by M. Garzon
“Have fun.” I waved her away just as Jaden and his mom arrived. Aunt Paloma hugged me, and Jaden gave me a chaste kiss on the cheek before helping me get Hades ready. As always, I could feel Aunt Paloma’s eyes burning through me whenever Jaden was near, but when it was time to warm up I brought my attention back to my mount. I’d greeted the Donalds earlier and I was peripherally aware of them watching, but I soon tuned them out also.
I reached forward and patted the large reddish-brown neck in front of me. Hades’ glossy black mane bounced with each springy step, and his ears flicked attentively back and forth. He seemed alert but relaxed — at least, as relaxed as Hades ever got. A slight squeeze of my legs was my signal for him to trot, his rhythmic one-two motion perfectly steady.
“I’m glad you’re back to yourself again, buddy,” I murmured to him.
And he was. He handled the course as though he’d never had a nervous moment in his life, and only Alex and Moose did it faster than us. For once, I was thrilled with second place.
Alex rode next to me as we exited the ring with our ribbons. “Way to put me in my place.” He winked. As we dismounted Jaden stood back and let me speak to the Donalds first, sharing our relief that Hades was back in full form.
“Congrats on that, by the way,” Alex added as the Donalds left. He slung a friendly arm around me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jaden’s jaw flex. His mother frowned at his reaction, and I wriggled quickly out from under Alex’s arm as Jaden stepped forward.
“You were wonderful,” he said, but his eyes were tense and he wasn’t smiling. I felt my teeth press together.
“Jaden, you remember Alex?” I made an effort not to sound aggravated. Jaden gave Alex an appraising look as they shook hands, Alex looking up several inches to meet Jaden’s eye.
“You’re Téa’s cousin, right?” Alex said genially.
Jaden opened his mouth. His eyes flickered over to his mother. “Yes, I am.”
My irritation grew. One of these days we would have to start acting like a couple around Jaden’s mom, although I supposed a horse show wasn’t the ideal environment for the drama that was sure to ensue. But then Hades shoved me, reminding me I had to tend to him, and my good mood returned in a rush as I turned to hug his sweaty neck and lead him off for a wash.
* * *
I was home for three days before going to the next show. This one had no classes for Hades but several low jumper classes that would have been ideal for Cal, but since I didn’t want to jump him on his patched-up hoof, I left my horses at home and brought a handful of students instead. We returned four days later, rumpled, tired, and victorious. Emma and Cameo had won their first Championship, and Erin and Winter had gotten ribbons in the Low Adult division. I’d driven home twice — over two hours each time — to ride my horses, and late Sunday night I was grateful to crawl into my own bed.
I rolled over and stretched the next morning, happy to be waking in my sunny bedroom. Until I realized it was too sunny. I grabbed my clock — seven forty-five. I stumbled to the bathroom and then hurriedly yanked on shorts and a T-shirt before running to the barn. As I skidded into the aisle Gran looked up calmly from behind the grain cart.
“You’re up. Declan wanted to let you sleep, he said you looked tired, dear.”
“Oh.” I stood there nonplussed. This had never happened before.
“You might as well go start the coffee,” Dec added, coming around the corner. “We’re almost done here.” I turned back to the house, yawning and rubbing my eyes but feeling pleased.
Seth messaged me online that afternoon.
What gives, Sis? You don’t write, you don’t call...
I spluttered uselessly for a second before a reluctant chuckle bubbled up.
Yeah, sorry about that, I’m so irresponsible and BAD at keeping in touch. I was being facetious since Seth couldn’t afford many international calls on his phone, and I emailed him regularly to no avail. We chatted online for an hour; he was in Ireland and had gotten a job at a stud farm.
I’ll be staying here for a while, so you can call the farm if you need me, he wrote as he signed off.
If I needed him? I needed him every day, but since I couldn’t tell him that I told him to stay out of trouble and send pictures.
When Julia arrived the next day I was surprised to see Al clinging to her like a burr.
“Doesn’t he have a job?” I asked her when we had a moment alone. We were in the aisle, grooming our horses.
She paused in combing Jasmine’s mane. “He took the day off to be with me. He’s great that way; even when we’re not together he calls me constantly. I’ve been staying at his place almost every night.”
I absorbed this news. I thought it was awfully soon for Julia to be staying over at Al’s place all the time, but then again, it probably took her mind off her parent’s divorce.
“Well, Kabir’s back for the summer — do you want to all get together later?”
“Sorry, I can’t. Al and I have plans.” She looked honestly disappointed, so I let it drop with a vague sense of disquiet. Cal turned to me as if wondering at the holdup, and I resumed my brushing of his fox-colored coat.
We were tacking up when loud voices angled around the corner, precursors to Brittney and two new girls. They didn’t acknowledge our presence as they came in.
“Sorry about the bargain-basement barn,” Brittney said, waving her hand dismissively at the boarder aisle. “My trainer’s really amazing but her barn’s an hour and a half away from our new house. Mummy doesn’t want me driving that far.”
They swept past me on their way outside. I looked around, feeling peculiarly stung. There was no doubt that Brittney was a snob and her assessment was therefore automatically suspect, but her flippant remark troubled me.
After riding Cal, I walked around and tried to view our property objectively, as an outsider would. The warm, polished wood that made up the barn’s interior was chewed and worn in several places, and the cement aisle showed a few cracks, but overall it didn’t look bad. When I got outside, though, I noticed signs of wear that I simply hadn’t seen before. The matching beige barn and shed were faded, and the navy paint on the door and window frames was peeling. Our ‘white’ fence boards were mostly grey, and weeds grew in tall profusion around the buildings and paddocks. It used to be Seth’s job to mow the grass, but Dec didn’t have time to do it and I didn’t know how to use the mower attachment on the tractor. Well, they were small things, I thought. Cosmetic things that didn’t affect the horses’ safety, but that perhaps gave the false impression that we weren’t taking care of things.
I found Gran in the barn feeding the midday hay. “How come we don’t have flowerbeds like we used to?” I asked her. Cal tried to snatch a mouthful of hay from her as she passed, and I pushed his nose away quickly, knowing he’d get scolded. Gran expected good manners of everyone.
She tossed the hay into Gracie’s new double stall and turned an incredulous stare on me. She planted her hands on her hips. “Why don’t we have flowerbeds? You and your brother let the ponies treat them like a salad bar, that’s why! What wasn’t eaten was trampled. It was too much bother to constantly replace them.”
“Oh, right,” I said meekly. Now I remembered.
She shook her head with a rueful smile. “Why the sudden interest?”
“I thought it would be nice to plant a few things. I’d do the work,” I said hastily. “But I don’t know anything about it, like what to plant, or how.”
Her blue eyes sparkled. “Well, then. I’d be delighted to direct your labors.”
Seven
The next day brought a surprise visit from Joanne and Dana, commonly referred to — by my friends at least — as ‘the Beiges’. Joanne was Dec’s girlfriend, for reasons that remained a mystery, and Dana was her blob of a fourteen-year-old daughter. They shuffled cautiously into the barn, still tentative after several months.
Dec turned away from his discussion with Alan and strode o
ver to give Joanne a peck on the lips. His smile was light, relaxed, and I felt the usual small irritation at their exchange, like the prick of cat claws barely hooking skin.
“We wanted to surprise you,” Joanne said. Light glinted off her glasses as she spoke. Dana gazed around dully and didn’t say anything. I was mildly shocked that Joanne would consider the idea of surprising someone; she struck me as the type who’d spend a week planning a visit to the grocery store.
“I’m glad you did. Let’s go to the house. Dana, why don’t you stay here and help Téa?”
My head whipped around. “But I’m teaching a lesson soon. I won’t be able to keep an eye on her,” I protested. Dana could only be a hindrance in the barn; she didn’t know enough to keep out of trouble and I didn’t want to spend the day babysitting her.
“She’s not a toddler. She can help you with odd jobs.” Dec held my gaze for a minute, long enough to convince me not to argue with him, before ushering Joanne out. I suppressed a groan as I surveyed Dana. I could have her clean tack, but it would take so long to teach her how that it wouldn’t be worth it, especially since she could damage it if she did it wrong. She couldn’t sweep the aisle because I didn’t trust her near the horses with a broom; she could inadvertently spook them. She couldn’t groom or turn out... a light clicked on in my head.
“Come with me.” I got Panda — named for his black and white coloring — out of his stall and led him outside. He was our oldest and gentlest school horse, so I felt safe in handing Dana the leadrope.
“Panda needs to graze, and we need the grass shortened. Don’t let him step on the leadrope, don’t get it wrapped around his legs, and watch your toes — he’s heavy.”
It was such a good idea that after I’d finished teaching, I had all my students take their horses out and hand-graze them while I went to relieve Dana of Panda’s leadrope.
“Geez, I was out here so long,” she complained.
“It’s a nice day,” I said. “Can’t you enjoy it?” It was, too. Small white clouds scudded across a baby-blue sky and a breeze kept the heat at bay.
“But it’s so boring to just stand there with a horse, and he was pulling me all over the place.”
I bit my tongue. I was itching to tell her to run and find her mommy — in just those words, too — but I suspected that Dec wouldn’t be happy with the interruption.
“All right, we’ll do something else now.” I walked Panda into the cool of the barn while fending off his attempts to wipe his gooey green mouth on me. Then I went to forage in the shed, Dana tripping over my heels the whole time. A rush of memories funneled into me as I searched the shed’s dim interior. I could almost feel Jaden against me, taste the salt of his skin on my tongue... I regretfully wrenched myself back to the present. I handed Dana a scraper and a wire brush, armed myself similarly, and set out to tackle the barn’s window frames. An hour and much whining from Dana later, we’d only scraped the flaking paint off three windows and I was sweating and frustrated.
“C’mon,” I said, tossing my tools onto a nearby bench. “Let’s get a drink.” In fact, it was time for lunch, and I was relieved to find Dec and Joanne in the kitchen making sandwiches.
“What did you two do all morning?” Dec asked as we sat down.
“We started scraping paint off the window frames so that we can repaint them,” I said.
Dec’s eyebrows went up a fraction.
“Okay, maybe I should’ve talked to you about it first-”
“It’s not that, Téa — I’ll need to budget for enough paint. Although it probably is a good idea to spruce the place up a bit.” He chewed thoughtfully. Joanne smiled at him, a private smile that made me think there was more going on than I knew.
My project had to be temporarily abandoned for another four-day horse show. I hadn’t seen Jaden in almost two weeks and was grateful when he said he’d come meet me there.
“I can only come on Sunday. London’s got a big case so I’ll be at the office on Saturday,” he said.
“Nice to know I’m less alluring than a bunch of files.” Not to mention London.
“Trust me,” he purred, “you’re far more alluring than anything here, and as soon as I get a minute alone with you, I’ll prove it.”
That happy thought would have to hold me for a few days, and I wouldn’t have time to miss him overmuch. Along with Cal and Hades, I was bringing several students, and Julia and Brittney were coming too.
We worked together to unload and set up at the show. Emma bounced around with excitement; she wore a feed tub as a hat and various equipment dangled from her coltish body. Her dad had placed a limit of two horse shows a month, partly because of the expense and partly because he didn’t want to spend every summer weekend traveling to shows, and Emma chafed at the restriction.
It was the Canada Day long weekend and the show was a popular one. Hades won his warm-up class on the first day, raising my hopes that he was well and truly over his bad experience. I took particular satisfaction in beating Brittney, who came in third with Salsa. Brittney’s face was sour as she dismounted and tossed the reins to Elise. I grinned, even though I had to take care of Hades myself. Erin was helping, but she couldn’t handle Hades on her own.
“Why didn’t you hire a groom in the spring?” Karen demanded in exasperation as I took off Hades’ open-front boots. “You know how hard it is to find one during the season.”
“I thought I could manage the way I usually do, I guess.” Which meant doing most things myself and getting my students to help at the bigger shows. Clearly not an option anymore.
“You’re not on the Trillium circuit anymore, kid. You need a full-time groom, and that horse can’t be handled by just anyone.” She gestured to Hades. “Besides, the Donalds can afford to pay someone really good to help you.”
That was true, although I found myself perpetually reluctant to increase their already monumental expenses. I supposed I wasn’t yet accustomed to the vast sums they were spending.
Once Hades was comfortable in his stall I set off with Julia in search of a cool drink. We were ambling back, contentedly sipping iced cappuccinos, when we passed Brittney and Alicia, the black-haired girl I remembered.
Brittney gave me a disdainful look and turned to her friend. “I didn’t think showing in that color breeches was even still allowed,” she said, loudly enough for me to hear.
I felt my face flame, but Julia’s was ice-cold as she retorted, “It’s too bad you can’t buy some talent to go with your trendy new breeches.” She looped her arm through mine and strolled casually toward the stabling as though nothing had happened. Sometimes I wished I had even a fragment of Julia’s cool confidence. My best comebacks tended to come to me sometime the next day.
I was still hot with embarrassment as Julia dropped into a folding chair in our tackroom.
“I wish ‘Brittney’ wasn’t such a common name,” she groused. “Every time I hear it all I can think about is Seth with that blond bitch.”
I frowned at her language. It made her sound harsh and angry, two words that I wouldn’t normally use to describe my friend.
“I wish I knew what she has against me,” I said, frustrated. “What did I ever do to her?” I plunked myself onto a tack trunk.
“Maybe it’s jealousy,” Julia suggested.
“Yeah, right. Even my breeches are outdated, remember? Brittney has everything. What could she possibly be jealous of?”
Julia tilted her head as though studying me. “You have a dad, for one thing, and she doesn’t. Plus, people know that you’ve gotten to where you are through talent and hard work. But Brittney... she’s had to work to learn to ride like anyone else, and I’m sure she’s taken falls and had her share of blisters like the rest of us. But when she wins people say, ‘If I had an expensive horse like hers I’d win too’. She’ll rarely get credit because people think her success comes from her mom’s money rather than the effort she herself makes.”
“Pfft. If that was
my biggest problem in life, I’d take it.”
Julia’s grey eyes seemed to darken. “You know, I’ve had the same issue. I may not be rich like Brittney, but I’ve been on the receiving end of that ‘your problems aren’t important because you’ve got money’ attitude, and it’s bullshit, Téa. Everyone has problems.”
I blinked, taken aback by her vehemence. Then I felt the sour curl of shame. The truth was, I did feel that Julia had it easier than me, and I knew that Teri did, too. Teri had started working at the racetrack at seventeen, and I’d been working in our family stable since childhood. Julia was twenty and had yet to get her first job. We did sometimes envy her, but we loved her more.
“Look, Jules, I’m not saying that Brittney doesn’t have problems. Just that she’s-”
“A red-haired she-devil?” she guessed, grinning.
“With her very own pitchfork.”
Jaden and Al both showed up on Sunday, along with Monica and Neil, who were thrilled when Hades won another Grand Prix. I felt like the girl on the moon afterward, every step lifting me three feet into the air as I went to the snack bar with Jaden, Julia, and Al.
“I’m so proud of you,” Jaden said quietly as we sat down. I beamed at him as best I could while chewing my fries. I was trying to eat healthier foods, but I figured a Grand Prix win merited a few French fries.
“I hope Monica and Neil give me another bonus,” I said when I’d swallowed. “I need a new raincoat.” Brittney’s snide comment had made me self-conscious about my appearance at shows, and I didn’t want to keep wearing my old poncho on rainy days.
“Don’t you get the prize money when you win?” Al asked. It was the first curiosity he’d shown about our sport. “How does that usually work?”
“The horse’s owners pay all the expenses, like entry fees and transportation. Professional riders charge a fee per class they ride in. In the jumper divisions, riders normally get a cut of the prize money, but I don’t always.”