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As they rode up the road towards the quaint, little two story house Nick took in his surroundings. He kept adjusting himself behind Lexi making her giggle softly. He knew she was laughing at him but he said nothing. As Nick looked around he noticed a small building beside the house that looked like a small replica of the two story main house, a barn that seemed pretty old, a large fenced in area with what he guessed was some sort of an obstacle course of fences in it, another small corral, a two horse trailer parked beside the barn and a rather large truck parked beside of it. Nick tried to imagine her behind the wheel of such a large truck and laughed to himself. He took in the sight of the house as they rode up to it. It was pretty old, he could tell, but still in pretty good shape but was in need of some repairs. It was a tan color with dark green shutters with a large wrap around porch. A porch swing was at one end and flower boxes on the front windows filled with just about every color flower in them. There was also two rocking chairs with a table between them in the middle of the front by the front door.

Lexi pulled Sunny to a stop. “This is our stop cowboy” she said. Nick took hold of her shoulder and swung his leg over and slip off. He just about lost his balance when he hit the ground, stumbling back a few steps. “Damn, this is a tall horse!” he exclaimed.

“Yeah, he’s 17.2 hands, which is pretty tall for a Hanoverian” she explained. Of course this went completely over Nick’s head. She took note of the look on his face and smiled. Apparently horse lingo was not his forte so she explained.

“Seventeen hands..a hand is 4 inches and a horse is measured to its shoulder. So Sunny here is 5' 2" tall from his shoulder down.”

“Well, ya learn something new everyday” Nick said as Lexi swung herself down.

She threw the reins over Sunny’s head and began leading him to the barn.

“After I get the tack off Sunny and rub him down I’ll take you in the house so you can use the phone” Lexi told him. Nick nodded and followed her into the barn.

As they entered the barn, Nick noticed this place could use a little work. The roof looked like it needed replaced but other than that, looked to be in pretty good condition. The isles were lined with saddles and bridles and various other kinds of tack. Lexi led Sunny to the end of the isle and hooked him up to the cross tie and started taking off his saddle and saddle pad.

“What kind of saddle is that?” Nick asked her.

“This is an English saddle” she explained.

“I guess I’m just used to the ones with the handle on the front of it” Nick said.

“A saddlehorn, but yes, we have Western saddles too, but I prefer the English one. I use them in competition.” Lexi told him.

She walked to the front of Sunny and took off his bridle and replaced it with a halter and reclasping him to the cross tie. Then she took a brush and started brushing him down. She looked at Nick just standing there, looking around and looking rather bored, so she went over to the tackbox and got another brush and threw it to him.

“You get the other side and we’ll get done in half the time” she said.

Nick caught the brush and gave her a look.

“OK?” he said.

He walked timidly to the side of the horse and started mimicking her movements on his side. He’d never brushed a horse in his life. If Kevin could only see him now!

As they worked Nick asked “So, Sunny uh? How’d you come up with that name? He’s rather dark for a name like that”.

Lexi smiled. “His full name is Midnight Sun but I call him Sunny because of his sunny personality” she said.

They had finished brushing him down and Lexi went into his stall to fill his water bucket and poured some grain into his feed trough. Nick looked into another stall and noticed Sunny was not the only horse in the barn. Four more horses occupied the stalls. Well, more like three horses and a pony.

“I see you have more than one” Nick said to her.

Lexi walked over, unclasped Sunny and led him to his stall, unclasped the lead and slid the door shut. She walked over to the stall which contained a medium sized buckskin horse with the name Buckshot written on a plaque hooked to the door.

“Yeah, I let other people board there horses here. I give lessons so they just keep their horses here, for a fee of course” she explained, “but Buckshot here is mine also”.

Then she walked over to the connecting stall. “And so is Lil Sprout here” she said motioning towards the white pony. Nick snickered at the name. Seemed fitting enough.

Lexi started to walk out of the barn.

“OK, all done here. Let’s take you to the phone now” she said.

Nick followed her out of the barn. They got to the house and she led him up the front step, which where rather rickety and he was scared they wouldn’t hold his weight.

“They are old but safe I assure you” Lexi told him.

She opened the screen door then the large oak front door and ushered him inside. Nick stopped as he stepped inside and looked around. Lexi sidestepped him and took off her boots. Nick followed suit taking off his Kicks. He looked around the house. They were in a small alcove that opened up into a very large living room. It was decorated in bright, sunny colors. The windows had bright yellow swag curtains, the walls were painted a light tan, the carpeting had dark shades of brown and there was a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The furniture looked large and inviting yet older, worn, but comfortable with a large couch, loveseat, and two rocking recliners that have seen better days. On the far wall was a large fireplace with a mantel littered with knicknacks and pictures. Over the mantel hung a rather large picture of Lexi and a small girl looking to be about 3 or 4 years old. Across the room there sat an entertainment center with a TV, DVD player, an older version of Nintendo with games littered on the bottom shelf, a stereo and a stack of CDs beside of it. Nick got the overwhelming sensation of home looking around the room.

Lexi walked over to the endtable and picked up a cordless phone and reached down underneath and produced a phonebook.

“Here you go” she said as she handed both to him.

Nick took a seat in one of the recliners and flipped through the phone book.

“Look up Woody’s Auto Repair. He’s the best in town” she offered.

“Would you care for anything to drink? We have ice tea, soda, kool aide, and water.”

“Thanks and ice tea sounds great, thank you” he said.

Lexi excused herself into the kitchen to get their drinks, leaving Nick alone to make his phone call.

When she returned she saw Nick’s brow scrunched up in concentration or may frustration. “Wow” she thought to herself. “This man has some great eyebrows. I’d kill for those!”. Lexi finally took the time to really look at this guy. She noticed him at their first meeting but now she really had time to take him in now that he was distracted. She though he was beautiful before but now, she was noticing why. She usually didn’t go for blonds but this guy was stunning! Rather tall, long legs and long, beautiful fingers. His hands looks rather soft and didn’t look like they’d seen a hard days work, unlike her own which were rough and calloused. And his eyes! Just WOW! she thought. His eyes were a beautiful shade of blue she’d ever seen before. She thought that color could only be possible with contact lens, but who knew, maybe they were. They were gorgeous none the less. They almost matched the light blue t-shirt he was wearing.

Nick was telling the person on the other end of the line where his car was broke her and caught her gawking at him.

She blushed. “Just tell him its at the entrance to the Barton Farm. They will know where that is. Tell him to give you a call at 555-5625 when they get it there to let you know.” she told him.

Nick smirked and then relayed the information to the guy from the shop in town. He said thanks and hung up. Lexi handed him his ice tea. He took a long drink, draining half the glass in one gulp. He hadn’t realized just how thirsty he was.

“Thanks” he told her. “I hope this won’t take long. I hate to intrude on you like this. I’m sure you are pretty busy around here.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll give you a ride into town when your car is done” she offered.

“Thanks, I really appreciate that” he said.

Lexi took a seat on the couch across from him. For a while they just sat in silence, sipping their drinks.