High Hurdles Collection Two

by Lauraine Snelling

  Concern clouded her grandmother’s serene brow. “Do you hurt anywhere?”

  DJ looked behind her. “Does my pride show?”

  “Not that I can see. Cracked pride never permanently disabled anyone.”

  “How about squished?” DJ waved the carrot and took a bite. “I’ve got to go wrap something. Need me first?” She glanced out the door to the deck at a twin-sized shriek.

  “They’re having a water fight,” Gran answered before she could ask. “Don’t go out there if you don’t want to get soaked.”

  “I’m already soaked.” DJ snagged another carrot, grinned at Maria, and exited, a chuckle floating over her shoulder as she headed for the laundry room, where the wrapping paper was stored.

  The Big Fib she read on the Veggie Tales video and glanced down where Queenie, black fur dripping wet, whined at her feet. “Give me a minute and I’ll dry you off.”

  Queenie placed a slim black paw against DJ’s bare leg. “Ouch, you scratched. Just a minute.” DJ leaned over and fluffed the dog’s ears. “Now, be patient.” She got the foot again. “Queenie, I said no.” She finished cutting the dinosaur paper and wrapped both boxes. She knew they’d like the action figures best, but neither of the gifts needed her to play with them. She’d gotten heartily sick of the Chutes and Ladders game she’d given them for Christmas.

  With bows stuck on the boxes, DJ finally took a towel out of the closet and rubbed down the wriggling dog. Dodging the pooch’s lightning-fast tongue made the job more of a challenge.

  The ringing doorbell caught DJ’s attention, so she tossed the towel in the hamper and headed for the front door trailed by Queenie. DJ’s uncle Andy held a box that nearly covered his face, and Sonja, his wife, held a plastic-wrapped bowl in one hand and a six-pack of soda in the other. Their daughter, Shawna, who was now the proud owner of the healing Major, giggled around another box, this one wrapped in paper decorated with big trucks and tractors.

  “Are we late?” Andy asked.

  DJ shook her head and stepped back. “Come on in. If you want to get wet, the backyard’s the place.”

  “Where’s Dad?”

  “I think he’s the one with the hose.”

  “I’m not surprised.” Andy handed DJ his package. “Guess it’s payback time.”

  “Men.” Sonja laughed. “Or rather, boys, big boys. I see where the presents go.” She nodded toward the table in the family room. “Shawna, over there.”

  After the water fighters were sufficiently dried off, Robert manned the barbecue while the rest of them carried the food out to the redwood deck overshadowed by an ancient oak tree.

  “Oh, look at your hummers.” Sonja pointed to the hummingbird feeders that hung on hoops bolted to the deck railing. While some of the jeweled birds sat sipping from the red flowers on the plastic feeders, others hovered or darted nearby, clicking to warn the drinkers away from their posts. One dive-bombed another and buzzed right by DJ’s head. She was so used to them, she didn’t even duck.

  “How come you have so many? We feel lucky to get one or two.”

  “They like the flowers we have beside the feeders.” Lindy, wearing a bright print cotton sundress, might well have stepped off a catalog page for maternity wear, even though her pregnancy barely showed yet. She glanced out across the yard, which had been landscaped to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. The fragrances mingled to form a perfume all their own.

  “You look wonderful,” Sonja said.

  “Thank you. No longer throwing up at the slightest incident makes a difference.” Lindy patted her tummy. “Baby here is growing for sure.”

  “Dinner ready.” Maria set the bowl of potato salad down with a thump. “Come eat.” After they’d all taken their places, Robert nodded at DJ. “Your turn to say grace, DJ.”

  When they’d all quieted, DJ folded her hands and closed her eyes. Where to begin? She had so much to be grateful for. “Thank you, Father, for the food you have given us and for our family. Thank you for Bobby and Billy and their birthday. Thank you that Major is getting better all the time. In Jesus’ name, amen.”

  Dinner passed with lots of laughter, and after the table was cleared, Maria brought out a chocolate frosted cake with two round-faced boys painted in frosting. Each wide, smiling mouth was lit by six candles.

  In spite of her best intentions and all of her prayers, DJ froze.

  Chapter • 2

  Who was that screaming?

  “DJ, are you all right?”

  She could feel Joe’s hand on her shoulder and tried to answer him, but nothing happened. Please, God, make her quit screaming. DJ blinked and swallowed hard. “Who … who was screaming?”

  “No one.” Joe squeezed her shoulder. “It’s okay, guys, DJ’s not hurt or anything. Let’s go on with the party.”

  “But the candles are all out.” The look on the twins’ faces showed both sadness and fear.

  “I blew them out to help DJ, but we can light them again.” Robert gave her a reassuring smile.

  DJ looked across the table to her grandmother. Who was screaming?

  Gran beckoned. “Come on, Darla Jean, let’s get the ice cream.” She nodded to Joe. “You light the candles again.”

  “And we’ll all sing ‘Hap to you.’ ” Lindy smiled at her daughter and then her two sons. “Hap to you” had been their birthday song since DJ was little and didn’t always say all her words right.

  DJ forced her quivering lips to smile in return and tousled the twins’ hair as she stood up. “It’s okay, guys, really. I’ll be right back.” God, I thought you said you answered prayers. Both Gran and I have been praying about this, and look what happened. I ruined another birthday party. I’m never going to birthday parties again. She followed her grandmother into the kitchen, the accusations flying in her mind. The look of horror on Shawna’s face made DJ shake her head. Going around scaring little kids, now, wasn’t that cool? No, weird, that’s what.

  “And I’m sick of it.” She slapped her hand on the granite counter top.

  “I don’t blame you.” Gran turned from the freezer with two half gallons of ice cream in her hands.

  DJ swallowed her next comment. She’d been expecting Gran to say something in defense of their prayers.

  “Going catatonic like that has to be terribly embarrassing.” Gran set the ice-cream cartons on the counter. The others singing “Happy Birthday” drew their attention to the group on the deck. “But no one here thinks any less of you for it. This is a solvable problem, not a character defect.”

  Her gentle smile made DJ’s lower lip quiver again.

  “But why, Gran? Why do I do this? I mean, I know I had an accident when I was little.” She raised her hand and pointed to the scar on her palm. “But I’m a big kid now, and this makes no sense whatsoever. It makes me feel so stupid.” She looked at the splotchy white scar tissue in her palm, then at her grandmother. “I think it’s time I heard the whole story”

  Gran nodded, then slid the two cartons onto a tray. “Let’s go dish up the ice cream and finish the party. After everyone leaves, you and I will have a heart-to-heart.”

  “Okay.” DJ started to head for the party and stopped. “Promise?”

  “I promise.” Gran’s sigh made DJ stop again. Something told her this wasn’t the kind of story she’d like to hear.

  Both boys looked up at DJ with anxious eyes when she and Gran brought the ice cream out to the deck.

  “We’ve got Rocky Road or Neapolitan.” DJ rested a hand on the top of each boy’s head and leaned between them. “And you have to choose.”

  “Can’t we have half and half?” Matching round blue eyes studied her face.

  DJ rolled her eyes. “I guess. Since it is your fifth birthday.”

  “We’re six!”

  DJ noticed that they had said “We’re six” and not “We’s six” as they would have up till now. When did they start talking right? They were really growing up. “Oh, that’s right, you finally got to five.�
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  “Six!” Their squeal made everyone laugh.

  “I give up.” DJ raised her hands in the air. “How could I have made such a mistake?”

  “I thought it was five, too.” Grandpa Joe gave DJ a solemn nod.

  “Six. We’re six.” Both twins clamped their hands on their hips and stared from DJ to Joe and back again.

  “Well, if you are indeed six, you better choose your ice cream before it melts.” Gran held up the ice-cream scoop.

  Lindy held up a paper plate with a square of chocolate cake in the middle. “Bobby?”

  The boy scrunched his face. “Both?”

  Lindy rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Like father like son.”

  “Yep, I want both, too.” Robert grinned at his two boys. “And an extra big piece of cake.”

  “After everything else you ate?” Lindy’s eyebrows danced with her bangs.

  “Yep, if I’m going to pop, I want to pop happy.”

  “He’s going to pop, so hop on Pop.” The two boys looked at each other and giggled, then said their rhyme again.

  DJ reached for her own dessert. But her mind was elsewhere. Soon she would know what had happened those long years ago.

  She knew better than to try to hurry things along, so she settled in to enjoy the party. She and Shawna shared a bench seat and scooted closer together so they could talk in spite of the noise around them from the boys’ opening their gifts.

  In between the squeals and laughter, Shawna leaned even closer to DJ. “Bridget said I could start riding Major next week since I’m so light.”

  DJ swallowed. “Th-that’s great.” How she missed her Major. Even though she saw him nearly every day, not having him at the Academy barns made it harder. In her heart she knew his being on pasture was the best thing for him, but still … life changed so much, so fast sometimes.

  “You … you don’t mind, do you?”

  Shawna was entirely too perceptive for DJ’s own good.

  DJ shook her head, and the smile she gave her cousin came from her heart. “Shawna, I gave Major to you so that he could feel useful and you could have a good horse and friend. I know that was the best thing for us all, but I really miss him. So sometimes, if I get down about it, just ignore me, okay?”

  “But you have Herndon.”

  “I know.” And one of these days he and I will be the kind of team Major and I were, if it kills me. She made herself change the thought. If it takes every bit of strength I own.

  “He’s really a cool horse. Watching you jump him gives me goose bumps.”

  “It gives me a sore shoulder—not watching him but jumping.” DJ rubbed her right shoulder and winced when she hit the sorest spot. “If I didn’t hit the ground so often, I’d be fine.” She looked up at a shout from the twins.

  “Thank you, DJ.” The boys waved her gifts in the air.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “The B-i-g F-i-b.” Bobby sounded out the video title. “The Big Fib” He swapped high fives with his dad.

  All the while DJ watched the present opening, laughing and calling out teasing comments, her mind kept flitting back to Gran and the coming story. Was the story really so terrible that no one had dared tell her? Or had they forgotten, thinking it not important enough? Why couldn’t she remember what had happened? After all, it was her hand that had been burned.

  Queenie sat down at her side and rested her chin on DJ’s thigh, her eyes pleading for DJ’s hand to begin moving. DJ smiled down at the black dog.

  “You know how to get your point across, don’t you?” She began rubbing the dog’s ears, causing a sigh of bliss.

  Shawna shook her head, chuckling at the dog. “Dad said we could get a dog and Mom said we could get a cat, so pretty soon I’ll have all kinds of pets.” She reached over and smoothed the fur on Queenie’s back. “She is so silky.”

  “Yep, the boys gave her a bath yesterday. I think they got wetter than the dog.”

  At her mother’s nod, DJ got to her feet and began gathering up the wrapping paper and ribbons.

  “Save the ribbons,” Gran said, reaching for a multicolored bunch of curling ribbon. “These are much too pretty to throw away.”

  Joe groaned. “Mel, the saver. Good thing we have a big house.”

  “Takes one to know one. Dad, you are the original pack rat.” Andy handed Gran another bow. “Used to drive Mom nuts.”

  DJ watched her grandmother’s face. Did it bother her to hear about Joe’s deceased wife?

  “Getting him to throw something away is like pulling teeth.” Gran dropped a kiss on Joe’s receding hairline. “But that’s his only fault, and you really can’t call saving a fault. Actually, thrifty is a better word.”

  Joe snagged her around the waist and drew her to his side. “This woman can turn anything into a compliment, so watch your mouth, young man.”

  Robert shook his head. “Watch out, Andy. He might be older, but he’s still bigger than you. And retired cops know all kinds of sneaky tricks to get their own way.”

  DJ leaned on the back of her mother’s chair, receiving a smile full of love from Lindy. Since DJ had been an “only” for so many years, the teasing that went on in this big new family of hers made her laugh both inside and out. Pretty soon Gran and Joe would have been married a year. Her mother and Robert were married on Valentine’s Day. Such a year of changes.

  After the mess was cleaned up and the boys had carried their new toys and clothes to their room, the guests gathered up their things and made their way out the front door. DJ got hugs along with the rest, even though Andy’s family now lived only a couple of miles away. They had bought DJ’s old house.

  “See ya tomorrow, ’kay?” Shawna lingered behind her folks. She rolled her lips together. “Would you … I mean, do you have time to …”

  “To what?” DJ stuck her hands in her back pockets.

  “To be with me when I ride Major tomorrow?”

  “Sure. If you wait until afternoon. Gran and I have class in the morning.”

  “Good.” Shawna beamed. “I know I’ve ridden him before but … this is different.” Her eyes darkened in concern. “This … it won’t make you feel bad, will it?”

  DJ shook her head. “Nope.”

  “Come on, Shawna. You can talk tomorrow.” Andy waved from the car.

  “See ya. Thanks, DJ.” Shawna turned and trotted down the curving walk.

  “I think we have a major case of hero worship there.” Joe put his arms around DJ and gave her a hug.

  “And I think it’s good for both of them.” Gran looped her hand through her husband’s crooked arm. “Maria made a fresh pot of coffee if you want some.” Together they turned and followed Robert and Lindy back to the kitchen.

  “DJ, you want something to drink?” Gran poured herself a cup of coffee from the carafe on the counter.

  DJ shook her head. Now was the time. Did she want to hear the story or not?

  “Okay, let’s go on out to the gazebo, then.” Gran took DJ’s arm. “I saw the new cushions on the seats. Should be a good place to watch the sunset, right?”

  DJ felt like running the other way.

  “DJ, can you play Candyland with us?” The twins materialized at her side.

  “Not now. I get DJ for a while.” Gran smiled down at the boys.

  “But we—”

  “Come on, your dad and I will play.” Lindy reached for the boys’ hands. “And I get the red marker.”

  The breeze that ruffled the oak leaves lifted the tendrils of hair from DJ’s neck. The grass felt cool on her bare feet and invited her to sit. But DJ and Gran continued on to the redwood gazebo Robert had built for Lindy on the far side of the lawn.

  “My, this place is so different since Robert got going on it.” Gran leaned over to smell a coral-colored rose. “When I think back to all the work you and I did on the yard at our other house …” She smiled at her granddaughter. “You’ve always been such a good helper.”

  “
I like working in the yard with you. Mom is trying, but it isn’t the same. You know so much about all the flowers and she’s just learning, I guess. Besides, here the gardener does a lot of the work and she kind of supervises.”

  “Makes a difference. But then, you don’t have much time to dig in the dirt anymore.” Gran settled back on the flowered cushions, propping one behind her back. “Ah, now, this is the life. I’ve always wanted a gazebo.”

  “So tell GJ and he’ll make you one.”

  “I know.” A gentle smile teased the corner of her mouth. “He spoils me something awful.”

  DJ arranged a nest out of a couple of cushions at her grandmother’s feet and made herself comfortable. Laughter from the game players sounded far away. General nickered from his paddock, and Queenie’s toenails clicked across the flooring. She sighed as she joined DJ on the cushions.

  DJ waited, still not sure if she wanted to hear this or not.

  Gran set her coffee mug on the railing and used that hand to stroke DJ’s hair. After a peaceful pause, she began. “You were only two and such a busy little person, we could hardly keep up with you. I was at work—that was before I got to stay home and illustrate full time. Lindy had gone back to finish school, and Grandpa was taking care of you. He was on swing shift then, so he could be at home with you. We didn’t use day care very often. The three of us took turns making sure you were cared for.”

  DJ swallowed. “So …” She cleared her throat. “So then what happened?”

  “It’s so long ago, I have to think hard to remember all the things.” Gran took a sip of her coffee and set the mug back down.

  “Anyway, since you were down for a nap, Grandpa had a fire going out in the backyard to burn some brush. He had gone behind the garage for something and was just coming back. Somehow you had gotten out of your crib, opened the door, and toddled out to the fire. Who knows why, maybe because of the bright colors, but you grabbed a piece of burning wood. He said you let out a scream that could have wakened the dead. Grandpa rushed over, grabbed you up, and stuck your hand in a bucket of water he’d kept by the fire. Then he took you to the urgent care center not far from our house.”