"Wake up Lee, it's late!"

"What time is it?"

"8am."

"You're joking me! Let me sleep!"

"No you don't!" Shane said pulling the blanket off me.

"Hate ya…"

"No, you just love me so much."

"I won't if you wake me up so early in the morning when I want to rest."

"Com'on Lee! Let's go riding, I can't wait!"

I stood up and gave him a kiss and then went to take a shower to wake up. After dressing I went into the kitchen and we had breakfast together. Shane ate very fast and drank three mugs of milk and then without waiting for me to finish my breakfast grabbed my hand and pulled me after him out of the house and into the stables. Jean-Jacques told us that it would be great for Shane to take Louis, a superb stallion, a champion horse, and for me to take Francoise, a gentle mare. Louis was dark brown and looked aristocratic and Francoise was white, just like a unicorn. She was beautiful.

"I'm really sorry for what's about to happen…" I said looking into her gentle eyes and patting her head.

"She'll be fine, don't worry" said Amy's granddad.

"That's what Shane said to me, but I'm scared of not hurting her."

"You won't, trust me."

I had big problems to get on her. You would not believe it, but a horse's back is very large and you have to spread your legs as much as possible. My shoulder hurt too, but finally I got on her.

"OK. Now slowly hit her with your legs, not too hard."

I was so scared! But when I got the trick I loved it. We left the farm and went towards the wood on the hills on a small path. When we got to the top Shane thought he should show off and started to jump over some improvised obstacles. He was great! It was like him and the horse were one. After some jumps we got off the horses and we tied them of a branch and then sat down on a blanket we had brought with us.

"I told you you would like it."

"Yeah, it's a great feeling. I've never knew horse riding could be so wonderful."

"Yes it is. Since I was a little kid I liked riding horses back home. I thought I would be known all over the world as a rider, but this music business changed that. I only hope it will work."

"It will, you have very good voices and you're talented and you're Irish. The Irish seem to make it in the music business these days, I think it's the traditional music which is liked, but groups and singers got real big too. Look at U2, Boyzone, Sinead O'Connor, you're well known for your music. You've won the Eurovision contest for so many times. Have you seen Ronan this year?"

"Yeah, he was great! I loved him! I hope someday I'll be like him."

"I kept on thinking that he is only 20! My God, he probably lived so far more than a 70 year old."

"Yes, he's fantastic! A true role model. You like him a lot, don't you?"

"More than a lot! He has that incredible voice that cannot be overlooked, he's gorgeous, he's smart and funny."

"Woh, I'm getting jealous here!"

"No need to. Ro is a dream, an untouchable one, you're real, you're here with me."

"So you are pleased with me if you can't get Ro, right?"

"No, it's not like that at all. You probably like Madonna or Mariah Carey, but you love me, which is great. I like Ronan, but I love you."

"I really love you Lee…"

"Oh, I love you too, I love you so much."

We kissed for a long time on the blanket right under a tree. The horses were very quiet, seemed like they were respecting our privacy. It was like heaven. Staying like that hugging each other and feeling safe one next to the other was unbelievable. We made love right there and it was so much better than the first time. I would have stayed like that forever. We fell asleep and woke up hours later…

The sun was setting. The sky was red and beautiful. We realized how late it was and jumped right away. We got on the horses and tried to hurry back to the farm, but I wasn't a good rider so it took a lot to get back. It was almost dark and everybody was in the living room not knowing what had happened to us. When they heard us they ran outside.

"Where the hell have you been? We've been looking for you all over the place! We thought you got hurt or something!" yelled Celine.

"We're OK. We're sorry, we fell asleep."

"You fell asleep on the horses?" asked Amy with an innocent look.

"Amy, no! We sat on the top of the hill and we fell asleep and when we woke up the sun was setting."

"We waited for you to go and see the vineyard and it was getting late and you didn't show up and we got worried. We looked for you and we really thought something bad happened" said Jean-Jacques real calm.

"We are so sorry, we promise to go tomorrow…"

"OK. I'm glad you're fine, we can still go tomorrow to see the vineyard. Now let's go inside and have dinner."

"Great! We're starving!"

We got inside and had a long dinner, we ate till we dropped, lots of good things prepared by Christelle. She was an excellent cook. She had prepared for us lasagna, the greatest I've ever eaten, and some potatoes with little pieces of uncooked meat that we fried in a cast-iron kettle next to the table. That was weird. And after that she brought the deserts. The apple pie was my favourite of all, I ate two big slices, I like sweets a lot, not all of them, but most of them. And apple pies are my favourites. At the end we stood up hardly, and we went into the living room. Amy's grand-dad started telling us stories about him and his wife and how they met during the World War II. He had been pretty close to General de Gaulle and he had lovely memories. Christelle had lived at a farm not very far from the one we were staying at right then. She was a nurse and she was home when Jean-Jacques was injured and brought to her dad's farm. That's how they met and they fell in love and after the war they got married and lived happily ever after. Just like that. They had three children, two boys and a girl, Amy's mum. It was like a novel, seeing them was a great example for us, the young ones, an example of life. Jean-Jacques was also a good joke-teller and he knew so many. I remembered some great ones, but the hardest part was to translate them into English and French. We had a good laugh that evening. It got late and the grandparents went to sleep living us behind. Amy jumped in Mark's arms and kissed him for a long time. She would have never dared to do that in front of her grandparents. Celine did the same thing with Kian and I took Shane into my arms remembering the special time we had that day. We looked into each other eyes and smiled sharing the secret. It was good that everybody was busy and so nobody noticed the looks on our faces and we didn't have to answer some other childish question. We felt Nicky was embarrassed and we stopped from snogging each other, Celine with Kian, me with Shane and Amy with Mark.

"We need to fix you up with someone" said Celine to Nicky.

"Yeah right, don't forget that. Actually I wouldn't mind finding a little French guy with a very sexy accent."

"Definitely, the accent is the best part. This is what I love best about Celine!" said Kian.

"Really doll?"

"Yeah, it's so sexy…"

"Mmmmm…" and they went back to kissing.

"But you've also got lovely accents. Let's face it, the Irish accent is cute too."

"So the accent made you fall in love with me, right Lee?"

"I must admit that it had a small part of the deal…"

"Come here you naughty love-a-lot bear…" said Shane pulling me close to him and giving me a short kiss.

"I don't know about the two of you guys, you slept on the hill today, but I'm dead tired. So I'll go to bed."

"OK Nicky, we'll be there in a minute."

After Nicky left we enjoyed some more of the great feeling we had in each other's arms and kissed longly and French. After all we were in France… Hehe! And after that we went to bed.

We got up the next day. The sky was grey and it was raining. It seemed like an autumn day. After all it was August, the last month of summer. The visit of the vineyard was off. We got up and went to have breakfast. Everybody decided to stay in and play Monopoly, but Shane, and he took me out in the rain with him. He was so wild. He threw a raincoat on me and one on him and then grabbed my hand and hurried to the stables. He was so in love with the horses. He went to Louis and asked him:

"Hey mate! Do you remember me?" and he patted him.

Seemed like Louis recognized him, he was very gentle. I went to Francoise, but I kept on watching Shane. It was so hard not to love him. Just seeing him like that, fascinated by the horses.

"Lee, what do you say about a ride? A slow one since it's raining."

"If you want to, it's OK with me. But I don't know how to put the saddle on her."

"I'll help you. Here we go."

He put the saddle on Francoise, then on Louis, he helped me get on the mare and then he got on his horse and we slowly got outside on the path. We followed the same road as the day before. The rain purified the air and it was a real pleasure to breathe it deep into your lungs. We rode in silence one next to the other.

"Wouldn't you like to spend the rest of your life just like this?"

Saying that he remembered me that his holiday would have ended in a week and a half and I didn't know what was going to happen then. I would have done anything to stop time from running. But that wasn't possible…

"Lee…?"

"Yes?"

"Didn't you hear me before?"

"I heard you, but I was thinking…"

"Of what?"

"Of what would happen when you'll go home."

"I thought we've already talked about that."

"We have but it just keeps on hunting my mind, I just can't help it."

"We'll be OK, we'll find a way, you'll see. I can promise you that."

I tried very hard to stop my tears from falling. I didn't want to be sad. We didn't climb the hill coz the road wasn't too good. And we turned and went back to the farm. When we got back Celine and Kian were the only ones left in the game, but Celine was beating the crap out of him. She was winning everything.

"OK! You've won! But you can lend me some money to get a cab or maybe you can give me a room in one of your five star hotels. You can stay over the night" said Kian pulling her close to him and kissing her slowly.

"So you're rich as I can see. Can you buy a house in France for me and Lee?"

"Oh I would if I had the money for real. I would buy a very big house for all of us to live together. We'd manage to do something. We would go to school and then to the university and when we're old enough we'd get married and have kids. I want lots of kids, like the Irish families have. I want a family like Kian's parents have. Oh, why cannot life be fair so when we find the right person for each other to have the chance of living together for the rest of our lives?"

"Cheer up, will ya?!"

"Oh, what do you want Nicky? You're not having our problems!"

"Guys, if you're meant for each other God will give you the chance of staying together."

"This is what I said to Lee. If we're made to be together, then God will keep us together."

"OK, let's live this moments having a great time. We still have a week and a half to spend together. OK?"

We all agreed to let the sadness go and cheer up.

"Let's play Truth or Dare!"

"That's a great idea Nicky!"

"I'll be the first. And I challenge… Mark!"

"Truth…"

"OK… How old are you?"

"Oooh, that's tough… I'm 17. I challenge Kian!"

"Dare…"

"Declare your love to Celine in rhymes."

"Huh?"

"Oh, com'on hun! It's easy if you really love me!"

"Yeah… You're my sunshine… you're my sun… Celine you're my… number one… I would love you endlessly… coz you are my destiny."

"Ooooh that's sooooooooooo beautiful, I love you babe! Come here and give me a kiss!"

"My turn! I challenge my baby here!"

"Truth!"

"Celine… have you ever been in love?"

"Nope!"

"Oh, get real! It's not true!"

"It is! I've never been in love before. I am now coz you completely stole my heart sweetie."

"Now I believe you."

"I challenge Amy."

"Dare" she answered hoping that Celine was gonna dare her to do something pretty nice to Mark. But she was so wrong.

"Go to your grandparents and tell them that you and Mark are a couple!"

"I can't do that!"

"Yes you can! They were once young and they fell in love and they can understand. So go tell them. I'm doing this coz I really don't like hiding. And tell them about us too."

"Celine you're sure about this?"

"Yes Lee. I'm tired of hiding from them when I don't want to keep my hands off Kian. And you're in the same position. You know I'm right! We have another week and a half and I want to have my baby next to me all the time."

"But maybe Amy is pleased with this situation."

"No I'm not. I'm so in love with Mark and I don't like hiding from my grandparents. They are nice people and I'm sure they're not going to tell my folks."

"Do whatever you want. I don't mind them knowing about us."

The fun was over and the tension was pretty high. Amy got up the couch and went into the kitchen where she found Jean-Jacques and Christelle having a cup of tea. She took a deep breath and she began:

"Grandma, grandpa I have something to tell ya."

"What's wrong honey?"

"I want you to know that… I'm very much in love with Mark and we're boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Oh, we knew that."

"What? How?"

"It's so obvious. We were just talking about you all when you entered the room. I was telling Christelle that it would be nice to be young as you are again. We are in love as we were at the beginning, but we're not young anymore. You are young and beautiful and you make great couples. We're OK with that and we won't tell your parents coz we know how parents are. But you have to promise us to be a good girl."

"Sure, no problem. I've always been a good girl. Don't worry about that. Thank you both! I love you so much! You're the best grandparents in the world."

"We love you to Amy. Now go back to your friends and tell them it's OK for them to stay in each other's arms even when we're in the room."

"OK!"

She walked back into the room and told us everything. We were so relieved to hear that. They were such nice people… We spent the rest of the day having fun and playing different games, hearing some other great stories told by Jean-Jacques, eating another incredible dinner prepared by Christelle and feeling good. The day proved out to be better than we expected in the morning when we've seen the rain outside. Shane helped me once again wash my hair. We remembered what had happened the last time he did that for me and we couldn't help ourselves from smiling.