It was a set-up that neither Will nor Nicole were crazy about attending. In the Fall of 2016, Nicole had started a new career working in higher education at UK where she met and worked with Will's sister, Lucy Tepper. Lucy kept mentioning to Nicole, "Oh, I want you to meet my brother, he's really cute! I think you all would get along," and apparently Lucy kept telling Will the same thing about "this new girl" she works with. Lucy tried to find a date that worked for both of them to meet. Nicole "had plans" one weekend and Will was out of town for work on another. Finally, one Thursday near Halloween, on October 27th, Lucy asked Nicole to come out to happy hour after work to meet Will. Both Will and Nicole ran out of excuses so the three met at Lexington Beerworks, Lucy came as mediator just in case. Nicole and Will immediately hit it off. They laughed at the circumstances that Will helped to hire Nicole while at the USEF and brought her back to Lexington (even longer story) and that they had actually met before. It started out an early happy hour and ended up being a late night, both talking about who-knows-what while drinking a local tap of Rogue Dead Guy Ale... remember it was Halloween at the time and the local seasonal beers have a sense of humor. They met (for the second time) on a Thursday. Nicole asked Will to the movies on Friday. Will asked Nicole to go for a hike at Raven Run on Saturday. After the hike, Will took her to watch the sunset at the top of a hill near his place in beautiful horse country with the same Rogue Dead Guy Ale from Thursday in his backpack--an endearing surprise for Nicole. They cooked dinner at Nicole's and watched the stars from her porch into Saturday night. It was a marathon of a 48-hour, weekend-long date and the two have been inseparable ever since.
Living on Bryan Station Farm, Will regularly asks to go for walks--before dinner, after dinner, sometimes it might be sprinkling, and sometimes the horses need some friendly smiles... It was January and a little snow had fallen. The temperatures kept fluctuating around 32 and had eventually increased slightly so the snow turned into a mist. Will was eager to go on a walk on Saturday, but Nicole kept saying "it's too cold out. Let's wait until it clears up a little bit." Sunday came, and it was still misting, but Will didn't take no for an answer. They bundled up and took their usual route along side the Elkhorn Creek. Nicole was walking ahead of Will to look at a fallen tree and he calls to Nicole to come back. She turns around and Will is on one knee, with his great-grandmother Ruth Hunt's diamond ring in hand. One muddy knee and many tears later, Nicole and Will decided to walk together for the rest of their lives.