Headstrong

by Bonnie Bryant

  “Hey,” she greeted him as she brought Scooby to a halt. “How do we look today?”

  As usual, Ben didn’t waste time on formalities. “Check your right side,” he said. “Looks like you’re still favoring it a little.”

  Callie glanced down at her right leg, the one that had been injured in the accident and had kept her from endurance riding for so long. Though it had recovered fully, she realized that Ben might be right—she might still be automatically adjusting for its previous weakness.

  “Thanks,” she said, readjusting her position slightly.

  Ben nodded. Then his attention turned to Callie’s horse. “Scooby looks great. Happy with him so far?”

  “Definitely.” Callie smiled and leaned forward to pat her horse fondly. “He’s doing terrific. Of course, we haven’t really been out in the woods together,” she added, her smile fading slightly. “The closest we came was a little trail around the pasture at Mr. Rayburn’s farm. And Mr. Rayburn said Scooby can be a little headstrong on the trail, especially when he’s feeling fresh.” That was the one thing that had been worrying her a little. She didn’t mind a horse who had a mind of his own and wasn’t afraid to show it, but a truly headstrong mount would be a constant struggle, and that could eat up a lot more energy than a good endurance team could afford. “I just hope a little early energy is all it is,” she muttered, more to herself than to Ben. She trusted Mr. Rayburn’s word—she wouldn’t have bought Scooby if she didn’t—but she knew that the farmer wasn’t an endurance expert. What might seem “a little fresh” to him might seem irretrievably headstrong to her, especially during a race.

  Ben shrugged. “Easy answer,” he said. “Take him out and see.”

  Callie blinked, realizing that he was right. Here she was, spending two full days schooling in the ring when she hadn’t even fully tested her horse yet in the environment where they would eventually be spending most of their time—the trail. “Of course,” she said slowly, feeling a bit foolish. “That makes sense. I’ll take him out tomorrow.” She smiled at Ben. “Thanks for pointing out the obvious.”

  Ben shrugged again. “Stuff that should be obvious isn’t always.”

  He turned away and hoisted his bag of feed before Callie could respond further. She watched him walk off into the stable, a little amazed, as she always was, at the way he could be so helpful and insightful once in a while and yet so taciturn and almost sullen the rest of the time.

  Then she forgot about Ben and returned her attention to Scooby. “Ready for a nice relaxing grooming?” she asked him cheerfully. She was already looking forward to the next day’s ride, though a tiny knot of nervousness had settled into the pit of her stomach. She knew it wouldn’t dissipate until she’d tested Scooby on the trail.

  After dismounting, she led Scooby out of the ring. They were heading for the stable entrance when she saw Carole’s familiar red junker pull in. Carole caught up to them a moment later just outside the door.

  “Hi!” Carole said breathlessly, stepping forward to let Scooby sniff her. “This must be Scooby.”

  “It sure is.” Callie grinned proudly as Carole patted and scratched the horse, looking him over from stem to stern.

  “He’s gorgeous! Sorry I couldn’t be here for the welcome party.” Carole smiled sheepishly at Callie as she gave the horse a rub under his chin. “It’s easy to use up my stable time these days without even realizing it, and by Friday I was all out. I’ve been dying to see him, but I couldn’t come yesterday either because I was out with my dad all day.”

  “It’s okay. I understand.” Callie knew that the rules of Carole’s grounding allowed her only four visits to Pine Hollow per week, and that those visits could be only two hours long. For a horse-crazy girl like Carole, that had to be the next best thing to torture. Callie knew that she would have trouble limiting herself like that. It had been bad enough after her accident, when her riding had been constrained by her own physical condition. “At least New Year’s is only a little over a week away now.”

  “I know. I’m counting the days.” Carole checked her watch and grimaced. “Meanwhile, though, I have to count the minutes. If I want to get anything done today, I should get moving.”

  “Me too.” Callie clucked to Scooby, and all three of them headed into the building. “I want to get Scooby settled in for the day—we’re going to hit the trails tomorrow, and he’ll need his rest.”

  “Really? Where are you going to go?”

  Callie shrugged. “I’m not sure yet exactly, but if everything goes well in the beginning of our ride, I’ll probably try to head into the state forest and find some challenging spots to test him out.”

  Carole smiled and patted Scooby on the shoulder. “That sounds great. I’m sure you’ll both enjoy it. Have fun.”

  “Thanks. Have fun today with Starlight.”

  “I will.” Carole waved as Callie headed across the entryway toward the stable aisle with Scooby in tow. Then she turned the other way, toward the tack room. She was happy for Callie—she always loved seeing a rider matched with a compatible horse— but at the moment she had to admit that she was much more interested in her own problem. She just couldn’t seem to come up with a good idea for Cam’s Christmas gift. She still wanted to find something that would be truly meaningful, and after the poetry fiasco, she had considered several other possibilities, from baking him a cake to knitting him a sweater. But a cake didn’t seem special enough, and Carole seriously doubted she could learn to knit well enough in the next week to make anything decent. Nothing else she thought of seemed right, either.

  She was thinking hard when she wandered into the tack room and saw George Wheeler. He was hanging up his horse’s bridle on its assigned bracket, and as he stretched, his tight wool sweater crept up a bit in back to expose a sliver of pale skin.

  Carole averted her eyes from the less-than-lovely sight and cleared her throat. “Hi, George,” she said politely. She had never gotten to know George very well, even though he had been riding at Pine Hollow almost daily for the past year and a half. He had always been a little shy, and with all the work and activity of the stable, Carole just hadn’t had time to get past that and find out what he was all about. The only thing she really knew about him, aside from the fact that he’d had a crush on Callie for months, was that he was an excellent rider. As unlikely as it seemed for a guy with his personality and body type, he had won more than his share of ribbons in eventing.

  “Hi, Carole,” George responded in his soft, tentative voice. “Going for a ride?”

  “Uh-huh.” Carole smile at him and then walked over to grab Starlight’s bridle. She was expecting George to move on, since he seemed to be finishing up, and was a bit startled when she turned around and saw him standing in the middle of the room, watching her with his arms tucked behind his back. Carole smiled again, a little uncertainly this time. “Um, I figured I’d take Starlight out for a hack, since it’s not too cold today.”

  “That sounds nice.” George smiled, still standing there watching her.

  Carole slung her bridle over one shoulder and then turned to hoist Starlight’s saddle off its rack. She wasn’t sure why George was hanging around, and it was making her a bit uncomfortable. “Anyway,” she said blankly, searching for something to fill the silence, “Starlight has always loved the trails. I love trail riding, too. It was one of the first things I learned to love about riding, just heading into the woods and having fun. I mean, I’m not Callie or anything—Starlight and I aren’t going to be jaunting off into the depths of the state forest like she and Scooby are doing tomorrow.” She laughed weakly, wondering why she couldn’t seem to stop babbling. George’s bland, silent stare was making her much too nervous. As she grabbed for Starlight’s girth, it slipped out of her fingers and slithered to the floor. Bending over to fish it out from under a saddle rack, she clamped her mouth shut and vowed to get a grip. Still, she wished George would just go away already so that she could go back to thinking about Ca
m.

  “Um, I’d better go,” George said at that moment, as if reading her thoughts.

  Carole stood up quickly and turned around, hoping she hadn’t inadvertently let him know what she was feeling. She might not be thrilled about hanging around the tack room chatting with George, but she didn’t want to be rude.

  As she turned, she quickly realized the reason for George’s hasty departure. Ben Marlow was standing in the doorway holding an empty box of deworming paste.

  Carole gulped. She hadn’t seen much of Ben lately, and his appearance caught her off guard. “Um, hi,” she said as George slipped out past Ben.

  Ben merely nodded in response, then headed over to the medicine cabinet above the sink. Swinging open the door, he rummaged around inside without a word.

  Carole stood clutching her tack, wondering why her feet suddenly seemed to be frozen to the floor. While George’s presence had made her tongue run nonstop, Ben’s sudden appearance was having the opposite effect. Her mind felt dull and slow, and she couldn’t seem to come up with one single thing to say to him.

  Finally she managed to collect her thoughts enough to blurt out, “What are you looking for?”

  Ben glanced at her over his shoulder. “De-wormer,” he said. “Checkers just knocked his in his water bucket, so Maureen needs another tube.”

  “Oh.” Carole winced slightly at the new stable hand’s name. She still wasn’t sure if her reaction had anything to do with the young woman herself or if it was just sour grapes because she couldn’t quite get over the idea that Maureen had taken over the job that should by all rights still belong to Carole. “Maureen. Um, so how’s she working out?”

  Ben shrugged. “She knows horses.”

  He didn’t seem inclined to elaborate. “Um, that’s good,” Carole said lamely. She couldn’t help thinking that, as usual, Ben didn’t seem eager to chat with her. Still, she couldn’t quite bring herself to leave the room with Starlight’s tack. Instead she puttered around, first fiddling with the girth and then leaning over a bucket of spare stirrup leathers and pretending to search for one.

  Ben remained silent as he dropped his empty de-wormer in the wastebasket and headed for the door with the full one. For a moment Carole thought he was going to leave without the two of them exchanging another word. But he paused in the doorway and half turned toward her. “Uh, bye,” he muttered.

  Carole was so startled that it took her a moment to respond. “See you later!” she called finally, though she wasn’t sure whether he heard her or not, since he had already disappeared around the corner.

  How does he always manage to do that to me? Why do I always seem to turn into a blithering idiot when he’s in the room? she wondered. She had been trying to figure out Ben since she’d met him more than two years earlier and was really no closer to doing so than she’d ever been.

  With a sigh, she tried to return her thoughts to Cam as she left the room with her tack and walked down the hall, heading for Starlight’s stall. The more time passed, the more anxious she got about finding the perfect gift to demonstrate how she felt about him. But somehow, her mind couldn’t quite seem to let go of the awkward little encounter with Ben.

  If I were shopping for him instead, this would be easy. The thought sprang into her head unbidden. I could just go to The Saddlery and pick out something I loved myself and be pretty sure he would love it, too.

  She frowned, her steps slowing as she turned down the aisle toward Starlight’s stall. Where had that idea come from? She had no idea what sort of Christmas gift Ben would like.

  But she knew that wasn’t really true. Like her, Ben lived, breathed, slept, and dreamed horses. If she bought him a manure fork or a new grooming kit, he would love it. If she got him those chaps that Stevie was giving Phil, Ben would love that, too. If she offered him half ownership of Starlight as her gift, he would be even more thrilled—not that he would show it, but she knew it would be true nonetheless.

  “Hey, buddy,” she said, interrupting her own thoughts as Starlight came to the front of his stall to meet her. “Ready to go?”

  Starlight didn’t respond except to butt at her gently with his head, but Carole could tell that the gelding was feeling frisky. That was good. Thinking about guys—Ben, and even Cam—was starting to make her head hurt. She figured she might as well take her mind off both of them, and everything else, by throwing herself into the one activity that had always been able to absorb her completely. Maybe the real physical exercise and simple emotional satisfaction of riding would give her some perspective on everything else.

  I’m really glad there’s no school today, Callie thought with satisfaction, taking a deep breath of the hay-and-horse-scented air as she entered Pine Hollow the next morning. It’s definitely the best early Christmas present I could ask for. Because I don’t think I could sit through six and a half hours of classes before I took Scooby out on the trails. Not when I’m dying to know if this partnership is going to work out.

  She had spent most of the previous evening thinking about her future with Scooby, and as far as she could remember, she’d also spent much of the night dreaming about the same topic. Now it was time to find out once and for all if she’d made the right choice.

  When she walked into the office, the first thing that met her eyes was the bottom of Maureen’s well-worn paddock boots, which were propped up on Max’s desk. The new stable hand was leaning back in the desk chair, a mug in one hand and the other hand resting between her head and the wall behind her. Red was leaning against the edge of the desk, a chipped cup propped on his knee. From what Callie heard, the two of them seemed to be discussing a TV show they’d both seen the night before. The distinctive smell of coffee permeated the small room.

  Callie cleared her throat, since neither of the adults noticed her standing there. “Good morning.”

  “Oh, hi, Callie.” Red turned and smiled at her. “Want a cuppa?”

  “No thanks. I just stopped in to let you know that I’m planning to hit the trails today,” she said, trying not to notice that Maureen’s leg was almost touching Red’s jeans. “I expect to leave as soon as I can get Scooby tacked, and if all goes well, I’ll be back around two.”

  Maureen blinked, seeming confused at the information, but Red nodded and grabbed a pen and notepad. “Okay,” he said. “What’s your intended route?”

  “I’m not completely sure,” she said. “I want to search out some interesting footing, so it will sort of depend on what I find along the way. But I can draw you a rough map of the major possibilities. And I’m taking my cell phone along in case there are any big changes.” She patted her bulging jacket pocket, where she’d stashed the tiny phone along with a foil-wrapped sandwich and some other items that she planned to transfer into a cantle bag for the ride.

  “Okay.” Red handed over the pen and paper.

  Callie quickly sketched out the route she had in mind. She had a pretty good idea of where she wanted to go, based on her experiences riding Barq and other horses.

  “That’s an awfully long trail ride,” Maureen commented, swinging her feet down to the floor and leaning forward to see the notepad. “Anyway, why are you telling us where you’re going to be riding?”

  “Callie’s an endurance rider,” Red explained. “She’ll be out alone today, and we need to know where to look if she doesn’t make it back when she’s supposed to.”

  Maureen gave Callie a slow, appraising glance. “Endurance, huh? Interesting. But I thought the kids weren’t allowed to ride solo off the property.”

  Callie flinched at the word kids—after all, Maureen wasn’t all that much older than she was. “The younger kids aren’t allowed out alone,” she said, keeping a lid on her temper. Maureen was new, after all. She couldn’t possibly know all the ins and outs of Pine Hollow’s rules yet. “But Max lets the more advanced riders like me go out by themselves.”

  “Not that he’s crazy about that, either,” Red interjected. “But as long as we have as m
uch information as humanly possible, he can live with it.”

  Maureen rolled her eyes and laughed. “Yeah, I could see him giving himself an ulcer over something like that. Max is pretty cool, but he’s kind of uptight about some stuff.”

  Callie thought that was a little harsh—Max had to be responsible if he wanted to successfully manage thirty-odd horses, not to mention an even greater number of riders encompassing everything from rank beginners to seasoned competitors. But she definitely didn’t feel like standing around debating it. “Okay, then,” she said briskly, already moving toward the door. “I’d better get going. See you this afternoon.”

  Callie patted Scooby on the withers as she kicked her feet out of the stirrups and prepared to dismount. “Good job so far, boy,” she said, not bothering to disguise the pride in her voice. “Excellent job, in fact. Maybe it’s true, you are a little headstrong, but so am I. So we’re going to do just fine.”

  She could hardly contain the relief she felt. After just an hour on the trail, she was already certain that she’d made the right decision in choosing Scooby. While it was true that the Appaloosa had been pretty strongly forward when they’d first crossed the fields toward the woods, and he had tested her once or twice early on, he had settled well once Callie reminded him that she was in charge.

  And that’s exactly the kind of horse I want, she thought as she looped the reins over Scooby’s head and led him down a slight hill to let him drink from the cool, clean water of the creek. I definitely don’t want some total packer that’s going to let me fall asleep on the trail. Scooby may not be quite as flashy or excitable as some of the endurance champs I’ve ridden in the past, but underneath that calm exterior he’s my kind of horse.

  She waited patiently while Scooby slaked his thirst, staring at the pebbly stream bottom as she planned their future, beginning with a couple of races they might possibly be ready to enter by that spring. The possibilities seemed endless.

  When Scooby lifted his head, his muzzle dripping, she led him back up onto the trail. “Ready to move on, bub?” she asked, giving him a solid pat on the neck.