You guys! This chapter sucks...it's like wedded bliss or something, so boring (not really but kinda).

It's written in Devyn's POV too, so I hope you all at least enjoy that :D.

Sorry this has taken so long to post, there has just been...soo much happening in my family lately that it's ridiculous! Plus I've been sick for the past week with REALLY bad hayfever. Which is weird, because I've never had hayfever before!

Anyway, after this story I'll be continuing to write 'Summer Gifts' and 'What he Wore'. SG is a teen fic/ romance story and WhW is a teen fic/ short story. I figured out that the pattern of writing a short story and a novel at the same time helps balance things out...ya know? I also have the next (after SG and WhW) stories all figured out and ready to go!

They are, 'The Wrong Kind of Charming', which will also be a novel and is teen fic/ romance AND 'Like Kate', which will be the short story/ teen fic! 

So keep your eyes peeled!

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Devyn’s POV

“Hey Devyn! That’s it for the day; we’re all going to head back down to the ranch house. Are you coming?” Adrian yelled out while gathering a few of his tools, we’d been up a ridge for the better part of the day doing general maintenance on one of the longest fences on the ranch. We weren’t finished what we had to do for the day but as the sun was setting behind us now were as good a time as any to head back down the ridge.

I waved Adrian off; I’d make my way down a little more slowly than the rest of the crew. Plus, Adrian knew that I liked to sit out a while longer and watch the sun setting though it’d be a bit hard considering it was setting behind a mountain not too far away.

After gathering my tools into a small pile I headed back down the ridge slowly, towards my pickup. Adrian and the others were just leaving the parking area when I reached my truck, I would catch up with them at dinner but for the time being I had a bit of time to myself. So instead of rushing back to my room I sat on the back deck of my pickup and watched the changing colour in the sky.

Sitting there, I couldn't help but think about everything that had happened over the summer and everything that would happen through the rest of the year. We were only a week or two away from school starting again and I wasn't just nervous but also excited, happy, eager and optimistic.

Adrian kept asking me the hard questions, if I still wanted to continue with bronco riding and trying to get into the rodeo circuit, if I wanted to quit, what my honest feelings were towards Leah and why I had been such a douche and why I had kept running when we had little arguments.

Truth be told, I was scared.

I was scared of feeling trapped, of being hurt, of being made to look like an idiot...of being the guy that I teased my friends about. There was a stigma at Butte Central high that whipped guys weren’t guys anymore, that they weren’t free to do what they wanted whenever they wanted but day  by day I was finding out that it wasn’t the case.

Yeah, some days Leah irritated me and I irritated her. We argued, we spent time apart but usually we were fine after a half hour of cooling down. For the most part she wasn’t demanding of my time, I actually think I wanted to hang out with Leah more than she wanted to hang out with me sometimes but she never turned down a request.

I was lucky in a lot of ways and thanked god that Leah hadn’t gone back to California, even though she had every reason to return. If I had a castle down there that was mine and had the choice to stay there or go back to the backwaters, where you had to work hard, people were cranky and animals were sometimes unpredictable I think I would have taken the easy way out.

But not Leah, she had been taking the hard road most of her life...well sorta hard. It definitely hadn’t been an easy road, that’s for sure.

Realizing it was getting darker earlier I grabbed my gear and headed down the ridge towards my truck, it had taken a few hits this summer, animals had run into it. There were even marks along the sides where a bull had tried to attack us, thinking about it now was funny but it hadn’t been when Adrian and I had been huddled on the roof trying to stay out of its reach.

Pulling up to the workers housing back at the ranch I noticed my apartment lights were on and smiled, knowing that Leah was inside waiting. The workers quarters were different to other ranches, they were studio rooms set out in a long building, and two had a few bunk beds in them. Usually it was first in, first served.

Switching the truck off I smiled when Leah came to the ranch slider and opened the door on seeing me climb out of my truck. She approached me with a wide smile on her face, seeing her like that made my day even better and I accepted the hug and kiss she had been waiting to give me. “You’re back late,” she commented, I smiled knowing that she was just being nosy but didn’t want to ask outright where I had been.

“You know how it is; Adrian and them always leave a little early so I stay a little later to finish things up.” It was total bull;   by the way Leah smiled she picked up on that. It was sarcasm without the tone and over the last few weeks she had become a hell of a lot better at picking up on it than most people around.

“Devyn? Is this normal? Like, I mean...are we supposed to be this content with things? After the big love revelation we just kind of fell into happiness, we don’t argue anymore and we’re always happy. Is it normal to feel some sort of anxiety over the fact that we’re just a normal couple?” I had found myself wondering the same thing a couple times,  truth be told I had no idea though. This was the first serious relationship where I was willing to put effort in to make it work, I don’t know what it was but I didn’t want to see Leah angry or upset.

“I think so? You still get me angry sometimes but instead of standing there arguing with you I go out and do a bit of work or ride one of the horses. Don’t feel guilty because we’re an old couple before our time, enjoy it.” I cut myself off there before I said something that I might regret. The thought of Leah and I breaking up wasn’t comforting, just the mere thought of her being with another guy made my blood boil and for a fraction of a second I pulled her closer to me.

A sharp jab to my ribs brought my thoughts back around and I gasped in mock pain as I pulled away from Leah. “Are you trying to hurt my poor body? After a long day of working in the hot sun?” By the roll of her eyes I knew Leah didn’t buy a single word I said and pushed me through the front door, I stopped dead in my tracks when my eyes landed on the neatly set table.

“Surprise!” I heard Leah cheer belatedly as she came through the door, pushing me forward slightly so that she could come in behind me.

“Did you cook?” I had been warned about Leah’s cooking skills or lack of but it didn’t put me off as I approached the table. The food actually looked edible, which made me wonder if everyone had exaggerated how terrible her cooking skills were.

“Sort of, I asked Trisha to help me. But! Go and wash first, I don’t want you dirty at the table.” Giving Leah a kiss I went and showered quickly, by the time I had emerged back into the little dining room come lounge and kitchen Leah had dished out food and was sitting at the table with a smile on her face.

“I was hungry,” Leah stated when I sat down, it was then I noticed that she had begun picking at her food. That was another thing I liked about Leah, she wasn’t shy about eating. If she was hungry she helped herself, if she was starving she more or less sat with her face in her plate until the hunger was gone.

“That’s what I love about you, you’re not shy and I’d hate for a girl to starve while I was getting ready. This all looks awesome,” we ate and laughed over our dinner, Leah pointed out what she’d cooked in a dish and what she hadn’t cooked...what she had sliced and why. I was happy enough to sit there and listen even though I didn’t have a clue what blanched and Julian meant. At least I think it was Julian.

When we were done the dishes were piled into my sink before we settled on the sofa to watch a little television.

“Devyn?” Leah asked, turning to me slightly. We were laid out on the sofa, I lay on my back while Leah lay more or less draped over me which seemed to be her favourite spot when we were together.

“Yeah?” Turning a little I almost caught my chin on the top of Leah’s head, we had done it so many times before, bumping heads that I was almost a pro at close calls.

Turning further Leah settled next to me as we faced each other.

“I love you doofus,” I burst out laughing so hard. That was something Leah did often, her pet name for me was doofus, and mine for her was dip-wad. We worked that way; insults weren’t insults when said with love, though those pet names weren’t always said with love either. Especially if we argued...though that rarely ever happened anymore.

“I love you more, you dipwad.” Leah didn’t laugh when I said that, instead she looked a little puzzled.

“What is a dipwad? Like honestly, it sounds like you plucked random words out of the air and decided they sounded great together.” I laughed some more, truth be told I had plucked words out of the air but after looking through a dictionary I had found that dipwad meant the same thing as doofus...or almost.

“Dipwad means the same thing as doofus; you should read a dictionary some time. It’s handy for coming up with new nicknames.” I laughed harder at seeing Leah’s expression change, she had called me stupid and I had been calling her stupid without her even knowing it.

“Oh no! Not the tickling! You know that makes me sneeze like mad!” I knew good and well that Leah knew this, but she liked doing it anyway just to prove that tickling actually did make me sneeze, it didn’t make me laugh.

I mean, I laughed but more at my sneezing than anything else.

When the first sneeze tore through me Leah began cackling like a mad woman, I pushed her off the sofa playfully. She carried on cackling against the floor, rolling around occasionally as she fought for air, and this was why we worked.

We worked well because when everyone else wasn’t looking, listening or around we were the two dorkiest people in the world and I wouldn’t have it any other way.