Pony Jumpers 9- Nine Lives

by Kate Lattey

  “You ever tell her that?”

  “All the time,” Katy assured me. “Pretty sure she doesn’t believe me, though. She pretends to, and says she does, but then five minutes later she’s come up with some other bonding activity we desperately need to do, and it starts all over again.”

  “You can go back on your own, if you want,” I told my friend. “We might be stuck here for a while.”

  “I’m not leaving you with the black dragon,” Katy retorted. “I’ll try giving her a lead again.”

  She nudged Puppet forward, and the pony splashed reluctantly back towards Tori, who lunged at him with her teeth bared. Puppet leapt sideways in alarm, and Tori swished her tail threateningly.

  “I don’t think she’s enticed,” I told Katy.

  “I noticed that too.” Katy sighed heavily. “Oh well. The movie looked dumb anyway.” She still had her phone in her hand, and she held it up to take a photo of Tori with her feet planted square. “Hashtag whyImissedthemovie.”

  “Hashtag stubborn,” I suggested.

  “Hashtag stupidhorse.”

  “Hey now.” I reached forward and rubbed Tori’s neck. “She’s just taking her time to decide whether she wants to get her feet wet. Hashtag princess.”

  “Call her whatever you like, but it doesn’t change the fact that she’s a pain in the butt,” Katy grumbled. Puppet slowly lowered his head in an attempt to graze, and Katy let the reins slip through her fingers to the buckle. “Go for your life, Pup. Might as well have dinner while we wait.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and shivered. “Brr. It’s getting cold.”

  She was right. The sun was dropping below the horizon, and goosebumps appeared on my bare arms. I hoped we weren’t going to be stuck out here in the dark. I squeezed Tori’s sides again with my legs, but she carried on ignoring me. Hashtag losing battle, I thought in resignation, wondering what on earth I was going to do.

  “Oh my god!” Katy’s exclamation hung in the cool air between us, and I swivelled my head towards her. She was staring down at her phone with her mouth open in shock.

  “What?”

  “Look who’s for sale!” She held the phone in my direction so that I could see the picture, and I leaned over and squinted at it.

  “A grey horse?”

  “It’s Zodiac,” she told me, pulling the phone back towards her and looking lovingly down at the screen again. “She is such an awesome horse.”

  “Who owns her?”

  “Abby Brooks. She did Young Riders on her, and a few Grand Prix. Pretty sure she won the Speed Horse of the Year as well.” She scrolled down, read a few lines and then nodded. “Yep. Says so right here. Man, I wonder how much Abby wants for her.”

  I shrugged. Any horse that had done that well and won that much would be so far out of my price range that it wasn’t even worth considering. “Probably a truckload.”

  “Maybe not though,” Katy said thoughtfully. “She’s seventeen now, and Abby’s going overseas for the winter, so they need to sell her. I should tell Dad. We could get a bargain.”

  “Isn’t seventeen a bit old, though?” I asked. “You’d only get a season out of her, maybe two. Better to have something you can produce and take to the top.”

  “Not necessarily. She’s been well looked after all her life,” Katy countered. “And think of the mileage I’d get on a horse like her.” She fixed me with a serious look. “I know you like Tori, AJ, but be serious for a minute. She won’t even walk through a creek, let alone go over a jump. What am I supposed to do, spend the next ten years just hoping she’ll someday have a change of heart?”

  “I don’t know,” I said quietly. “I just don’t think you should quit on her.”

  Katy shrugged one shoulder. “She quit on me first. And now she’s quit on you,” she pointed out, then sighed. “You know what your problem is, AJ? You’re too nice.”

  “It’s a terrible curse.”

  Katy smiled wryly. “It’s true, though. You don’t hold grudges.”

  “I try not to,” I agreed. “It’s always seemed to me like a waste of time and energy.”

  “I wish I was like that,” she said. “Must be nice to be so forgiving.”

  “I don’t forgive everyone,” I said, thinking of Harry and how mad I still was at him.

  “You’ve forgiven Tori for destroying Susannah’s saddle and costing you thousands of dollars,” Katy pointed out. “How’s the fundraising for that going, by the way?”

  I grimaced. “Slowly. I’ve been doing some work for Dad, as you know, but it’s a drop in the bottom of a very deep bucket. My brothers are helping a bit, but…”

  Katy opened her mouth to speak, but Puppet had been grazing increasingly close to the edge of the water, and suddenly started sinking into the soft bank. He scrambled backwards in alarm, tripped and stumbled forward, then flung himself desperately into the air and across the narrow creek. Katy swore at him as her phone flew out of her hand and landed in the reeds.

  “Flippin’ hell, Puppet!”

  The black pony scrabbled frantically up the bank as Katy flung herself out of the saddle and started rummaging around for her phone. “Did you see where it landed?”

  I stood up in Tori’s stirrups and leaned forward to see if I could spot it. “I’m not sure. In the grass somewhere, I think…”

  But I stopped talking then, because Tori had realised that there was a way to cross the stream without getting her feet wet. Inspired by Puppet’s leap, she sank onto her hindquarters and flung herself across the water, landing in a splash of mud on the other side. I bit my tongue on impact, and the coppery taste of blood in my mouth mingled with my relief that we’d made it across the creek at last. Tori jogged up the slope, her eyes firmly fixed on home as Puppet came trotting after us with his reins swinging loose on his neck, abandoning Katy on her knees in the grass, scrabbling around for her phone.

  “Hey Dad, can I ask you a question?”

  “Obviously, since you just did.”

  I pretended to laugh at his lame joke as I walked into his tiny study, where he was sitting at his desk with a pencil in his hand. After picking my way around the mattress on the floor and dodging the piles of Aidan’s clothes scattered nearby, I leaned against on the edge of his desk and looked down at the drawing in front of him. It was a design for a garden, a sprawling wooden deck and a paved patio, with big planter boxes built in. He’d even drawn in the plants with coloured pencils.

  “That’s nice,” I told him.

  “Thanks. Here’s hoping this client thinks so too.” Dad put his pencil down and swivelled in his chair to look at me. “What’s on your mind?”

  I bit the bullet and told him the truth. “I need to borrow some money.”

  Dad’s eyebrows shot up into his hair. “Is that right?”

  “Yes.”

  “How much?”

  “Um.” I drummed my fingers on the underside of the desk. “Four thousand dollars.”

  A flicker of shock registered on my Dad’s face, but it didn’t take long for him to respond. “You know what I’m going to say, Poss.”

  I shrugged. “Yeah, I know. Just thought I’d ask, anyway.” I stood up again, and Dad leaned back in his chair and held up a hand.

  “Hold on. What do you need all this money for, anyway?”

  I decided to start at the beginning. “You know how Katy has this new horse, Tori?”

  “The crazy one?”

  “She’s not crazy,” I said defensively. “She’s just misunderstood.”

  Dad smiled indulgently. “I see. And you want to buy her.” He must have thought the shock on my face was evidence that I’d been caught out, because he nodded. “You’re not as subtle as you think you are.”

  “I…” I paused, then asked the question. “Is there really no way?”

  “There is one,” Dad said, adding some more green to the leaves of the tree he’d drawn. “If you really wanted her.”

  I couldn’t breathe. Maybe the mone
y could be found, after all. Whether it was for Tori or the saddle, if the money was there, I suddenly had a chance. “What is it?”

  “You could sell Squib.” My heart plummeted into my stomach as he set down the green pencil and picked up an orange one, his tone completely serious. “Your mother and I wouldn’t mind, so long as we got our money back that we put into him. You said a while back that his value has increased lately.”

  Only about tenfold. “Yeah, but…”

  “That’s the choice,” Dad said, clearly feeling like he was teaching me a valuable life lesson instead of breaking my heart. “It’s not one you want to have to make, I understand that. But life’s full of hard choices.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not a hard choice,” I assured him. “Squib’s not going anywhere.”

  Dad smiled. “I’m glad to hear it,” he said, and I wondered if that had been some kind of test. I guess I’d passed. “That’s that, then.”

  I stared at him for a moment longer, wondering whether I should confess that I actually needed the money for something else, not something I wanted but something I had to pay for, but I was sure that his answer would be the same. What would I do then? I wasn’t ready to sell Squib. I’d sell a kidney before I sold my pony, at least until I was seventeen. And yet…what other options did I have?

  I left Dad to his drawing, and walked back up the hall to my bedroom, trying to figure out what on earth I was going to do next. Anders had his bedroom door open, and was sitting on his bed, strumming his guitar.

  “Hey, loser.”

  “Talking to yourself again?”

  Before he could reply, there was a knock on the front door, and our heads both turned towards it.

  “Hot date?” Anders teased me.

  “Not mine. Yours?”

  “I wish.” Anders leaned back on his bed, trying to see the front door through his window, but the overgrown hibiscus blocked his view. “This place needs to hire a gardener.”

  “If only we knew a good one,” I said as the person outside knocked again, harder this time.

  “Can someone get that?” Dad called from the study.

  Anders pointed at his strapped knee, and I sighed as I walked back to the front door and swung it open.

  “What do you want?”

  “Hey, AJ. Can we talk?”

  Harry’s hands were shoved deep into his pockets, and he was looking repentant. Part of me was happy to see him, but part of me was still annoyed. Must be nice to be so forgiving. I squared my shoulders and glared at Harry.

  “Aren’t you a bit behind schedule?”

  “Better late than never, right?” He ran a hand through his thick hair, looking perplexed. “Can I come in?”

  “No.” Anders spoke before I could, and I turned to see him standing behind me and glaring at Harry, who looked even more uncomfortable now.

  “Hey, man. I just came to talk to AJ.”

  “Well you can leave again, because she doesn’t want to talk to you.”

  “Hold up,” I demanded, glaring at my brother. “You don’t get to tell him that. I get to tell him that.” I turned back to Harry. “I don’t want to talk to you.”

  He looked at me sadly, his green eyes fixed on mine. “I’m sorry. I screwed up.”

  “You think?”

  “Shut up, Anders. And back up, you.” I put a hand on Harry’s chest and he took a step backwards as I came outside, and shut the door firmly behind me. “This doesn’t mean I’m going to forgive you,” I warned Harry. “I just don’t need my nosy brother involved in this conversation.”

  He smiled tentatively. “Good call.” He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. “I am sorry, you know.”

  “So you said.”

  “So do you forgive me?”

  “Hmm. That depends.”

  “On what?”

  “Two things. First, on what it is you’re apologising for.”

  Harry frowned. “I think you know.”

  “I know that I know,” I assured him. “What I want to know is if you know.”

  He frowned, looking baffled. “I…okay. Let me have a shot at this. I’m sorry for drinking when I had to drive you home, and I’m sorry for getting mad about it, and I’m sorry that you had to call your brothers to pick you up.” He seemed satisfied with his answer, but I wasn’t.

  “And?”

  He thought for a moment. “And I’m sorry for not calling you or talking to you sooner.”

  “So you should be. And?”

  Harry frowned, looking confused. “Was there something else? Well, I’m sorry for that too, whatever it was.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Driving like an idiot even when you were sober,” I reminded him.

  “Didn’t I apologise for that at the time?” he asked.

  “There’s no limit on how many times you’re allowed to say sorry,” I told him. “It’s not like you’re going to use up your allocation.”

  “But if I say it all the time, how will you know that I really mean it?” he teased, then caught my expression and sobered. “Okay, I’m sorry for that too.”

  “See, it’s not so hard when you practice.”

  A grin flickered across Harry’s face, and I felt myself softening towards him, despite my firm resolve. It was a lot harder to stay cross when he was standing right in front of me, with his broad shoulders and roguish smile and the sunlight glinting off his hair.

  “I’m trying really hard to stay mad at you,” I admitted, and his eyes brightened.

  “Don’t.” He reached out for my hand, and I let him take it. “I’ve missed you.”

  He wasn’t getting off that easy. “And whose fault is that?”

  “Entirely mine,” he accepted. “I’m a screw-up, AJ. We both know it.”

  “Yeah we do.”

  Harry grinned. “So you forgive me?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him, thinking it over. “That depends on two things. Will you ever do it again?’

  “No,” he said adamantly. “What’s the other thing?”

  I smiled. “How do you plan on making it up to me?”

  “I’ve got a couple of ideas.” He stepped in closer to me and reached around for a hug, pulling me in towards him. I leaned my cheek against his soft t-shirt as he rested his chin lightly on my head. Forgiveness granted.

  But there was one thing I still had to ask. “Hey, how’d you get home that night?” I felt him tense up slightly at my question, and lifted my head to see his face.

  “I didn’t drive, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

  “I figured you didn’t drive, because you’re still here in one piece,” I told him. “So how’d you get home?”

  “I didn’t.” I raised my eyebrows, waiting for a proper answer, but he avoided my eyes.

  “What’d you do, sleep on the beach?”

  “Almost. But it got too cold, so I went down the road and stayed at Jesse’s.”

  “Really?” I leaned back and looked at him, and he nodded. “I hope the baby cried all night and kept you up.”

  “Nah, she’s actually pretty well-behaved. For a baby, anyway.”

  “Guess you got lucky.”

  “You know I did.”

  The way he said it left no doubt about his meaning, and I rolled my eyes at his cheesiness as he leaned down to kiss me. His lips had barely grazed mine when I heard the front door bang open and Anders’s voice carrying across the yard.

  “Seriously?”

  “Hey man, I really am sorry,” Harry said quickly, dropping me like a hot potato as he turned towards my brother. “I should never have put her in that situation.”

  “Too right you shouldn’t’ve.” Anders limped towards him, looking about as threatening as someone with only one functioning leg possibly can. “I’m disappointed in you, AJ. You could’ve at least slapped him first.”

  “That’s a good point.” I turned to face Harry and raised my hand. I wasn’t going to do it, until he smirked at me so confidently
that I couldn’t resist. Harry lifted his hand to his cheek, his mouth open in surprise as I dropped my arm back to my side and turned to look at my brother.

  “Better?”

  “Much.” He limped right up to Harry, and jabbed a finger into his broad chest. “And if you pull that shit again, it won’t just be her that smacks you in the face.”

  Harry nodded. “Got it.”

  Anders nodded once, then looked at me and shook his head. “Sucker.”

  “Me, or him?”

  “Both of you.”

  “Hi, Harry.” We all turned to see Dad standing in the doorway, smiling and clearly oblivious to what had just gone down. “Staying for dinner?”

  Anders shot Harry a look that made it crystal clear what his answer should be, and my newly-reinstated boyfriend dutifully responded.

  “Not tonight, thanks. I’ve got a few things to do, some errands to run for my dad.”

  “Sure you have,” I muttered as Dad went back inside.

  He shrugged. “Just trying to make a good impression. Walk me to my car?”

  “Only to make sure you leave.”

  I smiled at him, and he grinned back. I’d missed this – the easy banter, the way we teased each other constantly, both knowing that we didn’t mean it. He put his arm around my waist as we walked, and I leaned into his embrace.

  “I brought you something.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “A bribe?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “It’d better be chocolate.”

  We’d reached his shiny green ute, and he opened the back door and reached in, then pulled out a saddle. He whipped the dark green cover off it with a flourish, and held it out towards me. “Ta da!”

  I stared at the newly-repaired Antares with my mouth open. “That’s my saddle.”

  “Yes it is.” He held it out towards me, but I just stared at it, unable to move.

  “Why do you have it?”

  “I picked it up this afternoon.”

  “But the saddler said I couldn’t have it until…” I stared at Harry. “You didn’t pay for it. Did you?”

  “Maybe a little.” I raised my eyebrows, and he grinned. “Yeah, okay. Maybe a lot. And you’d better still want it, because I have no earthly use for a jumping saddle.”