“We’ll be back really soon,” Katie told Dad. “And you know I’m a safe driver, right, Juan?”
“As long as she’s better driving a car than she is riding a horse,” Pablo mumbled so only we could hear. A few of the other grooms stifled chuckles.
I could tell Dad wasn’t nuts about the whole idea, but he said, “Be back by eight—it’s a school night.” He reached into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet, and handed me fifteen dollars.
In the car I asked if we were going to Amelia’s, the Italian place Katie and I usually went when we went out. Amelia’s had yummy garlic bread and also a really good pasta primavera that was $8.99 and was big enough that I had some to bring home.
“I thought we’d try this new sushi place Susie was talking about,” Katie said. “I’m sure it’s not as good as in the city, but I’m having a massive sushi craving.”
I had never had sushi before and the thought of eating raw fish grossed me out, but I certainly wasn’t going to object, in case Colby liked it, too.
“There must be really good sushi in L.A.,” Katie added.
I got the feeling she was trying to impress Colby, but it didn’t seem to be working. “I guess so,” he just said.
The sushi place was a few towns over. Katie blasted the radio the entire way, so we hardly had a chance to talk. As the music blared, I thought of riding in the car with Doug, Becca, Peters, and Pepper. Katie was so different from them. For one thing, she drove a BMW, not a Dodge. And we were going out for sushi—a far cry from KFC. In some ways I felt more comfortable in Doug’s car going out for KFC. But at the same time I was better friends with Katie.
When we sat down at the booth in the restaurant, I scanned the menu. Katie was already oohing and aahing. “This looks so good,” she said. “Yum, I love yellowtail.”
I was completely grossed out by all the strange stuff that was supposed to pass for food: seaweed salad, sea urchin, fatty tuna. Then I looked at the prices. They were outrageous. I thought of the fifteen dollars Dad had given me and felt my body flush. It would never cover dinner. I had a few bucks of my own with me, but I would still have to order carefully. The good thing was I saw hardly anything I would eat.
Katie and Colby ordered all this crazy sushi—eel, octopus, and giant clam. I settled on two rolls, a shrimp one that said the shrimp was cooked and a mixed vegetable roll.
“That’s all you’re getting?” Katie asked.
“I’m not that hungry,” I lied. Actually, I was starving. It pained me to think about the normal food I’d left behind at the cookout.
“So,” Colby said after the waitress had taken our order. “Tara’s a super bitch, huh?”
“Yeah, I know,” Katie said. “She keeps going on and on about how the judges stunk at the regionals and she should have won. I mean, seriously? She’s saying this to me?”
“Has she always been so awful?” Colby asked.
“Ever since I’ve known her,” Katie said.
Colby picked up the pot of steaming tea the waitress had left and poured us each a cup.
I thanked Colby for pouring the tea and then said, “Tara wasn’t always so bad.” It was hard to believe, but Tara and I had actually once been friends. She came to ride at the farm before Katie did. Back then I wasn’t taking lessons with Rob. Tara had been nicer to me. She’d even invited me to watch National Velvet, International Velvet, and my favorite horse movie, Pharlap (much better than Seabiscuit), with her in the camper.
“It’s like the better she got, the meaner she got,” I told Katie and Colby. “Maybe it’s just her way of staying mentally tough. Her parents are pretty hard on her.”
Katie took a sip of her tea. “You’re cutting her way too much slack.” She glanced at Colby. “If you haven’t already noticed, Francie’s too nice to people.”
“Being nice isn’t a crime,” Colby said, looking up and meeting my gaze.
“Thank you,” I said.
“You always have to look out for number one,” Katie replied. “That’s what the Dick says, anyway.”
“Since when do you go around quoting your dad?”
Katie shrugged. “Maybe in this case he’s right.”
The waitress brought our sushi in a big wooden boat. I immediately took mine onto a separate plate. I didn’t want my pieces even touching their giant clam and octopus. Katie ate hers with chopsticks. I hesitated, both because I wasn’t sure I could handle chopsticks and because I wasn’t sure I even wanted to eat mine. Even though the rolls were vegetables and cooked shrimp, they still smelled fishy. I eyed my chopsticks and was relieved when Colby picked up a piece of sushi with his fingers. I decided to go with the fingers, too.
“What do you think?” Katie asked after I’d cautiously bitten into a piece.
“Oh, I’ve had sushi before,” I said. Another total lie. In fact, it wasn’t as bad as I had thought it would be. I even kind of liked the rice.
I was doing fine and feeling quite proud of myself when Colby had to go and offer me a piece of his.
“She won’t eat it,” Katie said.
“Maybe I will,” I said. “What is it?”
“Eel.”
“You don’t even like olives,” Katie pointed out. “And now you’re going to eat eel? I don’t think so.”
I wasn’t sure I could stomach it, but just to prove Katie wrong, I reached out, grabbed the piece of sushi, and popped it into my mouth. I hardly chewed but just swallowed. I wasn’t sure it was going to go down. Then I wasn’t sure it was going to stay down. Thankfully it did. I reached for my water to wash it down.
“I’m impressed,” Katie said. “Okay, now try the giant clam.”
I swore I could feel the eel twisting in my stomach. “No way.”
I had pretty much lost my appetite and barely managed to finish the rest of my sushi. When she was done, Katie stood up and grabbed her Kate Spade purse. “I have to go to the ladies’ room,” she said.
She eyed me like I was missing something crucial, and when I just said, “Okay,” she finally left.
“I think you were supposed to go with her,” Colby said. “You know, girls always go to the bathroom together.”
“Oh,” I said. Oops. I had totally missed that one. But I was glad to have a few moments alone with Colby. I could finally talk to him about what had happened at the regionals. I cupped my hands around my tea, which so far was my favorite part of the meal. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth about Juan being my dad.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know. I guess I liked the idea of being just one of the riders.”
Colby made a face. “You are just one of the riders.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Did you think it would make me act different to you or something?” he asked.
I looked down into my cup of tea. “I guess I wondered if it might.”
“Well, I’m not like that,” Colby said.
Katie came back from the bathroom, her lipstick refreshed and her hair brushed. Colby refilled our tea and we stayed a little while longer. When the waitress brought the check, Katie reached for it. “This one’s on the Dick,” she said.
“No way,” I said, pulling out the money Dad had given me and my few rumpled ones. But Katie wouldn’t take it.
“Absolutely not,” she said, whipping out her American Express card. “He doesn’t care. He doesn’t even look at my statements. His accountant pays the bills.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“Yeah, thank you,” Colby said.
Katie shrugged. “Don’t thank me.” She sipped at her tea. “So this weekend we should totally go out for dinner again. I mean, since we don’t have a show. I heard about a good Thai place.”
“I’m actually going home for a few days,” Colby said.
“Oh,” Katie said, her excitement fading.
“I’ve gotta catch up on some schoolwork.”
“When do you leave?”
“Tomorrow,�
�� Colby said. “I’ll be back Sunday, though.”
“Well, maybe we can go then,” Katie suggested.
We all downed the rest of our tea and headed to the car. On the way out I saw a piece of paper in the parking lot. The paper looked thick, like it might even be a photograph. I had found photos before: a snapshot of a grinning baby with the words AIDEN, SIX MONTHS written on the back, and even a prom picture, a girl in a strapless dress and a boy in a white tux. Even if it might be something as good as a photograph, I knew I should walk right past and not embarrass myself in front of Colby, but I couldn’t resist picking it up and putting it in my pocket.
“People who litter suck,” Colby said, looking at me all approvingly.
Katie laughed. “It’s not about being a good citizen. Francie has this little obsession.”
“It’s not an obsession,” I said.
“Fine, then what is it? You explain it.”
I was very aware that Colby was looking at me, waiting.
“It’s just people throw away or lose all this stuff and some of it’s really interesting. I pick up things and sometimes I keep them.”
“In a box in her room.” Katie made a face like I’d just told Colby I collected body parts.
“Okay, so I’m weird,” I said. I was sick of pretending to be somebody I wasn’t. I was a groom, I’d never eaten sushi, and I collected random scraps of paper—so what?
On the ride back, Colby offered me the front seat.
“So chivalrous,” Katie said.
I couldn’t wait, and once we were in the car, I took out the piece of paper from my pocket. I’d been right—it was a photo. It was the old school kind you get in a booth at an amusement park. Two girls, good friends or maybe even sisters, sat scrunched together on the stool. In the first shot one was sticking her tongue out and the other had blown up her cheeks. In the second shot one was looking at the camera and the other was looking somewhere outside the booth, like something had distracted her. In the third shot it became clear that the something was actually a someone: now both girls had turned and you could see part of a boy’s face. I wondered who he was to them. I had the feeling he wasn’t their brother.
“So what is it?” Katie said, glancing over. “Anything good?”
I held up the photo so she could see it. Colby leaned forward from the backseat. “What makes something good?” he asked. He sounded genuinely interested, not like he was giving me a hard time, so I handed him the photo.
“Huh,” he said. “Who do you think the guy is?”
“I suppose they could be sisters and he could be their brother, or he could be one of their brothers and maybe the other one has a thing for him.”
Katie reached for the photo. “And the sister doesn’t know, but she’s starting to figure it out,” she said.
“Or maybe they aren’t even related,” Colby offered. He snatched the photo from Katie and looked at it again. Then he handed it back to me.
“That’s what makes something good,” I told him. “When you have to wonder about it.”
“But you’ll never know,” Katie said. “There’s no way to find out for sure.”
“Exactly,” Colby said.
I turned and smiled at him. He totally got it.
When we got back to the cottage, Colby hopped out and opened the car door for me.
“Enough with the chivalry thing,” Katie said.
Colby started walking me to the door.
I stopped. “What are you doing?” I glanced at the cottage. Any second Dad would be calling my name or, even worse, coming outside. He wouldn’t like seeing me out here with Colby.
“Just making sure you get home okay.”
“It’s like ten steps to my front door,” I said.
“Wait, did I do something wrong again? Should I be saying I’m sorry for something again?”
“No,” I said. “It’s not that.”
“It’s just that I’m getting the distinct feeling you’re being weird right now.”
Before I could say anything else, Bandit took that moment to decide he’d been delinquent in his watchdog duties and barked.
“It’s just my dad. He doesn’t always like me hanging out with the riders.”
“What’s this whole thing with the riders? You’re a rider.”
When I didn’t answer, Colby added, “He lets you hang out with Katie.”
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
“She’s a girl.”
“Oh, I get it. He doesn’t want you hanging out with boys.”
“Yeah,” I said, although it wasn’t just any boys Dad didn’t want me hanging out with.
“Well, you better go, then,” Colby said. “I’ll see you when I get back.”
We stood there for a few moments, staring at each other. I had the feeling he didn’t want me to leave as much as I didn’t want him to.
Katie yelled, “Come on, already!”
Inside, Dad was jabbering away in Spanish. “Bueno,” he was saying. “Tengo que irme ya. Sí, sí, ahora la hago.”
I came into the kitchen to find him just hanging up the phone. “How was dinner?” he asked.
“Good.” I handed him back the money he had given me. “Was that Abuela you were talking to?”
“Didn’t you eat?” Dad said, pocketing the bills and avoiding my question. He never liked to talk about my grandmother or my aunt. He always called them when I wasn’t around and put me off when I asked to talk to them or about going to visit them. It was like he wanted to keep that part of his life from me.
“Katie put it on her credit card,” I told him.
“Francie,” he protested.
“I tried to pay, but she wouldn’t let me. She wouldn’t let Colby pay either.” I knew that would make him feel better. He moved to sit down at the kitchen table and nodded to the chair across from him. “I think we need to have a talk.”
I sighed. I didn’t want to have a talk. All I wanted to do was go to my room, look at the photo I’d found, and then maybe think about Colby. But if Dad insisted on talking, I wasn’t going to make it easy.
“I know,” I said. “We need to talk about when we’re going to Mexico.”
“No, we need to talk about boys.”
“Dad,” I said. “I know all about the birds and the bees . . . where babies come from.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“So you know they come from that?”
“From what?”
“That—what I just saw outside.”
“So you were spying on me?”
“I was talking on the phone and just happened to look out the window.”
“Why can’t you just admit you were spying?”
“Fine,” Dad said. “A little spying.”
“So then you saw we were just talking.”
“Exactly,” he said.
“So what? I’m not supposed to talk to boys? No boys at all? I better reconsider where I’m going to apply for school—pick out some all-girls colleges . . .”
Dad held both of his hands out in front of him like he was making a scale. “Boys,” he said, moving one hand higher than the other. “Clients,” he said, moving the other up.
“But what if a boy just happens to be a client?” I asked.
“Then you stay away from him,” Dad announced, like it was easy.
“Okay, okay, I get it,” I said, borrowing a bit of Colby’s sarcasm. “I can do whatever I want with other boys. Stay out all night, sleep over at their houses, just not the clients; that’s cool.”
I glanced at my watch. “Actually, I’ve gotta go. I’m going out to meet a guy from school. I’m not sure when I’ll be back . . .”
“Francie,” Dad said.
“Dad,” I came back.
Dad sighed. “Okay, talking’s fine. But just talking. Promise me you’ll be careful.”
“Just talking, I promise,” I said.
For right then it seemed like a saf
e enough thing to promise. But just maybe, I hoped, that would change when Colby got back from L.A.
Chapter Ten
* * *
“Okay, Tara first, then Francie, then Katie, then Gwenn, trot the low side of the bank,” Susie called to us. She was teaching our lesson because Rob was taking his mother to look at a nursing home. After a week of intense lessons with Rob it was nice to have a break.
I fell into line behind Tara, leaving enough room between us. We were riding on the grand prix field because next was the Talent Search, which was held outside on grass with natural obstacles like the ones we were practicing.
I stayed back with my upper body and let Tobey jump to me going up onto the bank. Then I made sure not to grab the reins as he popped back down to the ground off the raised platform.
“Good,” Susie said. “Just remember, stay back a little more coming down.”
It was beautiful out in the field. The leaves on the trees were at their brightest colors, just before they tinged brown and fluttered to the ground. It was crisp out, but not yet cold. Even at four o’clock the sun still hovered high in the sky. In a few more weeks, after the clocks had been turned back from daylight savings, it’d be too dark to jump outside at this time. Usually I wouldn’t have noticed how beautiful it was out on the field or whether it was getting dark, but with Susie teaching, things were much more relaxed and it was possible to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.
We trotted the bank again widthwise, cantered it lengthwise. Next it was time to jump the open water. The rail above the water was only a foot off the ground: what made the water difficult was its width. At ten feet wide, you had to gallop to clear it. And even some of the best eq horses wouldn’t jump the water.
This time Katie went first, and Stretch sailed over like the rockstar he was. Tobey and I were next. Since he could be a little spooky, I kept my leg on him.
Tobey pricked his ears and surged forward. He judged it perfectly and soared over. I patted his neck. After Tara and Gwenn jumped the water fine and we practiced the grob, a sunken road with two ditches a few strides apart, Susie had us put them together in a course with the regular jumps. We all rode pretty well and she said, “Good enough. Let’s quit with that.”
The Perfect Distance Page 10
