Chapter 5

The sun shyly peeked over the mountains, signaling a new day at Riverside Ranch. Kali had actually woken up before the bell. Although she was exhausted out of her wits, she couldn't get back to sleep. Craig haunted her dreams as usual. She pulled her down comforter up to her chin. Underneath she grabbed onto the sheets and tried to think of other things. When she heard the cheery chime of the bell, though, she groaned as another day began. Rolling out of bed, her thoughts of Craig completely forgotten, she stood and dragged herself to the showers.

Ethan hadn't really slept all night. Except for a few hours before sunrise, he had been thinking about Kali all night. He felt tried as hell, but at the same time he couldn't wait to see Kali. He scurried to the showers as soon as the morning bell rang.

Kali had almost forgotten about Angie until she spotted her in the showers. Angie was getting ready to snag an open one when Kali said,

"Long time no see." Angie turned around and flashed her new friend a smile.

"You didn't come back until late last night! Looks like you got caught up in the Ethan craze." She grinned, teasing Kali.

"Hey it was my first day! He was showing me the ropes!" She protested.

"Showing you the ropes of what?" Nikki chimed in; she had just gotten out of the shower and was soaked, covered in a towel she came to talk to the two girls. She obviously had been listening in.

"Isn't that obvious? Horses! Geeze you guys have your heads in the wrong place, seriously!" Angie and Nikki both grinned at one another. Their work here was done.

"Well anyway, since we all know what you and Ethan were up to," she paused to raise her eyebrows suggestively "when are you planning to open your connector door up?"

"Oh, well, I hadn't really thought of that. How about tonight after dinner we start?"

"Well if I see you at dinner, last night you had other business to attend to." Angie said grinning again.

Laughing, Kali said, "Seriously you guys are crazy! You can stop now I get the picture!"

Angie and Kali went about making plans for their room well after they had taken showers and gotten ready. They walked to the kitchen as a thought popped into Kali's mind.

"Didn't you tell me yesterday that Ethan had a bad reputation? Why were you supporting him today?" Angie had a thoughtful look on her face. She wasn't offended by the question.

"You know, I think I was a little scared for you at first, guys have always crowded most 20 something women at the barn. I didn't think you'd be any different. So I wanted to warn you about it before something or someone hurt you. That was until I saw you two last night when I passed by your barn. I went in to look for you but I was stopped at the sight of you and Ethan. I have never seen him act that way before around a girl that is new. Sure, he has friends that are girls, but with the new ones he usually acts like a total arrogant jerk. I watched you two for a few minutes, and realize that Ethan really does like you already."

Kali wanted to ask her why she had passed the barn and watched them without her knowledge, but Angie was not finished.

"So I called him last night to ask about you, and well, he seems really cheery talking about you. It actually brought a smile to my face. He likes being around you, he said. So that's when I figured, hey if you can't beat em' join em'." Angie finished.

"Wow a new friend already checking up on me. Nice." Kali grinned. "Thanks. It means a lot to me, I'm so new and, well thanks for not pushing me away."

"Anytime." They entered the kitchen and received their breakfast. They both took the table they had sit at the day before, and waited for their friends to join them.

Ethan had already eaten and was walking towards that barn. He was horribly tired, all night he had thought of Kali. He kept reminding himself that she was there for the summer, and this was only technically their second day together. Although, since she was already driving him crazy the second day he didn't want to be thinking like this for much longer. When he reached the barn he forced himself to think of something else and visited Shadow. The horse whinnied as Ethan reached him, no doubt wanting his morning food. Ethan patted his nose and asked,

"What should I do about this girl, Shadow?" The gelding snorted.

Ethan laughed, "Thanks for the help buddy." He got to his tasks for the day because unlike yesterday, he had a group coming for a trail ride today. This would also mean that he had to take Kali with him again, but they wouldn't be alone. He wanted to be alone with her as much as possible, but that wasn't a choice he was given.

She ran to the barn, she was already late. She supposed it was because she had gotten too carried away at breakfast and talked to long with the girls. But it felt good being open again, especially the feeling of having friends again. They hadn't realized they had chatted so long until Sam had noticed that all of the ranch hands had left. They all got up as quickly as possible, without goodbyes and ran to their barns.

She reached the door and rapidly opened the door. She ran in and stopped when she almost hit Ethan. His eyes were wide with initial shock of her being so speedy. But then his alarmed face soon turned into that of a grin. She was breathing hard from running and looked completely disheveled. Her brown hair that had been tired back was more in her face than up.

"Looks like someone forgot what time to be here." Ethan said plainly, although he was hiding a smile.

"I am so sorry!" she exclaimed. "I didn't realize the time, I'm sorry it won't happen again." She looked almost scared, like he was mad at her or something.