High Stakes

by Bonnie Bryant

  But it had soon become painfully obvious that it wasn’t going to work out. Obvious to Callie, at least. George had seemed blissfully unaware of Callie’s growing discomfort as he continued to shadow her around the barn, insist on walking her to just about every class at school, and generally follow her around like a lovesick puppy. But it had been getting harder and harder for Callie to conceal the fact that she wished he would just go away and leave her alone for good.

  Like the other day, for instance, she thought. When he showed up at that farm out on Highway Twelve, I was so mad at him, I might as well have been looking at a goat.

  She winced as she thought about it. What had that horse been like, anyway? Just about all she could recall was that he’d been a nice-looking Appaloosa gelding. Well-built and personable. She couldn’t even remember his name. Sammy? Spooky?

  “But I do remember his feet,” she murmured. “They looked really solid. And I think his gaits were pretty good—especially his trot.”

  The more she thought about it, the angrier she felt at George. For all she knew, that Appaloosa might have been the perfect horse for her. And thanks to George, she could barely remember what the gelding looked like, let alone form an opinion about whether he might be worth considering.

  Stop it, she told herself firmly as Barq drifted to the left and stretched his head toward an appetizing patch of weeds. Blaming George is a waste. Besides, it’s fixable. I’ll just make an appointment to take another look at that horse.

  That made her feel a little better. “Come on, boy,” she said, clucking to Barq as she steered him past the weeds and aimed him straight at the barn once again. “You’ll have plenty to eat back in your stall. Let’s just get there, okay?”

  Fifteen minutes later Barq was munching on a flake of hay and Callie was walking down the wide aisle in the direction of the stable office. She wasn’t sure she still had the number of the farm where she’d seen the Appaloosa, but she knew it would be in the stable’s overstuffed Rolodex.

  She heard voices as she approached the entryway that connected the U-shaped stable aisle of the building with the office, rest rooms, and other human-oriented areas. Lots of voices. Loud, laughing, squealing voices.

  I wonder what’s going on out there? she thought idly, most of her attention still focused on trying to remember more about the Appaloosa. Scooter—that was his name. Wasn’t it?

  She blinked and stopped short as she reached the end of the aisle, temporarily distracted from her thoughts. Usually the entryway was just that—a place to pass through on the way to other, more interesting parts of the stable. At that moment, though, it seemed to be the most popular spot in the place. Max was there, leaning on a rake and scratching his chin. So was Callie’s older brother, Scott. He was in the middle of the crowd, laughing loudly and slapping Red O’Malley on the shoulder. Red was Pine Hollow’s head stable hand. His longtime girlfriend, a petite, dark-haired, twenty-something stable hand named Denise McCaskill, was standing beside Red and smiling shyly at Carole Hanson, who was arm in arm with her new boyfriend, Cam Nelson. Stevie Lake and Lisa Atwood were huddled nearby with Max’s wife, Deborah. Various other people were milling around as well, most of them talking at the top of their lungs.

  “What’s going on?” Callie asked uncertainly, stepping toward Ben Marlow, who was hanging back at the edge of the crowd. That was nothing unusual— Ben always seemed to be around the stable, lurking in the background, never taking part in anything involving his fellow humans if he could help it.

  Ben glanced at her. He was holding a horse named Congo. The big, solid gelding was standing calmly, unfazed by the noise and commotion all around him, displaying the unflappable temperament that made him one of Max’s most reliable lesson horses. “Uh, Red and Denise,” Ben said in his usual gruff, succinct manner.

  “What about them?” Callie asked as patiently as she could. She didn’t have anything in particular against Ben, but his monosyllabic habits could be really irritating when it came to getting information out of him.

  Before Ben could answer, Stevie raced over and grabbed Callie’s arm so hard that it hurt. “Did you hear the news?” she shrieked. “Red and Denise are getting married!”

  “Oh!” Now Callie understood all the excitement. Though she had been riding at Pine Hollow for only six months, she knew that Red and Denise had both worked there for years and that they’d been a couple for most of that time.

  “They just made the announcement.” Stevie was dragging Callie forward as she chattered excitedly. “Come on, they still haven’t spilled all the juicy details. I don’t want to miss a thing.”

  Callie smiled tolerantly. She’d liked Stevie from the first time she met her. Stevie was so open and friendly and fun-loving that it would be difficult not to like her. Allowing herself to be dragged, Callie soon found herself face to face with the bride-to-be.

  “Hi, Denise,” Callie said warmly. “I hear congratulations are in order. What a surprise!”

  “Thanks, Callie.” The pretty young stable hand smiled and pushed a strand of wavy dark hair off one slightly flushed cheek. “I can hardly believe this is happening myself. But thanks.”

  Callie tilted her head slightly. Was it just her imagination, or did Denise’s smile seem slightly shaky? “Are you okay?” she blurted out before she realized what she was doing. “Um, I mean, I’m sure you’re excited and all. I just thought … Well, never mind.”

  Stevie cocked an eyebrow at her. “What kind of a congratulations speech is that, Callie?” she joked. “You’re going to scare her out of getting married if you’re not careful.”

  “That’s my sister,” Scott put in with a grin. “A true romantic.”

  “It’s okay, guys,” Denise said. “I know this is, you know, kind of a surprise for everyone. I’m still getting used to the idea myself.”

  Red heard her and turned to give her a significant look. “Since you mentioned surprises, um …” He slipped an arm around his fiancée’s waist. “Do you want to …?”

  “I suppose there’s no time like the present.” Denise took a deep breath. She definitely looked nervous now. “As long as you’re all here, we have another announcement to make.”

  Callie glanced at Stevie and the others, wondering what was coming. Stevie caught her glance and shrugged.

  “What is it, Denise?” Lisa asked curiously.

  Stevie chuckled. “I think you’re going to have a hard time topping your last announcement.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that,” Denise said. This time Callie could plainly see the nervousness in Denise’s face. The stable hand cleared her throat and glanced at Red before turning back to her waiting audience. “You see, we just found out that I’m— um, I mean, we’re—well, we’re pregnant.”

  Callie’s eyes widened. Aha, she thought. That explains a lot.

  This time nobody seemed to know what to say. After a moment of silence, Max cleared his throat. “Er, I suppose this requires some additional congratulations, then,” he said tactfully.

  “Yeah,” Stevie said. “So we’re going to have a new little junior stable hand toddling around here soon. Cool!”

  Denise shrugged and glanced over at Red again. “Well, it’s not quite the way we’d planned,” she said quietly.

  “It never is.” Max’s wife, Deborah, spoke up, stepping over to give Denise a quick hug. “But don’t worry about a thing, Denise. After our two girls, Max and I are practically experts at the whole childbirth thing. Not to mention professional-level babysitters.”

  “Thanks, Deborah.” Denise gave the older woman a heartfelt smile. “I’m sure I’ll have tons of questions for you. This is—well, let’s just say we’re feeling a little unprepared right now. Happy, of course. Just nervous.”

  Lisa eased over to join Callie and Stevie. “Wow,” she murmured. “Talk about big news!”

  “No kidding,” Callie agreed, wondering exactly how happy Denise and Red really were about this turn of events. One of Callie
’s older cousins had become pregnant accidentally, and Callie still remembered the uproar it had caused in their family—and the cousin had already been engaged at the time.

  Meanwhile, Red was still talking to the group at large. “We were thinking about getting married soon anyway,” he explained. “Actually, we’ve been talking about it for almost a year now. This just means we need to pick up the pace a little.”

  “Yeah, like from a square halt straight to a Kentucky Derby gallop,” Stevie muttered just loud enough for her friends to hear.

  Carole heard the comment and giggled. She could hardly believe all the new developments. “Isn’t this romantic?” she whispered to Cam, who was standing beside her with his arm resting casually across her shoulders. “Red and Denise have always been two of my favorite people in the whole world. I still remember how happy I was for them when they started going out—and now this! It’s amazing.”

  “Uh-huh.” Cam squeezed her shoulders a little tighter. “It’s always great when two people can really connect like that.” He leaned closer, his breath tickling her ear. “Sort of like us.”

  Carole shivered. She was tempted to pinch herself, but she was half afraid that if she did, she might wake up and discover that the wonderful adventure her life had become was all a dream. It was still rather hard to believe, especially after the total disarray her life had been in only a few short weeks earlier. She had been grounded for cheating on a test at school, hardly speaking to her father, and banned from the things that gave her life meaning—horses and riding. She’d been forced to arrange for someone else to care for her horse, Starlight, while she was stuck at home studying. It had been the most miserable period of her life since the death of her mother years before.

  But all that had changed. Now it was hard to imagine how things could get much better, and most of it was thanks to Cam. Even though he had been back in her life for only about a week, it was already difficult for her to imagine how she had lived without him. True, he hadn’t been able to make her forget completely about all that other stuff. But New Year’s was only a few weeks away, and Carole was sure that after that things would go back to normal.

  No, better than normal, she told herself as she felt the weight of Cam’s arm around her. Much better than normal.

  In the meantime, she was doing all she could to enjoy the feeling—the wonderful, amazing, floating-on-air feeling—of being half of a couple. She had always felt a little bit awkward when the topic was romance, even with her longtime best friends Stevie and Lisa, mostly because the two of them had always been a lot more successful with guys than Carole had. Stevie had been dating a great guy named Phil Marsten ever since first meeting him at riding camp back in junior high. Lisa was so smart and beautiful that she’d never had any trouble attracting male attention, even before she had started dating Stevie’s twin brother, Alex, the previous winter. And that was still true. When Lisa and Alex had decided to start seeing other people, Scott Forester—likable, popular Scott, who just happened to be one of the best-looking guys Carole had ever known—had almost immediately asked her out.

  “So you still haven’t told us when the big day is going to be,” Stevie said to Red and Denise, breaking into Carole’s thoughts. “The wedding, I mean.”

  Carole giggled. “That’s just like Stevie,” she whispered to Cam. “Why be subtle when you can be direct?”

  Red and Denise exchanged quick looks. “Well, there’s not really going to be a wedding,” Red said haltingly.

  “Huh?” Lisa blinked. “But you just said—”

  “He just means there’s not going to be a big, fancy kind of wedding,” Denise explained. “We’ll probably get married at home, or maybe down at the town hall. No big deal.”

  Carole couldn’t believe her ears. How could such a wonderful couple even imagine getting married in such an un-wonderful way? Denise and Red shared a cramped apartment over a dry cleaner’s shop in downtown Willow Creek—hardly the spot for a romantic occasion like a wedding. Just about the only place that sounded less appealing was the dusty, underlit town hall. “But you have to have a wedding,” she protested. “It just won’t be the same without a white dress and all your friends and a cake—”

  “Carole,” Max began warningly. “It’s their life. Their business.”

  “It’s okay, Max,” Denise said. “I know how she feels. Believe me, I never expected to be doing things this way. Neither of us did.” She glanced over at Red, who nodded. “But the truth is, we just can’t afford a fancy wedding right now. I’m sorry—I really wish you could all be with us to celebrate. But with the baby coming, we’re on a pretty strict budget. We thought we’d try to do it on New Year’s Eve, though. That will make it special—just in a quieter way.”

  New Year’s Eve? Carole was a little surprised at that—the holiday was less than a month away. As far as she knew, most people took even longer than that to decide what kind of wedding dress they wanted, let alone to plan a whole wedding, simple or not.

  Then she realized the significance of the tight timing. Since Denise was pregnant, she probably didn’t want to wait too long. Carole took Cam’s hand tightly in her own. It was kind of scary to think about Red and Denise starting off their married life with so little in the way of security—a too-small, too-dingy apartment, no money saved, and a baby on the way. What would she do if the same sort of thing ever happened to her and Cam?

  Not that I have to worry about that yet, she thought, blushing even to be thinking about it. All we’ve done is kiss. Well, that’s just about all, anyway.…

  Max’s voice pulled her back to the here and now. “I’ve got an idea,” he said. “Sort of a wedding gift from me and Deborah.” He glanced at his wife, who looked interested. “How about if we host a wedding for you?”

  Denise gasped. “Oh, Max!” she exclaimed. “That’s so generous. But—no, we couldn’t possibly accept.”

  “No way,” Red added firmly. “Thanks, boss. But we’ll be okay.”

  Carole bit her lip, disappointed at the response. She couldn’t imagine any more wonderful solution to the couple’s problem than the one Max had suggested. What could she say to change their minds?

  Before she could figure it out, Deborah spoke up. “Nonsense,” she said briskly. “Max is right. We’d love to do it.”

  Denise looked worried. “But it’s such a huge responsibility … and the money …”

  Max chuckled. “Hey, we’re not offering to rent the Kennedy Center or anything,” he said. “But I’m sure we can manage a nice ceremony up at the house, then a party for all your friends.”

  “Whoo-hoo!” Stevie hooted. “Par-tay!”

  Everyone laughed as Max shot Stevie a mock frown. “Of course, Deborah and I will have veto power over the guest list.”

  Carole grinned. She knew Max was just giving Stevie a hard time. “Say yes, guys,” she urged Red and Denise. “Please? We all want to be there to see you two tie the knot.”

  Red cleared his throat and gazed at Denise for a long moment. “Well,” he said at last, “how could we possibly say no?”

  “You couldn’t,” Stevie said. “So you’d better say yes!”

  That made everyone laugh again, including Red and Denise. “All right, all right,” Denise said, raising her voice to be heard over the chuckles. “Then we will say yes—with many thanks.”

  “Good.” Max looked pleased. “Then I suppose we’d better start making plans! After all, New Year’s is right around the corner.”

  As the others began chattering excitedly about the plans, Cam tugged gently on Carole’s hand. “Let’s duck out,” he whispered. “I want to talk to you about something.”

  Carole hesitated. She really wanted to find out more about the upcoming wedding—and volunteer to help in any way she could. But as she met Cam’s pleading gaze, she relented. “Okay.” She followed as he ducked into the stable aisle.

  Soon they were alone except for several horses, which were peering at them over the h
alf doors of their stalls. Cam turned to face her, dropping her hand so that he could wrap his arms around her waist and bury his face in her neck.

  Carole almost immediately felt herself sliding away on the wave of warmth and pleasure that overtook her whenever she and Cam were close. But she managed to keep her head, remembering the reason they were there. “Hey, wait a minute,” she said rather breathlessly, gently pushing him away. “I thought you said we were going to talk.”

  “I know,” Cam said, leaning close and blowing a stray dark curl off her cheek. “I just can’t help myself when I’m alone with you. I’ve never felt like this with anyone else. I can’t get enough of you, Carole.”

  Carole gulped, not certain how to respond. She was pretty sure she felt the same way, though their new relationship had been such a whirlwind that she’d hardly had time to catch her breath, let alone think too much about it. Still, she had no idea how to put her feelings into words the way Cam did. He always seemed to know the perfect, most wonderful, romantic way to express things, while she was generally left gasping for words.

  Fortunately, this time Cam didn’t seem to expect a response. “Anyway, you’re right.” He took half a step back, though his hands still rested lightly on her waist. “I wanted to talk to you about Christmas.”

  “What about it?” Carole was slightly relieved at the change of topic.

  “I was thinking, since this will be our first holiday together, I want it to be really special,” Cam said softly, his brown eyes never leaving her own. “Something we’ll always remember, you know?”

  “I’ll definitely always remember it, because of you,” Carole said shyly.

  Cam smiled and leaned forward to give her a quick kiss on the tip of her nose. “Me too, beautiful,” he said. “But wouldn’t it be great to do something special, just the two of us? I was thinking we could get together in private, exchange gifts—the whole happy holidays thing.”

  “Okay.” Carole hadn’t really thought about exchanging gifts. She was still getting used to the idea of having a boyfriend at all—especially such a handsome and sweet and charming one as Cam. She didn’t want to take any chances of jinxing her own good fortune by peering too far into the future. “Um, when do you want to do it?”