Passion » Max Regnery

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And he did. Max sat in the driver's seat of his four door old ford, the girl's chatting away about how wonderful the horse was.

"He responds so well to you Max," Carole said, turning to face him. "He may not be so hard to train after all."

"And he was free!"

"Yeah, but he is still going to cost me a fortune," Max grumbled under his breath. "You girls better be right about this horse."

"Don't worry, Max, Blake will love him."

***

"Hey Red, have you seen Blake?"

"Yeah, she's in the tack room. Why?" He said while leaning against his pitchfork.

"Come see for yourself, he's beautiful." Replied Lisa.

Together, Lisa and Red went into the tack room where they found Blake polishing the tack. At first, getting her to leave had been a difficult task, but after much convincing that she'd love her surprise, she followed.

"What do you think?" Carole asked Blake when she stopped at the white fence. "Isn't he beautiful." The horse nickered as if to say 'Yeah, am I?'.

"He is nice," she replied softly, feeling a little confused as to why she was being shown this horse.

"He's yours," Blake felt two large hands resting on her shoulders. She looked up to see Max looking down at her and smiling. She looked back at the horse since her cheeks were turning a deep scarlet.

"Mine?" She wasn't entirely sure she heard him right, her heart was thumping louder than usual.

"Yep, the girls helped pick him out, so if you don't like him-"

"No, it's fine, I just..." she turned around to face Max, but kept her eyes on the ground. "You didn't have to get me a horse."

"Are you kidding?" Stevie said. "You've been so bummed out lately about Garnet, we wanted a way to cheer you up. And the good news, this horse needs work."

"What Stevie is trying to say," Carole glared at her friend. "Is that we all know how much Garnet meant to you and although this mustang isn't Garnet, maybe you could form a bond just as you did with Garnet. And the real good news is that you wouldn't have to worry about him being taken away because he is yours."

Blake turned to look over her shoulder. He was a beautiful horse. Very wild looking compared the the other horses at Pine Hollow. Just how much work did he need?

"I have no way of paying you back, though."

"That is fine," Max smiled. "You have earned him."

"Oh, and another side note, he only seems to like Max so far."

"What?"

Max sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "That could have been left out."

"Yeah, but think about it, the two of you can work on him together now."

"Ah, you sure he only just likes Max?" Red appeared and leaned on the fence. "He's a beauty, I was hoping to get my hands on him as well."

"Nope, only Max." Stevie walked over to Red and started to pull him away from the fence and back toward the barn.

"Right," Carole and Lisa looked at one another. "We should be going too."

Blake could have sworn the girls were up to something, even in her state, she could see clearly that they had picked up on her feelings for Max... but then, did that mean she had been obvious?

"Well," Max turned back to her when the other four were out of sight. "Shall we see how he takes to you?"

She turned around to face the horse, who in turn, had been watching them. Blake crossed her arms and tilted her head to one side. So maybe he wouldn't be such a bad idea.

"Oh, almost forgot! He has no name."

"No name?" She looked up, shocked.

"Which means, you get the honors of naming him." He crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his hip against the fence.

"Hmm," Blake turned her head to look at the palomino sticking his head out of the fence to graze on a patch of grass. "Illidan seems nice."

"Illidan?"

"Hm? Yeah, World of Warcraft."

"World of what?"

Blake turned to look at him, "Nothing," she shook her head and smiled a little. "I don't know, it doesn't fit him."

"Well, you don't have to worry about naming him now."

"Alright," she turned to face the horse and leaned against the fence. "Thanks Max, for everything."

Max copied her, leaning down against the fence beside her. "It's the least I can do," he said with a warm smile. "Had I known all along, this would have happened sooner."

"What? Buying me a horse?"

"No," he chuckled. "Bringing you to Pine Hollow, teaching you how to ride, all this."

"Oh," she nodded her head slowly. "It's not your fault anyway, my parents kept it from the both of us."

"Sorry, but am I interrupting?"

Max and Blake stood up straight and turned around to find Deborah, dressed in jeans and one of Max's shirts, with a large smile on her face.

"Deb," The smile on Max's face grew wider.

"New horse?" She cocked her head toward the palomino watching them.

"Just got him today, for Blake here."

"Oh?" Blake noticed her smile changing from genuine to fake. "For Blake?"

"Yeah," he replied, clearly clueless as to what was really going on. "Blake was fond of Garnet, and it pained me to see her hurting so the girls and I went out and got her this guy."

"Really?" She looked from Blake to Max. "That was very thoughtful."

"Indeed," Blake cleared her throat. "I'm going to see if Red needs anymore help. Later."