by Suzanne Weyn
“Of course I’m here,” she said, unclipping the lunge line from over Monty’s nose and reclipping it under his chin to lead him. “Where else would I be?”
“Mrs. LeFleur called and asked me to do evening feeding because she wasn’t sure if you were here or not.”
Mercedes’s hand went into one of her front jean pockets, then the other. Her brow furrowed and then released in realization. “Oh! My phone must be in the office. I was so excited to get to see Monty that I must have left it there. Sorry you had to come all the way down here.” She patted Monty’s slightly damp neck. His nostrils still flaring from the workout, Monty made a soft spluttering noise, as if to say, Phew! What a day!
Taylor grinned at the charismatic horse. Whatever had inspired her to do so, it was really nice of Devon Ross to let Mercedes bring Monty over to Wildwood to work with him.
Looking back at Mercedes, Taylor said, “I don’t mind. It’s always nice to have an excuse to come see the horses. I’ll help you feed later. Always helps to have more hands.”
Just then, another car came down the driveway. Taylor’s stomach gave a little jump of excitement when she recognized Eric Mason heading their way. The small flame of enthusiasm was quickly extinguished when she noticed who was sitting next to him — his cousin Plum.
Taylor waved at them both. She was determined to be nice to Plum, even if it killed her. By not giving Plum any ammo, Taylor hoped she was protecting herself from the girl’s sneering meanness. It was also awkward with Eric — whom she liked so much — when she and Plum were at war. It would be easier for everyone to get along if she and Plum could at least be civil with each other.
And there was a third reason not to fight with Plum. This was Wildwood Stables, after all. People should help one another and be friendly in the best place in the world. Taylor wondered if she was being silly for feeling that the ranch should be better, friendlier, warmer than other places, but it was how she felt, just the same.
Eric smiled and waved back, walking over toward Taylor. Each time Taylor saw him she was impressed all over again with his bright eyes, dark hair, and broad shoulders. And he was nice, too. She was always happy to see him.
Plum gave a curt smile, her eyes still glaring. Tossing back her blonde hair, she adjusted one of the diamond stud earrings she always wore and quickly headed to Shafir’s stall without saying a word to any of them. Taylor was too distracted by Eric’s smile to give Plum any notice.
“Hey, kiddo, how’re you doing?” Eric said.
Kiddo. Kiddo?! Kiddo was not the term of endearment she was hoping for. He was three years older than her, after all … but kiddo?
“Uh, doing well. Just came down here to help feed,” Taylor said, and glanced at the paddock where Spots and a new horse, Forest, were grazing. Spots was the fawn they’d rescued after Taylor spied his mother lying dead on the side of the road. He’d been at the barn for nearly two months. At first they’d made him a home inside the tack room; the week before, he’d gotten big enough that they had moved him to a stall. Eric used to come just to feed him goat’s milk from a bottle. Later they added bananas to the goat’s milk. Now the baby deer was drinking from a feeder they’d set up in the paddock.
“Spots is getting really big, huh?” Taylor observed. “I’m happy that he and Forest get along, but we need to find another place for him to live.”
“I’m really surprised Spots hasn’t decided to run away,” Eric said. “Maybe he doesn’t know he is a deer.”
Taylor chuckled. “Yeah, maybe he thinks he’s just a very tiny pony.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Taylor saw Plum walk out of the barn with Shafir, the gorgeous young chestnut-colored Arabian mare she leased from the ranch. Plum stood with her arms crossed, tapping her foot with impatience.
“Come on!” Plum shouted to Eric.
Eric turned, made a shooing motion with his hands, and called back, “Go and warm up! I’ll be right there!” He then turned back to Taylor. “We’re going to go on a trail ride. Would you and Prince Albert like to join?”
“Think Plum would mind?” asked Taylor, not really caring if Plum did mind. She was so excited that Eric had asked her to join them that Plum’s poutiness wouldn’t be a problem. Eric glanced over at Plum, who had mounted Shafir and was walking around the ring.
“Uh, I don’t think so,” he said. Eric tried to stay out of the middle when it came to Plum and Taylor, even though he certainly knew they didn’t like each other.
Plum rounded the corner so she could see them and mouthed, “Hurry up!” to Eric.
Eric held up a finger in a “just a minute” gesture and looked back at Taylor again. “So?” he prompted.
Taylor grinned. “I’ll go get Prince Albert ready. I can’t go far, though. I promised to help Mercedes with the last feeding.”
Eric smiled back. “We’ll just go out for a short while. It will be dark before long, anyway,” he said.
“Okay,” Taylor agreed.
Taylor turned toward the stalls and headed in the direction of Prince Albert, when Mercedes popped her head out of the office door.
“Hey, Taylor!” she called, smiling and shaking her cell phone back and forth.
Taylor turned her head and looked at Mercedes. “What’s up?” she called back.
“I’m on a mass text list for Ross River Ranch updates, and I just got a message saying that they’re having another competition! The beginners are already filled up, but there’s still room in the upper division classes.”
“I’m still pretty much a beginner,” Taylor said. She was excited to hear about another competition so soon after her first real riding event, at which she’d done well. She wasn’t sure she was ready to move out of the beginner division, though.
“You won that class you competed in as if you had been riding English for years,” Mercedes pointed out. “We should both enter this one! And guess what the prize is?”
Taylor shrugged and guessed, “A ribbon?”
“Nope! Even more lessons with Keith Hobbes!”
Taylor’s eyebrows shot up. More lessons with Keith? He was a great instructor, and she had really begun to improve with just the few lessons she’d already had. There was no way she could afford to keep taking lessons with him, however. But if she won this competition, it would give her a chance to keep training with him.
Could she handle a higher level? The competition would be stiffer, and the jumps would be a lot higher and even more dangerous. Still, the prize would be well worth the effort. She just didn’t know if she could do it. Oh, but to keep studying with Keith — she wanted to keep on so badly it made her stomach clench with longing.
Was she brave enough to give it a shot?
Oh, man!” Taylor shouted, smacking her plastic controller down on her living room couch in frustration. “How do you always make it past those zombies?”
Travis Ryan, a heavyset boy with short-cropped white blond hair, grinned, though he kept his blue eyes fixed intently on the video game playing in front of them. “After a while I just know when they’re going to pop out,” he said. “I can almost feel it.”
Taylor’s muscles ached from the ranch chores combined with the trail ride. Plum had been icy when she saw Taylor emerge from the stable mounted on Prince Albert, all set to join Plum and Eric on their ride. But Taylor had just smiled and hung back behind Jojo, Eric’s Tennessee walking horse. She’d gotten back from the trail just in time to help Mercedes. It was dark before Mrs. LeFleur locked up and drove Taylor home.
A wild-eyed zombie appeared on the screen, and Travis’s avatar hurled a fireball in his direction. The zombie instantly vanished. “All right!” Travis shouted. As his video character disappeared through a door, he turned toward Taylor. “See you at the next level,” he said with a laugh.
“If I ever get there,” Taylor moaned.
Travis reached out for Taylor’s controller. “Want me to bring you up a level?” he offered.
“Okay,” Taylor
agreed as she put the plastic controller in his hand.
Taylor watched as her best friend expertly sped her video avatar through the obstacle course of attacking zombies. She and Travis hadn’t spent time together like this in a while. Sometimes Travis helped out at the barn. He was good at repairing things. Lately, though, he hadn’t been coming down to Wildwood as often, so it felt good to just hang out with him at her house like they’d done before Prince Albert, Pixie, and Wildwood Stables had become such a huge part of Taylor’s life.
Taylor’s avatar disappeared behind the door, and the screen flashed: LEVEL TWO COMPLETE!!! “Thanks,” she said to Travis. “I’d never have gotten out of there without you. I’m no good at this game.”
“You’re usually good at it,” he disagreed. “Not as good as me, but better than you just were. Your mind wasn’t on it. What’s up?”
He knew her so well. That was no surprise. They’d been friends since elementary school.
“It’s this hunter-jumper event that’s coming up at Ross River Ranch,” Taylor told him. “If I can win it, I’ll get to extend my lessons with Keith. He’s such an awesome teacher, and I’m learning so much from him.”
“So what’s the problem?” Travis asked. “You’ve been doing well in these events so far.”
“The beginner level is full, so I’d have to compete in a higher division than before.”
Travis let out a hoot of laughter. “Just like in the video game.”
Taylor smiled and nodded. “I guess it is sort of like that,” she allowed. “I just don’t know if I’m ready for that level.”
“Oh, you’re ready,” Travis said confidently. “You’re just nervous. You can totally do it. And think about this — Plum has been competing at the beginner level, so you won’t have to deal with her.”
“That’s true,” Taylor agreed. Plum was definitely capable of entering competitions at a higher level, but Taylor was fairly sure that the girl stayed in the beginner category just so she could beat Taylor. So far it hadn’t worked.
“There’s another thing,” Taylor added. “All these events have entry fees. I hate always asking Mom for the money.”
“Try your dad,” Travis suggested. Taylor’s parents were divorced.
Taylor shook her head. “He’s always complaining that Mike, his boss at the repair garage, isn’t giving him enough work, and so he doesn’t have enough money. I asked him if he could pay for winter blankets for Pixie and Prince Albert and he said he just couldn’t do it.”
“Don’t they have blankets already?” Travis asked.
Taylor shook her head sadly. “Those blankets Eric got turned out to be stolen property, remember?”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot,” Travis said.
“We gave all the stolen horse stuff back,” Taylor continued.
“What a dope,” Travis said.
Taylor knew he was talking about Eric. Travis made no secret that he didn’t like Eric, even though Eric had never done anything to Travis. Taylor and Travis had been best friends for so long that Taylor suspected that Travis was jealous of her growing friendship with Eric. “He’s not a dope,” Taylor defended Eric.
“Yeah, whatever,” Travis grumbled.
The front door opened, and Taylor’s mother walked in. She was still dressed in the black pants and white shirt she wore for her waitress job at the Pheasant Valley Diner.
“You’re home kind of early,” Taylor noted. She glanced at the clock on the cable box below their TV. “Two whole hours early.” Then she noticed that her mother looked pale and tired. “Are you sick?” Taylor asked, suddenly worried.
Jennifer threw herself down heavily into a stuffed armchair across from Taylor and Travis. “I got laid off,” she revealed in a tired, defeated tone.
“They fired you?” Taylor gasped. “What did you do?”
Her mother smiled wearily. “I didn’t do anything! Being laid off is different from being fired. Business has been slow lately, so they had to let someone go. Everyone has worked there longer than I have, so — there’s a saying, ‘Last hired, first fired.’ ”
“But I thought you weren’t fired,” Travis pointed out.
“I know, but you get the idea,” Jennifer said. “ ‘First laid off’ wouldn’t rhyme. It’s just an expression.”
“Sorry,” Taylor said in a small voice. “At least you’ll have more time for the catering business, right?”
Jennifer had been working hard to get her catering business going, though they still counted on the money she made as a waitress to pay their bills.
“I’m not so sure we can count on that. I haven’t booked a party in a while, and I have nothing coming up,” Jennifer remarked. She stood and took her cell phone from her pocket. “Did you eat?” she asked Taylor.
“The clam chowder was awesome,” Taylor reported.
Jennifer headed into the small den off the living room where her best friend, Claire Black, was using her printer. “Guess what they did to me at the diner,” Taylor and Travis heard Jennifer say before the door closed behind her.
“Claire will cheer her up,” Taylor said hopefully. “They’ve been friends since Pheasant Valley Elementary, just like we have.” Claire Black was so close to the family that Taylor thought of her more as an aunt than as just her mom’s friend.
“I wonder if we’ll still be friends when we’re old like them,” Travis said.
Taylor didn’t think her mother was considered old. She was somewhere in her thirties. But she understood what Travis meant.
Could she and Travis be friends that long? Would the boy-girl thing get in their way after a while?
Taylor hoped not, because she really loved Travis, but like a brother. The idea of them ever having any other kind of relationship was too strange to even imagine. She was pretty sure Travis felt the same way about her, though sometimes when Eric was around he’d act oddly jealous. Maybe Travis was just afraid that Eric wanted to take the best friend spot from him. “We’ll always be friends,” Taylor assured Travis.
“I think so, too,” Travis agreed. “Want to see how you do at the third level? They have some kick-butt zombie ninjas on three.”
“Sure,” Taylor agreed.
Taylor tried to pay attention to the video game, but talking about friendship made her think about Daphne. Taylor had believed she and Daphne were friends, or at least fast on the way to becoming so. She’d also believed that Wildwood Stables meant as much to Daphne as it did to Taylor. But if that was the case, how could she move Mandy over to Ross River Ranch? Daphne knew how much Mrs. LeFleur needed every horse’s boarding fee she could get. And who would teach lessons at Wildwood now?
How could Daphne betray them all like this?
“Now what’s on your mind?” Travis asked in an exasperated tone. “That zombie ninja just vaporized you. You’re not even paying attention.”
A cloud of smoky video vapor shimmered in the spot where Taylor’s avatar had stood only moments earlier. “Oops,” Taylor said with a sheepish grin.
“Still worrying about the horse event?” Travis asked.
“Among other things,” Taylor replied. She didn’t feel like talking about what had happened with Daphne — not with Travis, anyway. He had a way of being very logical, and she wasn’t in the mood for any arguments he might make. Taylor knew exactly how Travis thought. He’d say it was a great chance for Daphne, and Taylor couldn’t expect her to turn it down.
Taylor didn’t want to hear it. She wanted to be angry and to blame Daphne for being disloyal to Wildwood Stables.
“Like, what other things?” Travis asked.
“Well, Spots, for one thing,” Taylor replied. This was true. Eric had worried her when he said he was surprised Spots hadn’t run away. Did Spots want to run away? He was getting bigger. She hadn’t noticed how very much larger he was until this afternoon.
The den door opened. “What about Spots?” Claire asked. A petite woman dressed in denim and with short brown hair, Claire smiled at
them as she walked into the living room. She held a stack of flyers showing an adorable mother cat with her seven tiny kittens. Taylor knew that Claire would put these flyers all over Pheasant Valley until she’d found a home for each kitten.
Bunny, Claire’s brindle-coated pit bull, followed Claire into the living room from the den and licked Taylor’s hand. Travis reached over to scratch Bunny between her ears.
“Spots is getting sort of big,” Taylor explained. “We’ve moved him from the tack room to a stall. But I don’t think a deer belongs in a stall, do you?”
Claire rubbed the top of her head thoughtfully. “You’re right. Spots must be at least ten to fourteen weeks old by now. We can’t be exactly sure.”
“Should we let him go?” Travis asked Claire.
Instead of answering him, Claire asked Taylor, “Does Spots still have his spots?”
“A few, but most of them have faded.”
“Spots lost his mother before she could teach him to survive on his own in the wild,” Claire explained. “It’s too late for him to be able to survive on his own.”
“So what do we do?” Taylor asked as Bunny came to sit by her feet.
“I’ve been in touch with a man who has a deer sanctuary upstate,” Claire said.
“What’s that?” Travis asked.
“He has acres of protected woods and fields. Deer can roam freely, but there aren’t any predators. And they have an abundance of natural vegetation for the deer to eat,” Claire answered.
“It’s perfect for Spots!” Taylor cried happily.
“He only takes a limited number of deer,” Claire cautioned. “He wants the deer he takes to be totally independent. Has Spots been sleeping outside?”
Taylor shook her head. “We give him some outside time in the day, but we put him in a stall at night.”
“You might want to get him outside into one of the paddocks to sleep.”
“But it’s cold now,” Taylor pointed out.
“Right,” Claire said, “and he has to start building up a winter coat.”
Jennifer came into the living room. “Did I hear you talking about that little deer at the ranch?” she asked.
