Heartbreak Bronco

by Terri Farley

  The dark-haired girl blushed, but she also fidgeted with what looked like excitement.

  Meeting Sam’s eyes, Crystal mouthed silent words that looked like, I have to tell you something.

  “—can you?” Clara asked, dragging Sam’s attention back to their phone conversation.

  “I’m sorry, Clara, what were you asking me?”

  “I don’t blame you for being surprised, Sam. It is short notice, but I’ve already paid the entry fee and there are already bids on the horse and he has to be ridden by someone under sixteen.”

  Sam heard Linc’s voice bellowing questions, but she asked anyway.

  “Clara? Are you saying you want me to ride Jinx in the claiming race? I’ve never—”

  Clara chuckled. “It’s more for fun than an actual race,” she said. “I never would have agreed to let that Amelia do it if I thought it was risky. Although”—Clara broke off to tsk her tongue—“that girl promised to get me written permission from her parents, and I haven’t seen it yet.”

  “But it’s not a real race?” Sam prodded her.

  “There’s a running start, like a barrel race, and only one horse runs at a time,” Clara explained. “The clock starts ticking when you cross a line into that little arena the YRA uses. When you reach the other end of the arena, you swing a turn, then race back. Time stops when you cross over that line again.”

  “Like a barrel race with no barrels,” Sam mused.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Clara agreed. “So, what do you think?”

  Sam pictured Jinx balking and the crowd roaring with laughter.

  Jinx could embarrass them both. Still, if he did balk, he’d probably do it outside the arena, before they got started.

  “It’s mainly for fun,” Clara coaxed. “The entry fee was seventy-five dollars, and the purse is five hundred.”

  “I don’t know,” Sam hesitated. “He’s really fast, but he balks, Clara. And he’s still a little unpredictable.”

  “Oh honey, that doesn’t make any difference. Maybe you didn’t hear me before. There are already three bids on the horse. The minimum bid is the same as the purse—five hundred dollars!”

  Three bids. So Jinx would have a new home, no matter how he ran in the claiming race. Who could have placed those bids?

  “I’ll have to ask my dad,” Sam said, but she already felt the anticipation building.

  Dad had to say yes.

  “You do that, Sam,” Clara said, raising her voice over Linc’s chatter. “And I’ll pay you a rider’s fee, of course.” Clara paused to listen and Sam wondered why Linc hadn’t just picked up the phone and called River Bend Ranch himself.

  “Oh, is that so?” Clara sounded pleased.

  “What, Clara?”

  All at once, worry grabbed Sam.

  “Linc was just telling me—how much?”

  Sam gripped the receiver harder.

  “Linc was just saying,” Clara continued, “that he can always use another fast horse. He’s planning on watching the race Saturday and thinks it would add to the fun to have a stake in it.”

  “What’s he mean by that?” Sam asked, though she knew very well what Linc Slocum meant.

  “Well, it sounds to me like he wants to make a claiming bid on my horse.”

  “Darn right!” Linc’s voice roared.

  Sam closed her eyes. Jinx would go to the highest bidder.

  In all of Darton County, there was only one millionaire. If Linc Slocum bid on Jinx, the grulla gelding would be his.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Working like a robot, Sam took a package of hot dogs from the freezer and tried to make dinner. Three hot dogs exploded in the microwave before she got the knack of cooking them. Sam served the first two survivors to Crystal, though Blaze stood by, wagging his tail hopefully.

  The dark-haired girl stayed silent while they ate, and Sam appreciated that, but when she’d blotted up the last drip of mustard with her hot dog bun, she still hadn’t figured out how to help Jinx.

  “I have to tell you what my dad said,” Crystal said, finally breaking the silence.

  “Okay,” Sam said. She stared at the kitchen window, which only showed her reflection against the dark-gray night outside. She wondered what her own father was doing now.

  “I told him about the snake and then I told him I was going to beg Brynna to let me stay and finish the HARP course—”

  “If there is one,” Sam said.

  “—and he said he’d call HARP and tell them what progress I was making, and if she’d let me and I stuck it out and didn’t mess up anymore, he’d come watch on Friday.”

  While Crystal waited for Sam to celebrate, crunching filled the kitchen. Blaze was eating his dinner, but he, too, watched Sam with reproachful looks. Probably, she thought, because the smell of hot dogs still lingered.

  Sam just couldn’t work up the enthusiasm Crystal wanted from her.

  “So, he’s not going to punish you?” she asked.

  “I’m grounded for the summer. I can’t go anywhere without him.” Crystal frowned, tapped her glass, then added, “How sick is it that I like the sound of that?”

  Sam shrugged.

  “Do you know what he said about sending me away? He thinks he’s been doing a terrible job as a father because of the wild stuff I’ve done. He even said because he rides a motorcycle instead of driving a car, he had to send me away so I could be exposed to people who’d have a better influence on me.”

  Before Sam had a chance to respond, Blaze jumped up from his dish and paced to the door.

  Tires bumped over the bridge just an instant before hoofbeats.

  Amelia and Gram came into the kitchen while Dad and Brynna lingered outside.

  “They’re bedding down the horses,” Gram explained, but Sam knew better. Brynna was telling Dad everything that had happened in his absence, and Dad was probably frustrated because he hadn’t been home to help.

  Amelia held up a bandaged right hand.

  “We were right,” she said. “It wasn’t a rattlesnake.”

  “Does it hurt?” Crystal asked.

  “Yeah, but that’s not why it’s all wrapped up.” Amelia gave an impish smile. “They were going to just put a Band-Aid on it until I convinced everyone I could still ride. So they added lots of extra protection.”

  “Are you sure?” Sam asked.

  Amelia made a loose fist with her left hand and held it out to one side as if she were holding reins.

  “Brynna said I could.”

  Sam glanced over at Gram.

  “We thought—and her parents agreed—that Amelia’s progress in other areas should be rewarded.”

  Amelia pumped her bandaged hand skyward as she smiled at Sam.

  “Good job,” Sam said.

  “But she is not riding in the claiming race,” Gram insisted.

  Amelia’s eyes slid away from Sam’s and her grin faded. Sam rubbed her eyes. She was tired, but she could swear Amelia’s expression showed more guilt than disappointment.

  The kitchen door opened. Brynna and Dad walked in and Sam looked quickly enough to see them loosen hands, which must have been linked while they were outside.

  Although seeing Dad holding hands with Brynna had taken some getting used to, Sam knew now that it was a good sign.

  Just the same, his eyes took in everyone in the kitchen critically, then remained on Crystal.

  The dark-haired girl seemed to think Dad was asking for a confession.

  “I’m the one who—”

  Dad held his hand palm out, halting her.

  “Young lady, I’ve been in the saddle about forty hours these last two days. I’ve heard what I need to hear from my wife. The rest can wait. Just now, I’m gonna have a shower, then come down to eat whatever I smell cooking.”

  “Just hot dogs, Dad,” Sam told him. “And half of them exploded.”

  Gram’s head was tilted to one side as she peered inside the microwave oven, surveying the mess. Dad didn’t notice.<
br />
  The hand he rested on Sam’s shoulder smelled of horses and leather.

  “Sounds like a fine dinner to me,” he said. “And I hear you did a good job today during the—emergency.”

  Dad’s eyes looked weary in his sun-browned face, but mostly he looked proud.

  “I didn’t really do anything,” Sam admitted. “And if I hadn’t left to see Tempest—”

  “You had permission,” Brynna interrupted. “And by keeping calm, you kept Amelia quiet.”

  “Thanks,” Sam sighed.

  “You have the night off,” Brynna said.

  “Right,” Sam laughed. “After I clean out the microwave I trashed.” But Brynna looked serious, so Sam asked, “What do you mean?”

  “She means I’ll be sleeping in the bunkhouse tonight with the girls,” Gram said.

  Sam pictured herself falling backward in slow motion onto her own bed. Just the idea made her relax. Her head bobbled on her neck. Her shoulders drooped and she could barely see past her heavy eyelids.

  “Thanks, Gram,” Sam said.

  Dad winked as he passed through the swinging door to the living room.

  When his boots sounded on the stairs, Amelia whispered to Sam, “I need to talk to you.”

  She sat back in surprise as all eyes turned her way.

  “A whisper attracts a lot more attention than a shout around here,” Brynna said.

  “I guess so,” Amelia muttered. “But Sam, we have to talk about the race.”

  “Amelia won’t be riding in it.” Brynna sounded as if her patience had been tested on the subject. “Even without the injury, she wouldn’t have.”

  Sam decided this wasn’t the time to mention the pending permission slip Clara had told her about.

  “But I have to tell you something,” Amelia insisted.

  Crystal shifted as if trying to draw Amelia’s attention, but the other girl just stared at Sam.

  The way she was bugging her eyes, it must be important, but Brynna thought otherwise.

  “Amelia, is it anything that’s going to change before tomorrow morning?”

  After a thoughtful minute, Amelia shook her head.

  “Now,” Brynna said to Sam, “if you’re going to be alert for our five thirty meeting, I think you should hustle upstairs and get some rest.”

  Sam groaned at the thought of the early meeting. If they were staying on schedule, though, it must mean Brynna’s talks with the girls’ parents and HARP had gone well.

  Tomorrow the girls would mount up for the first time.

  Amelia would be ecstatic. Crystal would be scared. Both reactions would take extra attention from Brynna and Sam.

  When she got upstairs, Sam wondered if her bedside clock had stopped. Could it be only eight o’clock?

  It was. Her watch confirmed it. It was way too early to go to bed. Yawning, she picked up a horse magazine she’d barely read, and flopped down on her quilt.

  After a minute or two, she realized she wasn’t really reading the article on barn buckets. Her mind was replaying Gram’s story about luck.

  The cowboy who’d owned Jinx said he was a bad luck charm, but Sam thought he was wrong.

  Jinx had been sold by the Potters because Mr. Potter had broken his arm in a fall from the grulla, but then the Happy Heart Ranch had been sold for a huge amount of money.

  When the cowboy had traded Jinx to Clara for a dollar and a piece of cake, she’d counted herself lucky, until Jinx escaped and caused Jake’s accident.

  But maybe, because he needed the money to pay for his car insurance, Jake would agree to work for the HARP program. So, the luck seesawed back to good, at least for the girls who’d benefit from his teaching, didn’t it?

  Sam stared at her bedroom’s plastered ceiling. Letting her gaze lose focus, she could see pictures in the white, uneven surface.

  Jinx and the Phantom had run side by side, revealing the grulla’s hidden talent for speed. That speed had caused Amelia to dream of riding him. Having a dream reminded her she needed to be a good kid to get her parents’ cooperation to ride again. Maybe that realization had helped her stand up to Crystal.

  And Jinx’s speed had inspired Clara to enter him in the claiming race, so she might earn some extra money and the gelding could go to a home where they didn’t consider him bad luck.

  Sam closed her eyes. She sighed, then fell asleep knowing they’d all live happily ever after.

  Only in her dreams did Sam feel a threat. Looming dark in the corner of her mind, she saw Linc Slocum, ready to tilt Jinx’s luck back the other way.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Before breakfast, Sam talked with Brynna and Dad about riding in the claiming race.

  Dad took a deep breath and glanced at Brynna. Sam followed his eyes in time to notice Brynna’s arched eyebrows.

  “How ’bout you go help the girls groom and saddle their horses right now,” Dad said, “and we’ll let you know.”

  She’d gone without a word, but now breakfast was over, the horses were ready for Amelia and Crystal to mount up for the first time, and still Sam hadn’t heard a word about the claiming race.

  Patience, she told herself, and turned back to work.

  “Amelia, I noticed you frowned every time you had to pick up your spoon for a bite of oatmeal,” Sam pointed out as they left the kitchen. “How’s your hand?”

  “It doesn’t hurt,” Amelia insisted, flexing her fingers in demonstration. “I just don’t like oatmeal.”

  Sam smiled and glanced over her shoulder at Crystal.

  “Slowpoke,” she said, and though Crystal stuck out her tongue, Sam knew it was really fear that slowed Crystal’s steps.

  Or maybe it was more than that, Sam thought as Amelia walked ahead. She hadn’t heard Amelia speak a single word to Crystal since yesterday when she’d screamed at her to put the snake down.

  Crystal’s feelings had to be hurt, but what did she expect?

  Sam shook her head. She hoped the girls worked it out, but her job was to get them in their saddles and into the round pen before Brynna finished her last cup of coffee.

  “Who wants to go first?” Sam asked when the horses were tacked up.

  “Me, me, me!” Amelia insisted.

  “Okay, now I’m going to let you try it your own way, but make sure Jinx doesn’t move off once you have your boot in the stirrup.”

  “Okay,” Amelia said impatiently.

  “You remember how he did that with me?” Sam said, touching Amelia’s left hand as she gathered her reins to mount. “Think a minute.”

  “I remember,” Amelia insisted. “He won’t do that with me. We’re buddies.”

  Sure enough, Jinx let Amelia mount without a fuss. Had he become more confident after days of kind handling, or was there really a bond between the two?

  “I wouldn’t do this except for my dad,” Crystal said, tightening her ponytail. “Everybody told me I was lucky I didn’t kill myself when I jumped off the school roof into the swimming pool—”

  Amelia’s head whipped around to stare at Crystal. Apparently she hadn’t heard about that misdeed. Still, Amelia didn’t speak to the other girl.

  “—but the pool was just sitting there,” Crystal went on. “It wasn’t trying to kill me. I’m not so sure about him.”

  Popcorn’s ears pricked toward Jinx, wondering where they were going, but he waited quietly for Crystal to mount up and decide.

  “Popcorn wouldn’t think of killing you,” Sam said.

  The screen door creaked open as Brynna came outside. She walked toward the round pen, smiling at Sam’s last words.

  As Sam watched, Brynna gave her a thumbs-up sign. That must mean she’d get to ride Jinx in the claiming race.

  Oh my gosh. It was only a few days away. How could she train a horse who was afraid to gallop to burst into a run practically from a standing start?

  “If he decides he doesn’t like me he will,” Crystal said.

  “Will what?” Sam asked.

&n
bsp; “Kill me!” Crystal snapped. “Haven’t you been listening? Look at him. He has the coldest eyes.”

  Sam didn’t point out that Crystal’s and Popcorn’s eyes were a perfect match.

  “He likes you,” she insisted.

  As Amelia reined Popcorn toward the gate Brynna held open, the girl muttered something.

  It sounded like, That’s because he doesn’t know her.

  Inch by inch, Crystal mounted the albino gelding.

  “You look great up there,” Sam said, and it was true.

  The albino’s white coat sparkled from good grooming. Crystal’s royal-blue tee-shirt brought out Popcorn’s blue eyes as well as her own. And the horse seemed set on pleasing Crystal. Although her rein movements were clumsy and should have been confusing, he followed Jinx into the round pen and did as he was asked all morning.

  Finally, they released the horses just before lunch.

  “Why do you like riding so much?” Brynna asked Amelia as they walked back to the house.

  “It’s because,” Amelia looked down as if she was afraid of their response, “they have minds. It’s not like riding a bike where it just does what you make it do. If a horse goes along with what you’re asking, it’s because he wants to. That’s what makes it fun.”

  “That’s what makes it dangerous,” Crystal grumbled.

  At last, Amelia broke her silence toward Crystal.

  “I don’t know how you can think that,” Amelia said. “I mean, Sam was riding this close”—Amelia measured off a few inches of air between her thumb and forefinger—“to a wild stallion and she didn’t get hurt.”

  “Wait a minute!” Brynna said.

  “Yeah, wait,” Sam said. “Don’t even think of doing that, you guys, ever.”

  “Don’t worry ’bout me,” Crystal muttered, but Amelia crossed her arms, looking more rebellious than she had all week.

  “I’m lucky because the Phantom is my friend,” Sam said, trying to explain. “But it’s because I raised him from a foal. Not because wild horses like people.”

  “You bonded with him like I did with Jinx,” Amelia insisted.

  “Not exactly. Jinx hasn’t been wild for a long time. The Phantom is a mustang first, the leader of his herd. Our friendship is way down the list of who he is.”