Miley rested her forehead against my own and locked her gaze with mine.

"Does that answer your question?" she whispered. I smiled and gave her a quick kiss.

"Does that answer yours?" I whispered back. Miley chuckled and nodded, slowly pulling away from me. Her hands left my face and mine left her hips, but I held her hands when they dropped to her sides. She looked down at our intwined fingers briefly and then back up with a twinkle in her eyes.

"I never knew you felt this way about me." she said softly. I swept a few stray hairs behind her ear with one hand, holding Miley's in the other.

"I never knew you felt this way back." I said. Miley grinned shyly and looked away.

"I've felt it ever since I saw those big, warm, beautiful brown eyes look at me through my window the very first day I moved here." she told me, blushing. I let go of her hand and crossed my arms.

"To be fair. . . these brown eyes were a lot less warm before you came." I said. She looked back and stared at me curiously.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"It's a looong story." I sighed. "I'd rather not go back there again. It's just a lot of bad memories." Miley frowned.

"Oh. . .I-I'm sorry." she apologized. I chuckled softly and shook my head.

"Don't be. Love stories just aren't my thing, I guess." Miley kissed the palm of my hand and looked me dead in the eyes.

"I'm not her." she said slowly. "I won't hurt you like she did-" She brought my hand to her chest and I felt her heart beating. "And that's why. Mikayla, I don't know who that girl was or what she did to you, but I swear I won't do the same thing. I care about you. I wanna make you smile again."

"You're off to a great start then." I grinned, pulling my hand away. Blue Jeans neighed behind me and nudged me towards the white fence separating our fields.

"I think he wants you to get Holly." Miley said. Blue Jeans offered a nod and I nodded back.

"Sure thing, Big Fella." I told him. I climbed the fence with ease and leaned on it when I was on the Russo side. Miley walked over and left a chaste kiss on my lips.

"Hurry back." she whispered as she pulled away.

"Yes Ma'am!" I saluted her quickly, getting a giggle in return. I sprinted off and ran into the house, almost trampling Justin as I went up the stairs.

"Dang Mikayla, where's the fire?" he asked. I ignored him and went to my room. I took the quickest shower of my life and changed my clothes. I tossed on my favorite pair of sneakers and saw my cowgirl hat laying on my bed. I smiled and sat it on my head before bolting back down the stairs and out the back door. I jogged to the stables and called out my horse's name.

"Holly! Holly, come here!" My horse poked her head out and looked at me like I had gone crazy.

"Don't give me that look." I frowned. "We gotta go, come on." I put on her reigns and tried to lead her out. She wouldn't move.

"Holly?" She whinnied and took a step back in her stable. I groaned and tugged on her reigns a little bit.

"Holly, please don't fight with me today." I sighed. She could be as stubborn and lazy as I could, and because she's a horse, it's a lot harder to move her. "Don't you wanna go riding today?" My black beauty just snorted in response.

"Aww, come on. We're gonna see Miley." I tried, tugging again. "You know how much I like Miley!" Holly's resistance eased slightly. Ha! I dug my heels in and pulled harder. "And she's gonna bring Blue Jeans!" Holly stopped resisting and flicked her ear with interest.

"Gotcha." I muttered, leading her out. I saddled up and we left the stables, heading for the fence. Miley was still on the other side, waiting with Blue Jeans.

Miley's POV

Mikayla rode over dressed in a white T-shirt and black jeans, sporting that adorable cowgirl hat on her head. Simple looks so breathtaking on her. I opened the gate and Blue Jeans trotted to the other side.

"Howdy." I smiled at her, following my horse. Mikayla dismounted as I shut the gate.

"Howdy yourself." she smiled back, tipping her hat. I laughed and she leaned against the fence.

"Wanna try something?" she said.

"Try what?" I asked curiously.

"I wanna ride Blue Jeans." she told me. "And I want Holly to be comfortable around you, since we're gonna be together." I blushed and she added quickly, "I-I mean together a lot m-more because we're um, giving us a chance and uh-"

"I knew what you meant." I giggled. She's adorable. She looked down and chuckled at herself.

"Yeah, so-" She cleared her throat before looking back up. "Ready to go?" I nodded and petted Blue Jeans before I kissed the bridge of his nose.

"Mikayla's gonna take care of you, okay?" I whispered to him. He didn't say anything, but I knew he understood. Mikayla walked over to Holly and took the horse's face in her hands.

"Be good, Holly. Please be good." she pleaded. Should I be scared? "Miley's a sweetie and I don't want you scaring her. Be nice, you hear?" Aww.

"I'm sure we'll be okay." I said. Mikayla watched as I mounted her horse, probably because she wanted to make sure Holly behaved. Once I was good, she hopped up on Blue Jeans and looked towards me.

"Ready?" she asked. I nodded and Blue Jeans was in motion. I kicked my heels and half expected Holly to throw me off with the way Mikayla talked about her, but all she did was shake her mane a little and trot forward.

"I'm gonna take you someplace that really shows you what Tennessee's all about." Mikayla said.

"Where are we going?"

"Somewhere special." She left it at that and urged my horse on. I drove Holly a little faster so we were right beside them. We went until we were a couple yards away from the back side of the fence.

"We have to jump this fence." came Mikayla's voice. "Are you gonna be okay?"

"Umm, I should be." I said. "Blue Jeans and I used to jump fences in competitions, but that was a long time ago. . ." I suddenly wasn't so sure.

"Holly will take care of you." she assured me. "We do it all the time. Just hold on tight, okay?" I nodded and Blue Jeans took off running. The pair jumped with ease and landed on the other side of heavy forest. Mikayla's eyes were on me as Holly sped up; I held on like she told me to. Just as soon as the black horse's hooves left the grass, we were on the ground again. Safe and sound, nice and easy. I don't know what Mikayla was talking about. I rubbed Holly's neck and murmured a "thank you" to her; Holly held her head high and trotted to her owner and Blue Jeans.

"Come on, City Girl." Mikayla said. "You're doing pretty good so far."

.oOo.

Mikayla's taking me down an old dirt path and its sooo beautiful out here. You can hear the birds singing in trios and duets and everything sounds so much clearer in the forest air. You can actually smell the trees and the flowers; there's not a town or a car for miles. The colors are brighter. . . it just feels so natural, you know? The animals don't run for their lives when they hear us coming, at the most they'd stop and watch us.

"It's beautiful." I said in awe. Mikayla looked back at me. "Everything's just so. . . wow." The girl chuckled and the wind blew, making her hair flow with it. The sunlight made her face light up and I thought my heart stopped for a minute.

"Get used to it, Miley." Mikayla smiled. "Tennessee's full of beauty."

"And there's a lot of it right next door." I said. She smiled coyly and turned back around.

"There's an old shack not too far from here." She said, trying to divert my attention to something else. "Do you wanna stop for a while?"

"Sure, that's fine." I told her. "And I'm sure Holly and Blue Jeans wouldn't mind the rest, too." She nodded and directed my horse to the left while I followed, doing the same with hers. It wasn't long before we strayed far enough from the forest to reach a river. I could see a field on the other side of it, where an old hut sat by itself. Mikayla stopped at the river shore to wait for me. I looked down at the gently flowing water, trying to determine how deep it was.

"It's shallow." Mikayla said, reading my mind. "It's alright." She crossed the body of water and watched me carefully as I copied her. I love how she's been watching me and taking care of me this whole trip. I feel safe with her. Mikayla dismounted Blue Jeans and looked back at me.

"Follow me, Miley." she instructed. I dismounted Holly, almost falling in the process, and we lead the horses to the hut. Mikayla took off Blue Jeans' reigns and saddle and sat them on the porch of the hut.

"Whatcha doing?" I asked as she walked over to the black horse.

"I always let Holly run around when we're out here without all that gear on." she replied, working on Holly's reigns. "I'm sure she'd like to show the Big Guy some of her favorite places-" She put the reigns down and I started on the saddle. "And that would give us time to ourselves, too." I slipped Holly's saddle off and then placed it on the porch. Mikayla took my hand and led me inside while the horses took their leave. It was just as Mikayla said it was: an old shack. The place was abandoned, but not run-down. It wasn't Buckingham Palace either, but it was fine. The walls were wooden the floor was too, but it had this country-hominess about it. There was a blue couch against the wall in front of an old black nightstand, but there wasn't anything on it. At the back of the house was a little kitchen area with a chimney that looked like it hadn't been used in years. I noticed a couple magazines scattered around the floor as Mikayla let go of my hand and closed the door behind her.

"This is my little hide out." she said, motioning all around us. She leaned against the door and shuffled her foot a bit. "I know it's not the best and it's a little bare, but-"

"I like it." my smile cut in. She smiled back and walked to the kitchen. I sat on the couch and she came back with two glass soda bottles. She handed me one as she sat beside me.

"Root beer's your favorite, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, it is." I nodded, feeling happy she remembered something I told her weeks ago. I raised my eyebrow playfully and opened the drink. "Taking me on a private ride, getting me all alone in your favorite spot, bringing me one of my favorite things in the world. . . did you plan this, Ms. Russo?" Mikayla laughed and took a sip of her soda.

"Nah, I'm just that good." she smirked. Gosh, I love that smirk. I sighed contently; she noticed. Her smirk eased into a sincere grin and she moved closer to me.

"So. . . did you enjoy the ride?" she asked, laying her arm across the back of the couch. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to get closer to her, too.

"It was wonderful-" I said, sliding over until our legs touched. She didn't move away. "I learned a lot."

"Oh?" Mikayla said thoughtfully. She leaned her head towards me curiously. "What about?"

"What I've been missing." I replied softly, leaning in painfully slow. Well it was painful for me, anyway.

"While you were gone?" she whispered, now leaning in as well. Those warm brown eyes were making me melt all over again.

"Feels like my whole life." I whispered back. I felt her hand on my knee and placed mine over it.

"Then make up for all that lost time." Mikayla said. She closed the gap between us with a kiss and there were fireworks exploding in my head. That's really how she makes me feel. We've only kissed three times before this, but I've never felt anything like it before. My hands strayed to the hem of Mikayla's shirt and tugged her closer, trying to make the kiss deeper. She understood and moved her arm from the couch, finding a better place for it: my hip. I caressed her face as we shifted closer and she ran her fingers over the small of my back. I groaned and pushed her onto her back, accidentally breaking our kiss. The surprise was evident on Mikayla's face when her back hit the soft blue cushion, but she didn't stop me at all.

I initiated this kiss, this time making it softer and slower. Mikayla smiled against my lips and simultaneously worked her fingers in my hair and played with the belt loops of my jeans. My fingers hovered like ghosts over her arm until I couldn't resist: I had to touch her. Her small goosebumps met my fingertips as I trailed them up her arm. I was proud I could make her feel like that. Mikayla's hand disappeared from my hair and I felt her sitting up. I sat up with her, refusing to break the kiss. I was basically sitting in her lap as she shifted to a comfortable spot. It killed me to pull away from her, but I only did it because I was dying of no oxygen. Damn you, lungs! Mikayla chuckled breathlessly and looked up at me with a smile.

"I don't know how you keep doing that." she told me, trying to get her breathing under control.

"Doing what?" I asked. She leaned up and kissed my chin, which I thought was very cute.

"Leaving me breathless." she said, wrapping her arms around me loosely. I smiled and kissed her forehead.

"You do it to me, too." I said honestly. But breathless is only one word to describes how she makes me feel. Mikayla sighed and shook her head, laughing to herself.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"I made myself promise I'd take it slow with you." she confessed. "But every time you're around me, I just. . . can't. I wanna kiss you and hold you and just-" she stopped herself and shrunk back from me. "I'm jumping into things too fast. It's stupid, I know. Please just forget about it, I'm sorry." I frowned and took her hands in mine.

"It's not stupid." I said. "Truth is, Mikayla. . . that's the way I feel about you, too. I really like you, and I'm not going anywhere, you hear me?" The dark-haired southerner's eyes brightened as I continued. "Only we can say what's too fast and what's too slow for us, and right now we're going at a perfect speed. Sure, I get a little wrapped up in you when you kiss me, or when you hug me, or when you shoot me that amazing smile and stare at me with those dangerous, deep brown eyes. . ." I dazed off for a moment and when I came back, Mikayla was laughing at me. Oops.

"Well, uh a-anyway," I continued with a slight blush. "I think it's perfect like this." We're perfect together.

"You really think so? "Mikayla asked curiously. I nodded.

"I know so." We shared a soft glance that eventually turned into two smiles.

"Say Miley?" Mikayla called. There was such a sincere look in her chocolate brown orbs.

"Hmm?"

"Will you be my girlfriend?"

Ya'll KNOW she said yes! haha :) Sorry for such a long wait. I'm working on finishing up some of my older stories and adding awesomeness to Happy Birthday Alex, Tomorrow, and doing some new oneshots and such ;) Now we finally have some official Mikiley *confetti* BUT...what happens when certain people from their past come back? Will it affect their future? Is Mikiley truly perfect? Or will a particular ex get in their way? Review, my loves! I'm so evil, aren't I? MWUAHAHA! :D