Home for Christmas

by Jessica Burkhart

  Immediately his shoulders dropped, and he nodded. “Please.”

  Once we were inside Lyssa’s office, I half closed the door and motioned for Tedd to take a seat in one of the chairs across from Lyssa’s desk. I pulled a chair away from the wall and sat across from him, grabbing a notebook and pen from Lyssa’s desk.

  “I’ve been meaning to come to this event for almost a decade,” Tedd said. “I’m afraid I’ve been too much of a coward.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Or do. This was not anything at all like what I’d expected him to say.

  “Well,” I said after a pause. “You are here today. That certainly counts.”

  Tedd looked at his lap for several seconds and cleared his throat. “My wife used to be an equestrian,” he said.

  “Oh,” I said. “Are you?”

  “No,” Tedd said quickly—almost harshly. “I mean, I was, but I’m not any longer.” His tone softened. “Ten years ago, my wife died in a riding accident.”

  I sucked in a breath so fast that it made a tiny whoosh noise. “Oh my gosh. I am so sorry.”

  Tedd nodded. “Thank you, Sasha. I’m sorry too, not only for the loss of my wife, but of my behavior since her passing. My wife was a passionate equestrian who loved everything about horses. She couldn’t spend a day without them. She taught me to love them too.”

  He smiled, and I forced myself to smile despite the deep sadness I felt.

  “My wife was killed during what had always been a routine cross-country ride,” Tedd said.

  The pain in his face and eyes was visible.

  “Sir,” I said. “Please don’t feel that you have to explain. I can’t imagine how painful that must be.”

  Tedd’s eyes met mine. “I appreciate your kindness. It’s time, though, that I tell my wife’s story. I haven’t spoken of it since the year it happened, and I became somewhat frozen in time. Hopefully, today, that stops.”

  I nodded. “I understand,” I said.

  “My wife, Hillary, was riding her favorite mare on, like I mentioned, a familiar course at our stable,” Tedd continued. “I wasn’t jumping, but I followed my wife along the course to exercise my own gelding and spend time with my wife.” He cleared his throat again. “Hillary and her mare approached the second-to-last obstacle—a fallen tree. I don’t know why, but her mare refused the jump. Hillary was caught off guard, and she went over the tree and landed on the other side.”

  I covered my mouth and bit the inside of my cheek. It would not help if I cried. It didn’t seem right to interject with another “I’m sorry,” either.

  “I dismounted and ran to her,” Tedd said, his eyes glazed over. It was as if he was back on that course. “She was unconscious. At the hospital, she was found to have a broken neck and brain damage. She had to be on life support and was in a coma for a week before I let her go.”

  Tedd shifted in his seat.

  “Mr. Olson, I can’t even begin to pretend to understand what you must be going through,” I said. “It must be incredibly difficult to be at the stable.”

  “It’s easier than I thought,” Tedd said. “I sat in my car for a long time before coming in. But once I was here, I felt a sense of calm. Hillary would want me to be here. Since her passing, I’ve erased horses from my life. I’m not in a place of mind to own a horse today, or maybe ever, but I would like to offer a monetary contribution to Safe Haven.”

  “I obviously didn’t know your wife, but I’m sure this is something she would be incredibly proud of you for doing,” I said. “Please know that whatever amount you give will go one hundred percent to the animals in Safe Haven’s care. We do not charge adoption fees—we only ask adopters to contribute what they are able. Your donation is so appreciated.”

  Tedd reached into his coat and produced an envelope. He handed it to me. “Sasha, I cannot thank you enough for listening to me. I’m thankful that you approached me and were so kind to hear me speak of Hillary.”

  “I’m truly honored that you shared something so personal with me,” I said. “Thank you so much for your donation. May I send a thank-you note to the address on the check?”

  Tedd stood, a genuine smile on his face. “You’re welcome, although I actually owe this organization a thank-you. The address is actually from my company—not my home. I’d like to keep my donation known to as few people as possible.”

  “Your secret’s safe with me,” I said. “I promise.”

  “And I promise to be back next year.”

  I saw Tedd to his car and walked back to Lyssa’s office. I found the ledger we were supposed to use to record donations. I wrote anonymous in one of the spaces. There were dozens of other listings for ten, twenty, one hundred dollars—they all added up. I slid open the envelope and took out a blue check.

  “Oh my God,” I said aloud.

  I read the amount of the check again. And again. And again.

  One hundred thousand dollars.

  “Tedd,” I said out loud. “Thank you. I know, somehow, that Hillary’s proud.”

  Hours later I gathered in the arena with the rest of the Safe Haven volunteers. Lyssa, standing on a mounting block just as she’d done the first day, held the donations ledger in her hand. She had mud flecks on her boots, tendrils of hair had escaped from her ponytail, and she looked happy but exhausted.

  “Please, everyone,” Lyssa said. “Give yourselves a round of applause!”

  Cheers broke out in the arena. I clapped and grinned at Paige, who stood next to me. Lauren was on my other side. Somehow, the Canterwood group always managed to come together whenever possible. I’d really gotten to like having the younger students around. I hoped that wouldn’t change once we got back to Canterwood.

  “Today we broke a record for the number of adoptions,” Lyssa said. “We found homes for twenty-two horses! That’s nearly half of our horses who were up for adoption.”

  “Yeah!” someone whooped from the other side of the arena.

  We clapped again. That number was fantastic! I hadn’t known what to expect, but twenty-two horses going to loving homes was beyond exciting.

  “I couldn’t have asked for a better group of volunteers,” Lyssa said. “I sincerely thank each and every one of you for your time, energy, and efforts that you have put into these last couple of weeks.”

  Lyssa held up the red ledger. “This,” she continued, “has all of the financial contributions we received this holiday season.” She motioned to someone and stepped down from the mounting block.

  Quinn took Lyssa’s place. “Hi, everyone, I’m Quinn,” she said. “I tallied up the ledger, and no one except for me knows the total of the donations we received.”

  She grinned, looking down at Lyssa. “This year, Safe Haven for Thoroughbreds received one hundred nine thousand dollars.”

  “What?” Lyssa’s shriek echoed throughout the arena.

  I smiled to myself. I hadn’t told anyone—not even my friends—about Tedd. I wasn’t planning on sharing his story either. It was something Tedd had trusted to me, and I planned to keep it to myself and be able to look Tedd in the eye next year, knowing I’d done the right thing.

  “I didn’t miscalculate,” Quinn said, laughing. “Someone, who chose to remain anonymous, donated one hundred thousand dollars, making that our single largest donation ever.”

  “Wow,” Paige said. “That’s incredible!”

  “It’s amazing,” I agreed.

  “One hundred percent of all the money raised goes right to the care of these horses,” Quinn said. “I don’t want to keep you here any longer. I know you must be as tired as I am. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, from all of us at Safe Haven. I hope you all have a very, very merry Christmas!”

  24

  KARMA

  Sasha

  “SASHA, MAY WE TALK TO you for a moment, please?” Mom called. “Your father and I are in the kitchen.”

  I tugged down the creamy-white sweater that I’d chosen to wear for tonight’s bonfi
re. It was just after six, and we were all getting ready.

  Brit and Callie, both sitting on my bed, looked at me when I faced them.

  “That sounds like I’m in trouble,” I said, whispering. “Right?”

  “No,” Callie said. She looked at Brit, then back at me. “Maybe! But you didn’t do anything that we don’t know about, right?”

  My mind raced through everything that I’d done today. I couldn’t think of anything that would make Mom or Dad angry. I’d stayed at least five feet away from Jacob and Eric at all times since we’d gotten home, Lyssa had nothing but praise for my friends and me when my parents had picked us up, and there hadn’t been time for me to get in trouble.

  “Sasha?” It was Dad this time.

  “Coming!” I called.

  “We’ll be here,” Brit said. “You didn’t do anything—we’re probably totally reading into their tones.”

  “I hope so,” I said.

  I left my room, and as I walked to the kitchen, I slicked on a coat of Merry Berry gloss. Mom and Dad were seated at the small round table in the breakfast nook area.

  “We know you’re getting ready for Kim’s,” Dad said. “This won’t take long.” He motioned for me to sit across from him and Mom.

  I pulled out one of the wooden chairs and slowly sat down. Under the table, I rubbed my sweaty palms on my jeans. Mom’s and Dad’s faces gave away nothing.

  “Mom, Dad,” I started. “I don’t know why you’re mad, but I promise I didn’t—”

  I stopped when they both smiled at me. Grinned, actually.

  “Oh, honey,” Mom said, laughing a little. “I’m sorry we scared you. You didn’t do anything wrong, and you’re not in trouble.”

  I let out a giant breath of relief. “You both had me so nervous!” I said. “What’s going on?”

  “Sash,” Dad said. “Your mom and I wanted a moment alone with you. We wanted to tell you how proud we are about what you’ve done over the break. You orchestrated this entire volunteer event with your friends. You’ve spent almost all of your time at Safe Haven over the past week, sacrificing your own free time that you could be spending with friends or riding at Briar Creek.”

  I sat back in my chair. “Dad, thank you.”

  “Your father is right,” Mom said. She cupped her hands around the snowflake mug in front of her. “All of the effort you put into this, sweetie, hasn’t gone unnoticed. I’ve always known how much you deeply care for horses, but it has never been clearer to me than recently.”

  Tears stung my eyes. I blinked fast—I’d just finished my makeup and was not going to have smudgy raccoon eyes.

  “Sasha, it’s not Christmas, but Mom and I wanted to give you a gift a little early this year,” Dad said. He looked at Mom, and she nodded. “We know how hard you’re training for the YENT—both you and Charm. A few weeks ago, your mom and I spoke to Mr. Conner at length about your riding future.”

  “You did?” I asked. I wanted to say more like Did he say I was doing well? Is he happy with my progress? But those two words were the only ones I was able to utter.

  Mom smiled at me. “Don’t worry,” she said in a teasing tone. “We did our best not to say anything embarrassing.”

  Smiling too, I rolled my eyes. “I hope not!”

  “Mr. Conner mentioned,” Dad said, “among other things, that it’s not uncommon for a rider to have more than one horse when they are training and competing at the level where you are now and where you’re striving to be.”

  I stared at him, not getting what he was saying. I had Charm. Charm was my perfect dream horse. Besides, it wasn’t as if my parents could afford to buy me another horse. I’d never ask that of them.

  “Sasha, your dad and I talked it over, and we would love to give you the opportunity to adopt a horse from Safe Haven,” Mom said.

  I think my heart stopped. Then it started beating out of my chest.

  “WHAT?!” I shrieked.

  Mom and Dad laughed, holding each other’s hands on the tabletop.

  “We’re proposing this,” Mom started. “You are incredibly busy with school, lessons, and Charm. We fully recognize that. However, when the time comes that you feel you’re ready to take on the responsibility of a second horse, if that’s next year or five years from now, we want you to know it is something we would love to give you. This is a chance for you to rescue a horse in need and either have a second horse to use for pleasure riding or a second horse to train for showing.”

  “Oh. My. God. Omigod. Omigod.” I shook my head. “Are you serious?!”

  Mom and Dad nodded.

  “You deserve it, honey,” Dad said. “We’re so proud of the young woman you’ve become. We know that you’ll feel when the time is right to introduce a new horse into our family.”

  “Omigod!” I shoved back my chair, almost tipping it over. I rushed around the side of the table and threw my arms around both of my parents. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou! I can’t believe it! This is the best Christmas present!” I squeezed Mom and Dad, then let them go.

  Mom reached out and touched my cheek. “Like we said, you deserve it, Sasha.”

  I caught my breath as the news sank in. A new horse. Another one to love and train and care for.

  “What you guys said means so much to me,” I said. “I can’t wait until I’m ready to adopt a horse. There are so many at Safe Haven that deserve amazing homes. Right now, you’re right—my life is full with school, riding, and everything else.” I smiled. “Plus, Charm is all the horse I need and more. I know that one day I’ll be ready to open my heart to a horse in need. Thank you, really, for giving me that opportunity.”

  I hugged my parents again, then saw the clock behind them.

  “We’ve got to leave, like, now!” I said. “Dad, are you still up for driving us to Briar Creek?”

  He nodded and waved me off to go get my friends.

  I half ran down the hallway and skidded to a stop in my doorway. Brit and Callie, wide-eyed, looked at me.

  “Is everything okay?” Callie asked.

  “You’re not in trouble, are you?” Brit questioned.

  “We’re still going to the bonfire, right?” Callie asked.

  I grinned. “To answer your questions, yes, no, and yes! Dad’s ready when we are. Let’s go, and I’ll tell you what just happened when we get to the bonfire. I want to share it with everyone at once.”

  “Um, this sounds like a big deal,” Callie said, getting up and sliding into her coat.

  I shot her a playful grin. “It’s bigger than big. It’s like, all-of-the-snowflakes-during-a-snowstorm-combined big.”

  Despite nonstop questions from everyone during the entire ride to Briar Creek, I didn’t say a word about my surprise present. I kept the secret as if telling my friends now would ensure coal in my stocking for Christmas.

  25

  LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW

  Lauren

  “MERRY CHRISTMAS, WHISPER,” I SAID softly. Entering the stall, I locked the door behind me and slid my arms around her neck. A green-and-red-checkered blanket was draped over Whisper’s back and hindquarters. “I got here as soon as I could,” I added. “Mom just dropped us off after the adopt-a-thon ended. I had to come say hi to you before the bonfire.”

  The rest of my friends were visiting their horses too, or had gone to help Kim with the bonfire. I squeezed Whisper, then let her go. I moved by her head and ran my hand under her chin, her soft whiskers tickling me.

  “Are you having a good vacation?” I asked Wisp. Her ears pointed forward and she breathed into my hands. “You’ll be here for a few more days, girl. We have New Year’s, and then you and I will both be going back to Canterwood.”

  I’d been so busy with the rescue and having so much fun with my friends that I hadn’t realized until now that I missed Canterwood. A lot. It was great to be home and see my parents and sisters, be in my hometown, and visit Briar Creek, but Canterwood was home too. It hadn’t hit me until now.<
br />
  “We’re home for Christmas, but we’ll be going to our other home very soon,” I said. “Get some sleep, beauty. I’ll see you soon.”

  Whisper blinked at me and nudged my coat pocket.

  “Oh! You smartie,” I said. “I almost forgot your Christmas treat.”

  I dug into my pocket and pulled out three apple-and-maple cookie treats. Mom had bought them from an organic farm, and I’d given some to everyone before we’d left my house.

  I uncurled my fingers, offering one treat, and Whisper snatched the cookie off my palm. She crunched loudly and bumped my hand for another.

  “Hey,” I said, giggling. “You almost ate a finger. Take it easy.”

  Whisper lowered her head a little, almost as if she was apologizing. I offered her the second cookie, and this time she ate like a delicate lady.

  “Last one,” I said. Whisper’s gray, black, pink, and white lips took the cookie, and she blinked as she munched. “Good, huh?” I asked. She bobbed her head.

  I kissed her muzzle. “Good night, again. I’m going for real this time.”

  I left the stall, latched the door behind me, and walked down the aisle. All of the horses were tucked away in their stalls and blanketed against the cold winter night. I exited out the side door and grinned. Finally!

  Giant gorgeous snowflakes danced through the air. I raised up my arms and twirled in a circle, laughing. It was about time for snow! That made the evening parfait.

  “Twirly girl!” Khloe called.

  I laughed harder and Khloe ran over, grabbing my hand.

  “C’mon, LT!” she said. “You have to see the bonfire.”

  Snowflakes stuck to my eyelashes. An orange-and-yellow glow flickered as we hurried alongside the barn. Smoke became visible in the air through the snowflakes, and I smelled wood burning. Khloe and I rounded the corner, reaching the back of the stable, and we found our friends.