Another cover design!
Thought it fit this chapter. 🥰

Katie
After Wyatt dropped me off I run inside and changed clothes.

I go back outside and leap into my truck. I had thirty minutes till my riding lesson and I did not want to be late.

"Hey, Katie, I almost thought you weren't going to come."

"I know Stacy caught me after my class and made me late," I tell Izzy as I get Ripley ready.

"Are you sure, or were you having too much fun with Wyatt?" Izzy says in a mischievous voice.

I gasp and throw a chunk of hair at her. Which makes her laugh even harder.

"Izzy, you know I don't see him that way."

She puts her helmet on and walks her horse Remi to the mounting block. "You say that now, but it might change."

I barely finish getting Ripley tacked up in time for my lesson.

After we warm up our instructor (her name is Stef) has us come to the middle so she can tell us what we're doing.

Izzy walks Remi over to me. "Yay, we're jumping." She sarcastically pumps her fist in the air.

Stef sees Izzy and asks, "Do you have a question, Izzy?"

I try to cover up my laugh with a cough because Izzy blushes beet red. "Oh no, I was just stretching."

We do a few warm-up jumps then because there are four people in our lesson, we do the course one at a time.

After the first two girls go it's Izzy's turn. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck!"

Izzy turns around and glares at me. "Wish it, not yell it!"

I mouth, "You got this."

Her horse Remi can be hard to ride sometimes. Her father bought him for her after her last horse had to be put to sleep.  And well, let's just say he got scammed.

He thought he was buying an amazing show jumper but in reality, Remi had no training.

The first day Izzy rode him she fell off twice. Her dad was going to sell him, but Izzy fell in love with Remi.

It took a lot of convincing from Izzy and me to get her dad to let her keep Remi.

Over the last eight months, Izzy's been training Remi and she's done a really good job. Unfortunately, Remi still has his bad days.

Izzy walks Remi back over two me. "Katie, that was so bad!" She has her head in her hands.

"Iz, it wasn't that bad," I say reassuringly.

She glares at me. "Seriously Katie, I knocked over every jump but one."

She wasn't wrong about that.

"Well-" I start to say, but Stef yells it's my turn.

I go over the course three times and it's going pretty well till I hear Stef yell, "Give him his head." (Which in horsey terms means, stop pulling on the horse's mouth)

"Katie, do you know what you did wrong?" Stef asks once I finish.

"I should have gone for the longer stride instead of making him wait," I say out of breath.

Stef sighs and shakes her head. "No Katie, you need to trust him more. Look, you're both to the point in your training where you don't need to hold his hand anymore. Ripley knows what he's doing because you trained him right, so now it's time you trust him."

She is right, I need to learn to let my guard down and trust Ripley. "I know."

"Well, work on letting go, it might not always be perfect but he's ready."

Stef claps her hands. "Alright class good riding. And don't forget to put the jumps away!"

Everyone sighs.

After the barn, I come straight home and eat dinner. Well, I'm eating dinner when my dad gets home. "Hey, Katie how are you?"

"I'm pretty good."

"How was your lesson?" My dad asks while he gets leftover chicken and dumplings from the fridge.

"It went really well. Ripley jumped amazingly."

My dad smiles. "Well, that's good to hear."

I get up to throw my trash away.

I guess it's now or never to tell him about Wyatt. 

"Hey, Dad there is something I want to tell you."

I look down at my hands. "There's this guy named Wyatt I'm taking too."

My dad looks confused, and I know he's fighting not to say anything till I finish.

"And I was wondering if he could join us for dinner tomorrow?" He looks down at his food for a few seconds and I'm afraid he's going to say no or yell at me for not telling him sooner.

"So, you're telling me, well I'm sorry asking me if this guy you talking to can come to dinner so I can meet him and tell you what I think?"

I nod my head up and down, trying not to smile.

He takes in a deep breath. "Okay, I'll meet him, but I'm not making any promises that I'll like him."

I release a breath I didn't realize I was holding and hug him.

He chuckles. "Okay, now run along and do your homework."

I laugh. "I love you, Dad!"

I only have a few math questions to submit online for homework which didn't take me that long.

I start scrolling through Instagram on my computer. (I know a very old lady like but I already had my computer on and my phone is charging.) When I realized I needed to text Wyatt.

Me: You now have plans tomorrow.

Not even a minute later he responds.

Just Wyatt: Oh? And what are these plans?

Me: Dinner at my house to meet my fam
Me: Well to meet my dad

Just Wyatt: Can I FaceTime you?

I look in the mirror, my hair doesn't look too bad. It's in a low messy bun.

Me: Yeah!

About two minutes later my phone rings and I answer it. "Hey." It looks like he's laying in his bed.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"Just watching TikTok. What about you?"  Wyatt says.

I smile."Im looking through Instagram on my computer ."

He sits up. "Seriously, my girlfriend is an old lady."

I roll my eyes. "Laugh all you want, but it's so much easier."

He laughs. "Whatever you say."

I shut my computer. "So, are you excited for tomorrow?"

I see his face get tight. "Um, to be honest, I'm a little nervous to meet your dad."

"Awe don't be, I'm sure he'll like you, you can be pretty charming."

He smiles and wiggles his eyebrows. "Oh really?"

I sigh. "Your charm didn't work on me!"

"Okay, we'll see, you might change your mind," Wyatt says smirking.

"Might?" I ask.

He smiles, and I just stick my tongue out at him.

"I know this will disappoint you, but I can't pick you up for school in the morning, Kate."

Something warms in my heart when he calls me Kate. Why? I have no idea.

I make a fake disappointed face "Awe I'm heartbroken what will I ever do?"

Wyatt laughs.

"I have to ride in the morning anyways."

"Well, please be careful on the road you'll be no good as a walking pancake," Wyatt says.

I scoff.  "I should be fine. You know with you off the roads and at practice."

He shakes his head smiling. "You know that joke is starting to get old."

"Maybe to you," I respond with as much sass as I can possess.

He just sticks his tongue out at me.

"Hey, Wyatt I'll be right back."

Wyatt
I'm getting ready to ask Katie where she was going, but she was already gone. About five minutes later she comes back.

"Sorry, had had to get a snack and put on pajamas." It looks like she's sitting on the bed now.

"What are you eating?"

"Mayo on toasted bread with a lot of pepper. I call it mayonnaise bread."

I start laughing at her face because she has mayo on her cheek and her nose is scrunched up. She looks cute.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, I just thought it's funny you eat that because I eat it all the time. My mom gets so mad at me," I say with a smile.

"Oh." She relaxes her face, (that still has mayo on it).

"Yeah, when I eat this around Tyler it grosses him out," She says smugly.

When she finishes eating I can tell she lays down and then looks at her face on the screen.
"Wyatt! Why didn't you tell me I had mayonnaise on my face."

I laugh. "Oh. I didn't see it."

She wipes her hand across her cheek. "Lair!"

I don't know how long we talked but when I see her eyes starting to get heavy I tell her I have to go to bed. After she hangs up I roll over and plug my phone up to see the time.

Wow, 10:15 I don't remember the last time I was on the phone talking with someone that long.

By, the way, mayonnaise bread is something I eat all the time and I definitely recommend trying it because it's amazing!!