She didn’t explain further, though she was sure her friends were curious. Somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to get into the whole story just then.
“Well, we’re glad you could come along,” Stevie said carefully. “Um, but do you think that George wanted to—”
“I’m sick of George Wheeler!” Callie snapped before her friend could finish her sentence. “If I had to spend a whole trail ride with him, I’d probably puke.”
Her friends were silent for a long moment. Then Carole changed the subject, saying something about Starlight’s hooves. Callie kept her eyes trained straight ahead, between Scooby’s pricked ears. She realized that her friends might think she was acting like a jerk, but she didn’t care. They weren’t the ones who had to deal with George every time they turned around. They weren’t the ones who spent every day kicking themselves for ever letting him into their lives. They couldn’t possibly understand what that was like. So they could simply think whatever they wanted to think. Callie was just glad she’d escaped this time.
Half an hour later Lisa swayed gently with the motion of Barq’s walk, not even trying to maintain a proper riding position. Instead she slumped into the saddle, letting the Arabian gelding follow Starlight, who was just ahead of them on the wooded trail.
Though her body was out on the trail with her friends, her thoughts were back at the stable. Brooding over her latest encounter with Scott, she wondered whether she should have agreed to go out with him again.
I’m free now, she reminded herself. Independent. I should be thinking about what went wrong with Alex, trying to figure out what I want out of life—not just flinging myself at the next cute guy who smiles at me. Right?
She couldn’t quite feel sorry that she’d made that date with Scott, though. In fact, she was looking forward to it. Of course, that didn’t mean she didn’t have doubts about hooking up with him so soon. Were the feelings she had for him real? Or did it help, at least a little, that he was so handsome and attentive and eager to be with her—exactly when she was feeling a little insecure about life and love and the future?
That reminded her of her mother. Lisa knew that part of the reason her mother couldn’t believe she wasn’t devastated about breaking up with Alex was that she couldn’t understand how any woman could be better off without a man in her life.
But I’m not like that, Lisa told herself. Am I?
“Lisa? Lisa! Yo, Lisa!”
Blinking, Lisa glanced over her shoulder, realizing that Stevie was calling her name. “Huh?” she said blankly, suddenly remembering where she was.
“I said, are you okay?” Stevie said. “Barq looks like he’s trying to take a bite out of Starlight’s tail.”
“Oops.” Lisa blinked and looked at her horse’s head, realizing that he had run up on Starlight so that his nose was almost touching the other horse’s rump. Feeling sheepish, she gathered her reins and sat up straight, half-halting until her horse backed off. “Sorry about that, Carole.”
“S’okay,” Carole replied, glancing over her shoulder. “You know Starlight couldn’t care less. But it’s not like you to let Barq get away with that kind of stuff.”
“I know. Sorry,” Lisa said, leaning forward to pat her horse on the neck. “I guess I’m a little distracted today.”
“Oh yeah?” Stevie sounded interested. “How come?”
“Um, I was just thinking about, you know, stuff.” Lisa hesitated, not sure whether she should go into more detail. Her gaze rested briefly on Callie, riding along in front of Carole. It was still a little weird having her along as part of their group. Lisa and Stevie and Carole had been a threesome for so long that it always felt kind of strange to hang out with other people. Plus, Callie was Scott’s sister. But that wasn’t what was really holding Lisa back. She was still worried about how her feelings would affect Stevie. Would Stevie think she was being disloyal to Alex by even thinking about moving on so soon after their breakup? Stevie and Alex sometimes seemed to get along about as well as cats and dogs, but Lisa knew that beneath all the jokes and arguments, the twins were fiercely loyal to each other.
Still, Lisa couldn’t resist the urge to share her feelings. She had relied on her friends’ input in her life for too long to start holding back now. She felt a little awkward about mentioning Scott in front of Callie, but she figured she could leave that part out for now.
“It’s just, um, Mom has really been on my case for the past couple of days,” she admitted. “You know, because of the breakup. She seems to think I should be a big puddle of rejection and self-hatred or something. Since I’m not, I guess she thinks I’m covering up my true feelings. You know, repression or compensation or whatever.”
“Hmmm,” Stevie said, pulling Belle up beside Barq as the trail widened. “Sounds like ol’ Eleanor has been spending too much time with the gripers again.”
Lisa was glad to see that Stevie’s expression was sympathetic and concerned, but not upset or angry. Carole, on the other hand, was visibly disturbed as she glanced at Lisa over her shoulder. “Carole?” Lisa said, surprised. “What’s the matter?”
Without further ado, Carole burst into tears. She managed to bring Starlight to a halt, then dropped her reins on his withers and buried her face in her hands. The others pulled up, too. Lisa and Stevie exchanged confused and worried glances. Callie just looked startled as she circled Scooby around and walked him back toward the others.
“Carole?” Stevie said, nudging Belle over beside Starlight. “What’s wrong?”
Suddenly Lisa realized she hadn’t really talked to Carole in a couple of days—not since New Year’s Eve, when Carole and her new boyfriend Cam had had their first fight. At least that was what Lisa had heard from other people. Feeling a little guilty about being so self-absorbed, she smiled at Carole sympathetically. “Does this mean you and Cam haven’t made up yet?” she asked. “I heard you guys had a fight on New Year’s Eve.”
“N-not exactly,” Carole managed to say between sobs. She wiped her eyes and glanced at her friends, her face miserable. “I mean, we didn’t just have a fight. He dumped me.”
“Oh.” Lisa tried not to sound as skeptical as she felt. She still remembered how devastating that kind of situation could be. At the beginning of a relationship, every little argument and disagreement felt like the end of the world. “Um, have you guys tried talking about it? I mean—”
“Yeah,” Stevie interjected, loosening her reins as Belle lowered her head and sniffed at the brownish weeds beside the trail. “Sometimes things get blown out of proportion, especially when you’re just starting out. Cam really loves you. He’ll want to—”
“He doesn’t,” Carole interrupted, more tears spilling out of her wide brown eyes. “He made that pretty clear. All he cared about was … was …” She sobbed again.
“What?” Lisa couldn’t imagine what this was about, though she was starting to think it might be more serious than the typical petty first tiff. Carole was pretty sensitive, but she wasn’t the melodramatic type. She glanced at the others. Stevie looked just as confused and concerned as Lisa felt. Callie, who had been quiet until then, was gazing at Carole worriedly. “Carole, you can tell us,” Lisa added, dropping her stirrups to stretch her legs as Barq stood quietly with the other horses. “What happened?”
“Remember our gift exchange?” Carole asked.
Lisa shrugged. “Sure,” she said, and Stevie nodded. Carole had spent more than a week shopping and planning, trying to figure out the perfect Christmas gift for Cam.
“Well, as it turned out, there was only one gift Cam really wanted from me,” Carole said, her voice sad and bitter. “One very, um, intimate kind of gift. If you know what I mean.”
Lisa’s eyes widened. “Oh!” she said, wondering if she was misunderstanding. “You mean—”
“Uh-huh.” Carole gulped back another sob. “He made it quite clear. That’s why he brought me to the hayloft on New Year’s Eve. He thought it would be the perfect spot, ni
ce and private. And when I wouldn’t go along with it, when I told him I wasn’t ready for that yet, he told me it was over.”
“That rat!” Stevie exclaimed so angrily that Belle flinched beneath her. “That total jerk! I can’t believe he’d do that! What a total, complete, utter …,” she sputtered, clearly too furious to settle on just the right descriptive name.
Callie was shaking her head. “Wow,” she said. “Sounds like quite a piece of work.”
Lisa was too shocked to speak for a moment. She and Carole and Stevie had all known Cam in junior high, and back then he had been a really nice guy. It was hard to believe that someone could change so much in a few years. But if what Carole was saying was true—and looking at her tearstained face, Lisa was convinced that it was—then that was just what had happened. Nice, polite, caring Cam had morphed into a selfish, manipulative cad.
Stevie was still muttering angrily, but Lisa just felt sad. “I know this has got to be rough, Carole,” she said, wondering why her friend seemed to have such bad luck with guys. “But try not to beat yourself up about it. He fooled all of us.”
“Yeah,” Stevie added, scratching Belle on the withers to soothe her. “I’ve seen players before, but Cam is obviously a real pro. You can do way better than him.”
Lisa was expecting Carole to argue—she’d been so smitten with Cam that it had seemed she’d forgotten other guys existed—but instead she just nodded thoughtfully. “Uh-huh,” she murmured. “I guess you’re right.”
“You’re right I’m right,” Stevie said firmly. “You deserve someone who cares about you—someone who’ll treat you right, without pressuring you or playing games.”
“I’m sorry for whining on about Mom and Alex before,” Lisa said, still feeling a little guilty for neglecting her friend in her hour of need, even unintentionally. “I guess I was so wrapped up in my own problems that I didn’t even realize what you were going through.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Carole reassured her. She smiled wanly through her tears. “I—I was trying not to let it show. And what with starting back to work and everything, I thought I was pulling it off for a while there. I guess it’s that repression stuff your mom was talking about, huh?” She giggled, then hiccuped.
“Hey, repression is cool,” Callie put in with a smile. “But you know what I discovered is the only real cure for this kind of thing?”
“Bloody, violent revenge?” Stevie suggested hopefully.
Callie laughed. “Nope,” she said. “A nice long canter. How about it?”
Carole’s smile looked more sincere this time. “That could work,” she said. “Why don’t we give it a try?
“Sounds good,” Lisa agreed, shooting Callie a grateful glance. They would have plenty of time to talk about this in the days and weeks to come, as Carole’s heart slowly healed. But at the moment, Callie was right. The best thing for Carole would be to take her mind off it for a while by doing something she loved.
“So what are we waiting for?” Stevie glanced at the wide, smooth trail ahead of them. They had followed it many times over the years, and they all knew that it emerged at a broad, gently sloping field. It was the perfect spot for a canter.
Lisa gathered her reins. “Come on,” she said, suddenly feeling happy in spite of everything. “Let’s go!”
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About the Author
Bonnie Bryant is the author of over one hundred forty books about horses, including the Saddle Club series and its spinoffs, the Pony Tails series and the Pine Hollow series. Bryant did not know very much about horses before writing the first Saddle Club book in 1986, so she found herself learning right along with the characters she created. She has also written novels and movie novelizations under her married name, Bonnie Bryant Hiller. Bryant was born and raised in New York City, where she still lives today.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2000 by Bonnie Bryant Hiller
Cover design by Connie Gabbert
ISBN: 978-1-4976-5413-6
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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Setting the Pace Page 19