of course it is," Lou said with a bright smile.

Lou pulled me next to her as Adam disappeared to get some horse treats. Adam came back with two handfuls of horse treats and gave us each a few of them, he gave Abbey one or two extra and she grinned like a little kid on Christmas.

Adam stayed nearby as we fed the horses. He chatted with Lou as I watched Abbey. One of our big fans was this young looking white horse with blue eyes. It was skinny but not so much as to think that it was being mistreated. One of the bulkier drafts came up and bit the skinny one on the hindquarters and the skinny one kicked out its legs with a piercing whinny. The draft kicked up its hefty hooves in response.

Needless to say, I dragged Abbey away from the fence. All Abbey did was giggle though.

"Oh, is she okay?" Lou asked Adam in a concerned voice as she came up to the fence to pat the white's neck.

"Yeah, Jewel just gets picked on a bit because she's only two and she's only been here a little while."

"Oh!" Abbey suddenly burst out. "Look as those two horsies! They're preeeeeetty!" I looked to where she was pointing.

Abbey had somehow managed to locate a small round pen that was, indeed, separate from the big one, that I had missed. It was smaller and contained only two horses—they had plenty of room and it was clean and they had water and a pile of hay though.

These two horses were substantially different from the rest that much you could tell on first glance. They weren't trail horses, that fact was obvious. They were both tall and muscled, the muscles rippling trough their haunches and shoulders and necks as they moved. Their coats were brushed to perfection and shone in the bright sunlight.

One of the horses was a big blue roan and the other was a slightly smaller (just slightly though) brown and white paint. The paint had a black and white mane and was mostly a reddish brown except for a white patch on the left side starting at the middle of the neck and going down to the shoulder. The paint had a white stocking on its left hind leg, a white blaze and white spot in the back. The roan had a jet black mane and tail—it was the perfect blue roan horse. I thought both horses were gelding but it wasn't like I was about to go and look to check.

Abbey was already skipping off to go and feed the two other horses. Lou, Adam and I followed her. Abbey was almost to the round pen and the blue roan and the paint were watching her curiously. Their big, attentive and intelligent eyes were on her and their ears were pricked forwards. Abbey's ponytail bobbed up and down as she skipped and her sneakers kicked up small clouds of dust.

It was then that things got weird.

Tattoo Guy appeared out of nowhere and stood near the round pen. The two horses immediately lost interest in the approaching Abbey as they caught sight of Tattoo Guy and trotted over to him.

Abbey went unfazed by the horses reactions and just slightly changed her route so that she was now skipping towards Tattoo Guy.

Should I be scared?

"Sorry," Tattoo Guy said as we all stopped near the pen. His voice was deep and slightly gravely, it sounded like he had just been screaming or something. I eyed him (yes, those were Converses he was wearing) just as he looked at me. I caught the glimpse of emerald green eyes burning through the long locks of dark hair. Those eyes weren't like any eyes I had ever seen. For starters, the color was unlike any I had ever seen and, second, they shone with anger and hatred as he looked at us. I was a bit taken aback. "But these horses are not allowed to be fed treats," he finished.

"Oh, sorry, we didn't know," Lou jumped in. I almost laughed; how easily she was distracted from Adam. "I'm Lou by the way."

I could practically hear Tattoo Guy thinking "and I care why?" but, all he said was, "Uh-huh." He didn't offer a name or anything. "Just don't feed these two," he repeated, patting the paint on the neck before he walked off to… go smoke pot with his buddies probably. No, that was mean, just because of the way he looked didn't mean he was a druggie. He was pretty good looking come to think of it, though. Much better then Adam.

"Yeah," Adam spoke up after Tattoo Guy was gone. "I forgot Ty hates anyone touching his horses."

"Those are his horses?" I asked at the same time Lou asked,

"His name is Ty?"

Adam looked between the two of us and laughed. "Yes," he said, "two both questions," he added as an afterthought. "His name is Ty and those are his two horses, Red and Blue."

"Which one's which?" I asked curiously.

"The paint's Red and the blue roan is Blue." Okay, well, duh. I felt a little stupid after that. I could have guessed which one was which.

"Those aren't very original names," Lou laughed.

Adam shrugged. "Yeah, well, Ty won't change them, says he likes them but, then again, he doesn't do anything anyone tells him to or suggests that he does so whatever. I've suggested better names for them but he doesn't care."

I think that Adam was hoping to get Lou to ask what names he thought would be better for Blue and Red but Lou didn't even notice his expression. "Oh, so he's a bad-boy type then?" she giggled.

"Well, no one knows anything about him except that Rick and Kara, the couple that owns this place, are his aunt and uncle and that he's been here about four years. There are rumors that he got into trouble at home and his parents sent him here when he was fourteen. He was expelled from Cody Prep when he was sixteen though, everyone knows that. Some people say drug involvement but I don't really know. That guy doesn't talk to anyone, he doesn't say anything unless it's to scorn someone or something or to tell you to leave him or his horses alone," Adam shrugged.

"What does he do with Red and Blue?" I managed to get into the conversation.

Adam shrugged again. "No one really knows that either. He takes them out on his days off; don't know what he does with them though. Some people say he goes and rides in Yellowstone. I don't know if he competes with them, they're kept in pretty good condition though." Actually, Adam was wrong. Red and Blue weren't in good shape, they were in amazing shape.

"Have you ever seen him ride?" I asked next. I glanced at Lou and she was looking bored with the conversation.

"No," Adam said, "no one ever has, I don't think. I think he only rides them at night when no one else is around. He's a weird guy," Adam shook his head. "Oh," Adam began again, "he does lead some of the trails but that hardly takes riding talent."

It was then that Lou announced that we had to be getting back to mom and dad. She said bye to Adam and then dragged me and Abbey back to the cabin. Abbey resumed her skipping.

"That guy was hot," Lou said, "dontcha think?"

"Who? Adam?"

"No," Lou said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "That other guy, Ty."

"You think?"

"Definitely."

"So, are you ditching Adam already?" I joked.

"No," Lou said to my surprise. "Ty's not my type and, besides, it would take too long to get anywhere with him, I can already tell. We're only here for two weeks after all."

"Yeah."

"You can have Ty though," Lou said next, much to my surprise.

"Um, excuse me?"

"You can have Ty," Lou repeated. "You've always liked challenges, right? Just pretend he's like one of the horses back home that you have to get to trust you."

"Thanks, Lou, but I'm not looking for a boyfriend at the moment."

"You're never looking for a boyfriend, Amy," she corrected me. I shrugged. "And, besides, who said anything about a boyfriend? All he has to be is a summer fling."

"Not looking for one of those either."

Thankfully, we had reached our little cabin and so the conversation had to be stopped.

It was as I followed Lou through the door that I realized that I hadn't gotten a good look at Ty's tattoos. Damn. Oh well, I'd see him around… possibly. But I'd have to be discreet about it, I couldn't very well go up to him and ask to see his tattoos. Yeah, after informally "meeting" him for, like, two seconds I really don't think that would go over well with him.

Lou was absolutely on something if she thought that I had a chance with that guy.

He may not have been a cowboy, but he still wasn't my type.

a/n: he's my type… ahem. Well, this Ty is like my perfect guy. Anyways, it wasn't very good or very long but it will get longer and better. Review! TP is definitely next this time! Oh, and I have the first chapters of two new stories written… anyone want another story? I think I'm going to post one of them tonight. REVIEW! -Steph