Heartland

Chapter Two.

Chapter Two: Ty and I.

When I woke up the next morning Ty was already awake. He was just putting his pants on. He was wearing black briefs and no shirt.
"Ty," I yelled.
"Sorry," he apologized as he was laughing. I rolled over onto my other side.
"You might want to wake up, Jack can be a real hard ass," he added.
"I will once you have clothes on," I said.
"I have pants on," he said. I sat up in bed. He still didn't have a shirt on. I threw my pillow at him and yelled,
"Get a shirt on!" He pulled a shirt on.
"Better?" he asked.
"Yes, thank you," I replied. I stood up. I was wearing yoga shorts and a tank top.
"Why don't you put some clothes on?" he joked.
"Shut up," I teased. Ty started laughing. I playfully punched him. He punched me back. I tackled him to the ground. We both were laughing. He was tickling me. We were both uncontrollably laughing.
"I can't breathe," I cried. He didn't care. I tickled him back.
"Breakfast is re-." Amy barged in. We stopped laughing and stood up.
"What's going on in here?" Amy asked, obviously upset.
"We were just having a little fun," I replied.
"Obviously," she snotted back.
"Amy," Ty said. Amy stormed away down the loft steps. Ty looked at me.
"Go," I said. He nodded and then chased after her. I grabbed a pair of jeans, a multi-shade pink flannel, long sleeved, button-up shirt, my boots, and put them on. I grabbed my brown, bejeweled, leather belt and put it on. I chose a gold belt buckle, with pink diamonds, and an engraving of Sky on it. In gorgeous cursive lettering was "Sky" the word Sky was pink. My parents bought me the buckle on my 16th birthday, along with a brand new Chevy truck and trailer, but I had to sell those when my parents died, so I could afford to live my own life here in Canada.

I ran downstairs and into the house. Everyone was just sitting down for breakfast. The last available seat was next to Ty, Amy was sitting next to Mallory. I reluctantly sat down next to Ty. Lou and Jack were serving up plates. Lou made a breakfast of pancakes, bacon, corn bread, toast, jam, eggs, sausage and orange juice.
"Thank you," I said as I was handed my plate. Everyone was eating when Lou asked,
"Tara, what did you do down in Texas?"
"I was a horse trainer. One of the best in Houston," I replied.
"How was business? If you don't mind me asking?" I asked.
"I don't mind at all. Business was amazing, my schedule always kept me busy?" I said.
"How did you go to school?" Ty asked.
"I went to normal high school. Seven hours of school, six hours of work with client horses, one hour of homework, then at eleven I went to bed. I would wake up at five, do my chores, take a shower, and get ready for school," I answered.
"How are you doing school now?" Mallory asked.
"I'll be enrolling to online school. Summer vacation starts next week for us in Texas. I'll finish online for my old school and then enroll for a school that prospers in online education." I continued eating after that because no one had any more questions to ask, besides me, but I didn't want to be rude.

After breakfast Amy and Mallory had left for school while Ty and I started work in the barn. Ty was mucking out stalls while I started filling feed buckets. I watched Ty work for a second when I asked,
"Ty, what happened with you and Amy this morning?" He looked at me and replied,
"She asked a lot of questions and I answered them. She wanted to know if anything was going on between us."
"What did you say?" I asked as I took the feed bucket out of the stall he was cleaning.
"I just told her there wasn't anything going on. This morning was just two friends messing around. I mean, we share a room, we have to have a good relationship," he said. Ty was smart, cute, and had a great personality. I really liked him. He was an awesome friend and person.

When Ty and I were done with our barn chores, Jack let us go into town to buy Sky new tack. We hopped into Ty's truck and drove into town. We got to Maggie's in about half an hour. Ty and I walked in.
"Hey you two," Soraya greeted.
"Hey Soraya," we both said.
"Can I get you guys anything?" she asked.
"Wanna stay for dinner?" Ty asked.
"Yeah sure," I replied. We sat down at the bar and looked at menus.
"I'll have fried chicken with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy," Ty said.
"I'll have a chef salad," I said.
"Okay," she said with a smile. She gave us each a glass of water.
"Want to go look at tack while we wait?" Ty asked.
"Sure," I replied.
"Soraya, we'll be right back," Ty said.
"Okay," she replied as she cleaned a table. We stood and walked into the other room where Soraya's mom, Maggie, was checking out a guy who had just bought some feed.
"Hello Ty. Who's your friend?" Maggie asked.
"This is Tara, she works for Jack," Ty replied.
"Hi," I greeted.
"Hi Tara. What can I get for you guys?" she asked.
"We're looking at tack," I replied.
"Okay, tell me if you need anything!" She chimed.
"Will do," Ty replied. We walked towards saddles.
"What kind do you want?" Ty asked.
"I was thinking both western and english," I replied.
"How are you going to afford that?" he asked.
"I was left quite a bit of money when my parents died. That's why when I turn 18 I'll be good to go," I replied. I picked out gorgeous brown leather english and western saddles. They had some bling on them. I grabbed two matching bridles, one for the english saddle and one for the western. They had bling on them too. I bought a matching pink lead rope to go with the halter that Sky has right now. I left all the stuff with Maggie while Ty and I went back over to the diner area.

Ty and I sat back down at the bar and Soraya gave us our food.
"Thanks," we said as she set down the plates. We had a lot of fun as we ate our lunch. We told each other stories from growing up. He told me about stuff that happened at Heartland in the past, like when Amy's mom died. When we were done eating, we paid Soraya and went back to the next room to get the new tack. Maggie had all the new tack in boxes. Ty carried the saddle boxes for me and I carried the bridles, halter, and lead rope boxes. We went out to Ty's truck and put the boxes in the tail gate.
"Thanks for today Ty," I said.
"You're welcome," he replied. We hugged.
"Amy's a lucky girl," I said.
"You think so?" he asked. I laughed and looked down.
"Yeah," I replied. We both got in his truck and went back to Heartland.

Ty parked in front of the barn and helped me carry the boxes up to the loft. It was seven o'clock when we got back.
"We should go for a late night ride. We could break in your new tack, maybe go down by the river," Ty suggested as I was taking my new tack out of the boxes.
"Sure! That'd be fun!" I exclaimed.
"I'll go saddle up Harley," he said as he left the loft. I took my new western saddle, and the matching bridle, down to Sky's stall. I put the tack onto a stack of hay bales. I found an extra saddle pad and put it on Sky. I then tacked her up the rest of the way. She looked awesome with her new gear on.
"Ready?" Ty asked, he was leading Harley.
"Yeah let's go," I replied as I led Sky out of the barn. I mounted Sky. Ty gave me a headlamp to put on my hat. I strapped the headlamp onto my cowgirl hat and turned it on. Ty got on Harley and turned his headlamp on.
"Let's go," I said kicking Sky to a gallop.

Ty and I rode for a long time when we finally got to the river.
"It's so beautiful at night," I admired as Ty and I sat and watched the horses graze.
"Amy and I broke up this morning," he blurt out as he laid back and ran his hands through his hair. "What? Are you serious?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said as he sat back up.
"I'm so sorry. It's all my fault," I cried, as I hugged him.
"It's fine, and it's not your fault," he encouraged.
"I haven't talked to her all day. We finally became friends. Now I screwed it up," I said as I looked down river.
"Tara," he said as he grabbed my hand. I heard the snapping of a twig behind us.
"Did you hear that?" I asked as I looked behind us.
"No," he replied confused. I changed the subject and turned back to Ty,
"I don't want to screw this up Ty."
"Screw what up?" He asked.
"My job, my new home, you," I replied. He looked at me. "Look, Ty, I really like you. We just met and I don't want to screw things up between you and Amy," I added.
"I like you too," he replied. Then the horses shrieked of pure terror. Ty and I turned around just to be tackled by two men. There was four attackers. Two were holding Ty and I. The other attackers were catching the horses.
"Harley run!" Ty yelled. Harley kicked his captor and ran off. Sky, noticing what Harley did, kicked her captor and galloped away in the same direction as Harley.
"Let me go!" I screamed.
"Stop you're hurting her!" Ty yelled.
"Go after the damn things! The pinto is worth more than your life!" my captor yelled. The other two men jumped onto horses and galloped away. Ty was struggling to get free and I had almost gave up. The man holding me was too strong. He tied my wrists together and then tied me to a tree. He then went and helped his friend tie up Ty. They tied his wrists tighter than mine and tied him to the tree next to me.
"Cell phones," the boss man said.
"How are we supposed to get them if our hands are tied?" Ty yelled. The boss guy reached into Ty's front pocket and grabbed his phone.
"What about you?" he asked. I couldn't speak.
"Is it in here?" He asked as he squeezed my breast.
"Don't touch her!" Ty screamed.
"What are you going to do about it?" the man asked.
"Back pocket," I said in defeat. As he reached back to get my phone I kneed him hard in the face. His nose started bleeding. He violently grabbed me and took my phone out of my pocket. Then, he slapped me. I've felt a lot of pain in my life but nothing was as strong or powerful as that mans slap to my face. I squeaked with pain.