I just hope they’ll be supportive of my decision, she thought. No matter what it is. I know they’ll try, even if…
She sighed. This wasn’t going to be easy. She was trying to sort the pros and cons of this decision into logical categories, but the borders of the categories kept melting and flowing into each other. If she stayed here, she would miss her boyfriend, her best friends, and her mother. If she went back to Willow Creek, she would miss her father and Lily and her new friends. Starting a new school in her senior year would be hard. But she would have opportunities here she wouldn’t have back home. And so on, back and forth, seesawing in her mind. … In the end, she wasn’t sure what the score added up to.
But that didn’t mean she was giving up. She had made a promise to herself, a solemn promise to make this an active choice, not a passive one. A promise that she would do what she thought was best for her, not for anyone else.
And Lisa always kept her promises.
FIFTEEN
“Can you believe school starts tomorrow?” Carole commented, slinging Starlight’s bridle over her shoulder and reaching for his saddle.
Stevie groaned. “Don’t remind me,” she said, already heading for the stable aisle with Belle’s tack. “I’m depressed enough already. But I figure if I ignore it as long as possible, it will be sort of like jumping into cold water—the shock will stun me just long enough to get used to it.”
Carole grinned. “Suit yourself. But I hope this doesn’t mean you’re backing out of our end-of-summer trail ride.”
“Don’t worry. Belle still hasn’t forgiven me for leaving her alone last week when we were visiting Lisa. If she gets any friskier, she’ll be ready to join the rodeo as a bucking bronco.”
Carole followed Stevie out of the tack room. The two girls strolled side by side down the nearly deserted aisle toward Pine Hollow’s U-shaped row of stalls. All the schools in Willow Creek were opening the next day, so most of the younger riders were busy with parties or barbecues or last-minute shopping trips, and the girls had the place almost to themselves. It was always a bittersweet feeling to know that another summer was ending and a new routine about to begin, but this year the mood seemed stronger than ever.
Stevie decided not to think about that. “I’m glad Skye’s show turned out to be so good,” she commented. “You can already tell it’s going to be a big hit.”
Carole nodded. Paradise Ranch had finally debuted on TV the evening before, and a whole crowd of people had gathered at Stevie’s house to watch it. Even Stevie’s parents had agreed that the show was terrific—though Carole herself couldn’t help feeling a pang every time Rand Hayden came onscreen.
“It was pretty cool to see Lisa’s name in the credits, wasn’t it?” Carole said, mostly to distract herself from thoughts of Jeremiah.
“Sure. And it’s a good thing we taped it so we could rerun it in slow motion,” Stevie joked. “Otherwise there’s no way we would have spotted it stuck in there with all those other names.”
Carole smiled slightly. “Don’t worry. If she decides to follow through on her idea of a career in TV production, her name won’t be lost in the crowd for long. You know Lisa never does anything halfway.”
“I know.” Stevie was silent for a moment. The girls reached their horses’ stalls, which were next to each other, and let themselves in.
As soon as Stevie hoisted the saddle onto Belle’s back, she noticed that the stitching on one of her stirrup leathers looked more frayed than she remembered. “Oops,” she said. She finished tightening the girth, then detached the questionable leather from the stirrup bar and let herself back out into the aisle.
She poked her head over the half door of Starlight’s stall. “I’ve got to go back to the tack room for a sec,” she told Carole, holding up the leather. “I’ll be right back.”
She hurried down the aisle. Halfway there, she heard footsteps approaching from around the corner just ahead. A moment later Scott Forester walked into view.
He spotted her immediately. Just as immediately, his face froze into its now customary cold stare. He averted his eyes as they approached each other in the narrow hallway, as if it pained him even to look at her.
Stevie started to cringe and scurry past, as she had done all summer. But then she reminded herself of her new attitude. I may not be able to control Scott’s behavior or his feelings, she told herself sternly. But I sure can control my own. No matter what Scott—or anyone else—does to upset me.
As the two of them came within a few feet of each other, Stevie forced herself to smile. “Hi, Scott,” she said politely. “How’s it going?”
Scott was clearly taken aback by her greeting. His step faltered, though his expression didn’t get any friendlier. Finally, he nodded curtly before hurrying on his way.
Once he was past, Stevie shrugged and sighed. “One day at a time,” she muttered as she continued toward the tack room.
Carole was taking her time getting Starlight ready to go. “Did you miss me last week, boy?” she whispered as she carefully untangled a small knot he had managed to get in his silky black mane. “I missed you. I don’t care how pretty all those fancy TV horses are, they can’t hold a candle to you. I don’t know how anyone could think any different.”
Starlight just stood calmly, chewing on a mouthful of hay. Carole finished getting rid of the knot, then walked to the front of the stall for the gelding’s tack. Outside, she heard someone coming down the aisle in her direction. Thinking it was Stevie returning, she poked her head out.
“That was fast,” she called. “You must have run the whole—Oh! Ben. It’s you.”
“Hi, Carole.” Ben paused outside Starlight’s stall. “What’s up?”
“Not much,” she replied automatically. “We’re going for a trail ride.” She had seen Ben a few times since returning from California, but she hadn’t really had a chance to talk to him. Not that Ben ever does much talking, she thought.
Still, something was bothering her. It was just a little thing, but it didn’t jibe with what Carole knew—or thought she knew—about Ben.
“So,” she said, trying to sound casual, “I’ve been meaning to ask. Did Veronica diAngelo do any more riding while I was away?”
If Ben thought the question was odd, he didn’t show it. “Nope.” He shrugged. “Haven’t seen her since that time before you left.”
“Hmmm. Too bad.” Carole was watching him closely while pretending to fuss with Starlight’s saddle. She knew it was stupid. She knew it was petty. But she couldn’t help being disturbed by the positive comments Ben had made about Veronica. After all, Ben didn’t seem to like many people—not even nice, friendly people like Scott Forester. Why would he bother to compliment Veronica, of all people?
This time Ben did look slightly surprised by her comment. “That’s funny. I thought you didn’t like her much.”
“I don’t,” Carole replied shortly. “But you seemed to think she was pretty cool.”
Ben shrugged, and for a moment Carole was afraid he wouldn’t respond. Then he spoke. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
“What do you mean?”
Ben shrugged again, seeming reluctant to elaborate. “She’s a pretty good rider. Otherwise, she’s kind of a jerk.”
“You mean you actually noticed?” Carole was stunned. Obviously she had misread Ben once again. “So how come you were so nice to her?”
Ben cast her an inquiring glance. “Why shouldn’t I be polite? I don’t have to like her to saddle a horse for her. Anyway, she may be a snob, but at least she doesn’t try to hide it. She’s exactly what she presents herself to be—no games.”
It was one of the longer speeches Carole could remember hearing from Ben, and it told her everything she needed to know, including a few things he had left unsaid. Now she understood, and she should have seen it before. If there was one thing Ben couldn’t stand, it was hypocrisy. That was why Veronica didn’t bother him. For all her faults, it was true that she didn’t
usually expend much effort trying to convince people she was anything other than what she was. Carole had already guessed that Ben considered Scott Forester a phony, just like his politician father. That kind of thing really rubbed him the wrong way, which was why he’d had it in for Scott from the day they’d met.
Carole didn’t agree with Ben about Scott. She wasn’t even sure she agreed about Veronica, since she had seen for herself how deceitful and hypocritical Veronica could be when it suited her purposes. But it didn’t really matter. She was just relieved that her questions about Ben’s taste in people had been cleared up.
Ben moved on, and before long Stevie returned with her new stirrup leather. Soon both horses were ready to go. “We might as well head out, I guess,” Stevie said, leading Belle out of her stall.
Carole followed with Belle as Stevie led the way to the lucky horseshoe nailed to the wall near Pine Hollow’s main door. The horseshoe had been there for as long as anyone could remember, and it was said that no rider had ever had a serious accident after touching it for luck. The two girls mounted and urged their horses toward the wall until they were close enough to brush the worn metal of the horseshoe with their fingers.
“This is weird, isn’t it?” Stevie commented, leaning back in her saddle and gathering up Belle’s reins. “I mean, our trail rides haven’t seemed the same all summer. And now—”
“Hi, guys!” a breathless voice came from the doorway. “Sorry I’m late.”
Carole turned to smile at Lisa. “It’s about time,” she joked. “We were getting ready to leave without you.”
“Sorry,” Lisa said again. “You know how my mother is. She claimed we’d just make a quick trip to the mall, but once we got there she decided we had to make up for a whole summer’s worth of missed shopping opportunities.”
“Don’t listen to Carole,” Stevie advised. “We already guessed what happened. We were planning to warm up in the outdoor ring until you got here.”
Lisa was already heading toward the tack room. “Go ahead,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ll have Prancer ready in a jiff.”
She hurried to follow up on her words, going through the familiar motions of retrieving Prancer’s tack, greeting the sweet bay mare, and getting ready to hit the trail.
She was still getting used to being back in Willow Creek, among the sights and sounds she had grown up with, even though she had flown in from L.A. three days earlier. Her decision hadn’t been easy, and she had come very close to choosing to stay in California. But in the end, she had opted to return home. She had a full life here with lots of things to look forward to in her senior year. There would be time for new people and places soon enough, when it was time to go to college.
“It wasn’t an easy choice, that’s for sure,” she murmured to Prancer as she tightened her girth. “But I’m glad I forced myself to really think about it. And I think I made the right decision—for now, at least.”
She supposed the thought of the opportunities she had passed up would always be a little bittersweet. And she would never know what might have been if she had decided the other way.
Still, she was starting to recognize that the world out there was full of difficult choices. Unless she was willing to accept that, she might as well give up and let other people run her life for her.
She led Prancer out to the stable entrance and mounted. Leaning over to tap the lucky horseshoe, Lisa smiled. The gesture felt so familiar, so automatic—so homey. How many years had it been now that she had been touching that ragged bit of metal, counting on it to bring her good luck?
“But it’s not really about luck, is it, girl?” she murmured to her horse. “It’s all about being willing to make a choice.”
She patted the mare on the neck and urged her into a trot, eager to join her friends, who were cantering around the ring outside. She couldn’t wait to start their trail ride, couldn’t wait to get back into the swing of things in her chosen home.
But she paused outside the gate, just long enough to whisper one more thing into the mare’s ear. “Here’s the greatest part of all, though, Prancer. There’s always room to change your mind.”
Turn the page to continue reading from the Pine Hollow series
ONE
“Callie! Yo, Callie!” Stevie Lake called over the shouts and laughter echoing off the walls of the crowded school hallway. Callie Forester was a few yards ahead of her, leaning over the water fountain near the north stairwell. “Callie!”
Callie turned and waited for Stevie to dodge through the throng of other students. “No problem there,” she joked wryly. “I think a turtle could catch up to me these days if it really tried.”
Stevie winced as she glanced at Callie’s ugly metal crutches. Callie was leaning on them heavily, taking the weight off her right leg. “Sorry about that,” Stevie muttered. “I didn’t mean to say anything to—”
Callie waved away the apology. “Stop it,” she ordered. “It was a joke. You know—ha ha, funny?”
Stevie grinned weakly. “Ha ha,” she said. “Funny.”
Stevie was famous for her quick sense of humor, but she couldn’t find much to laugh about when it came to Callie’s condition. The girl had residual brain damage that had forced her to learn how to use the right side of her body all over again. Stevie had been driving on that stormy afternoon a little more than two months before, so it was only natural that she would retain some guilt about what had happened, no matter how many times other people—including Callie—reminded her that the accident hadn’t been her fault. Stevie knew by now that she couldn’t have prevented her car from flipping over on the rain-slick road in front of Pine Hollow Stables any more than she could have prevented the sun from rising that morning. But knowing it in her head wasn’t the same as believing it deep in her heart.
So while Callie had spent a lot of time and energy in the months since the accident working to overcome her physical problems, Stevie had struggled just as hard to come to terms with her mental and emotional ones, and things were a lot better now for both of them. Still, Callie was starting the new year at a new school with crutches and a pronounced limp and Stevie sometimes had trouble watching her new friend trying to walk or stand up or mount a horse or do any of the other simple little things that most people took for granted.
Stevie willed herself to focus on Callie’s face rather than her weakened right leg. “Anyway, how are you surviving your first day at dear old Fenton Hall?” She waved a hand to indicate the chaos of bustling, shouting, laughing students that buzzed around them. “I’ve barely seen you all day.”
“I know.” Callie’s dark blue eyes wandered from Stevie’s face to take in the noisy scene. “I was hoping I’d have some classes with you. It would make it a lot easier if I had a friend to sit with on the first day instead of just sort of hovering awkwardly until everyone else is sitting down.”
Stevie nodded sympathetically. She knew that Callie could seem a bit arrogant and intimidating at first meeting—to some people at least. The fact that she was a congressman’s daughter probably had something to do with putting people off, although Stevie was sure that Callie’s natural reserve and steely, sometimes overserious determination had even more to do with it. Stevie herself had warmed up to Callie right away; but then again, Stevie wasn’t always sensitive to such subtleties. She tended to like everyone she met until someone gave her a reason not to, and so far Callie hadn’t given her any such reason. Over the past couple of months, Stevie had come to think of Callie as a close friend, and she had soon recognized that the new girl’s cool exterior hid a person who was actually quite shy and uncertain in a lot of ways—the kind of person who would hesitate to sit down in a classroom full of strangers until the last possible moment. “At least you know a few other people,” Stevie said encouragingly. “You know, like some of the other riders from Pine Hollow. Right?”
“True,” Callie agreed. “Lorraine Olsen is in my history class, and that cute little guy with the dim
ples—George, is it?—is in my chemistry class.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s a good thing, too. I’m going to need a study buddy in that one. It’s only the first day, and I’m already confused.”
“Uh-oh,” Stevie joked. “If you’re confused, I’m sure to be totally lost. I have chem next period. Maybe I’ll come down with a sudden stomachache in the next”—she glanced at her watch—“four and a half minutes.”
Callie raised one eyebrow, looking bemused. “That might work for today,” she said. “But what about the rest of the year?”
Stevie shrugged. “Hey, what can I say? I think it’s a new virus. It recurs every day right around sixth period.”
Callie laughed, and Stevie chuckled along. It was nice to have a new friend to chat with in the halls, even if they didn’t have many classes together. Unlike Callie, Stevie wasn’t the least bit shy, and she never let anything stop her from getting to know people. She had dozens of casual friends and hundreds of acquaintances at school, from her fellow members of the Fenton Hall student council to the ever-shifting group of people who sat at her favorite lunch table at the far end of the cafeteria. But her closest friends had always been at Pine Hollow Stables. She had met Carole Hanson and Lisa Atwood there when they were all in junior high school, and the three girls had been inseparable ever since. Carole and Lisa both attended Willow Creek High School on the other side of town, which meant that Stevie didn’t get to spend nearly as much time with them as she would have liked, especially with family, homework, boyfriends, jobs, and other activities taking up so much of all their free time.
Callie shifted her weight slightly, resting an elbow against the water fountain behind her. “I guess I should look on the bright side,” she said. “At least I’m the right age to be taking chemistry. Back home it was a senior class, so Scott hasn’t taken it yet.” Her eyes twinkled. “Believe me, he’s not thrilled about getting stuck in a class full of us lowly juniors.”
Reining In Page 15
