CHAPTER FIFTY THREE
I slept properly for the first time in a long time. It felt like everything was finally right in my world. My pony was back in his stall sleeping, our foal had been accepted by a mare who would mother him and give him the guidance he would need to grow up to be a well-adjusted horse and I wouldn’t get to ride in the Talent Scout show but I didn’t really care. And I even had an idea about how I could help Frankie get over the loss of her horse Quantum but I just wasn’t sure if she was ready for it yet or not.
The next morning I woke up late. I’d slept through my alarm and no one had yelled at me. That was a first. But there were voices in the kitchen. Missy and my father yelling at each other. I kicked the covers off with a sigh and got out of bed. So much for peace.
“Why didn’t you come back yesterday?” Missy was shouting.
“I told you,” Dad replied. “I had to stay with Emily.”
I had my hand on the door about to push it open when I stopped. What was my father talking about? He hadn’t stayed with me at the vet clinic at all. He’d left. I assumed that he’d come back here but obviously he hadn’t. He’d disappeared again just like he had before.
“You didn’t have to stay there all day,” Missy said. “Do you know how much stuff there is to do around here? You weren’t around to teach and since Sandy never came back we are short staffed and I had to do it all myself.”
“It’s just as well your so called friend didn’t come back,” Dad said. “She might have brought another worthless horse and dumped it here with us. I don’t even know what we are going to do with the ones we already have.”
“Well you can’t get rid of that foal now, Emily is too attached,” Missy said.
“Emily gets too attached to every horse. She has to learn that horses come and go.”
My heart started thumping in my chest. I’d gone to bed thinking that everything was right in my world and woken up in some kind of nightmare. This wasn’t right. I’d done everything I could to get the foal a new mother and now they were just going to send him away?
“I’m not saying that the foal has to leave right now,” Dad said. “In fact I think that the students will be able to learn a lot from him but that other horse has to go.”
“What, Jupiter?” Missy said.
“Yes, Jupiter. The Arabian mare that won’t even nurse her own foal and I caught her weaving in her stall yesterday. If she’s going to start teaching vices to the other horses, we’re going to be in real trouble. How are you going to feel if one of your student’s precious horses picks up a bad habit like that from some random horse that shouldn’t even be here?”
“Well what do you want me to do?” Missy said, shouting again. “Open the gate and let her run away?”
“Get rid of her, sell her, I don’t care but I don’t want her in my barn.”
“You know we can’t legally do that until Sandy owes us in back board.”
“Well put her out back then. I don’t want to see her in the barn again and you’d better be doing everything you can to track down that woman so that she can come and get her.”
“And what about the foal?” Missy said. “Don’t you think if Sandy shows up she’s going to want him back too?”
“She’s not going to show up,” Dad said. “She saw a sucker in you and she dumped them here for good.”
“Thanks a lot,” Missy said.
I heard her walk off and slam the bedroom door and then my father stomped out of the house and slammed the front door. I stood there wondering which door I was supposed to slam. I knew what Dad had done. He’d taken the focus off the fact that he’d been missing all day and turned it around and put all the negative attention on Missy and she fell for it too. I guess I finally knew where I got my sneaky streak from.
CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR
I dressed quickly and grabbed a banana from the kitchen, then ran down to the barn before Missy had a chance to come out of the bedroom and grill me about my father’s lies. It wouldn’t help her. I didn’t know where he had been but I wanted to find out too. He’d been acting so weird since he broke his ankle, taking Bluebird to the clinic and being nice to me. It wasn’t like him at all. Usually he’d just tell me to toughen up and suck it up but instead he’d been the warm fuzzy father I’d been hoping for all along. The one who cared about my pony and let me bring home random mares to see if they would nurse a foal that didn’t even belong to us. It was nice and I liked it but I knew it was only because he was up to something.
I checked on Bluebird first. He was standing in his stall looking perky and happy. The foal and his new mother were in the next stall and so was Bandit. Three was kind of a crowd but Dad had said that when they brought them in last night they couldn’t be separated and none of them seemed to mind sharing so that was just the way it was going to be for a while. I didn’t see Jupiter anywhere. Dad had obviously already had one of the grooms toss her out in the back paddocks just like he’d said.
He was sitting in the office. I tapped gently on the door.
“Bluebird looks good,” he said, looking up.
“Yes,” I replied, coming in and sitting down even though he didn’t ask me to. “Thank you for taking him to the clinic.”
“Well, I couldn’t risk him having something that would spread through this entire barn. Do you know how many angry boarders I’d have on my hands if my own daughter’s pony got their horses sick?”
That was more like the dad I knew.
“Did you hear back from the show committee?” I asked.
“I’m sorry,” he said, shaking his head. “They won’t let you ride another horse.”
“That’s okay,” I said. “They’ll be other shows and other challenges.”
Dad nodded like he was relieved that I wasn’t going to have some kind of melt down.
“I still want you to go though,” he said. “I’ve entered Socks in the speed class and Arion in the baby jumpers. Just because you can’t ride in the Talent Scout class, no reason not to go. It’s still a good show. You’ll pick up some ribbons and some experience.”
“And some prize money,” I said.
“Yes and we all need more of that,” Dad said.
“About Bluebird’s vet bill,” I said, looking at my lap. “I want to pay it off, just give me some time.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Dad said, shuffling some papers around on the desk. “I’ve got it covered.”
“What do you mean, you’ve got it covered?” I said. “I know money is tight. I want to help pay my own way.”
“Only a kid of mine would insist on paying instead of just getting up, saying thank you and then walking away.” Dad shook his head.
“I just want to help,” I said.
“Look, don’t worry about it. The moment I realized that pony had more talent in his left hoof than any pony I’d seen in a long time, I got him insured. There is only a deductible to pay and I already did so please, drop it.”
“You insured my pony without telling me?” I said.
“A thank you will be enough,” Dad said. “Now go and ride your horses. They are all fat and lazy and acting like they are on vacation.”
“Okay,” I said, getting up. I wasn’t sure how I felt about my father insuring my pony behind my back but in light of what had happened I guess it wasn’t a bad thing.
“Dad,” I said as I stood in the doorway. “Where did you go yesterday?”
“None of your business,” he said. “Now scram.”
CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE
“I think my father is having an affair,” I told Mickey later.
I’d already ridden Socks and was getting ready to work Arion but it was so hot that it felt like my skin was melting off and I’d slumped down in front of the big fan we kept in the tack room and had not been able to move since. Mickey had shown up to ride Hampton and found me there in a heat induced stupor.
“First you thought he was a drug addict and now you think he is having an affair?�
� Mickey said. “You don’t have a lot of faith in your old man, do you?”
“Well I hardly know him,” I said. “Not really. And he insured Bluebird behind my back. What is that about?”
“Maybe it’s about the fact that he loves you and wants your pony to be protected if anything bad happens to him.”
“So why did he look so ill when the vet told him Bluebird might have to stay another night?” I said. “And where did he disappear to?”
“Well there is still a deductible to pay,” Mickey said. “And he probably just had some errands to run or something.”
“So why didn’t he tell Missy that?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Mickey said. “Can’t you just let it go?”
“No,” I said. “I can’t.”
I wanted to know what my father was up to and why he wouldn’t tell us what it was. If he carried on like this Missy would just assume the same thing I had, if she hadn’t already, that my father was cheating on her. That would mean they’d split up and I didn’t want that to happen.
“You’re really not going to let this go, are you?” Mickey asked.
I shook my head.
“So the next time he disappears, follow him.”
“And how exactly am I supposed to do that when I can’t even drive?” I sighed.
“Rumor has it that you have a boyfriend who does,” Mickey replied with a grin.
But I hadn’t heard anything from Jordan lately. He was probably busy. Too busy to drive me around on a crazy mission that would most likely get me grounded and him forbidden from ever seeing me again, that was if we got caught of course.
“Maybe you’re right,” I said. “I should just let it go.”
“You’re only saying that because I brought Jordan into it,” she said. “You and boys.” She shook her head. “Hopeless. Fine. Ride. Go to your show. Don’t find out where your dad is sneaking off to. It’s not like I care anyway.”
“Thanks a lot,” I said.
“Now can I play with the foal or not?”
It seemed like all anyone wanted to do was play with the foal. Dad was right. He was teaching the students a lot but they were teaching him too. He was cuddled and petted so much that he was going to turn out to be the most desensitized horse in the history of all horses, which maybe wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
“Can we please pick him a name?” Mickey begged as we stood there watching him drink milk.
The mare had a quiet, peaceful look on her face as the foal slurped happily away. It was like she knew that he wasn’t her real foal but that he was a foal who needed her and that was enough.
“You should have a contest,” Mickey added. “Let everyone at the barn enter and then pick a name.”
“He does kind of seem like he is everyone’s foal doesn’t he,” I said. “But if Sandy shows up, we may not even get to keep him.”
“She won’t show up,” Mickey said. “Can we have a contest, please? It will be so much fun.”
“Alright,” I said, even though I thought it was the worst idea ever because all I could imagine was the people whose name didn’t end up getting picked being mad about it and mad at me as well.
CHAPTER FIFTY SIX
I rode my horses every day to get ready for a show that I wasn’t really bothered about going to but Dad was right. It would be sour grapes not to go just because I couldn’t ride in the Talent Scout class. And a show was a show and the fact that he was letting me take Arion sort of made up for the fact that I couldn’t take Bluebird because my green horse was coming along nicely and he needed all the exposure he could get.
At night I snuck down and rode Hashtag in the dark. I was still working him bareback in a halter and he was coming along nicely but I knew my father wouldn’t think so. He thought the horse should be competing and just because I’d found a way to get him to jump, that didn’t mean my dad would think it would be great because you couldn’t exactly compete bareback with a halter. But I praised the horse anyway, patting his neck because now he was jumping in the ring again and not just out in the woods. It would probably just be a matter of time before I got him back to where he should have been all along. It was sad to think that he was another horse ruined by Jess and her evil scheming.
When I was done with Hashtag, I took Four out into the field. He’d been doing better since switching him to the hackamore, the bitless bridle that my father had suggested. He probably would have been just as happy to go along in a halter like Hashtag but I had to at least pretend that I was training him. But I wasn’t. I had another plan for him altogether. I wanted my father to let me take him to the show and I was going to invite Frankie and hopefully they would fall in love and I would give him to her.
It didn’t matter that he was a sale project or that we’d bought him to resell. He was never going to be worth much. I knew that now. He was talented enough but he was green with some serious vices, like trying to rear if he thought you were going to get in his face. I couldn’t just sell him to anyone. He was a law suit waiting to happen. But Frankie had told me all about how rank Quantum had been when she first got him. How he used to buck her off and bolt and how they had bonded over figuring out how to get along. She could do that with Four too, if she wanted to. And I’d be sorry to see him go but I had other horses to concentrate on and I knew that he was never meant to stay. He was just passing through, which was maybe why I’d never changed his name. It didn’t seem fair to give him another one if I wasn’t going to keep him.
“Would you like a new home?” I asked him as we walked around the fence line.
He snorted and spooked at a funny shaped bush in the dark and I closed my legs around his sides and forced him on, making sure not to grab hold of the reins.
Four wouldn’t mind going to be Frankie’s new horse, I knew that now. But would Frankie be ready to accept him and take him under her wing? That I wasn’t sure about at all.
CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN
“You have to come to the show, please?” I begged.
I’d called Frankie and was laying on my bed with the phone in one hand and the show schedule in the other, trying to talk her into coming.
“Why would I want to go?” she said. “I don’t have a horse, remember?”
Her voice sounded flat. Dead. She was depressed. I knew what it must have been like, going back to her home where there was an empty stall and a bedroom full of ribbons and photographs of a horse that was no longer alive. Had she torn them all down and burned them like Mickey did when her parents leased out Hampton? Or had she just held them in her hands and sobbed for days, which was probably what I would have done if I had been her.
“I could really use your help,” I said. “I can’t take Bluebird so I have two other horses I’m riding and they are far less seasoned than he is. Plus I’m thinking about bringing one of my youngsters, not to show but just to get experience. You could ride him around the show grounds for me. It would really help me out a lot. I’ve been in trouble since I spent so much time at the clinic and let all my other horses slide.”
I figured maybe a white lie or two wouldn’t hurt. Anything to get Frankie there.
“Yes it must be so hard for you not knowing which horses to ride. I feel so sorry for you.”
Frankie’s voice was hard and cold and for a moment I thought I’d made a mistake. I wanted Four to have a good home where he would be loved. Not one where a girl would take out all her anger and frustration on him.
“I’m sorry,” she finally said. “I didn’t mean it.”
“I know,” I said.
“No one understands. Not even my parents. They think I should forget about horses now. Mom says I’m too old anyway to be galloping about like a tomboy. She thinks this is the perfect opportunity to turn me into a lady.”
“And what does your dad say?” I asked.
“He doesn’t know what to think but I’ve seen him eyeing up the barn and trying to figure out if his vintage car will fit in there.”
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Dresses on Frankie and cars in her horse’s barn? That would never do.
“Come to the show,” I said. “I promise it will make you feel better.”
“I do miss being around horses,” she said. “Even if they are not my own.”
“Good. Be there by ten.”
“Alright. I’ll try,” she said.
“You’d better or I’ll have to come to your house and drag you out.”
“I said I’d try,” she said and then she hung up.
“She’d better do more than try,” I said as I threw my phone down on the bed.
Dad wouldn’t be impressed if I told him that I was taking Four for Frankie to ride and then she never showed up. As it was I hadn’t told him that I was hoping to give her the horse as well. I didn’t think he’d think it was a good idea but once I got her up on his back and if they hit it off like I knew they would then there wouldn’t be anything he could do about it. I didn’t know much about him but I knew he would never take a horse away from a grieving girl.
“Dinner,” Missy called and I ran through to the kitchen because for right now I had to stay on everyone’s good side if I wanted my sneaky plan to work.
CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT
Dad fell for the whole take Four to the show so that he could get experience thing. Either that or he was still trying to be nice because he was covering his own butt. He’d disappeared again that evening and hadn’t come back until late. I’d been down at the barn checking on Bluebird and the foal and I’d seen his truck pull in with the headlights off so that he wouldn’t wake anyone. He’d limped his way into the house but he looked happy. There was a spring in his step. Whatever he was doing it was making him feel good and other than the fights that he’d been having with Missy, he seemed like a happy man. Surely that meant that he couldn’t be doing anything wrong?
Stable Vices (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 21) Page 10
