We Fell in Love

Nerd and I do not have the typical love story. It was not love at first sight, he was into my best friend at first, and he lived and hour away. Somehow, we ended up falling in love. It was a crazy ride but 11 years later we are still here. Here's our story. 
He can't make a normal face. ever. 


How we met...
 I am an avid equestrian and at the time my horses were being kept at this neat equestrian center about 5 minutes from my parents house. There was a main barn where most of the boarders and lesson riders stayed. I rented the top barn for my horses and had my own field. I pretty much stayed separate from the main barn, the group was mainly hunter/jumpers and I rode dressage and I had my own trainer that I trailered my horses too. The only time I ever went to the main barn was to ride and wash Casper. As time went on I started to get to know the girls at the barn and found a few closer to my age that I ended up being really close too. We were all at the barn constantly and I ended up staying with my trainer quite a bit. In fact I stayed there so much I had my own room. 
(getting to the good part... here is his grand entrance...kind of)

After one really long night at the barn, we stumbled into the house and I headed to my room. I was half asleep already and just wanted my bed, but when I reached the door it was locked. WTF?!? I stumbled back down stairs to see if L knew a way to get in, and she remembered that her roommates nephew was crashing in my bed. She suggested I sleep with her and my sweet southern self decided I would shame my mama to no end if I went upstairs into a bedroom with a man I didn't know, even if it was just to kick his ass out of my bed. *grumble, grumble, grumble

That was like November, and I didn't hear anymore about the mysterious nephew and I happily slept in my bed with no more interruptions. Skip ahead to June... I had just healed from a pretty bad fall. Jose, the guy who normally cared for the horses, was watching me ride and casually asked if I had met his new helper. I was in full canter and wondering why he wanted to talk about it at that moment, thinking he was acting a little strange. After my ride, when I was all hot and sweaty, Jose decided to introduce me to the new help. Apparently, it was L's roommate's nephew. I thought he was attractive, but when I said nice to meet you in my sweetest drawl, all I got was a grunt. WTF?!? RUDE!! I tried to be nice several more times over the next month. The jerk would talk to mama, talk to the other girls, talk to L... just not me. Final straw.... He bought a new truck, a gorgeous lifted dodge. I was walking down from the arena after a ride and told him I loved his new truck. I got that same damn grunt. I swore then I wouldn't try again. 

The dating begins... 
My horse managed to hurt himself late July. I had to cold hose his leg every four hours and that meant a lot of time at the barn. Unfortunately for me, all the hunters were at a show. Well, since Casper can't talk back I caved in and ended up talking to Nerd until he had no choice but to talk back. Later that week Jose and Nerd were working on fences. It was super hot and Jose made a beer run, we finished fences as fast as we could and made our way to the pond at the back of the property. Jose and I sat on the ATV talking (he had a girlfriend and was more like a brother) and my BFF Suz spent her time at the water with Nerd. Eventually I got a moment with Nerd and decided I kinda liked him. Once you got past the jerk point he was actually fun to talk to. He loved horses, had just got out of boot camp from the Marines (knee injury=discharge) and he was a gentleman. When it was time to head out of the woods he and Suz hung back, I was pretty sad. When all four of us got to the barn we were saying our goodbyes and he told us to call us when we got home because we had, had a few. He handed the number to Suz... devastation.

Then Suz showed what kind of friend she really is... she handed me the number. Nerd and I started talking that night. At first it was nothing serious, he said I was to young for him to be serious about and that he wanted someone closer to his age to "settle down with". Up until then we had hung out as friends... watched football, went out in a group... nothing more. That week I made him take me on a real date. Just the two of us. We went to dinner, to the horse auction (romantic for an equestrian) and then to the park for a midnight stroll under a full moon. That's where he kissed me, and I gave in just enough. Two days later, he told said to me, "um... I think I am falling for you." Two months later, "I love you."

Four years later he dropped to his knees next to my horse, that I was grooming. He told me there was something on his rear leg. When I bent down to investigate something shiny caught my eye. He had tied the ring in Casper's tail. He dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him. May 7th 2011, I said I do.




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