The street was crowded and Autumn Goldschmidt had a hard time making her way through the crowd to see the big event that everyone was gathering to see. Autumn was weaving around people slowly making her way to the front of the line to where she saw four men who were lining up four horses next to each other with each horse attached to a cart. Autumn stood and listened to everyone talking about the horse race and which horse they had betted on. The horses were lined up ready for what looked like a race and looking to her right then to her left, she did not see a finish line and the horses where facing a large pond about 200 feet in front of where the horses where lined up at. Before Autumn could ask the guy standing next to her what was going on, that is when she heard a gun being fired into the air. Autumn quickly looked back at the horses to see them raise their front hooves off the ground before they started to run straight for the pond. Autumn started to scream. "Stop it, what are you doing?" But no one would listen to her. The specters' cheers were drowning out her voice.

Autumn ran as fast as she could towards the carts the horses were pulling. No matter how fast she ran and cried out; "Halt, easy boys," the horses continued to run full speed right towards the water. By the time Autumn was able to get to the pond, the horses were already struggling to swim with the carts filling with water. Autumn dove in and headed to the closest horse to her and when she arrived at the first horse she was still under water and was able to unhook the cart and this horse was able to swim away to safety. Autumn came up for air. She could see the other three horses were starting to struggle to keep their heads above water. Autumn screamed for someone to help her, as she swam to the next horse closet to her that is when she would see that this horse's head was barely above the water. Just as Autumn reached the horse, its head was starting to go under and all Autumn could do was hold the horse's head above the water the best she could while she screamed again for someone to help her as she tried to get the horse to swim towards the edge of the pond. No one was coming, the specters were pointing and what sounded like laughter coming from the crowd of people. Autumn tried, holding the horse's head above the water, pleading with someone to help, losing her energy as she tried to help the horse from drowning.

Autumn was woken by a loud sound, she could hear the raging thunderstorm that was going on outside. Her breathing was fast, she was damp from the perspiration that she had dripping down her face. Her heart was beating hard against her chest. Looking around trying to figure out where she was and that is when she realized it was only a nightmare, a nightmare she had not had in a few years. While Autumn tried to control her breathing by telling herself. "It was only a dream, it is not real. It is only a dream." More lightening had come down, which was shining light into her motel room. Autumn lay in the bed trying to think of where she was. "She was back," she thought. It all had come rushing back to her quickly. She was back, back in her hometown, back to where she never wanted to be again. Back to where everything had changed for her in her senior year. Back to the little town in what she thought of now was the arm pit of the world. Autumn was in Jackson, Montana.

Autumn had promised her best friend Nichole that she would come to Nichole and Nate Phillips' first horse showing and they were showing their horse `Amarillo Rose.' Autumn was happy for her best friend because this had always been a dream for her and her husband and buying the 100 acres of land was going to allow their dreams to come true. This meant, once their horse farm takes off Nate would be able to stop working his regular job and concentrate solely on their horse farm. Both Nate and Nichole knew it would be tough on them for awhile until their dreams became a reality. So, until that day arrived Nate could not give up his full time job and with little Nathan being so little, Nichole had agreed not to be their jockey, she would wait until Nathan was older before she enter in the races herself, but that did not stop her from taking little Nathan out to the barn to help take care of their animals.

Every time Autumn and Nichole spoke, Autumn would be told how much Little Nathan loved to pet the horses and help carry the feed bucket which made it easier on Nichole and Nate to watch over him allowing them to work out in the barn and watch their jockey get Amarillo Rose ready for her big debut. Their wishes for Amarillo Rose first showing had a lot riding on it, and they hoped that the horse would not freeze and she show her potential of what she is capable of doing and that the champion they knew her to be would come out for the world to see allowing them to enter her in more competitions and then breeding her at a later time.

The thought of little Nathan warmed Autumn's heart. Ever since little Nathan was born, this little bundle of love had stolen her heart. Nichole and Autumn had been best of friends since they had started kindergarden together and when little Nathan was born and Autumn held him for the first time she knew she would always be a big part of his life. Autumn was lucky, for the first year of little Nathan's life, she had been a big part of it. Autumn was his God-Mother and she was able to see him just about every day and then that also had changed when Nate was transferred for his job and of all places ... back to their hometown. "Where all of Nate and Nichole's dreams were going to come true for them and where all of her dreams feel apart years ago," Autumn thought.

Autumn had calmed down her breathing by thinking of sweet little Nathan's face, his soft brown eyes that would light up when he sees his Aunt Autumn, to his sweet charming good natured personality. Autumn could not wait until she could hold him in her arms and kiss his chubby little cheeks again. Autumn looked at the clock it was only 4:11 am, even though the nightmare had left her mind and was replaced with sweet memories of Nichole, Nate and little Nathan now, she still had trouble falling back to sleep. Her mind started to wander again about how her life used to be. How she missed her parents, how when she needed her Aunt Berta at the most important time of her life ... her aunt had shown her true colors and walked away from her. The hurt and hatred she had for her aunt in one swift moment had changed her life after her parents were gone; she knew she could never count on any one again to knowing she was truly alone at that very moment.

Autumn could no longer stay in the bed. The clock read 4:39 am so Autumn decided it was time to get up and get right on the road. Autumn had never unloaded her car, since she only needed a place to close her eyes for a short period of time. She had been too tired to drive any further last night and she knew when it became close to 10 pm that she better stay at a motel. She will still surprise them this morning by bringing them breakfast from Denny's Restaurant. The new breakfast to go thing made life so much easier at Denny's Restaurant. Denny's had come up with this new concept which made it easy to place an order and pick it up. If she planned it just right she could be at Nichole's house by 5:30 am ~ 5:45 am, which Autumn knew Nichole and Nate would be awake and with Nate taking off of work today to work with Amarillo Rose and their jockey that she would make it to their home before Nichole could start breakfast.

Autumn knew Nichole was a creature of habit like most people are and that meant as soon as she woke up at 5:30 am, she would wake her husband up, go check on their son then head to the kitchen to pour herself her first cup of coffee and her husband's. Nichole always set the coffee pot up the night before with the timer on their coffee pot to start at 5:15 am and when Nichole was sitting there drinking her coffee she would considered this her quiet time, she will relax in her favorite chair drinking her cup of coffee while listening to little Nathan's baby monitor making sure he was still asleep, waiting on her husband to come downstairs so they could start their day.

Nichole could not believe Autumn was there already, she had not expected her until later today. "Oh my God Autumn, you made it," as she cried for joy and hugged her best friend. Nichole had just doubled checked all the locks on the house and had the baby's monitor in her hand as her and her husband were just about to walk out the back door when they noticed a car sitting in the driveway, with the door opening up. "You know me Nic, I like to make a grand entrance," Autumn said crying with joy, laughing and hugging her best friend who she had not seen in almost six months. "I can see I didn't make it late enough ... I guess I have to go to the barn and do the morning chores with you two." Autumn said as she approached Nichole and Nate as the three laughed in harmony together. "Glad you are here now, and Nate can go to the barn while we sit on the porch and have a cup of coffee. We have a lot to catch up on. How does that sound?" Nichole asked her friend. Autumn smiled and asked. "Nate, I forgot something in my car, would you grab it for me? It is sitting on my passenger seat. When I seen you two walking out of your house, I didn't think to grab it."

Nate came back with the sweet smell of food coming from the red bag that says Denny on it. "This was very nice of you to bring breakfast with you," Nate said. "Why didn't you tell us you were on your way? You know you could have come here last night instead of staying at a motel." Autumn knew Nate meant that. "I know." Autumn answered. "It was just getting late. I was trying to get here earlier and I told myself if I was in town by 9 pm I would come straight here. With you guys going to bed early, plus you were not expecting me until tonight ... I did not want to wake you. I was looking to surprise you. If that accident had not backed up the thruway and I had not waited for hours for the road to clear ... I would have surprised you last night. But, since that did happen, I surprised you this morning." Nichole hugged her friend again. "Yes you did and what a nice surprise this is."

It amazed Autumn at how great Nichole's life had turned out for her. Yes, Nichole and Nate both worked very hard, but they worked together as a team and were making a family business together so their children will someday be helping them run it. Autumn thought how nice it is to see a happy and loving couple working together. This was their life. Autumn tried not to think of what her own life would have been like if things had not changed for her on that dreadful day. Autumn tried not to dwell on what could have been. She had a life that she was living and she was happy for her best friend.

The horse show was tomorrow, Nate had taken today off of his normal job to work a little more with Amarillo Rose and their jockey, Lain. Nichole had already planned on going to town to get a few things and run some last minute errands and she suggested to Autumn. "Autumn, why don't you come with me to town, it will be a way for you to see that some things have changed, since you have been gone." Autumn was hesitant about going to town with Nichole. It had been six years since Autumn had been back to Jackson Montana and just traveling back here had brought up a lot of sad and hurtful memories for her. She had not planned on going to town while she was here. She had only thought of coming to Nichole and Nate's place, hang out with them, play with little Nathan, go to the horse show, and that was about the jiff of it all. Not go to town, not go by her old home where her and her dead parents lived. Autumn did not really want to go to town. Nichole had been persistent on her coming to Jackson Montana by telling her if she did not come to their place and support them on this she was not a true friend. Yes, Nichole played that card to get her to come back home where Nichole thought Autumn should be anyhow and not living in Homer Nevada by herself.

Autumn never thought she would be going to town or by her house she grew up in. That never once crossed Autumn's thoughts. Knowing Nichole as Autumn did, she knew she had no choice. Nichole would not let Autumn sit here by herself nor feel sorry for herself. When Nichole was around, she pushed Autumn to do things she would normally not do, like come back to her hometown, Jackson Montana.

Bryan Messer could not believe his good fortune seeing Autumn walking down the street in town. It had been six years since he had last seen her and she still looked good and had that body that drove him wild. Bryan watched Autumn walk down the sidewalk looking at the different shops with her friend Nichole. The way Autumn walked still memorized him as he watched her ass checks move up and down as she swayed her hips to each side as she walked. "Bryan, why are you not listening to me?" April was yelling at him as she was looking in through the passenger door. "Open the door." Bryan turned his head to look at his younger sister and only sister.

Growing up in a house of five siblings and April being the youngest and the only girl, everyone had a tendency to do as she asked. April always had to have it her way, but Bryan could not just blame his parents for April being so spoiled. Each of their brothers and himself for that matter had always done things for her. "Yes Princess," Bryan said back to her as he leaned over the truck's bench seat and opened the door for his sister. April asked as she was placing her packages on the seat. "What were you doing that you did not see me coming up to the truck with my hands full? Why didn't you have the door open for me?" She asked, as she started to look around to see what he might have been looking at.

Bryan was not going to mention Autumn, or what he was thinking about. All he did was shrugged his shoulders and responded. "Nothing, I was just listening to the music and not paying attention." April knew her brother too well and did not believe a word he just said to her. As soon as April sat down on the truck bench seat she started to look around more closely at the shops, because Bryan was not fooling her. "There must be a girl around her somewhere," April thought to herself.

April started to look at the shops entrances since she did not see anyone just walking down the side walk her brother would be interested in and that is where she spotted the brunette that was standing next to Nichole Phillips. "Autumn," April thought, almost calling out her name. April remembered how Autumn liked her brother Bryan before she left in her senior year of high school and she knew her brother liked her back. April was glad to see Autumn, she thought maybe Autumn would be a good distraction from the dimwit her brother was seeing from time to time now and April could only hope things would work out this time between the two of them.

Nichole and Autumn just walked out from the little bakery when Nichole asked Autumn. "Have you seen the old place yet?" Sadly Autumn replied. "No, I only came down highway I91 and got off at Exit 57 taking the back roads in, instead of taking the thruway to Exit 40 which would take me to town ... I don't think I want to see it. Everything had been taken from me on that day. I don't know if I could ever look at it again." Autumn really was not talking with Nichole any more, she was mostly now just making a statement. "Ever." Autumn thought letting the word ring in her head.

Nichole knew how tuff it had been on Autumn. She was just starting her senior year when her whole life changed. When you think it could not get any worse, in Autumn's case it had. One bad thing after another bad thing happened to her. Nichole tried to be a good friend and help her out, but once Autumn's Uncle Stuart and Aunt Berta Sawtell got involved they made it impossible for anyone to get near her. Nicole tried the best she could, but when Autumn was shipped away by her uncle and aunt it had hurt her in a way she could never understand.