almost easy [kenzie]

[ethangrey]

Ethan pulled up suddenly from the speed his was travelling into the gravelled carpark close to the lake. It was a popular recreational area and, as such, provided a small amount of parking for people to use. People who generally came from further afield than Ethan however, whom could have easily walked the dogs up to the lake and left the car parked at home. Being an eco warrior wasn’t exactly Ethan’s style though and he wondered why he would bother wrestling the two large dogs up to the lake when he could far more easily put them into the car and drive them there. It was also a chance to show off and test his new car, Ethan noted. With the argument that his sportscar wasn’t practical for jobs such as this, Ethan had easily persuaded his parents to buy him his new, swish Range Rover for running about in. It was generally a case of ‘I want, I get’ in the Thomas household and, keen to please their youngest child, Ethan’s parents rarely raised an eyebrow at any of his expensive requests.

Climbing out of the beige leather seat, Ethan shut the door of his pristine white car and opened the boot to free the two equally pristine white huskies. Tequila and Bo’s tails wagged madly and their ice blue eyes lit up as they hurled themselves out of the car and weaved excitedly around Ethan’s legs. Ethan raised a smile and shut the boot again, heading the short way to the lake with the two dogs obediently sticking right to his legs. Ethan did try to find time to take his two favourite blue eyed girls out but frequently the job of caring for the animals was left to his mother or the long suffering housekeeper. See Ethan was the sort of person to lose interest in things quickly. Sure, the dogs were good for pulling girls but the hassle of their day to day care got a little much for the rather selfish boy sometimes.

”Go on girls” he called, gesturing to the dogs to run free. Ethan adjusted his sunglasses and stared out across the lake as the huskies took off at a considerable pace across the grass, jumping and bounding as they ran. Luckily having two dogs meant that they generally amused themselves, freeing up Ethan from the unenviable job of throwing a slobbery ball again and again. Instead he just casually followed the dogs, trusting them enough to not get into too much mischief without him closely supervising. The dogs soon however spotted a new friend and made a mad dash towards the tiny dog playing in the distance. In a whirl of unrestrained excitement, the two huskies nearly knocked over the young blonde owner and pounced onto their new pal, pinning him down playfully. Well, what they would consider playful. For the teeny little mutt and his owner, the two big dog’s cheeky play was probably a little intimidating. ”Bo! Quila!” Ethan called, a little too far away for the dogs to pay much attention to him. He broke into a light jog, not overly concerned about the poor little dog’s plight but still feeling he should make some effort to calm his dogs down. ”Bo!” He shouted again, more forcefully ”Tequila!”. With this the two huskies looked up inquisitively, letting go of their friend and wagging their tails expectantly for the arrival of their master.

”Sorry” he apologised a little distantly to the owner as he got closer, his attention now having moved away from the troubles his dogs were causing and onto the hot young woman who stood before him. It wasn’t the first time the dogs had played matchmaker and Ethan had to smile as he caught sight of their loving gazes in the corner of his eye, clearly quite unaware of the good job they had done in providing a conversation starter with the cute blonde.

[/size]

[ali]

Kenzie's large black and chrome dodge pick up pulled easily into the parking lot of the lake. It was a warm day out, and she had yet to visit this place since being here, and who better to go with her than little Bowser. For a little dog, he loved the water, and he was quite vivacious. He kept her entertained, but she knew soon she was going to crack and buy another dog. She had always been more fond of large dogs. But that day she had seen Bowser on death row at the local pound she had had to have him. She never liked the thought of a perfectly fine dog being put to sleep just because so far no one had wanted them. So she had taken him home, and ever since then he had never separated from her.

Kenzie opened the door of her rather obnoxiously large truck, letting Bowser jump out, though it always scared her when he did so. It would not take much for one of those tiny legs to give out on him, and that always made her nervous. None the less, Kenzie clambered down out of the truck and shut the door hitting the locking mechanism on the remote and listened to the truck bark at her. Bowser was already at a full gallop towards the lake and Kenzie had to run to try and keep up with him. It was not long before she heard the tell-all splash of him hitting the water. Kenzie laughed and sat down on the lake sand. Running her fingers through it. There was such a difference between beach sand and lake sand, and she almost preferred the lake sand. It reminded her more of home.

Bowser had been playing in the water for only around a half an hour when he ran to Kenzie yipping happilly. Normally that meant he wanted to play fetch, so quickly she found a small stick, but before she could toss it she felt herself being side swiped. Paniced flushed her body but when she turned she saw only two beautiful huskies trying to make friends with Bowser. Of course, one had him pinned down, and he was repeatedly nipping the dog's paw, but his tail was going, and he was not yelping. Kenzie almost groaned. She knew now that she was not going to be leaving for a while now. Before; fetch normally meant he was about ready to leave, but now he had forgotten all about fetch, and only focusing on his new buddies.

Kenzie turned she heard someone yelling. Her eyes moved up and down him quickly as he yelled to the dog's and they obediently released Bowser from their grips. However, Bowser wasn't done he yipped and nipped at the two dogs then took off for the water once more. Kenzie smiled warmly at him, letting the smile lighten up her face as her hand brushed off her white shorts. Kenzie adjusted her tank top, but it still didn't seem to cover her whole stomach, leaving just a little to be seen. Her shorts were short, but today she had on her cowboy boots. Yup, she probably looked like a moron to a preppy boy, but she tought she looked okay. Kenzie ran a hand nervously through her golden hair as he apologized. "Eh, it's really no big deal." her southern accent dripped from her words and instantly she became embarassed. So, maybe today would not be too lonely. Thank-you Bo and Tequilla.

[ethangrey]

With the dogs still poised obediently, Ethan eventually reached where the girl was standing. She was hot; toned bronzed legs only marginally covered by her tiny shorts and long blonde hair which draped delicately around her pretty features. She was definitely Ethan’s type and he gave her a small, sly smile as he so obviously checked her out. When she began to speak in a long, chilled out, southern drawl, Ethan raised his smile even further. Southern girls were up for anything, or so he was told. Plus she was surprisingly not angry about being nearly bowled over by his overexcited pets.

Ethan’s attention from the girl he stood opposite was suddenly distracted by a pained yelp from one of the huskies. He looked over to see Bo giving him big, pleading eyes while her tail swished and her body jiggled with excitement. Tequila adopted the same stance as she gazed into the horizon longingly, clearly wanting to go somewhere. Turning to look over to where the husky focused her attention, Ethan noticed the little dog they had pinned down looking completely unscathed and now beckoning his new friends towards the lake. Ethan looked back at his two, clearly beside themselves with anticipation but too well trained to just run off without permission. ”Go on then” he nodded, watching as the two dogs immediately took their cue and bounded after the little dog and into the lake, making huge splashes as they leaped off the grass.

Ordinarily Ethan would begrudge letting the dogs get so completely sodden when he had to transport them back in his brand new car but today, he was glad to get rid of them for a while. He could deal with a dirty carpet when it meant getting to talk to a hot blonde. Or, hopefully, getting to do more than just talk. Not that Ethan was of course getting ahead of himself or anything. ”No, seriously, the brainless things nearly knocked you over” he smiled at her reassurance it was okay ”Perhaps as an apology for having such badly trained mutts, you’ll let me buy you a drink sometime?” he continued on hopefully. Good looks and charm, that’s all you needed in life. And possibly money, on consideration. Thankfully Ethan had all three of these and modest with them, he was not.

”I’m Ethan by the way” he breezed confidently ”And the two nutty ladies who nearly mowed you down are Tequila and Bo.”. The last part probably didn’t need adding; the girl would have had to have been deaf not to hear the two dogs’ names being bellowed across the park in her direction. Still, a bit of small talk never hurt and Ethan knew how to use the cuteness factor of his dogs to it’s full advantage with girls.

[/size]

[ali]

Attractive, now that just didn't quite cover what this man was in front of her. She had always been the girl to go after the cute cowboys in the tight wranglers; however, she could not deny that this guy was hot. She let her blue eyes race down over his for a quick once over, and that was all she needed. However, she was on the defense. She knew that men who looked like this were rarely nice guys. She had seen plenty of them at the club, and she knew their type. They were rich, snobby, and they felt that what they had gave them the right to get what they wanted. Yet, Kenzie had always found herself to be attracted to these kinds of guys. She could hardly resist the man-whore attitude. However it never seemed to work out for her in the end.

These guys wanted sexual relations, and as of yet Kenzie had not given it to any single one of them. She wanted to wait for someone who deserved it. And as of yet, only one of her boyfriends had been deemed worthy, but then tragically he was killed at a Rodeo by a bull that he should have been able to ride. Tragedy seemed to follow her, and instantly she knew she was showing nothing but a pained expression in the thoughts of Travis Pierce. Soon she wiped that from her mind, she didn't need to live in the past. Today was today, and well... the past was yesterday. Thus far Kenzie was not liking this place, she wanted to go home, back to Texas. She missed her horses, and her friends. Here, she was something she didn't really want to be.

Yes it was true, Kenzie was indeed a stripper. Not that she really minded the fact. She knew who she was; and she was not like most of those girls. She took her clothes off for money; money and that was all. She needed to go to school. Plus, she worked under the table so that no one would ever know. She knew going to school to be a lawyer would not really fit well with being a stripper. She could not risk her future, and she knew she was taking a lot of chances to get to where she wanted to be, but she did it anyhow. Call it drastic, but it was what she was doing. She knew if her Father ever found out she would surely be killed, but for now her secret was safe. Hopefully forever. Kenzie was not too keen on anyone knowing this little bit about her. She was not proud of what she had to do to go to school, but it had to be done.

Many would ask her why she didn't just get her Dad to pay for it all? Well, she had money. She was not going to lie about that. She had always had money, and if Kenzie wanted it; she got it. She knew all she had to do was ask her Dad for the money and he would have coughed it over without even batting an eye, but Kenzie wanted to do things on her own. It would seem she was doing pretty good. She was wearing only name brand clothes that day. Dolce & Gabana, Versace, and Tony Lama boots. Obviously she was not doing too badly on her own. Ryan Garland was a professional bull rider, and he had the money to support her, but she didn't want to be under his wing any more. She wanted to do her own thing, on her own time, and her own way.

Kenzie smiled as the two Huskies raced towards the water, and were soon as soaked as Bowser was. Course, she had a work truck, so a dirty dog didn't really phase her at all. Kenzie laughed slightly as he pointed out the obvious. The two larger dogs had practically mauled her, well not in the agressive sense. She blushed, and she knew it; when he offered to buy her a drink sometime. Kenzie never really went to bars to drink, but with him. She was sure she could make an exception this one time. There was really no harm in going out to have a good time, since she hadn't really had a good time since she had moved here a couple months ago. He went on to introduce the dog's to her, but obviously she knew their names. But, small talk never really hurt when you didn't really know the person you were talking to.

Kenzie laughed slightly. "Yeah, I, uh. Kinda got that. You know, when you were yellin' at 'em and all." she spoke again this time trying to hide her accent, but it was pretty much impossible. It was obvious she stuck out like a sore thumb. "I am sure I could fit you into my very busy schedule for a drink sometime." she joked with him. It was obvious she was not too busy, since she had time to bring her dog out here to the lake to play. Course, she knew that she worked most nights, but on a night off she could easily manage to squeeze him in for a drink or two. Of course, she wouldn't let him pay for her drinks, but company was always good on a night out. "That little munchkin is Bowser. He looks small, but he has the attitude of a Rottie." she smiled at Ethan. "And I am Kenzie, nice to meet you" she spoke to him softly. Her blue eyes twinkling slightly in the excitement of maybe having made a friend... or three. Well, only time would tell.

[ethangrey]

Ethan laughed softly; the girl clearly wasn’t deaf but even so, it seemed polite to introduce his canine chums who had so enthusiastically bounded into her. ”Oh yeah?” he smirked at her comment about having to fit Ethan into her busy schedule. ”Well if you can squeeze me in, I’ll promise to show you a good time” he teased, quite aware of the innuendo within his comment. Maybe she was innocent enough to let it pass by her, but from what Ethan had heard about southern blondes, he somehow doubted it. Perhaps it was wrong to base your opinion of someone on generalised here say and stereotype, but Ethan enjoyed the thought of her being a dirty country chick and wasn’t going to let any factual accuracy get in the way of his illusion.

Looking down at her outfit, Ethan noted the expensive labels she was wearing. He was well dressed enough himself to distinguish between high street tat and upmarket fashion and the girl was very much wearing the latter. This all led Ethan to the assumption that this girl, much like himself, was doing well for money. Rich, wealthy, well-off; call it what you wanted but these two were surely it. Generally being a rich kid meant that it wasn’t too difficult to fit things into your schedule and so Ethan was pretty sure he would easily be able to get her out for a drink. Whilst less fortunate young people had to work every hour god sent to rake in enough money to clothe themselves, being well off lessoned these worries and constraints and provided more time for having fun. The girl had to be free to go out, the idea of a rich kid actually working for her money didn’t really occur to the highly spoilt boy- she must just get everything gifted from daddy.

”Kenzie” he repeated slowly, a thoughtful gaze entering his dark and mysterious eyes. ”Well it’s lovely to meet you Kenzie.. and Bowser” he smiled genuinely, looking over briefly to the dogs who were splashing around blissfully in the cool water of the lake, quite clearly without a care in the world. Life was easy for dogs, Ethan concluded. No sweet talking, no flirting, no one-liners; if you liked the look of someone you just pounced on them and ran off together. If only it was socially acceptable to take this approach with girls, he thought. If only he didn’t have to invite Kenzie for a drink but instead could just pin her down and end up rolling around enthusiastically on the grass with her. If only..

”So where you originally from Kenzie? That accent doesn’t sound local..” he asked curiously. It was quite clear she wasn’t from around here but pinpointing her accent any closer than ‘general southern’ was quite impossible for Ethan. He’d moved around a bit himself as a child but had never particularly acquired any accent. He was just fairly well spoken- a result of a lifetime of private schooling with similarly well spoken and rich kids from around the locality. Accents were hot though, and her cute southern drawl was definitely a turn on.

[/size]

[ali]

Kenzie was innocent, but as established; not deaf. She had heard the inuendo behind his comment, and she chose not to correct him. She knew the stereotype behind country girls. Girls who were down to do just about anything, and of course she was not that type, but why would she go into her sex life with someone she hardly knew. She figured she would skip out on that. Kenzie smiled warmly at him. "I am sure you will." she noted in her mind that he was obviously under the wrong impression of her. Stupid shorts. Kenzie blamed everything on the short shorts. She had never been big on shorts, but around here they seemed like the fashion. She normally would be seen in a pair of holey jeans, boots, and a plain T shirt. However, here that was complete social suicide, and her social life was already lacking enough.

It was easy to see that he had money. Or... his parents had money. His clothes were of the same price tags that she had paid for these clothes she had on now. She knew that with money came a rotten attitude, but so far he had not shown it to her. Course, she had only just met the man moments ago when he dogs had decided Bowser was their new best friend. Instantly it became apparent to her how easy dogs had it. Friends were anyone who wanted to play with them, and all they had to do was eat, sleep, and play. Where she on the other hand, had to work, try to make friends, and hardly ever sleep. It was odd she was becoming almost jealous over a couple of dogs' lives, but it was the truth. Dogs had a much easier life than most humans she knew of.

Yes, Kenzie had introduced herself as Kenzie. Course, her name was MahKenzie... or Belle. Belle being what they called her at the club, but of course she was not going to introduce herseld by her stripper name. She was not that sort of stripper who was proud of it. She hated her job, and she hated the men she met there. They were all nothing but dirty old men, or spoiled rich boys. Though, she could not talk to bad of them for they were the ones who supported her spending habits. Belle, yes that was what they called her. To go with 'Southern Belle' which was what most men would call and ideal girl... or a trophy wife; take your pick. She kind of hated her name there, but it was what it was and men seemed to like it. "Well it's nice to meet you too, Ethan." she smiled again at him. Noting the thoughtful look in his eye, though she hadn't the slightest clue what it was about.

Kenzie's expression dropped when he asked where she was originally from, she thought she had hid the accent a little better; apparently not. "Hope Texas. I grew up there my whole life. So that's where I got this darned accent from. I just moved here a couple months ago." her cheeks flushed instantly, which was even more embarassing then the damn accent. She sighed softly, smiling off the embarassment. " What about you?" she asked casually, trying to keep the conversation flowing between them. She was kind of excited at the possibility of where this could go with them. Of course to her bed was out of the question; but she figured it was a good option in his mind.

[ethangrey]

Ethan smiled at her reply to his cheeky comment. She hadn’t slapped him across the face which in his book meant she was a sure winner. Able to take a suggestive joke without so much as a shocked expression led him to the conclusion that Kenzie must fit the keen and easy southern chick stereotype. Ethan was quite confident therefore that pulling the girl on their soon to be arranged date would be a doddle. Date was probably quite a strong term for an evening which Ethan normally just used to get into a girl’s knickers. Date implied the intention of entering into a relationship and whilst Ethan did try to get together properly with girls, he normally ended up breaking up just to hook up with somebody else. Relationships were not out of the question, per say, but just a bit of a struggle for the boy who was so used to just discarding what he was bored with and trading it for something newer and better.

Ethan observed with a sense of both amusement and confusion and her blushing cheeks. Apparently she found her accent embarrassing, or so her reaction would hint at. Ethan wasn’t quite sure why though; there was certainly nothing shameful about having a distinctive twang to your speech, in fact it was quite endearing. ”Hey, I think it’s really cute” Ethan laughed softly, keen to reassure her that he hadn’t been trying to poke fun at her southern talk. ”But then” he continued with his typically confident attitude ”I think you’re really cute full stop”

Ethan licked his lips a little as he looked at the girl. It was a daring comment to make just minutes after meeting her but he was the sort of guy not to worry about these things; so cocky Ethan was that rejection rarely entered his mind. He kind of expected girls to fall at his feet, swooning over his good looks. Thus he didn’t really see the risk in upping the game with such a comment- it would only help him in his ultimate mission to get her into bed. She was a little shy, Ethan could see that from her blushing, but even so, he was sure she would still appreciate the show of his feelings.

”Me, errr” He began, curious to see her reaction to his previous comment but still realising he should cut down some of the mystery surrounding him a little first. ”I’ve travelled around the North-East you know, with my father’s company; New York, Philly, Chicago” he shrugged a little as if to indicate this was no big deal. ”But he kind of took a back seat when I was 12 so we moved out here”. Small town life would probably be boring if the boy wasn’t constantly jetting off around the world on various adventures but he did find quiet Lipton life quite refreshing against the bustling city upbringing he had had. ”I like how green it is here” he commented, looking out across the lake and the still scenery which painted a beautiful contrast to the wildly frolicking dogs in the lake. ”So how come you ended up in Lipton?”

[ali]

Kenzie noticed his smile, and she also noticed his expression to her blushing cheeks. It was not that she was ashamed of her accent. It was more like people tended to associate the southern drawl with ignorance. Kenzie was not stupid, by any means of the word. She had graduated valedictorian of her class, and she had gotten nothing but straight A's in school. She had also worked very hard for her grades, and had gotten nothing handed to her like some of the other kids that she had known in school. She had also been very athletic in school; being a member of the cheer squad, gymnastics, swimming, and Rodeo teams. However, being part of all that the teachers never seemed to take it easy on her like they had most of the other kids on her teams. Maybe it was because they knew her potential, and they were pushing her to be her best. Either way, Kenzie had always earned everything she had gotten in school.

The fact that he called her accent cute only caused her to blush more. Instantly she felt like this was not a good thing. He was smooth. Smoother than most guys she had dealt with here. Well, except for Jason that was. Kenzie pursed her lips and raised an eye brow slightly at his comment on her being cute all around. Though, Kenzie didn't have much time to reply to it when he continued on about where he had been from. He was definitely a smooth one. She could tell he was studying her to see what her reaction might be to that comment, and she was sure her face showed relative shock and flattery. It was nice to hear that again. Since Travis had passed Kenzie had not been in one single relationship. She had not even thought about being in a relationship. She missed him far too much to consider being in one right at that very moment.

Kenzie smiled as he spoke about traveling. She had done much of this with her parent's before Colton had been killed. They were constantly traveling to the next rodeo. When Colton had passed, things had come to quite a stop. Then he asked it. Why was she in Lipton. Kenzie face went a little blank. Did she really want to go in to detail about her brother's death, her parents divorce, and relatively the biggest mistake of her entire life. Not really, but for some reason in her mind, she thought that maybe just getting it off her mind, and telling someone might help her. Still, she felt a little stung at the thought that at times she forgot about it. Colton should always be in her mind. It was her fault he was dead.

Kenzie sighed slightly. "Um... My brother was killed by a drunk driver walking home from school. I was suppose to go walk him home, so it was kinda my fault." she paused slightly. "My parents divorced because my Mom blaimed me. Anyways my Father shipped me here to live in his summer home and go to school." she said, throwing a smile onto her lips to lighten up the rather darkened story. Every single day Kenzie hated herself for not going to get him. If she had she could have saved him, and the other kids' lives that were tragically cut short. Others would say she could have been killed as well. So maybe it was a blessing in disquise But it hurt her more than anything had. Not two month later the only guy she had ever loved was killed at a Rodeo. Things had been rough. But Kenzie still hoped things could only get better from there. And at least she thought she had made a friend.

[ethangrey]

Being somebody who easily took stereotypes as truth, it was probably quite wise for Kenzie to expect Ethan to make a link between the south and a general lack of intelligence. The mental image he had in his head of the easy, blonde, cowgirl chick didn’t, after all, include any thoughts of academic rigour whatsoever. Ethan wasn’t exactly the smartest of guys himself and so he wasn’t in much place to judge on intelligence but it was in all honesty a little irrelevant anyway as intelligence didn’t feature highly in Ethan’s list of attractive traits in a girl. Brain power was maybe an important consideration for a girl you wanted to enter into a serious relationship with, but Ethan’s relationships rarely made it passed the bedroom. Seeing as though intelligence, thankfully, played little part in bedroom prowess, the girl’s IQ was of a relatively low priority to him.

Ethan watched for her reaction to his compliment and found himself smiling at her cheeks flushing an even brighter shade of crimson. Compliments from cocky guys were normally taken one of two ways by girls. The sweet, some would say naive, girls, reacted like Kenzie and took them as genuine and heartfelt. The attitude filled girls who had encountered too many sleazy guys to be taken in by their charms normally reacted with a scowl or look of utter disdain. It seemed from her reaction that Kenzie hadn’t been used and abused by enough guys to completely lose trust in their words and her blush seemed to indicate that Ethan’s compliments were indeed going some of the way to charming his way into her bed.

As soon as his final question instilled a look of quiet sadness across Kenzie’s face though, Ethan’s smile sank. He may be a little self-absorbed but he wasn’t stupid enough to not be able to read her body language and understand the clear discomfort this question caused her. Not saying a word, he listened as she calmly reeled off the story, trying to make it more upbeat than it obviously was. Ethan stared in shocked at the girl, feeling that his mouth was hanging open a little in surprise at what she had just told him. He was really only a stranger to her and yet she had just poured out the saddest of circumstances to him without hesitation. ”Wow Kenzie..” he said slowly, a little dazed by all of what she had just told him. It was heartbreaking and yet he didn’t know the girl well enough to know how to respond to this information. He looked straight into her eyes with a look of support and solidarity.

”You can’t blame yourself though” He continued. ”It will eat you up” Ethan wasn’t one for tears and emotion but even he could see the pain in her eyes as she tried to cover up the sadness in her words. Plus he knew well himself about the guilt which takes over your life from these events. It wasn’t her fault though, not really. She hadn’t directly caused the accident, she hadn’t meant for things to happen- unlike what he had done. Ethan had meant to cause the fire that day, he’d intentionally struck the match which sent the place up in flames and he very nearly could have killed a girl. There was no way to sugar coat it; Ethan was completely and utterly to blame. He chewed on his lip a little as he looked at her, not comfortable going straight back to flirting after such a sad admission.

[/size]

[ali]

So Kenzie's life hadn't been all sprinkles and cup cakes like she had made it out to be. She hid her pain quite well, but when it had been brought into direct attention she had always had a hard time covering it up. The pain was easy to see in her eyes. Well, that was if the person took enough time to pay attention. Those eyes would betray her ever chance they got, and that pissed her off to no end. Other than those ocean blue eyes, she hid the pain and guilt well. Often times she could force herself to completely forget all about it, but then other times it was all she could think about. She also knew that she probably shouldn't have sprung such a sad story one someone she barely knew, but in a strange way she felt better about getting it off of her chest. Maybe that was all she had needed to do, tell someone about it.

Kenzie had watched as his smile had slowly drifted from his face. Yup, she should have just kept her big mouth shut, and had just said she felt like moving to a new place. But instead the big mouth had to go out and spell out all her baggage. Great job she did. This was why Kenzie had been avoiding relationships. Simply because she would have to tell about this kind of stuff, and she didn't like too. Those type of stories could dampen a perfect mood. And that is exactly what she had done. Kenzie pursed her lips slightly again in thought, slowly wondering how she would recover from what she had just said. She was not truly sure of what her tactics would be but she was sure she would come up with something, she always did.

Kenzie heard his words, and she offered him a smile, glancing out at the dog's that were playing in the water. She chose not to really respond to his comment instead she turned back to him now. Her smile was warm, and she had obviously brightened up slightly after her minor brush with emotions. "Beautiful dogs you have there. Are they huskies?" so maybe it was a bit of a failed attempt at changing the subject, but she was positive he would be releaved at the fact she had done so. It was not like she was lying. She did think the two dogs were beautiful, and she did know they were huskies. it was just an easy out to an uncomfortable and awkward conversation. And she was happy to be talking about something else. Note to self, keep your big mouth shut. she thought.

[ethangrey]

There was no doubting the fact that that had been a bit of an odd and marginally uncomfortable moment between the two of them and this was reinforced by the fact that Kenzie was trying to change the subject. Ethan was a fairly open person but even he couldn’t imagine himself ever spilling all of his most painful memories to someone he had only just met. Perhaps it was more of a girl thing; females were more in touch with their feeling and maybe this transferred into being more open with their emotions. Having said this, Ethan had never met another girl who was quite so willing to spill her secrets. Perhaps therefore it was just a Kenzie thing. He smiled at her, sensing the discomfort and slight regret at what she had just said. It’s not like he minded after all, if she wanted to confide about her life in him, that was fair enough. He hoped the smile would reassure her and not make her feel stupid for what she’d said. Creating an awkward feeling wasn’t his intention at all.

”Oh yeah” He laughed softly, turning to look at the dogs. It was clear that Kenzie didn’t want to say any more about her family situation and so Ethan decided to play along with the obvious change of topic. ”They’re gorgeous ladies aren’t they?” he smiled proudly. Despite not always being the most committed of owners, Ethan did love the huskies really. And it was quite clear from the looks they gave their master that the dogs loved him back. Ethan smirked at this thought- wasn’t it just every guy’s dream to be worshipped by two pretty blue eyed girls? Okay, maybe they were dogs, but the principle remained. However much Ethan screwed up, however selfish he was and however much he kept absorbed in his own life, Bo and Tequila always looked up to him with complete and utter love. It was true that dogs were a man’s best friend; provide a dog with so little and they still gave back so much. If only girlfriends could be more like dogs he thought, easy to please, eager to satisfy and encouraging of you meeting and playing with their friends. It was an ideal situation.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Ethan turned back to Kenzie. “So when are you going to let me buy you this drink then?” He asked, going back on the thought that he would give up on the flirting for now. Hey, if she wanted to change the subject, he seemed no harm in changing it back to his plan to get a date out of the girl. ”Or was your busy schedule thing an excuse to try to get me to leave you alone?” he smirked, giving her a wink. He didn’t really believe this; why would she want to get out with a date with him- the utterly irresistible Ethan Thomas.

[/size]