Those kinds of thoughts made her feel helpless and edgy. Sure, all the horses in Jamie’s barn were insured, and even if they hadn’t been, most of the owners could pay the thousands of dollars for colic surgery without blinking an eye. But sometimes even money wasn’t enough. Horses seemed so big and strong most of the time, but then there were times like these when they reminded you just how fragile they really were. How quickly things could go wrong, and how little humans could do about it.
Kate had finished the meds cabinet and moved on to tidying the supplements tub when she heard a happy shout from outside. Dropping the bucket of electrolytes she’d been holding, she hurried into the aisle.
“What?” she asked.
Miguel turned and grinned at her from his position at the chestnut gelding’s head. “We have poop!” he announced.
“Thank God!” Kate exclaimed. She hurried over to pat the horse, who already looked a little perkier as he nosed at a stray piece of hay on the ground. “You had us worried, buddy.”
“Only in a barn could a bunch of sane people get so excited about horse poop,” Jamie joked wearily.
“Sane? Says who?” Max retorted with a smirk.
Jamie chuckled. “Okay, now it really is time to go get some rest. Miguel’s going to sleep in the barn just in case. I’ll give you two a ride to the hotel.”
“Thanks.” Kate gave the horse one last pat, said good night to Miguel, then followed Jamie and Max toward the parking lot, trying not to count the short hours until it was time to get up and do it all again.
SIX
Zara awoke to an insistent, annoying buzzing sound. She slapped at her alarm clock, knocking it to the floor. But the sound persisted.
BZZZZZZZZZ!
“Shut the hell up!” Zara mumbled into her pillow.
Her head was pounding too much to lift it, so she just rolled over and cracked an eye open, staring at the ceiling.
BZZZZZZZZZ!
Doorbell. That’s what it was, she realized.
“Isn’t anyone going to answer that?” she yelled hoarsely.
No answer. The loft was silent except for that annoying buzzer.
That’s when she remembered. Zac and the rest of them were gone. There were no roadies or toadies around to do stuff like answer the door. That meant the brain-splitting noise probably wasn’t going to stop until she got up and took care of it herself.
She climbed to her feet, muttering every curse word she could think of under her breath. Her head was already clearing a little, and she realized it was still pretty early—barely 7:00 a.m.
“Who would be here at the freaking crack of dawn?” she complained as she reached the bottom of the stairs and stumbled over a wadded-up T-shirt. Mr. Half Naked must’ve left it behind last night.
Swallowing a yawn, she swung open the door. Tommi was standing there, looking kind of cranky.
“Are you kidding me?” Tommi snapped. “You’re not even dressed!”
Zara glanced down at herself. She barely remembered changing into her pj’s after downing a few more drinks with Stacie and her new friends.
“Oops,” she said. “Today’s the day we’re supposed to leave for the show, isn’t it?”
Just then a door swung open upstairs. “What’s going on?” Stacie called blearily, leaning over the railing wrapped in a short pink terry-cloth robe. She looked about like Zara felt.
“It’s nothing,” Zara called. “Just someone here to pick me up for my show.”
“Your what?” Stacie blinked, looking confused.
Tommi blew out a loud, impatient sigh. “Just what I need this morning,” she announced to nobody in particular. She shot a glare at Zara. “Look, I’m going across the street for coffee. Be out by my car in twenty minutes, or I’m leaving without you.”
“Whatever,” Zara said as Tommi stomped off toward the elevator.
“Whoa,” Stacie said, stumbling down the staircase. “Who was that chick? Uptight much?”
Zara yawned and swung the door shut. “Nobody,” she said. “I mean, she’s just my ride to this show, like I said. I sort of made plans for her to pick me up here.”
“Oh.” Stacie wandered over to the coffee table. A half-full glass of amber liquid was sitting there, and she sniffed at it, took a sip, then set it down again. “So that means I don’t have to drive you anywhere for the next few days?”
“Yeah, in theory,” Zara said. Part of the deal with Zac was that Stacie was supposed to be her ride to the barn and anywhere else she needed to go. “I’m thinking I might ditch the show, though. Tell Jamie I’m sick or something.”
“What?” That actually seemed to wake Stacie up a little. “Wait, no. You should totally go.”
“Why? You trying to get rid of me already?”
Stacie pushed a chunk of tangled blond hair behind her ear. “Nothing personal, okay? It’s just that, you know, I wouldn’t mind some alone time with Tad.”
“Tad? Who the hell’s Tad?” Then Zara figured it out. “You mean that loser guy from last night?”
Stacie’s sheepish grin gave her the answer. Zara rolled her eyes.
At first she was ready to tell Stacie tough shit. She was hungover, she’d barely gotten any sleep, and she wasn’t in the mood to do anyone any favors. Besides, how annoying was it that her brand-new country cousin was already trying to ditch her? This was her house, for crap’s sake!
But she held off. As she woke up a little more, she realized she couldn’t blow off this show. She was still on probation with Jamie for the time she’d been caught smoking in the barn. She couldn’t risk pissing him off right now.
“Don’t worry, you’ll have the place to yourself soon,” she said with a sigh. “I just need to shower and find my … Damn!”
“What?” Stacie flopped onto the sofa and yawned.
“I just remembered I never got my show clothes cleaned after Hounds Hollow,” Zara said. “Usually I get one of the guys to send them out, but everything was so crazy around here last week, I sort of forgot. Last time I saw them, they were in a corner of my closet floor.”
Stacie shoved an empty tequila bottle aside with her big toe so she could prop her legs up on the coffee table. “Don’t you have any other clothes you can wear besides the dirty ones?” she asked. “I thought Cousin Zac was loaded.”
“Yeah, I have other stuff I could wear.”
For a moment Zara considered doing just that. Last year’s jackets still fit her and would do, even if they weren’t the most current style. Ditto for breeches. And of course she had about a million show shirts.
Then she had a better idea. “No biggie,” she said with a smile. “I’ll just pick up something new at the vendors when I get there.”
“Vendors?” Stacie wrinkled her nose, looking confused.
“At the show. They’re these, like, traveling shops or whatever. They sell tack, clothes, helmets, all kinds of crap. Sure, it might be a little more expensive.” She shrugged. “But what the hell? Zac’s loaded, right?”
Zara smiled, picturing what Nerdy Accountant Guy would say when he saw that credit card statement. Served Zac right for sticking her with a stupid babysitter, even if she hadn’t turned out to be as bad as Zara had expected.
Suddenly realizing that several minutes had already passed, Zara knew she needed to hustle. She should have just enough time to jump in the shower and find her boots before Tommi’s deadline.
Elliot stuck his head into the empty stall Kate was mucking out. “I’m going to get food,” the groom said. “Want something?”
Kate straightened up and leaned on her manure fork. “Sure, thanks,” she said. “Maybe a burger, or whatever looks fast and easy? I don’t have much time before I have to start getting horses ready for the pre-green warm-up.”
“One burger it is.” Elliot smiled, then disappeared.
Kate finished the stall, then headed out into the aisle herself, stifling a yawn. It was only a little after one, and her lack of sleep last night was a
lready catching up with her. Even after returning to the hotel, she’d had trouble turning off her brain after that colic scare. She’d just kept running the whole scenario through her head, imagining all the what-ifs and could-have-beens. In the end, she figured she was lucky if she’d gotten a couple of hours of real sleep.
“Kate!” a loud, no-nonsense voice broke her out of her sleepy thoughts. “Thank God. Are you busy right now?”
Turning her head, Kate saw Jamie’s adult client Margie O’Donnell hurrying toward her. The woman was scheduled to ride in the Level 4 Jumpers in a few hours and was already half dressed for it in rolled-up show breeches paired with flipflops and a tank top. That was par for the course. Margie was one of those people who didn’t care what anyone else thought about her.
In any case, Kate didn’t bother to tell Margie that she was pretty much always busy on show days. “What’s up?” she asked instead.
Margie waved her tricked-out BlackBerry, which she never went anywhere without, and launched into an obscenity-laden complaint about her office and some big project. Kate’s brain wasn’t functioning well enough to follow most of it.
“Um, so you have to leave the show?” she asked.
“Hell no! I’m not letting those freaking bozos ruin my weekend.” Margie made a face. “But I was just about to get Lark out, and now I’m going to have to go deal with this …”
Now Kate understood. Margie had one of the craziest work schedules of anyone at the barn, but she still liked doing as much hands-on care of her horses as she could manage. She especially liked being the one to hand graze her jumper mare, Larkspur, who got antsy being cooped up in a small show stall for too long.
“You want me to take her out for a while?” Kate asked, shoving her half-full wheelbarrow against the wall so it would be out of the way. “No problem, I’ll go get her right now.”
“Kate, you’re a freaking saint,” Margie said gratefully. “Thanks a million. I’ll have you to thank for not getting bucked off over the first warm-up jump this afternoon.”
Shooting Kate one last smile, she pressed her phone to her ear and stalked off, muttering under her breath about her coworkers. Kate turned the other way and headed toward Lark’s stall.
On her way, she passed Elliot. “Cancel that burger,” she told him. “I’ve got to graze Margie’s mare.”
“You sure?” the groom said.
Kate nodded. “Horse show burgers are gross enough when they’re warm,” she joked. “I don’t even want to think about eating a cold one. I’ll grab something later.”
Soon she was out in a grassy spot near the back gate with a compact bay horse at the end of the lead. The mare was a spitfire, which made her a perfect match for Margie, who was one of Jamie’s gutsiest and most competitive adults. At the moment, though, Lark seemed content to graze quietly like a lazy school pony.
That was fine with Kate. She yawned and switched the lead to her other hand. It already felt like she was sleepwalking through this day, and the hot summer sun blazing down on her wasn’t helping. Her mind drifted back to last night’s colic scare. The liver chestnut gelding seemed fine today, though his owner had scratched all their classes this weekend at Jamie’s advice.
Kate let the lead slip a little farther through her hand as Lark stretched for an extra-tasty patch of clover. Even though she was staring right at the horse, Kate’s mind was still elsewhere, and it took her a moment to react when she saw Lark take a step to the side, one steel-shod hoof landing squarely on the lead rope, pinning it to the ground.
Before Kate could react, or even really take in what was happening, the horse tried to lift her head and grunted in surprise as she hit the end of the lead. Planting both feet, Lark jerked back, her eyes wide with panic.
“No!” Kate blurted out. Her mind was still working in slow motion. She watched as Lark hit the end of the rope again, this time with all the force of the thousand-plus-pound horse’s panic behind it. The halter’s thin leather crown strap broke, as it was designed to do, and the whole thing slid off over Lark’s nose, leaving her head bare.
The mare still looked panicky, not quite sure if she was really free, if the monster that had momentarily grabbed her head was really gone. She tossed her head and skittered backward, almost bumping into Kate, then spun and squealed. Kate clutched the lead now hanging uselessly in her hand, realizing there was nothing keeping the mare from running off.
“Easy, girl!” Kate took a slow step forward, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. “It’s okay, baby.”
Lark jigged in place, her ears flicking back and forth. Kate could tell by the horse’s body language that she wasn’t sure what to do. Freeze, or run? Kate tried not to imagine what would happen if she chose the latter. If Lark bolted in one direction, she’d end up running through the stables, possibly crashing into a horse cross-tied in the aisle or trampling whoever was in her way. The other direction, and she’d be heading straight for the ring where the baby green hunters were warming up. Jamie was riding a customer’s new greenie in that, and Kate could only imagine what he’d think if he saw one of his horses galloping around, leaving chaos in her wake.
“Easy,” she said again, her voice shaking a little. The mare was still prancing in place and staring around wild-eyed, but now one ear was cocked in Kate’s direction. She was listening. Good. “Just stay there, baby girl,” Kate crooned, edging closer.
Finally she was able to get a hand on the mare’s neck—and a moment later slide the lead around it.
“Okay, sweetie,” she said. “Let’s just get you back to your stall, okay?” Giving a gentle tug on the two ends of the lead now looped around the mare’s neck, she was relieved when Lark lowered her head and stepped off after her.
Kate didn’t stop shaking until Lark was safely back in her stall. That had been a close one, though fortunately it had ended with no real harm done except to the halter. How could she have slacked off like that? She knew how dangerous it could be to let your guard down, especially around fit horses at a busy show. Sure, accidents could happen anywhere when you were dealing with half-ton prey animals, but that kind of carelessness was inexcusable. No matter how tired she was, she had to stay in control.
She went to the tack stall to fetch a new halter and found Tommi just coming out. “Hi,” Kate greeted her. “Did you just get here?”
“Little while ago.” Tommi sounded irritated. “We were late, thanks to Little Miss Party Girl.”
“You mean Zara?” Kate vaguely remembered that the two of them were supposed to drive up together.
“Who else?” Tommi snorted. “I mean, I had a late night, too. And somehow I managed to get myself out of bed and dressed on time. Is it really too much to ask for her to do the same?”
Kate was pretty sure Tommi wasn’t expecting an answer to that. Sure enough, she barely paused for breath before launching into the details about her own late night. Something about traffic on the Long Island Expressway and dinner in the Hamptons with that cute new guy she’d mentioned a few times.
Kate did her best to look interested and smile or nod at the right spots, but she couldn’t really muster up much enthusiasm. She felt sort of guilty about that—after all, Tommi was supposed to be one of her best friends. But she tried not to worry about it. All she had to do was make it through the rest of the day and get some sleep tonight. Then everything would be fine.
SEVEN
“Ready, boy?” Tommi straightened the noseband on Legs’s bridle. “Let’s go do this.”
She felt her stomach clench, the tuna wrap she’d had for lunch briefly threatening to make a second appearance. Show nerves. They were always there, even if most people thought she was made of steel.
But today was worse than usual. She felt as anxious as a walk-trotter at her first show. And she knew exactly why. For one thing, she was still overtired—she’d stayed out in the Hamptons way too late Wednesday night and was still playing catch-up now, two days later.
For anot
her thing, she could already tell that Legs was wired. And no wonder. The grooms had been lungeing him daily since arriving at the show, but Tommi knew that wasn’t really enough for a smart, sensitive horse like Legs. That was why she’d originally planned to do that schooling class on Wednesday. Work the kinks out when there weren’t so many people around watching.
Too late now. Tommi wasn’t the type to dwell, so she did her best to let it go. They’d have to do their best today and take it from there.
The warm-up ring was chaotic, as always. A few people from the barn were leaning on the fence watching, including Summer. She hurried over when she spotted Tommi coming.
“Hi, Tommi,” Summer said. “Want me to hold Legs while you mount?”
“No thanks, I’ve got it covered.” Tommi grabbed a chunk of mane and swung up into the saddle. Legs danced in place, trying to spurt forward as she picked up her stirrups. Yeah, he was amped, all right.
“Jamie’s over there.” Summer gestured toward the center of the crowded ring. “He just started warming up Dani and Zara. They’re the only ones doing the High Juniors today except you, since Fitz isn’t here.”
“Thanks.” Tommi entered the ring and rode over to Jamie, who was standing beside a blue-and-white-striped vertical.
“Tommi,” he said, shooting her a look. “Sit tight for a sec, I need to talk to you.”
“Okay.” Tommi knew that Legs was in no mood to stand still, so she started walking him in a circle as Jamie turned back to the fence.
Zara was approaching it on her jumper, Keeper. The big chestnut was a real pro, and Tommi couldn’t help admiring the way he set himself up for the jump, clearing it as easily as if it were no bigger than a crossrail.
My Favorite Mistake Page 7
