Samantha King was as close as this tiny town had to a celebrity. She was not known for being gentle or kind, but for being bluntly honest, and assertive. Which made her about the opposite of April, but she admired the younger woman very much. Lady, of course, knew nothing of any of this, and only saw a pretty girl who smelled of horse and thought that she was cute. Which is enough to make a dog fall in love.
April smiled at the two, pleasantly surprised at the King girl’s reaction to Lady. “Horse or no horse, Lady is a pretty good judge of character. She stays far away from… people she doesn’t approve of,” she smirked, deciding diplomatically not to name names. “Peanut is a wonderful name for a horse. I used to ride horses all the time growing up. I had one named Periwinkle, myself.”
Samantha’s ears perked up when --- what was her name --- April (!!) mentioned having ridden horses growing up. She hardly had any equestrian friends --- everyone in camp had automatically been her rival, and they never liked her very much to begin with, so she’d kept to herself most of the time. And here in Echo; well, it was difficult to find someone to bond with over horses, considering all of the horses in existence here were at her farm and she allowed next to no one to ride them.
(Maybe the lack of horse-bonding was her fault. She’d look into it later, when she started to care.)
Still scratching behind the puppy’s ears, Samantha smiled as pleasantly as she could muster, flattered at the other’s words. “Thanks,” she said sincerely. “Or maybe she’s just used to pretty women,” she pointed out, subtly complimenting the blonde. Eyes shining, she straightened her back. “Peanut is the name a horse gets if a five year old gets to name it,” she rolled her eyes at herself. “Periwinkle’s pretty dope, though. It’s cute!” She grinned. “I don’t get to meet a lot of riders. So this is a pretty big deal for me,” she explained. Studying the other closely for a moment, she grinned, holding out her hand. “Walk with me, April Dahl.”













