Annoyed

Dylan grinned and nodded. "Come on. It'll keep us both awake." He yawned again as he walked to the feed room. It was going to be a long day. Worth it though, to have seen the colt born.

Before long, the task was finished and they were on to the water buckets. Not much later, others started arriving to start chores, so Dylan took to divvying out hay with Ashlee. They were at the stack of hay bales when Travis ambled in.

Seeing Ashlee and Dylan, he wandered their direction and gave Ashlee a funny look. "New fashion?" He grinned and gave her pajamas and boots a once-over.

Hearing Travis' voice, Dylan immediately bristled and looked over his shoulder a him. "The new arrival didn't care about wardrobe," he informed wryly.

It took Travis a moment to figure out what he meant, but then it dawned on him. "Oh..." His eyebrows rose. "Foal, huh?" His smile returned, even though on the inside he was a little disappointed he'd missed it, and even more miffed that Ashlee and Dylan had obviously witnessed it together. He tucked his hands in his jacket pockets and leaned on the stack of hay before he looked to Ashlee again. "Soon as we're done here, wanna grab some coffee with me?" He chuckled and reached out to pluck a little piece of straw from her hair. "Looks like you could use some."

Dylan grinned an annoyed grin while inwardly rolling his eyes as Travis positioned himself between them. Saying nothing, he grabbed a couple sheets of hay and aimed for another stall. He knew when it was his cue to leave. Annoyed or not, he wouldn't make a scene...but only for Ashlee's sake.


Hunter wrapped his legs around Ryan's waist and bent over her shoulder to give her  an almost-upside down kiss. Grinning, he pulled back before grabbing a rag and wiping a grease spot off her cheek. "Get Eli to let you? If he doesn't trust me with you by now, something is very wrong." 

Only after giving her a squeeze did he release her so she could get back to work. "I'll plan on seeing you there, then." He winked and then returned to finishing off his hamburger and fries. Watching the others work, he wondered a moment about a "real" job again. Ryan had a point... since he didn't have a regular daytime job, he had an awful lot of flexibility. Then again, it came with less stability. If anything happened to the races, he would be up a creek without a paddle. 

Soon, he opted to let the crew be, and left to go wash his car and check things over before that night. 


Axel stood back and listened as Eli revved the engine on the car before he nodded and motioned for him to shut it off. A grin emerged as he shut the hood. "Boy she sounds good."

Eli smiled as well as he got out and stood back to survey their work. "Looks good too. Think she'll be pleased?" 

Axel stood with him an absentmindedly rubbed his hand. "I think she'll be thrilled... as long as she's ready for it."

Eli sighed. "Yeah... I'm not even sure when to show her..." 

Axel wandered around the car and studied the black and red colors that intertwined in smoke-like ribbons down the sides. Eli had outdone himself on the paintjob - it was going to turn heads no matter where it was driven. It had taken countless hours to rebuild the body and get the engine working again, but today, finally, it was ready to run. "She seems a lot happier since she went to Texas." 

Eli nodded. "It was really good for her. Then the whole thing with Hunter... didn't expect that, but it seems to have put a spring back in her step." 

"I think he's a good guy." Axel knew of him through Kyle, and though knowing there was a rough past there, he'd heard good things as of late.

"I think so too. I just want her to be happy, ya know?"

Axel nodded and came back around before leaning down and wiping a smudge off one of the hubcaps. Eli had worked on the car alone for quite a while, then had asked Axel's help with the engine. It had just been the two of them ever since, and the only other people who even knew about it were Scarlet and Jess. Eli had gotten a friend's permission to use his large garage on the edge of town, which had been the perfect place to work on it. "Maybe see how she is tonight at the race." 

"Yeah..." Eli didn't want to scare her or make her think he was pushing her to race again. He wasn't. At the very least, she deserved to have her own car again, and if she wanted to race again, it was ready. He didn't mind if she never did again, just as long as she was happy. 


"Sure." Hal nodded his agreement. Something to eat would probably be a good idea. He chewed his food thoughtfully, and glanced around the restaurant for the first time since they'd sat down. Had he really been that tense? Good grief. 

"I can pick you up in the morning or we can meet at the lake. Totally up to you." 


"So... let's say... hypothetically of course... that someone wanted to hack into the local University's system..." Jamison swiveled in his chair and looked at the scrolling code on the computer screen before glancing over at Dalton. "And maybe... oh, I don't know... look someone up." He'd been learning a lot about the computer world lately, and was slowly gaining ground. It wasn't the kind of work he'd anticipated, and it would probably change again once the Elite was settled, but he enjoyed the mental challenge of it all. "Is something like that even possible?"