Texans: Friendliest Folks Around

Author's Note: This story couldn't have been written without my good friend Rick who, without his sense of humor and his individual flair for writing that sends me into trembling antics; I dedicate this Texas-based story!

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It was a gorgeous early evening, akin to most of the days in Texas, if you could stand the heat and she wanted to get in one last ride today before it got too late and she got caught out in the dark. Saddling up her Arabian gelding and checking the cinch one last time, Mindy Cannon practically threw herself up into the saddle without much propelling from her feet and settled in with a grin. There wasn't much that could beat the feeling of strong muscles rippling between your legs and the surge of power she felt when she eased her horse into a canter and headed out towards her new neighbor's ranch.

Mindy enjoyed moments like this... where nothing else was hindering her movements except the stride length of the horse beneath her and the gelding was tearing up ground in much the same manner that people paid good hard-earned money to watch on the NASCAR race tracks. But here, there was nothing to stop the rush of adrenaline coupled with the wind that stung at blue eyes twinkling with the sense of freedom she felt as she thundered across the hilly plains. The wind whistling through her honey hinted strands of auburn that whipped out behind her like a curtain of flame, she turned her mount slightly northward as she headed towards the next ranch, thinking it was only polite to stop by for a visit to her new neighbor.

Rick Williams pulled the stiff hat from his head with his left hand and wiped his brow slowly, using the wide brim of the hat to shield his eyes from the blistering sun. An Englishman in Texas; they never would have believed it back home, but sometimes, as he had advised many in the past, you have to follow your dreams, no matter how crazy they seem. The townsfolk were still getting used to the strange man who had to ask about the most common items as if they were from a different planet and he was so used to people enquiring about his accent now that he had caught himself ending sentences with "or do you want me to say that again?" The sun beat down on him harder than he had ever felt before and a newfound respect for the cowboys of old welled up inside him. Shoving the hat back onto his head, he wiped the sweat from his bare torso and stared off into the distance, suddenly missing the closeness of the city where a neighbor would call without warning. Here, it felt like such a social visit would be a planned expedition.

Rick looked back at the bales of hay still needing to be moved and sauntered over to them. 'Saunter,' he mused, 'Hell, I'm in Texas. I gotta learn to swagger. ' The grip of the boots on his feet dug into the dirt and watched the horizon bob up and down against his eye line as he moved. The sweat was now running down his back so fast it was as if someone had found a bad faucet and decided to break it completely. As his hands dove down into the straw, muscles strained slowly as he lifted the bale and found that the fifteenth DID feel heavier than the first. He was stopped in motion by the sheer beauty of the landscape around him. England had been such a flat grey country really; the scenery was so compressed together that the whole island felt as if it had been rushed together quickly. But here... here everything seemed to take its time, even the horizon was in no hurry to meet the ground, and the ground was in no hurry to clutter itself with little grey housing estates. The bale in his hands, he carried it over towards the barn.

Spurring her horse with just a quick squeeze of her legs, Mindy rode him up the crest of the last hill that separated her ranch from her destination and pulled her mount up short, causing the horse to rear up just enough to make her smile. Leaning down some, she affectionately rubbed his shoulder as he blew heavily, clearing his nostrils of dust as she surveyed the ranch below. It had been rumored that some hotshot from England had moved into the ranch that she had hoped to purchase and add onto her own small space in order to open up the territory even more. But here it sat, in some man's hands that probably didn't know the first thing about Texas, much less ranching and she drew in a deep breath as her hair settled around her shoulders and spoke to her horse in a soft, but cynical tone, "I bet he's some old fart that doesn't even like to be outside. "

As Rick deposited the bale just outside the barn, he plunked himself down on it, resting his hands on his knees and leaned forward as he realized that he was moving bales of hay around. It wasn't the realization of what he was doing that struck him, but the fact that he was doing it and he wasn't entirely sure why. Too many cowboy movies growing up perhaps; tonight he could sit around eating beans and recreating the scene in Blazing Saddles. That thought set him laughing out loud; the looks on the faces of the townsfolk as the black sheriff had ridden into town were no different from the looks he had received each time he had spoken to someone. Pulling a cigarette from the paper pack stuffed into his belt, he lit it as he wondered just what the natives were like around here. So far, the people he had met had all seemed polite, but something always felt artificial about it. A good friend had assured him that Texans were just very friendly people and "you're just a stuck up English fart" in the most reassuring manner possible.

Standing up in the stirrups some, Mindy could spy the movement of someone near the barn still a good distance away and settled back in the saddle as her tongue clucked gently against the roof of her mouth, sending her horse into a comfortable trot down the slope of the hill towards the ranch. She didn't want to come across as too bold coming up to her new neighbor at a hard gallop and as she drew closer, she began to make more out of him, somewhat surprised that England made them looking that good... strong and lean but an athletic build that filled out his Wranglers in all the right places and that bared chest. He didn't look half bad in his hat but one look at his new boots told anyone that had worked on a ranch that he was clearly new. They weren't even scuffed yet.

Pulling the cigarette from his mouth and staring at the end of it for a moment, Rick suddenly realized that sitting on a bale of hay with this thing was a fire risk waiting to happen. As he crushed it out under foot, his gaze wound up finding the figure moving towards him. A cowboy on a horse; how appropriate for his first visitor. Images of trying to make conversation with some slack jawed local yokel barraged his mind for a moment and he regretted having killed out the smoke. As he shuddered at the thought of hearing "ya'll are new 'round here" and pushing back to his feet, he determined to bite down on the stereotypes and show that the English also knew how to be warm and friendly. Warm and friendly seemed to take on a whole new life as it began to dawn on him that his approaching cowboy was not some tobacco chewing redneck with a narrow mind and a narrower forehead, but was in fact starting to resemble a very attractive cowgirl - or a very effeminate redneck with hair that seemed as free and easy as the rider appeared in the saddle.

Easing her horse into a walk as she approached the man, a warm smile bloomed upwards on Mindy's lips. She usually had a big laugh at people from other parts trying to "look" the part of a cowboy but she had to admit that he looked pretty good in a hat and as she pulled her horse up to a stop close enough that she could converse with him from the saddle until she was sure that she wasn't going to need a quick getaway, she leaned forward some, her forearm resting on the saddle horn as the animal's head bobbed up and down a bit and glanced to the Englishman rising from the bale of hay. Her eyes twinkled as she spoke in a soft drawl, "Hi... I'm Mindy and I'm from next door," thumbing her fist back over her shoulder a bit before continuing "I had heard someone had moved in and figured I would come say welcome to the neighborhood. "

Raising his right hand in a lazy greeting, Rick took a step towards her, feeling somewhat dwarfed by the way she towered over him in the saddle. "Hey... Rick... I mean, I'm Rick," he said slowly as he pushed the thumb of his right hand to his chest. He knew that trying to appear as if he had been caught off guard by her appearance was futile now and he curled up the corners of his mouth in the warmest smile he had in store. "It's kinda taking me sometime to adjust to the solitude here, realizing that my next door neighbor might be a twenty minute walk away. " Wondering if the fact he was speaking slower than his normal rhythm for the sake of clarity might leave her with the wrong impression, he offered his right hand up to her, trying to hide the tension that cut into the ease of his posture - horses were still not something he was truly comfortable around.

Mindy laughed gently, the sound of it softened even more by the whinny of her horse as she bent over some, her right hand stretching across the saddle horn to clasp his in a warm embrace. Her fingers tightened on his momentarily as she said in a lilting drawl "Nice to meet you, Rick. It probably wouldn't take you twenty minutes to walk to the house, but you're not too far off" she added with a grin and then sensing his nervousness around the horse beneath her, she slid off in one smooth movement to stand before him as he realized for the first time that she was small in stature as the top of her head barely cleared her horse's back. Using her right hand to gently pat the animal's shoulder, she glanced at the English cowboy with a soft smile. "So it's just you around or is there a missus?" she asked with a slight tilt to her head*

Having fought down as best he could the jitter caused by being so near to the horse, Rick realized that he now had to perform a similar miracle of self control on other parts of him as he saw her clearly for the first time. Flexing the fingers of his hand as he drew it back from her, more a reflexive twitch than anything else, he turned his head around slightly to look back at the house behind him as he heard her question. "Just me, which makes that place seem even bigger. " Craning in a fraction, not quite crossing that personal comfort zone but definitely flirting with the barrier line, he continued on with "But then, don't they say everything is bigger in Texas?" He didn't even bother to acknowledge the incredibly lame stereotype comment before taking a moment to drink in the presence of the most enticing and alluring woman he'd seen since his arrival. He'd seen some of the local "southern belles" around town, but this was the first time that he had met a local female who actually seemed to be as much of a free spirit as he was.

Mindy smiled hearing him and couldn't help the way her eyes dropped down the length of him if only for a fraction of a second, wondering just how true that statement might be for him before her eyes looked directly into his, noticing that they were an exotic hint of brown as she commented, "Well ya know... that's true. It must be the fresh air and the open prairie. " She pulled down the rope from her hand-tied hackamore and walked her horse over to a hitching ring that her new neighbor... what was his name? Oh yes, Rick... probably didn't even know he had, a sultry sway to her hips encased in worn faded jeans and tied her horse to it loosely.

Rick felt the smile on his face completely loose every facet of "having to be there" and take on a genuine desire to rest there amongst the unshaven three day growth of beard. "Yeah, its still... taking a lot of getting used too, a lot of things are," he said, letting the words trail off as his attention stopped being on them and on the swell of a chest that seemed to be wanting to test the material of her shirt to the limit. "Can I offer you something to drink? I really need a cold one right now," were the words he spoke, but they weren't the ones he was thinking. He'd gone into semi-retirement incredibly young not because of good luck, but a shrewd business brain that knew sometimes not only did you not lay all the cards on the table at once but rather revealed them one by one to draw in your opponent. Unsure of the proper etiquette when confronted with a cowgirl in her element, he stepped off to one side slightly and pointed his hand towards the wide open panel door that lead into the house that looked as if one person living there alone would never explore it entirely.

Mindy turned from her horse, giving him one last rub on his forelock before hooking her thumbs in the loops of her belt, taking a somewhat easy stance as her eyes assessed this stranger from a country she had only wistfully thought about visiting some day, her mind trying to speed up and wrap around his accent. It took some getting used to but if he could deal with her drawl then she supposed turn about was fair play and smiled, her scuffed boots scooting a bit through the sand as she made her way close to him with a sassy smile "If a cold one means the same thing in your country as it does around here, then I'd love one" she retorted with a spark of something else in her eye.

There was decidedly nothing cold about the way he could feel his body responding to her presence. Perhaps it was the English decorum that prevented him from announcing the thoughts in his head right there and then, but as the offer had been accepted, he felt a sudden need to clarify one small point. "Ah, actually HERE a cold one means a Coke, a Diet Coke or a Sierra Mist. If you want something stronger than that... " He let the words trail off again, not out of distraction but knowing the sentence stood on it own. The only distraction now was her and he was staring at her chest as inconspicuously as he could whilst ticking a box in his head that said "Bigger in Texas... yep" The Englishman kicked in and words spewed out in somewhat of a jumble not helped by his accent "actuallyitsabitofastateinthere,justmovinginandeverything,placeischaos,whatcanIgetyou?" Although the back of his mind had already decided that what she probably wanted was quite different from what he longing to give her.

Mindy blinked some at him, a look of amusement flashing across her face as she tried to make out what all he just said but there was something inherently sexy about him being out of his element and that accent... good lord, it was doing things to her that all the hard riding in the world didn't quite manage to attain between her legs. She let her gaze glance over him again, lingering a moment on the bulge in his jeans before her gaze shifted upwards to his eyes, her laughter soft as she said, "Are you trying to say that you don't have any ice cold beer hidden any where in there?" before taking the invitation of his extended hand towards the door earlier and followed her curiosity into the interior of the ranch house, unbeknownst to him that she knew quite well, in fact... probably more than he did as she stepped across the threshold and entered the house.

Sheepishly shrugging his shoulders apologetically, Rick let her know that he didn't drink and didn't entertain much, so didn't keep much in the way of alcohol around as if had just broken some Texan Hospitality law. 'You've been found guilty of gross negligence to your guests and are hereby sentenced to throw one mother of a house warming party' amused the parts of his mind that hadn't now shifted their attention from her chest to her ass. Denim had never been molded so well. As he watched her move towards the house, he arched his eyebrows a moment, wondering what she would conclude when she realized that aside from a mattress on the floor in the living room, he really hadn't given much thought to what he wanted in the house yet, as evidenced by the brand new and never used kitchen. Okay, so the room where he kept his computer setup was up and running, but somehow that was the last room he really wanted her to see. For him, what he really wanted her to see was fighting a battle against the denim of his shorts.

Mindy stopped abruptly just inside the door causing him to almost run into her, only the outstretch of his hands that met her heart-shaped ass momentarily before he yanked them back with a grin that she caught as she glanced over her shoulder, her right hand caught her weight on the doorframe as she began to kick off her boots with the explanation "My momma trained me young never to walk into the house with my boots on... sorry for almost tripping ya" and then cast him a sultry wink before she moved further in. Slender hands moving to push long auburn tendrils back over her shoulders as she stopped in the middle of the living room and glanced around before adding with a short laugh, "I love what you did with the old Craig house... is this the style in England?" she added with a smile.

Following her in slowly, pulled along by the magnetic pull of her perfectly shaped ass, Rick broke away from her long enough to move down the hall to the kitchen. Cracking open the fridge, plugged in, storing soda but otherwise empty, he called out "Did you decide what you wanted yet?" as he helped himself to one of the bottles of Sierra Mist. As he reveled in the cold air wafting out from the fridge, he realized that today it wasn't the temperature outside that was making him so damn hot, it was most definitely her. Not sure if she had heard him, he called out again "Did you decide what you wanted? And "old Craig house" makes it sound like there's a long history there. You'll have to tell me one night. " 'Open invitation to come over one evening. Let's hope she picked it up,' he mumbled to himself.

Mindy chuckled some, seeing that the only piece of furniture that he apparently owned right now was the mattress and where she would have plopped down on its edge and unbuttoned the top button on her blouse as a little "welcome to Texas" invite, she knew her jeans were dusty beyond measure from the ride and figured he didn't want to sleep amid a coat of dust and hollered back "Whatever you're having is fine with me!" and leaned against one wall, her socked foot reflexively moving up against the wall as her leg bent. She figured he might be able to use some help around here and added, "I'll be sure and tell you about it some time. It looks like you could use some help around here... no offense" and hoped that it sounded the way she meant it.

"What I plan on having is you," he remarked quietly to the fridge as he pulled another of the lemon-lime sodas from it. "Yeah, I'm not much of a homemaker type," he pushed the dialogue out, wanting to keep a steady stream of that running for now. "I think I could use all the help I can get. " Nudging the fridge door shut as he took a much needed swallow of the cold fizzy liquid, he looked around the desolate kitchen and realized that offering to cook her dinner was not going to happen tonight. "I don't know what made me settle here... saw the place and just knew this was the place for me... seemed right. " Okay, he chided himself, talking is one thing, rambling like an idiot is another. Making his way back to the lounge, or as they called it, the sitting room - didn't they call them parlors this far south or was he just thinking in incorrect stereotypes, he stopped as he turned into the room and just let himself fall slightly to the side, propped up against the door frame as he watched her long supple leg stretching out. "Are you trying to seduce me, Mrs. Robinson?" he quipped.

Mindy glanced up as he entered the doorway and grinned, having never watched the famed movie with Dustin Hoffman herself but having seen enough blurbs about it enough to know what he was talking about and she rested her palms on the top of her thigh that was lifted upwards and pushed her head back against the wall some with a grin. For some unknown reason, she seemed determined to tease him, wondering if he would have the same image of them fucking against the wall if she stayed like this and quipped, "Nah, you'd know if I was trying to seduce you" and glanced to the beverage in his hand, realizing that all she really wanted to do was see if she could ride him as well as the horse tethered outside.