But then he had landed. The impulsion of his big body, the force of gravity, the sheer weight of twelve hundred pounds of horseflesh were too much for his slender, fragile Thoroughbred forelegs. One of those forelegs had crumpled beneath him, and Cobalt had fallen forward, landing heavily on one shoulder as his rider flew off over his head.
Stevie had watched the whole scene as if it had been happening in slow motion, not even realizing she was crying and screaming at the same time until a few seconds later. In the end, the vet had determined that Cobalt’s leg bone was shattered, and the gallant stallion had had to be destroyed. Veronica had been lucky and gotten away with only a broken arm—and the knowledge that she might have suffered much worse.
That whole terrible day flashed through Stevie’s mind in an instant as she waited for Carole to go on. Had something similar happened to Samson? Was he injured or lame? Was that why he was coming back to Pine Hollow?
By Lisa’s simultaneous gasp of horror, Stevie guessed that she was thinking and wondering much the same thing. “Is he—Are his—Did he hurt himself? Samson, I mean?” Lisa asked.
“What?” Carole seemed momentarily confused by the question. “What do you—oh! No, I’m sorry. I should have been more clear. It wasn’t a riding accident. Samson wasn’t involved at all. He’s fine. In fact, Max says he’s in truly superior form. He’s been training really well.”
Lisa felt her pulse start to return to normal. She pushed her own nightmarish memories of Cobalt’s death out of her mind. “Good,” she said, waiting for Carole to go on.
But Carole seemed to have forgotten what she was talking about once again. “I was so excited that I forgot to ask Max exactly when Samson was arriving,” she mused. “I’ll have to ask him tomorrow. I guess it’s probably too late to call now—I don’t want to wake up the kids.”
“Carole!” Stevie said sharply.
But once again, Carole didn’t seem to hear her. “Max was lucky to be able to buy Samson back at the same price he got for him three years ago,” she commented. “After all, he’s had tons of training and conditioning since then.”
Lisa took a deep breath, trying to focus her attention on Carole, who seemed to be getting more agitated and gleeful by the second. “Carole,” she began.
But Carole’s stream of words didn’t abate. “It’s really kind of a bargain for Pine Hollow when you think about it,” she said eagerly. “He’s already a prizewinning jumper, and I’m sure that with my help he can be even—”
“Carole!” This time there was no ignoring Stevie. Lisa winced a bit and held the phone away from her suddenly throbbing eardrum.
“What?” Carole sounded perplexed at Stevie’s sharp tone.
Lisa could almost hear Stevie gathering every last scrap of patience. “You still haven’t told us what happened,” Stevie said. “The rest of the story. The accident. The reason Max is getting Samson back.”
“Oh!” Carole sounded honestly surprised. “I didn’t?”
“No,” Lisa put in quickly, hoping to head off a full-fledged outburst from Stevie. “Please don’t keep us in suspense any longer. Let’s hear it.”
“Well,” Carole said thoughtfully, “I don’t know all the details, but it was something like a boating accident. No, wait—scuba diving. That’s right. Max said that guy—the rider, I mean, the one whose father bought Samson—was killed in some sort of scuba-diving mishap while he was on vacation a couple of weeks ago. Down in the Caribbean somewhere, I think.”
Lisa gasped again, horrified—not only at the shocking tragedy of the young rider’s death, but also at the appallingly offhand, almost casual way that Carole had just described it.
Once again, a hint of real concern crept into her mind as she remembered how deeply and irrationally Carole had loved Samson—and Cobalt before him. Lisa was starting to wonder if that irrationality had infected Carole again already. This just wasn’t like the sensitive, kindhearted Carole that Lisa knew.
Then again, Lisa reminded herself, Carole often seemed to jump from one emotion to the next with hardly a pause in between, a pace that often left the more even-tempered Lisa dizzy. She probably already sobbed her heart out for that poor young man before she called us, Lisa thought uncertainly. Now she’s moved past that and is just excited about seeing Samson again.
Maybe that excitement seemed a little overblown to Lisa, a bit exaggerated for a horse none of them had seen for years, but she wasn’t at all sure it was her place to say so. They weren’t kids anymore. Carole was older now than she’d been when Cobalt had died and when Samson had gone away. She was much more in control of her emotions than she had been back then. Besides, she had Starlight now. Things had changed. Things had changed a lot, actually, especially lately.…
Lisa sighed, her mind already wandering back to her problems with Callie, as Carole chattered on and on about Samson, hardly seeming to care whether or not her friends were listening.
EIGHT
“Here we are,” Alex announced, braking in the Lakes’ driveway. “Home safe and sound.”
“No thanks to you.” Stevie snorted. “If Mom and Dad ever saw the way you drive when they’re not around, they’d rip up your driver’s license and give the car to me.”
“Whatever.” Alex rolled his eyes and pulled the keys out of the ignition. “I thought you were only supposed to be this grumpy on Monday mornings. It’s Tuesday, remember? And school’s over for the day. Relax.”
Stevie undid her seat belt and let herself out of the car without bothering to answer. She wasn’t really feeling grumpy at all, and Alex knew it. In fact, she was in a good mood, mostly because she had decided during her study hall to call Phil when she got home and see if he wanted to get together sometime this week.
She whistled as she followed Alex into the house. Taking the stairs two at a time, she went up to her room and shut the door behind her. Moments later, she was leaning back against her pillows, dialing the familiar phone number. After three rings, Phil answered.
“Hi there, sunshine,” she sang out. “It’s me.”
“Hi, Stevie,” Phil replied.
“Listen,” Stevie said, “I had a great idea. You know that new CD store at the mall that everybody’s been talking about lately? I was just thinking that we should check it out sometime soon, see if it’s really all it’s cracked up to be. Say, tomorrow after school?”
“Tomorrow?” Phil repeated. “Well, I don’t know …”
“Come on,” she urged. “What do you say? I’ll come pick you up.”
She smiled at the thought. It felt good to make that particular offer so casually, partly because she had been so conflicted about driving after the accident—actually, she had refused to drive at all for the better part of a month—but mostly just for the sheer freedom of finally being mobile, of not having to rely on other people for transportation. For one thing, it meant that her dates with Phil were no longer confined to weekends when their parents were free to chauffeur them around. Of course, Phil had earned his own license a couple of months before she had, but he didn’t often have a vehicle at his disposal. His older sister, Barbara, had taken the family’s extra car back to college with her at the end of the summer, and his parents were rather stingy about lending him their cars, at least in Stevie’s opinion.
Suddenly she noticed that several seconds had passed and Phil hadn’t responded to her suggestion. “Yo,” she prompted. “Earth to Phil. Are you still there?”
“I’m sorry,” Phil said quickly. “I guess I’m just a little distracted.”
“What’s up?” Stevie asked, suddenly realizing that Phil sounded kind of down. “Bad day at school?”
“You could say that.” Phil let out a long, frustrated sigh. “It’s A.J. He and Julianna broke up today.”
Stevie gasped. “You’re kidding!” she exclaimed. “What happened? They seemed as tight as ever on Saturday.”
“I know.” Phil sighed again. “And I have no idea what happened. A.J. won’t tal
k to me about it.”
Stevie raised one eyebrow. She was even more surprised by that than by the news of the breakup. A.J. had never been the type of guy to keep his feelings—good or bad—to himself. “Wow. I guess he’s pretty upset, huh? Did Julianna dump him? I always suspected she’d break his heart one of these days. He’s too trusting and happy-go-lucky.”
“She didn’t dump him,” Phil corrected. “He dumped her. Right before lunch. I only know that because Julianna told me. She also told me he wasn’t exactly tactful about it. Just walked up to her and told her it was over. No explanation, no nothing.”
Stevie ran that through her head, trying to process it. She had never thought much of Julianna—she was nice enough, but a bit too giggly and girly for Stevie’s taste—and she had always assumed that A.J. would come to his senses sooner or later and see that he deserved a girlfriend who had more to talk about than which shade of lipstick went with her dress. But whatever A.J.’s faults might be, he was a kind person, and a kind person didn’t dump someone without any explanation.
“What could have happened?” Stevie said slowly, running all her memories of A.J. and Julianna from Saturday through her mind, looking for clues. But there weren’t any. In fact, the couple had seemed more in love than ever—at lunchtime, they had spent more time kissing and tickling each other than eating. Stevie hadn’t seen this coming. Not at all. From the tone of his voice, neither had Phil.
“He was out sick yesterday,” Phil said. “I called him after school to see what was up, but there was no answer. I didn’t really think much about it. Then at lunchtime today—Bam. Breakup city.”
Stevie picked at a loose thread on her bedspread. “Do you think something happened on Monday?”
“I have no idea. All I know is that A.J. was acting weird all day today. I stopped by his locker before homeroom to see how he was doing, and he didn’t have much to say. Just mumbled something about the twenty-four-hour flu and rushed away. I figured he still wasn’t feeling great and let it go.”
“Weird,” Stevie murmured. She wasn’t sure what else to say. It didn’t make much sense. “Maybe he really was still kind of delirious,” she offered. “Sometimes those flu symptoms can kind of bum you out for a while after you think you’re over them.”
“I thought of that,” Phil admitted. “I’m hoping that’s it. I guess we’ll see. I’m going to give him a call a little later and see how he’s doing. I just wish I knew what was going on with this Julianna thing.”
“Don’t worry,” Stevie said, trying to reassure him. “A.J. is a good guy. And a good friend. He’ll talk to you when he’s ready. He probably just isn’t handling this too well because Julianna was his first serious girlfriend.”
“That’s true.” Phil sounded slightly mollified. “I hadn’t really thought about it like that.”
“It’ll be fine,” Stevie went on quickly. “You’ll see.
Secretly she was starting to recover from her surprise enough to feel glad that A.J. and Julianna’s relationship was over. Phil seemed to see it as some kind of tragedy, and Stevie sort of understood that. A.J. was his best friend, and if A.J. was hurting, Phil was hurting. Stevie felt sorry for A.J., too—and for Julianna, a little, though she suspected that it wouldn’t take her long to bounce back—but she also thought that this was probably a good thing in the long run.
Maybe once he recovers we can try fixing him up with someone better, she thought. He and Callie might be good for each other—he could help her lighten up, and she could bring out his smart and serious side. Or maybe we could even set him up with Carole, since she still refuses to admit that there’s anything between her and Ben Marlow other than the pure and innocent love of horses.
“I guess there’s not much I can do except wait and see what happens,” Phil said reluctantly.
“True,” Stevie agreed. “A.J. will come to you soon enough. You’ll see.” Deciding it was time to take Phil’s mind off his worries, she changed the subject to Samson. She had spoken to Phil on Saturday evening and mentioned that the horse would be returning to Pine Hollow, but the two of them hadn’t talked since then. “He got there on Sunday morning,” she said. “He looked as handsome as ever, though he’s filled out a bit since we saw him last.”
She pulled up a mental image of how Samson had looked stepping down off the ramp from the van that had brought him to Pine Hollow. He had paused and looked around, then let out a loud snort, as if he recognized the place.
Stevie’s breath had caught in her throat as she and Lisa watched from their perch on the paddock fence.
“He looks just like Cobalt, doesn’t he?” Lisa had whispered in awe.
Stevie had had to agree with that. The young horse was the spitting image of his sire, from the tips of his alert coal black ears to the high carriage of his long ebony tail.
Carole had been waiting to help Ben and Max bring Samson inside and bed him down in the stall she had made up for him. Stevie and Lisa had gone to offer their help, but Carole had shooed them away.
“I want to spend a little time getting reacquainted,” she had told them, her wide brown eyes shining with anticipation and joy. “Max wants me to start working with him right away, so there’s no time to lose.”
Stevie told Phil the whole story now. “It turned out that Lisa and I were both a little worried about how Carole would react,” she went on. “I mean, she spent most of Sunday getting Samson settled in, updating his file in the office, checking on him every two seconds. She even walked him around the stable yard for an entire hour because she wanted to make sure he hadn’t gotten stiff on his trip over.”
“Hmmm,” Phil said. “Sounds like she’s pretty excited to have him back. So why were you guys worried?”
Stevie hesitated, wondering how to explain. Phil had never known Cobalt—he and Stevie hadn’t met until after that whole terrible time. “It’s just that Carole always had a really special bond with Samson’s sire. She took it really hard when he died. It almost made her give up riding. And now she seems so excited that Samson is back.…” She let her voice trail off, realizing that her concerns sounded silly when she said them out loud. Carole had been very vulnerable back then—not only because she had been so much younger, but also because it had all happened so soon after her mother had died of cancer. She was a different person now. Stronger, older, more mature, more focused, and more in control of her emotions and her life.
“I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about,” Phil said. “Carole gets excited any time Max gets a new horse. And you said she gets to train Samson, right? She must be thrilled. I remember what a fantastic jumper he was even before he left.”
“True.” Stevie shrugged, though she knew Phil couldn’t see her.
She was starting to wonder what she had been so worked up about the day before. I guess Lisa and I were probably a bad influence on each other, she admitted to herself. She tends to worry about anything and everything, and I suppose I can sometimes be a little bit quick to see excitement and intrigue in totally innocent situations. Not that I’d ever admit that to Phil! She grinned at the thought. He’d never let me live it down.
“Anyway,” she said, “Carole seems really happy so far. And you’re right—training a superior horse like Samson can only help her become a better horsewoman. Max obviously thinks so, or he wouldn’t have asked her to work with Samson.” That last point settled her mind even more. Max was no fool. If he thought working with Samson would be any trouble for Carole, he wouldn’t have decided to let her train him.
“Good point,” Phil agreed. “I’m sure pairing them up will be good for them both. Has she started training him yet? I know he’s only been there for about two and half days, but …”
“But you know Carole,” Stevie finished with a laugh. “And you’re right. I stopped by yesterday after school for a quick ride and Carole was already at it when I got there. I stopped to watch them for a while.”
“How did they look?”
“Well, you know how Carole’s always been a pretty great trainer?” Stevie paused just long enough to lean over and pat the family dog, a big golden retriever named Bear, who had nosed open her bedroom door and lumbered in. “Well, now it seems that having a real star like Samson to work with has turned her into Supertrainer. She never seems to lose patience with him. I think she could work with him twenty-four hours a day if she didn’t think he needed some rest once in a while.”
Phil chuckled halfheartedly. “That’s great,” he said.
Stevie guessed that he was still fretting about A.J. “I should probably let you go,” she said, moving her legs to give Bear some space on the bed. “You’re probably dying to get me off the phone so you can call A.J., right?”
“Never!” Phil protested so quickly that Stevie knew she had guessed right.
She laughed and scratched Bear behind one floppy ear. “Don’t worry, I won’t get jealous,” she promised. “Go call him. You’ll feel better once you two have talked.”
NINE
Carole led Samson to the mounting block. “Steady, big fellow,” she told him with a smile as she tugged on his lead to bring him a little closer alongside. “I’m not used to climbing way up on a tall horse like you.”
She tucked her left foot into the stirrup and swung herself aboard easily. Despite her words, she knew very well that Samson was only about half a hand taller than Starlight. Still, she was sure that he looked at least seventeen or eighteen hands high. Maybe it was the aristocratic carriage of his neck and head, the long, slender, muscular legs that revealed the Thoroughbred blood of his sire. Or perhaps it was the elegant, flowing tail, so similar in everything but color to that of his beautiful palomino dam. Then again, it could have been the way his jet black coat glistened beneath the hot Virginia sun, seeming almost to be lit from within.
But Carole didn’t really care about explanations like that. All she cared about was that she was there, on Samson’s back, with the whole afternoon stretching ahead of them.
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