A/N: Four days behind...


September 5th 2023

Chapter 248
We Unite The Riders

Sometimes he would be reminded of the length and the circumstances of his absence from Sullivan Stables. He'd been back for a good length of time now, though he had again been pulled away for the much more joyful fact of his baby boy being in his life, but he had not forgotten his recovery and all that it had required of him. He was about as recovered as he could ever expect to be, which was to say that, on the whole, he was perfectly fine, but some levels of exertion could still cause him the occasional problem. Whenever he'd feel one of those twinges, he'd have no way not to know exactly what had brought it to him, and when he'd actually be at the ranch when it happened, well, that'd be even more so. Once, it had come to him just as he was walking past the spot where he and Sylvie had been attacked, and he'd retreated back to his office to lay on his couch until it had passed. He was recovered, but he still carried scars, not all of them physical.

It might have been partly for that reason that he had been so devoted to the upcoming riding competition taking place at the ranch, though for the most part it was as it had always been, that he just liked when they held competitions. Either way, for the past few weeks, it had consumed most of the time he spent at the ranch that was not dedicated to caring for their horses as he had done for years now. A lot of it was almost automatic at this point, a checklist that existed in his head and became active the moment he had to start preparing for another competition. There was always a matter of knowing which kind of competition this would be, smaller or bigger, but the specifics came as easily as the rest.

After those, there were the things he couldn't know ahead of time, whether it involved weather, or conflicting schedules and events… He had a sizable one of those this time around in that filming on the property was exceptionally early to start for the new seasons this year and could have made it impossible for them to host the competition at all. It might not have all been worked out if not for Katy's intervention, but his mother-in-law and the production as a whole were very aware of how much they owed to Sullivan Stables, so they had been working in tandem to make sure they all got what they needed, including the production being on hiatus for the length of the competition and Sullivan Stables ensuring that they would be able to do absolutely everything they could up until the arrival of the riders to compensate for their time off.

Once the temporary stables had started going up, that was really when it had gotten to feel as though the competition was on its way. To him, who had been at the ranch through most of his nearly forty years of life, it brought back memories that were as formative to him as he should hope for any of them to be. He had one such memory of visiting the ranch during the Grand, with his Pappy Joe and Nana Susannah, and while his grandfather had been off somewhere else, his grandmother had taken him out to the added stables, to see all the new horses that were among them for the competition, and it felt to him like an entire village, one populated only by horses and the humans who gave them what they needed. They were like royalty, or that was how he saw them at least.

After that, whenever he'd go to the ranch and see 'the village' was back, it would make him so happy, simply for seeing it all and being brought back to that day, seeing it all with his grandmother. It was never so massive as it was when it was the Grand that they were hosting, but even in those smaller competitions, those extra horses made for enough extra lodgings that the visual remained. In his mind, to this day, he would call it 'Susannah's Village.' When he'd told his daughters about this, he'd known exactly which of them would be most thrilled to hear it, that being the one of his girls who shared his grandmother's name as part of her own. Remy had been very excited to see the stables being put up, too, and seeing her run around out there, her and her sisters, too, it would make him smile, make him think of the young boy he'd been, weaving through the area with just that same giddiness in him.

The entire family was looking forward to the competition, not just the stables. It was family tradition for them now, like basketball games, like Nana Show Nights… All they'd have to do would be to find out that a competition was on its way, and they'd have their checklist, too. As soon as the programs would be completed, he'd make sure they got one, and they would squeeze in together to look it over. Whether they could read or not, they'd stare at it, take in what they could… Now that the triplets were learning to read, they looked at the thing in a whole new light. The one who'd take in the most from the program would be Marianne, who would be made to read aloud what this part or that one said… She'd also go ahead and create a map, making it as accurate as she could. She'd made a map of Sullivan Stables some time ago, her and Ella together, and now she'd be able to take it and add in the details for the competition. Lucas and Maya had a folder where they'd kept each of her maps… for memories.

The new map had been completed, and today it would be taken out to the ranch as the Friars headed over to welcome the incoming riders and their horses, all of them settling in ahead of the start of the competition. As exciting as the competition itself would be for the girls, this part was just as exciting to them. There was the sudden added numbers, all the horses for them to see, to meet and greet, and the riders… Plenty of them would be familiar to them as repeat visitors, and that'd be the most exciting thing, spotting the people or recognizing their horses among the arrivals…

"Is that him? I think that's him. Dad? Dad, is that him?" Marianne came and touched his arm, so Lucas looked at her and then to where she was pointing. He knew at once who she'd been looking at, because as soon as he spotted the young man, he grinned.

It had been eight years now since he'd first met Scout Anderson. He still remembered talking to the then fifteen-year-old as he'd come to participate in the Grand, in the spring of 2032, remembered how excited he'd been about the whole thing. He also remembered how he'd caught the eye of more than one girl going around at the time, as he'd done a then twelve and a half-year-old Nellie Hunter, much to the unspoken frustrations of one Bobby Davis. Things had worked out in his favor in the end, of course, but the memory still existed as an in-joke between the couple. They'd stayed in touch with Scout, especially as he'd spent a few summers at the ranch camp, and they were all great friends for it still.

"I don't know what it says about them, but I'm pretty sure this whole fawning over Scout Anderson thing is genetic," Maya bit back a laugh as she nodded for Lucas to look to the side.

He soon spotted Haley Hunter, leaning on a railing and looking in the same direction he'd been looking a moment ago. The fifteen-year-old was staring off at Scout, in the midst of taking his horse around, with the unmistakable presence of some heart-eyes, the way one might have, seeing an actor in a movie that was just so very swoon worthy. It was the same look that Nellie Hunter had levelled at the rider eight years ago, and the same for MJ Hunter a few years later, too. In both those previous cases, it had been completely innocent, neither Nellie nor MJ looking to pursue anything with Scout, and not even because their ages never actually matched up.

As for Haley here, the now twenty-three-year-old Scout was really just 'too pretty for words.' That was as far as it went for her. Nowadays, all the Scout Andersons in the world could not hold a flame against the likes of Rafael Cruz. Was this going to be The Big One for those two? Who was to say? Right now, they were happy, and as soon as he came jogging over from the B&B, Haley moved away from the railing without a second to think about Scout. Rafa definitely saw him, but he didn't look disturbed, or jealous. He saw him, recognized 'the appeal,' and gave it no more thought. He and Haley went off, hand in hand, and there was nothing more to it. When they'd later hear of the 'scene,' both Nellie and MJ would look at each other and laugh, while Gracie would declare that that 'the Scouting' had officially run its course.

The competition itself felt as though it went by in a whirlwind. There was plenty to see, plenty to do over those days, but they knew that very soon all those visitors would be gone, humans and horses alike, and it would be as though they'd never been there at all. All they'd have to remember it would be their memories, and they would do all they could to make the most of them. When the time would come for everything to put back the way it was, it'd be like Halloween, or Christmas. They'd do it when the girls weren't around to see.

"Can we be in there, too?" Lucy asked her parents as they were all heading back to the parking lot, at the end of the day. They all had leftover snacks in hand, some of them still sneak eating some as they went, and it might have contributed to the bounce in their steps, that and just the competition as a whole.

"There, in the competition?" Lucas asked her, pointing behind them. Lucy nodded, and some of the other girls looked around like they were curious about the answer, now that they'd heard the question. "Sure, you can. Not yet, but in a few years, yeah." They all looked somewhere between disappointed and excited, not looking forward to the wait but also happy at the promise of seeing their names in a competition program someday.

"We can be a team!" Marianne looked to her younger sisters with a new grin. She had their attention now. "The Friar Riders!" she cheered, and Kacey, Remy, Lucy, Mackenzie, and Aubrey all started talking at once, looking at Marianne, looking at their parents for confirmation. "Ella, too. And Tori…" Marianne counted off, and they were even more excited.

"You're going to get them matching jackets, aren't you?" Lucas quietly asked Maya as she walked and looked at Ezra in her arms. She smiled. "You're designing them already," he amended, and her smile grew. "Can I get one, too?"

"Do you even need to ask?" she whispered back.

"Right… Blazers," he pulled back his shoulders, and she smirked. Bull's eye. "What about him?" he asked, indicating Ezra, halfway between sleep and wakefulness.

"Oh, of course," Maya smiled, brushing at his hair. "Won't you look like the cutest little rider? Huh? Yeah, we are going to get right on that…"

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners