Sugar

Eli smirks. "You think that boy would miss a victory party with you? Are you out of your mind?" He grins and shakes his head. "He went on an ice cream run and will meet us back at our place."


Glancing down, Reese turns his palm up so he can hold Angelica's hand. "Thank you... your support means a lot to me."

Pushing aside his plate, he leans his other elbow on the table and looks across at her, studying her eyes. "You mean a lot to me in general," he admits. "I'm not sure I'd know what to do if you weren't around." He smiles a little awkward smile. "I'd probably be in the loony bin by now," he teases.

Shaking his head, he gives her hand a squeeze. "I appreciate your input. But most of all I appreciate your company."


Zach grabs a little packet of sugar to fiddle with as he grins. "I have a very romantic job of selling hotrod cars to wealthy customers." He glances from side to side, then lowers his voice. "Actually, I just work in the showroom and try to head people to the big guys for the sales. But saying it the other way sounds better."

Still grinning, he rolls his eyes. "I went to school to learn how to run my own business and I wind up being an errand boy for car salesmen. There's something wrong with that picture. But!" He holds up a finger. "It pays enough, I get plenty of hours and I get enough days off to volunteer at the animal shelter in my spare time. How could I complain?"

He leans back in his seat, studying Beth for a moment. "So I know that you..." His voice trails off as his fingers accidentally rip through the sugar pack, sending the white contents all over the table. His eyes widen and without missing a beat, he snaps his fingers as if there was someone close by to hear. "Oh, waiter? Cleanup on table seven. We seem to have a problem with exploding sugar packets."

Ducking sheepishly, he starts brushing away the sugar with his hand. "Okay, so that was smooth." He clears on his throat before choking down a laugh. "Where was I? Oh yes - I think we need to change the subject to you before I make any more a fool out of myself."


Eric helps Ashlee to the barn, not minding the slower pace a bit. Getting into the tackroom, he gestures to a bench where she could sit. "Well, see this trunk here?" He pulls a large trunk away from the wall and opens it up, revealing a mess of leather. "This is how the tackroom stays clean... because everything that doesn't have a place gets thrown in here."

He grins and sits down next to her. Pulling out a bridle, it's obvious that everything is quite tangled up. "You can start by straightening this out, then we'll give it a little bit of oil before finding it a home on a wall peg."

The work is easy and the atmosphere peaceful. Eric chats a little but mostly concentrates on the task at hand, directing Ashlee on what to do but letting her figure some things out by herself too, like which way a bridle was put together and matching up reins. After a long span of silence though, Eric finally speaks again. "So... I couldn't help but notice you've been kinda quiet lately." He glances to the side, watching her as he continued to work. "Something on your mind?"