3. Getting To Know You...

So we didn't ride off into the sunset on that first ride, but we did start riding horses together more often. Before that, however, as much as it pains me to think about it, the boyfriend came back into the picture. Remember how I said that I should've seen right through it when the boyfriend asked me to go to church with him that day? Well, I guess he took that as a little bit more than it was meant to be, because after that day, he was quite interested in pursuing my affections. I was more interested in the best friend of the boyfriend, however he didn't show in any way that he was even the slightest bit interested in me. It was frustrating. So here we have a twisted love triangle. I liked the best friend, whose best friend, (who was the ex-boyfriend of my best friend), liked me. If that wasn't confusing, I don't know what is!
As horrible as this sounds, I was willing to hang out with the boyfriend to get closer to the best friend...
We hung out as a group several times, which was fun, but it wasn't exactly what I had in mind. So I decided to make a bold move. I went to the best friend's house one evening.
I rang the door bell, and his mother came to the door. I said "I don't know if you remember me, but...", and she interrupted me with "Hannah, right? Come in!". I was a little surprised that his mother remember me after all those years. I went in and was introduced to his sister and brother (interesting fact- I had met his brother several times before). His poor sister had the flu, I think, but she still came in to check me out.
Meanwhile, the person that I had gone to see wasn't even there. He was with, who'd have guessed, the boyfriend. They were eating at a rib joint not too far away. I sat down and visited with his mother, who volunteered to call him, which she did. I remember the conversation (the phone volume was really loud). It went something like this:

Mom: "Son, someone's here to see you!"
Him: "Is it Suzy?" (the dog)
Mom: "NO! It's a girl..."

I didn't hear any more than that on his end.  He and the boyfriend (who I need to start calling the best friend, since he was no longer the boyfriend) came directly back to his house. They both came in. I found out later that the best friend exclaimed, upon hearing that I was there, "She tracked me down! Whatdya know!" Why I would go to someone else's house to track the best friend down, I don't know. It's a mystery to us all. Anyway, I had a lovely visit with the family, and then went on my way.
It was soon after this night that we began to ride horses together on a regular basis. It was so much fun. I remember how much of a cowboy he was... the boots, spurs and chaps. He didn't wear a cowboy hat, however. He wore a camouflage ball cap, and I loved it. He was so different from past boyfriends, who were either into saggy pants and jerseys or The Gap and nicer shoes than I had. He was rugged. There was something about him that just made me crazy.
I didn't really have a lot of friends that would ride with me, besides Leann, who had long-since headed off to college a few hours away, so it was great to find someone who enjoyed it as much as I did.
On those first rides together we talked so much. About our lives since we met the first time, about our lives growing up, and about what we were hoping to do with our lives in the future. We found out that we grew up in much the same way, our families were very similar. He had a brother and a sister, I had a sister and fifteen cats. And several dogs. And a lot of horses and cows. And there were some goats and a snake in there somewhere...
We had a lot in common. We loved the outdoors, we were both raised in church (his dad was the music minister at that church I met him at the second time...), we both ran wild in the woods when we were young - I just want to establish right now that I never wore only a loin cloth while running wild in the woods- we differ in that little detail...
Several days would pass and he would call again, asking if I would accompany him on his next ride. Of course I agreed. And then we started seeing more of each other, and more. We were fast developing a great friendship.
This lasted for about three months. We rode those horses just about every day for three months. Towards the end of the three months we started to do other things together besides riding horses. We watched a movie at his house, we went to a rodeo (with the best friend, who was still vying for my love), etc.
I remember one evening, after we had unsaddled the horses, we were playing with a new litter of barn kitties. We had a hay fight, and sat there in the barn and talked. That's one of the times that I remember when it felt like the butterflies in my stomach could've carried me right up into the air. He reached over and pulled a piece of hay out of my hair and I felt like I could fly.
I knew right then that I wanted him to know how I felt about him, I just needed to get up the nerve...