Spencer ducked her head and blushed, “Why, that’s very sweet of you, Miss Davies.” she reached down and took Ashley’s hand in her own, lacing their fingers. They didn’t get to do that much, so when they had a moment, they took charge of it.

“So,” Ashley dragged out the word, “tell me about yourself, Carlin.”

Spencer shot her a quizzical look and raised a single brow, “Ash, you already know me.”

“Well, it just dawned on me that I hardly know anything about you, like, before you moved here.”

“You mean you wanna know about me in Ohio?”

“Yeah,” Ashley said with a brilliant smile.

“Hmm, okay, well, what do you want to know?”

“Anything you want to tell me.”

“Well,” Spencer started, looking upward, “I lived in an old farm type house. We lived close to my aunt Cecile who has a ranch, so after school I would usually go there and ride for hours.”

“Ride?” Ashley cut her off.

“Horses,” Spencer explained, “They have a bunch of horses, so I would feed them, and then I would just go ride.”

“You any good?”

“Well, I’d hope so,” Spencer laughed. “I was in junior rodeos for barrel racing.”

“Barrel racing?” Ashley stared at the blonde wide eyed, “You mean like rodeo shit?”

Spencer narrowed her eyes slightly, “Yeah, like rodeo shit,” she echoed. “My trophies are in a box in the attic.”

“Why are they in a box? They should be up on shelves.”

The blonde sighed, “When we moved here, Mom made a point to keep them hidden. She never liked me riding, in the first place.”

“Because she didn’t want you to get hurt?”

“No, because it wasn’t feminine.” she finger quoted the last word with her free hand.

Ashley’s brows furrowed, “Seriously?”

“Yup,” Spencer said with a breathy sigh, “Also, she thought it would interfere with my studies, and she was afraid that I wouldn’t get into a good medical school. But Dad knew I loved it, so he convinced her to let me continue, and Aunt Cecile was always helpful in training me.”

“You’re mom’s a psycho,” Ashley said bluntly, “and she only thinks of herself.”

“Thanks, Captain Obvious,” the blonde chuckled.

Ashley rolled her eyes and tapped Spencer lightly on the shoulder. She changed their walking path, so that they were headed toward the waves.