by Ann Hunter
Hillary sighed. “This would be easier if you wore uniforms at your school.”
Laura cringed. Heaven forbid we not have our own style.
Alex blinked. “Oh. Uh. Sure. Put it in the cart.”
Hillary frowned. “Laura, go and find Alex-ish clothes.”
Laura lit up brighter than the barn lights at home and giddily took off. Hillary wagged her finger at Alex. “You’re coming with me.”
Hillary moved before Alex could register what she said, sending her tumbling right into a body. Alex grabbed them before they could fall over. “Are you okay?”
Hillary turned, pausing to set both of them right. “You’re talking to a mannequin.”
Alex winced, reattaching an arm to the statue. “I am so, so sorry.” She shook her head, realizing she was still talking to the dummy. Or maybe she was the dummy. She couldn’t tell anymore. “Sorry, sorry!”
She gripped the cart, hoping nobody saw that snafu.
Hillary guided Alex to the underwear department and started filing through bras.
“I don’t need one of those.”
“Ohhh, yes you do,” Hillary countered.
“I don’t really have anything to— ”
Hillary held a bra up to Alex’s chest. “You have enough. Summer did more than give you some tone, honey.”
Alex snatched the hanger from her, and folded her arms over her chest, powerless to the heat flaring in her cheeks. She wanted to die.
When Hillary wasn’t looking, Alex peered down at the bra in her arms. Okay, maybe not die. But definitely disappear. She swallowed. The bathroom plan still seemed like a legit escape.
“This is a special time between mother and daughter,” Hillary hummed as she continued sorting through the bras. “I remember when Laura got her first bra. And when I got mine.”
Alex’s fingers dug into the bra in her arms. This whole thing didn’t feel special at all. Why would anyone in their right mind look forward to this? And why was it A-Cup? Why not The Cup? The Cup sounded like something you actually earned and would be proud to wear.
“And afterwards, we always got ice cream.” Hillary turned, smiling, only to be met with Alex’s scowl. “What?”
“You’re weirding me out.” She chucked the bra into the cart. “But I’m down with the ice cream.”
Hillary looked sympathetic for a moment, until she placed her hand on the back of Alex’s head, and pulled her close for a hug.
If she said a single word about A League of Their Own…
Alex squirmed, wriggling out from her embrace. “That didn’t make it better.”
As they had a mini stare-off, Laura hopped back to them with a ginormous armful of clothes, and laid them over the edge of the cart. Alex moved to them and picked out the ones she liked. She didn’t think she’d keep much, but she was sort of surprised that Laura nailed her look down.
“I can has ice cream?” Laura beamed.
“Better.” Hillary smiled. “I’ll get you a gift card to your favorite store.”
Alex glanced to Laura, watching her response.
“Yay!” She sounded like Uni-Kitty.
“On to shoes.” Hillary pushed forward. “Alex, you’re overdue.”
Alex stared at her tattered chucks. The toe part had been white once, but was now scuffed black, brown, and green from farm life. It wasn’t even noon and her toes ached a little from curling inside them.
“No, thanks,” she said.
“Alex. I can see your toe.”
She looked down, noticing her pinky toe barely sticking through a sorry little hole. Her gaze returned to Hillary’s. “I don’t care. Buy me underwear. Bras galore. Anything. But not new shoes.”
She couldn’t let them go. The shoes were the first thing she’d ever really owned. They hadn’t been hand me downs, or rescued from Salvation Army. They were brand new when she got them. They were special.
Letting them go… it meant something more than just outgrowing them. She hoped one of them would realize that.
Laura stepped forward, grasping Hillary’s shoulder. “Mom, you should know better than to come between a girl and her shoes.”
“Fiiiiine,” Hillary seceded.
Alex finally smiled for the first time all day, tipping her head toward Laura’s. “This is why I love you.”
JUST FRIENDS
Dejado was the last person Alex wanted to meet in the boarding barn where the lesson horses were kept. He had just finished grooming Approved when she stopped a short distance from him.
He smiled at her, in that way he always did, and slipped a bridle onto the chestnut. “Going for a ride. Want to come?”
“You know that’s my lesson horse, right?”
“Would you like me to ready another for you?”
“What if I had come for a lesson and Approved wasn’t here. Then what?”
“Guess you’d have to ride another horse.” He smoothed the gelding’s forelock over the browband. “It’s good for you, y’know, getting to ride lots of different mounts.”
Alex folded her arms. “Like you know what’s good for me.”
He tossed her a brush. “I know a ride is great for everyone. Do you want to come along?”
Alex huffed, passing the brush back and forth between her hands. It was a stupid question. Who didn’t want to ride around this place? It was all anyone ever did. “You’re not going to try to give me cooties are you?”
“Why? Is it cootie season?”
She rolled her eyes, and led Thorne from his stall. There were other horses she could have picked from, but he was the horse here she knew second best to Approved.
Dejado laughed softly as though his comment had been super funny. “I promise it will be just between friends.”
Alex’s hand paused midstroke with the brush on Thorne’s dark hide. “We’re not friends, though.” She glanced at him. “Actually, I kinda hate you.”
His dark eyebrows lifted. “Why?”
She scoffed, “Really?”
“Have I ever been cruel to you?”
“No.”
“Said something to hurt your feelings?”
“No.” She grimaced.
“How have I earned your hatred then?”
She couldn’t look away from him now. The pained expression written on him was too pathetic. She quickly finished grooming Thorne and bridled him. Before Dejado could rush to her side and give her a leg up, she’d already pulled the seal bay gelding outside by the rock she and Carol usually used to get up by themselves.
She swung astride and circled Thorne, giving Dejado a bold look. “Ishmael out,” she said, putting her heels to Thorne’s side. He broke into a canter, pacing them quickly away.
It didn’t take long for Dejado and Approved to catch up to them. He rode easily, legs dangling but in control. He kept a small bunch of bright mane in his fist, along with the reins, the other hand gently bracing against his mount’s withers.
A snarly little dragon twisted in Alex. How did he make riding look so easy? She had had to work at every little thing from the moment she got near a horse. And he made it look like he was born doing it. She who had one of the greatest jockey’s blood in her veins, and he wasn’t even trying!
She was almost too lost in her envy when she realized Thorne was headed toward the grove where she and Carol spent most of their quiet time. That was their special place. She couldn’t take him there.
She adjusted her seat on Thorne’s bare back and turned him away from the direction he was headed. Dejado and Approved galloped ahead of them, disappearing into the woods. Alex sighed, steering that way too.
The doofus and Approved had slowed to a trot by a narrow stream when Alex and Thorne caught up to them. Their pace dropped down to a walk.
Dejado looked at her with chocolate eyes so gentle, she could’ve sworn they had belonged to a horse in a past life. They almost matched the branches above.
“Are you sure we can’t be friends?” he asked. “I prom
ise to never be the type of fellow who finishes your sandwiches.”
Thorne shook his head like it was the wrong thing to say. Alex’s brow knit with the same kind of reaction. “Don’t you mean sentences?”
Dejado leaned back, bracing a palm on Approved’s rump. “What bloke finishes a girl’s sentences? That’s wrong.”
“Are you trying to be charming?” She squinted. “Does that actually work on other girls? Cuz I’m not other girls.”
He grinned, turning his face to the canopy and taking in bits of sun as they sprayed through the treetops. “That’s why I like you, Ishmael. You’re not other girls.”
“How do I know you’re not like other boys?”
“What are other boys like?”
Alex’s mind shot immediately to Johnathan North. “Nothing that I like.”
“Hmm. That’s definitely a great deal of dislike.” He and Approved both sighed at the same time. “Do you like girls?” Dejado asked.
Alex’s hands clenched on the reins. “What kind of question is that?”
He shrugged. “An honest one. If we’re going to be friends, we should know what the other likes.”
“I dunno, do you like girls?” she blurted. She blushed at once, wincing. What a stupid question!
Dejado laughed.
Her heart raced a little. Why did she feel so panicky? “Seriously though. What the hell kinda question was that?”
“I was only asking since you hate boys so much.”
“That’s not how that works.”
“And you would know this how?”
Alex dropped her head and groaned. Thorne snorted.
“Wow. What other sounds come out of your mouth?”
Alex glared at him. If he said anything remotely close to their mouths being together, she’d sock him straight off of Approved. The fact that she even thought of that made her want to kick herself, which she nearly did. Thorne half-reared and took off, having had Alex’s heels popped into him out of nowhere.
He thundered down the creek, rendering the trees and ground a blur of brown and green. Thorne bobbled over unsteady rocks in the stream bed, unsettling Alex’s place on his back. She gripped his mane, trying to get him to slow down, something she rarely ever wanted to do on any other horse, but her voice was lost on the breeze. She grit her teeth, bouncing clumsily to one side. Her leg slipped, and she saw the world briefly in a whirl of horse shoulder, and rocks racing toward her. Falling was not something she’d perfected yet.
She squeezed her eyes shut tight and let go, slamming to the ground. Alex tumbled hard against ground debris, a dizzying sense of sharp edges plunging into her. She was left lying on her belly, watching Thorne gallop down the beach of Boyd’s Branch.
The loam left her cheek feeling like it had been rubbed raw by sandpaper. She pushed herself up slowly as Dejado slid to a stop and dismounted.
“Are you alright?” He took her elbow, trying to help her, but Alex shook him off, turning her back to him. Thorne was having a field day in the shallows.
“You’re bleeding,” Dejado said.
Alex squirmed when he touched a spot on her back. It tingled and burned all at the same time. He walked round to the front of her, assessing further damage.
“You’re lucky you had your helmet on.” His hands caressed her face gently. She tucked her lip, overcome with this awkward sense of… she didn’t even have words for it. Just a girl standing here on the beach with this thing called boy.
He held her eyes for only a moment before she found herself again. “Go and catch the stupid horse.”
“You sure you’re okay to ride?”
She gave him a nudge. She’d be fine.
Maybe.
BOYS ARE DUMB
Laura was reading a teen magazine at the kitchen table when Alex walked in from her ride. The older girl peered over the page and raised an eyebrow.
“Why is your butt wet?”
“Because your dumb horse dumped me.”
“Where?”
“By the lake. I went riding with Dejado.”
Alex didn’t think anyone could put down reading material faster than she could, but Laura threw down her magazine and leaned forward like she’d just been offered the world’s juiciest steak.
“Really…”
Alex rolled her eyes. “It’s not what you think.”
“A little frolic in the water. Romantic ride on the beach.”
“Thorne was the only one frolicking, bumblebutt. I rode home on a wet horse. It was far from romantic.”
Laura grinned. “I don’t believe you for a minute. Dejado’s way cute. Did he save you?”
Alex pulled her shoes off at the bottom of the stairs. “I don’t need saving.” She paused and looked hard at her sister. “Am I the only one who doesn’t think he’s cute?”
Laura tucked her lip, wrinkling her nose. “Probably.”
Alex sighed, leaning against her knees and staring into space. Laura turned in her chair toward her.
“How could you not? That dreamy British accent, the tall, dark, and handsome thing going on.”
“Tall,” Alex scoffed. “He’s shorter than Brooke.”
“Everyone’s shorter than Brooke.”
Alex hummed a laugh. True.
Laura picked up her magazine again. “Anyway. You’d be crazy not to like him.”
“You’re crazy.”
“Takes one to know one,” Laura sighed as she settled back into reading.
Alex shook her head and headed up the stairs to her room to change. While peeling off her damp, sandy jeans, she stumbled into her nightstand. A crumpled wad of green fluttered to the floor. She picked it up and straightened it.
Dejado’s dollar couldn’t be spent, and she couldn’t give it away. It almost felt like a paradox for their current relationship. There was no getting rid of him. Wait. Did they have a relationship?
No, of course not.
Alex folded the dollar and clutched it in her fist as she finished changing into dry clothes. She crossed to the window seat in her room and curled up against the wall there. The door open and shut downstairs; Laura got into a car with Johnathan North. Alex stretched the dollar in her lap.
If she had a dollar every time she thought of Dejado… Well. She had a dollar.
His goofy smirk flashed across her memory.
Boys were dumb.
DIRTY GOGGLES
Alex rode up to Joe breathlessly, beaming. Joe had finally given her the chance to ride for him, and he said she might even be on his roster of riders and grooms to take with him to Churchill Downs.
Joe reached up to her. “Goggles.”
Alex took off the two sets hanging around her neck and handed them to him. He filed through both as though they were important messages, grinding his teeth.
She watched them sail over the outside rail as he doffed his hat and ran his fingers through his thinning hair. “What’s wrong?”
The muscles in his jaw flexed. He paced a moment, then threw his hat down, muttering under his breath. “Dirty.”
He turned his back to her as though she were the greatest disappointment in his life.
“Goggles are supposed to get dirty.”
The look he passed her over his shoulder made Alex shiver.
“Get off the horse,” he growled.
“But I— ”
Joe grabbed the reins and yanked her from the saddle. “Get off.”
Alex landed in a heap, dust swirling around her. She coughed.
“When you start riding the way I tell you to, you’ll get back on again,” he told her. The horse snorted and threw his head at the end of his hold. Joe led him forward.
“Stay away from this horse. Stay the hell offa my track.”
Alex punched the dirt beneath her and chucked her helmet after them. “Screw you, old man.”
Joe flipped her off without even a glance behind.
Alex paced in front of Dejado.
“Don’t be so hard
on yourself.”
“Oh, what? Like you wouldn’t be.”
Dejado shrugged. “Water off a duck, Ishmael.”
“I don’t know how much more I can take.” Alex tangled her fingers in her hair. “He’s a… there isn’t even a word for it! You know what? I want to hurt him back. If he’s going to keep me from success, then I’ll keep it from him too.” She stopped in the aisle, staring straight ahead as though a plan had formed itself before her.
“How are you going to do that?”
“Lose Promenade’s races,” she said hollowly.
“But you’re not riding him.”
“No.” She blinked and turned to look at him. “But you are.”
“I can’t do that. I’d lose my license. Worse, you can’t do that to the farm.”
“What I can and can’t do is entirely up to me.” She stood tall, and fierce. “Me, Dejado. My destiny. My fate. I didn’t have that option before.”
Dejado was looking at her all dreamy eyed from the haybale he sat upon.
“What?”
“You’re super hot right now,” he sighed.
She gave him a death stare and he cringed.
“Sorry!”
He got to his feet and squared his shoulders. “I can’t let you do this.”
“Then we can’t be friends.”
They stood toe to toe, neither backing down. There was a long silence between them.
“Joe’s a bloody codger, to be sure,” Dejado finally said, “but he’s not worth throwing everything away for.”
Alex folded her arms and turned her back to him. He reached, haltingly, to tuck her hair behind her ear.
“I’d rather we respect eachother for standing for what we believe in than a friendship made in cheating and sucker punches.” His finger brushed the edge of her jaw, just above her pulse. Alex bit her lip. “I hope you’ll understand,” he murmured, and walked away.
The day of the Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs, which Promenade was entered in over Labor Day weekend, Brooke and Carol came over to watch him on TV with Laura and Alex.
Brooke sacked out on the couch in the den while Laura brought in a bowl of popcorn to share with everyone. Brooke lifted her legs for Laura to sit down on the end of the couch, then put her feet across her lap.
