The sun shone brightly and the horses neighed, but that wasn't what woke Clay the next morning. Footsteps, someone clearing their voice, and a hand on Clay's shoulder woke him. 

     Opening his eyes, Clay saw Waylon looking down at him where he was still lying, his arms still wrapped tightly around Misty. Slowly sitting up, careful not to wake the sleeping beauty next to him, Clay looked up to Waylon to tell him it wasn't what it looked like.

     Waylon, standing with his arms folded, nodded his head towards Misty. "You better get her back to camp before her dad knows y'all spent the night out here together." 

     "It isn't what it-" Clay started. 

     "Or, y'all can help me cook breakfast and we can pretend like none of this ever happened." Waylon interrupted. 

     Clay ran a hand through his bed head before nodding at Waylon. "We will be back at camp in a few minutes to help you cook." 

      "Let's hope so." Waylon replied before walking away, a smile tugging on the corner of his lips. 

     Turning to Misty after Waylon walked away, Clay hated to wake her, but he didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea by seeing them together. Shaking her shoulder slightly, Clay said Misty's name. 

     When Misty groaned and rolled over onto her back, but didn't open her eyes, Clay knew there was only one way to wake her up. With a smile, Clay leaned down, softly kissing Misty's lips. When she inhaled quickly, Clay knew his plan had succeeded. He tried pulling back after the first kiss, but Misty's arms went around Clay's neck, pulling him down to her for a second kiss.  

     To stabilize himself from giving in to Misty's pull on him, Clay put his arms on either side of her. Pulling back, Clay smiled down at Misty. When he was able to catch his breath he said, "We've been caught by Waylon. He came out here to feed the horses and he found us. I promised him to have you back to camp in a few minutes or else he might tell your dad about us sleepin' out here all night." 

     Misty, still starry-eyed replied, "That's the best way anyone has ever woke me up before. Do I get to look forward to you kissing me awake more mornings?" Misty, still sleepy, had meant for the second comment to stay inside her head, causing her to blush when she heard herself say it out loud. 

     Clay chuckled. "I would love to, but your dad might never let me see you again if we don't get back to camp right now."   

     Dropping her arms from Clay's neck, Misty groaned. "Five more minutes, please." 

     Clay laughed, sitting up on his knees. "I told myself that last night, and we ended staying out here all night." To get her to get up, Clay teasingly pulled the blankets off of Misty. "Come on, sleepyhead. Time to get up." 

      Misty immediately curled up into a ball. "No, Clay, it's so cold. Please give me the blankets back." 

     Clay stood up. "Only if you get up, and we start headin' back to camp. I told Waylon we will help him cook breakfast." Reaching a hand down, Clay smiled. "Come on, sleeping beauty." 

     Misty, giving Clay a mischievous grin said, "Sleeping beauty was awaken with a kiss from Prince Charming." 

     "I did kiss you awake, remember?" Clay chuckled.

     Misty dramatically folded her arms over her chest and shut her eyes, waiting for Clay to kiss her. When he didn't kiss her after a few seconds, Misty opened one eye. "Prince Charming, I'm sleeping. Waiting for art to kiss thou." 

     Giving in to the fairy-tail antics, Clay said, "Where art thou, Juliet?" He fell to his knees as he dramatically stretched out both arms. 

     Misty, not able to hold it in, burst out laughing. Sitting up, she smiled at Clay. "Wrong time period, sweetheart, but that was cute." Leaning forward, Misty softly kissed Clay's cheek. 

     Clay stood up, offering Misty a hand up. Accepting it, Misty allowed Clay to pull her to her feet. The second she was standing vertical, Misty remembered how badly her knee hurt. Wincing, Misty grabbed her knee with her free hand. 

     Clay placed his free hand on Misty's side. "Are you okay? Is it your knee?" 

     Misty looked up at Clay. "Yeah. It's always really sore in the morning." 

     "Okay. I didn't hurt you when I pulled you up, did I?" Clay asked, concerned for Misty.

     Straightening the best she could, Misty replied, "No, you didn't. It's just sore."

     Taking his hand off of Misty's side, Clay looked at Misty. "We are goin' to get your knee checked out soon as we get back. And your wrist, too." He said it firmly, almost in an imperative way.

     Misty sighed. She was in too much pain to argue with him. "Okay." Misty replied with a nod. 

     "Good. Now let's get back to camp." Clay said, letting go of Misty's hands to pick up the blankets and pillows. Handing them to Misty, he told her to jump up on his back. 

     Misty obeyed; she loved the little games they played. 

     Once the couple got back to camp, Clay set Misty down on the ground, telling her to sit on the tailgate of the truck beside where Marshall was making pancakes. "Here," Clay started, talking to Misty. "You need to elevate your knee." He told her, helping her turn sideways so her leg was out straight on the tailgate, and her back was against the side of the truck. "Let's put this pillow under your knee to raise it up." After the pillow was carefully placed under Misty's knee, Clay asked, "You comfortable?" When Misty nodded, Clay replied, "I'll be right back" before walking away. Coming back a few minutes later, Clay handed Misty a bottle of water and three Tylenol pills. "Here." 

     Misty took them from Clay. After swallowing the pills, Misty smiled. "Why do you take such good care of me?" 

      Tucking some of Misty's long, wavy brown hair behind her ear, Clay replied, "Because I care about you and hate seein' you hurt." 

     "Thank you." Misty whispered, leaning in to Clay.

     Before their lips could meet, Waylon cleared his voice, pulling Misty and Clay apart. They had forgotten Waylon was even around. "Alright, lovebirds. I still need help cookin' breakfast. Y'all ain't off the hook yet." 

     Clay chuckled, pulling away from Misty to go help Waylon. "What do you want me to do, boss?" 

     "Here, you're in charge of makin' the eggs." Waylon said, handing Clay a dozen of eggs from the cooler in the bed of the truck. 

     Clay and Waylon had successfully made breakfast for all the hands, and somehow only managed to burn two pancakes. 

     After Clay helped dole out all the food to the hands, he came over to Misty, handing her a plate of hot food. "Here ya go." He said, jumping up on the tailgate next to Misty. Misty turned, taking her knee off the pillow so she could dangle her legs off the end of the tailgate and sit next to Clay.

     "Thank you." Misty replied, looking at Clay.  

     "You're welcome. I wasn't gonna make you get up and git your own food." Clay replied, giving Misty a look.

     Chuckling, Misty replied, "I mean thank you for everything. This week has been such an adventure, but I've loved every crazy second of it...and that's because I have gotten to spend it with you. You treat me so great, Clay, and I do not deserve it." Misty smiled when Clay grabbed her hand. "This roundup is certainly one for the books. It's been my favorite roundup so far. And this is my 16th roundup, so that's sayin' somethin', cowboy." Misty smiled at Clay. Just like every time she looked at him, she felt like this was all just a long dream, and she never wanted to wake up from it. But when Clay leaned in, quickly kissing Misty's lips, she knew it wasn't a dream at all.

     "How do the eggs taste?" Clay asked, pulling back from the kiss.

    Misty let go of Clay's hand so she could take a bite of the scrambled eggs. "Surprisingly, they're really good." 

    Clay took a bite of the eggs himself. "You're a good liar." He said after swallowing a bite.

    "I'm not lyin'. They're a little salty, but they're really good." Misty replied, taking another bite. "In fact, I think they're better than the pancakes." 

    Setting down his fork, Clay chuckled. "Okay. Now I know you're lyin'."  

    "Maybe just a little." Misty winked. 

     After their breakfast was finished, Clay threw away his and Misty's paper plates and forks, then came back to join Misty on the tailgate. Reaching out, Clay grabbed Misty's hand, interlacing their fingers. Misty rested her head on Clay's shoulder and looked at the scene before her. All the cowboys were tearing down the tents for the last time this week. As she looked around, her eyes landed on one person in particular: Jace. He saw Misty looking at him, and gave her a cordial nod; even from far away, Misty could see the sadness in his eyes as he looked between Misty and Clay. 

     Clay seemed to read Misty's mind because he sighed, saying, "Sweetheart, I don't know what's goin' on between y'all, but don't let it bother you." 

     "I know...we've never fought like this before though." Looking up at Clay, Misty saw his sincerity. "I'm sure you're right. Hopefully him and I will get to talk after the roundup is over." 

     "I hope so, too." Clay smiled, placing a kiss on Misty's forehead. "I think it's time we head over to get the horses tacked up, what do you say?" 

     Misty sat up, giving Clay a nod. When he jumped down from the tailgate, he offered his hand out to Misty. Being weary of her knee, Misty slipped off the tailgate. As usual, Clay offered Misty a piggy back ride, but looking over to Jace one more time, Misty refused Clay's offer. "I need to try to walk." 

     "Okay." Clay replied. "But I still get to hold your hand, right?" Clay asked, giving Misty puppy dog eyes.

     "For the short walk over to the horses? Sure." Misty chuckled, holding out her hand. 

     No more than a half hour later, all of the cowboy's tired horses were saddled up and everyone was mounted atop their rides for the last trek home. All the supplies were loaded up on the truck, the horses fed, all of the saddle bags were stocked, canteens filled, and spirits lifted. Today was the last day of the roundup, so everyone got to sleep in for a little longer since the ride would take a maximum of four hours back to the ranch.  

     After Bill gave the normal announcements and finished the prayer, he gave the "go ahead" to let the mustangs out of the holding corral for the last time. 

     All of the cowboys got in to their correct flanking positions, keeping the herd in line. Misty's horse, Midnight decided today would be a good day to remind Misty he, too, was a mustang. The second Midnight saw the grulla horse Misty named Casper, he began to throw his head and paw at the ground, acting like he was about to rear up. 

     Misty slightly applied pressure to her reins, getting Midnight to raise his head. That caused Midnight to pin his ears back, throwing Misty a crow-hop. "What's goin' on today, bud?" Misty asked her horse after straightening her seat from the unexpected jolt. Midnight settled for a few minutes. Misty just reckoned it was normal last day behavior. All the horses got antsy towards the end of the roundup; they knew was it was getting close to the comfort of their home.  

     This year was the first year that the McAdams' family had decided to use the same horses for the whole roundup. Usually, around the third or fourth day, Pokey, and another hand, would bring the horse trailer up to a meeting place and the cowboys would switch horses. Last year, however, there were several problems with using the trailer to transport the fresh horses out to the range. Even though it had only rained for one day of the week last year, when Pokey brought the trailer with the horses up, the muddy ground was unforgiving, causing both the truck and trailer to get stuck. Finally, after a long delay, the men were able to unhitch the trailer, freeing the truck, and eventually the trailer. On the way back to the ranch, the trailer blew a tire, causing one of the horses in the back to spook, and injure himself. Thankfully, the horse was okay, but because of all of the problems they had last year, Bill made the tough decision this year to just use the same horses the whole week. This decision hadn't been a bad idea until today when Midnight decided he was ready to be done before the day even started. 

     "Is everythin' okay?" Clay asked, seeing that Misty hadn't moved from where they let the mustangs out.

     By this point, Misty was riding Midnight in circles, a job that usually got him to calm down enough to ride safely again. "Yeah, I think Midnight is just ready to go home. He's kind of throwin' a fit today. He already crow hopped once."  

     "Do you want me to ride him?" Clay asked without hesitating. 

     Letting Midnight walk forward, Misty replied, "No, he will be even worse with you. I'm the only one that he lets ride for some reason. Thank you though." 

     "Okay. Just let me know if you change your mind." Clay replied, leading Rusty back towards the herd. 

     "I will. Thank you. To be honest, Rusty isn't the only one who is ready to be home." Misty started, shortening her reins slightly so Midnight didn't have the option to drop his head as low as before. "I love being out on the range and the roundup and everything, but I miss my bed and a nice, hot shower. Taking baths out here in a water trough or lake are nice when the water isn't freezing." Misty chuckled.  

      "Well, that's not why I'm excited to get back." Clay smiled at Misty.

     "Oh, and why are you excited to get back?" 

     "Because you said that I will get to take you out on a date once we get back." Clay looked as happy as a little boy. "And then we get to talk more about what this thing is goin' on between you and me. That's why I'm excited to get back."  

     Misty pretended to contemplate Clay's proposition. "I'm sure we can work something out...that is if my dad allows me to go on a date with you." Misty glanced at Clay.

      "What do I have to do to get him to allow me to take you out?" Clay asked, pulling his sunglasses off his hat, situating them comfortably over his eyes. 

     Before Misty could reply, Midnight whinnied loudly and began to act like he was about to buck as he side-stepped. Whinnying once more, Misty realized why her horse was acting up. When Casper whinnied back, Misty knew she was right. Chuckling, Misty trotted Midnight closer to the grulla stallion and Clay followed her. Sure enough, when Midnight got nearer to Casper, he calmed right now. 

     "I think Midnight made a buddy." Clay stated, chuckling.  

     "I reckon you're right." Misty replied. For the rest of the ride back to the ranch, Misty rode Midnight close to Casper and she didn't have a single problem with him acting up again.  

     Given another three hours in the saddle, the McAdams' ranch finally came into view. All of the cowboys let out their hoots and hollers as they knew their misses were waiting back at the house for them with a nice home cooked meal all hot and ready for them. 

     "Man, I can't wait for a nice shower and my bed." One cowboy said.

     "Shower? I can't wait for my wife's cookin'. Especially after Marshall's pancakes this morning." Another cowboy said, causing everyone else to erupt in laughter. 

     Clay turned to Misty and said, just loud enough for her to hear, "And I can't wait to get back so I can kiss you and take you out." 

     Misty smiled. She couldn't wait either.  

     Finally, the cowboys were back at the ranch. Trigger and Paul opened the gates to the pastures that the mustangs would be held in until Wednesday when they will be vaccinated and started on their training. The McAdams' liked to let the cowboys a couple days rest from the roundup before the real hard work began.  

     Once the reluctant mustangs all filed through the gate, the men all rode their horses back to the barn to untack their horses for the last time. The men who don't live on the McAdams' ranch would take their horses back home and all the other horses would have a few days to catch up on sleep and the freedom of galloping through their favorite green pastures.
     

     "Thank you, God, for getting us back to the ranch safely." Misty heard Clay whisper the prayer once they were back in the barn. Putting his cowboy hat back on his head after he said, "Amen," Clay dismounted from Rusty. 

     Misty did the same, leading Midnight next to his stall to be untacked. From a distance, Misty watched Clay untack Rusty and talk to some of his buddies who were on the roundup. While talking to Howard, Misty caught Clay looking over at her a couple times. Each time, his smile seemed to grow more and more. Finally, Howard clapped Clay on the back and walked away, right towards Misty. As Howard passed, he tipped his hat, grinning at Misty. "Ma'am." 

     Misty nodded back. When she looked at Clay after the encounter with Howard, Misty knew that Clay and him had been talking about her. Once she was finished giving Midnight a good brush down, and a quick bath with the hose, she turned him out into the pasture where he happily galloped off to let out all his pent up energy. 

     Turning to head back into the barn to find Clay, Misty practically collided with Jace who was leading his horse, Bailey, out to the pasture as well. "H-hey." Misty started, taking a step back to put a little space between her and Jace. 

     "Hey." Jace said, looking away from Misty. When she realized that she was standing right in front of the gate, she stepped to the side to allow Jace to let Bailey out.  

     "Jace," Misty started once he closed the gate after Bailey was let out. "Can we please talk about whatever this tension is between us? I mean we can talk another day, but I hate that we are fightin'. We never fight." 

      "Misty, with all due respect, there's nothin' else to talk about. And I'm afraid I can't just be your friend while you're with Clay." Finally looking up at Misty, Jace continued. "Until you figure out where you and Clay stand, I think this is how thangs will be between us." Jace looked sad, like every word he said was a weight, and the more he spoke, the heavier the weights got, until he felt like he couldn't talk anymore.  

     "We're still friends, though...right, Jace?" Misty asked, concerned.

     "For now." Jace replied simply. 

     Unsure what else to say, Misty just said, "Okay." And left it at that. Walking back into the barn, the first person that she saw was Clay. He was walking towards Misty with a grin on his face. 

     "I was lookin' for you." Clay said, walking closer to Misty. 

     "Oh, yeah? What for?" Misty smiled as she met Clay in the middle of the barn. Any sadness or confusion she had from her talk with Jace instantly melted when Clay smiled at her. Loving the feeling of his muscles, Misty slowly wrapped her arms around Clay's middle. 

     "To tell you you're beautiful." Clay said. In one motion, he took off his cowboy hat with one hand and held Misty's cheek in his other as he placed a firm kiss on her lips. He had never kissed Misty like this before. The initial kiss, along with the second one, took Misty's breath away, but she didn't dare pull back. Instead, she tightened her arms around Clay's middle, pulling him closer to her. 

     Clay let his cowboy hat fall to the ground so his other hand could be free to hold Misty's face in his hands as he kissed her again and again. After a few more kisses later, Clay pulled back, resting his forehead against Misty's. "I'm so glad the roundup is over. I have been waiting all week to do that." Clay said to Misty who was still blushing. 

     "Mhm." Was all Misty could say since Clay's kisses had left her speechless.

     Pulling back fully, Clay bent down to pick up his cowboy hat. Fixing it back on his head, that halfway grin appeared on Clay's mouth again. Taking Misty's hand in his, Clay said, "Now that I have you speechless so you can't protest, let's go get your injuries checked out."