Blaze of Glory

by M. Garzon

  “Can I have a quick shower?” I asked Gran.

  I’d been working all day and was feeling decidedly grubby, a feeling exacerbated by the fact that Jaden looked as though he’d just stepped from the pages of a fashion magazine. Gran shooed me out, smiling.

  I showered at lightning speed, threw on the first clean clothes I found and bounded down the stairs, my wet hair trailing down my back. I was just in time to see Dec and Seth walking in. My stepfather shook his head at me in disapproval, and I shrugged apologetically — it was clear I hadn’t been helping Gran as I was supposed to.

  At the sound of the front door, Jaden emerged from the kitchen. Dec took his outstretched hand and, to my surprise, pulled him into a hug.

  “It’s good to see you, son,” he said gruffly. He looked Jaden up and down. “You’re looking good — you didn’t get dressed up on our account, did you?”

  “I had a date earlier,” Jaden admitted.

  Dec gave a chuckle. “Some things haven’t changed,” he said. “You remember Seth?”

  Jaden shook Seth’s hand, then clapped him on the shoulder. “Wow, Seth, I almost didn’t recognize you.”

  I wasn’t surprised. Standing next to our cousin, Seth’s recent growth spurt was even more apparent. Jaden used to tower over him, but now Seth didn’t have far to go to catch up. In height, anyway. Though I’d thought Jaden was lean when I’d seen him outside, he was considerably broader than my lanky teenaged brother.

  Seth slung his arm around my neck. “Yeah, Téa’s the only one who’s still puny.”

  Jaden considered me. “Maybe in size, but certainly not in talent. I saw her riding earlier, it was impressive.” His smile warmed me almost as much as his words. My warm feeling was quickly doused, though, by the cold look Dec gave me on his way to the stairs. I guess he’d seen the jumps too.

  “I’m gonna shower,” Seth said, turning away. I suddenly registered his appearance and grabbed his arm, stopping him.

  “Dude!” I exclaimed, planting my hands on my hips. “You’re crispy! Didn’t we talk about the sunscreen?”

  Seth put a long red arm around my shoulders and grinned down at me.

  “You worry too much, Sis. I’m tough as an ox.”

  “You’ll worry too, when you get skin cancer,” I grumbled.

  “Worrywart here puts sunscreen on the horses’ nosies,” Seth told Jaden, rolling his eyes.

  They both had a good laugh at that while I stomped off to set the table. I didn’t care what anyone said — the horses’ white markings had pink skin underneath, which reddened in the sun. On sunny days I sunscreened those parts that were only thinly covered in hair; sunburn hurt and I didn’t want my horses suffering from it if I could help it.

  Seth was ultra-fast in the shower, as usual. Within minutes, he came into the dining room.

  “Why didn’t you take the combination down?” he murmured. “Now you’re in trouble.”

  Jaden came in while Seth was talking and put a plate of carrots on the table. He stopped to listen to our exchange; I caught a subtle waft of some alluring scent as he moved.

  “I don’t care, Seth,” I said smugly. “Blaze jumped a four-foot-six oxer like it was fallen log. You should’ve seen him!”

  “No way!” His warm blue eyes shone with excitement. “Do you think-” He fell silent as Dec came in, and I scurried to the kitchen to see what I could do there.

  Dinner was festive, a bit like the return of the prodigal son, I mused. Dec had only seen Jaden a few times over the past three years, and I hadn’t seen him at all; he’d been attending university in British Columbia. Gran seemed thrilled to have him back, too. It must be nice, I grumbled mildly to myself. I doubted they’d be as pleased to see me after a long absence, but then, I was clearly the odd-colored sheep in my family flock.

  “Tell us why you haven’t been home in so long, dear,” Gran requested. “What have you been doing with your summers?”

  “Well, normally I play in the States over the summer, but since I took last year off school, I went to Argentina for the winter, and then England for a few months, which was incredible — polo has a much greater following there.”

  We spent a while discussing what England had been like. Gran, in particular, had a lot of very specific questions; she had grown up there and retained more than a trace of the accent.

  “Well, it’s lovely to have you closer to home,” Gran said.

  I wondered if it was too early to excuse myself and go take a stab at my homework, but fortunately Seth chose to do just that a minute later, and we headed upstairs.

  Later, Dec came into my room while I was doing my biology reading.

  “I saw the combination you set up today,” he began. He looked frustrated, but less angry than I’d expected.

  I turned in my chair wearing an apologetic look.

  “I know it’s bigger than I’m supposed to jump alone, but there were lots of people around, you know, in case... and Stephanie’s a doctor.” I added the last part hopefully since Dec’s main worry was that I’d get hurt jumping too high without my coach.

  “Stephanie’s an osteopath,” he growled.

  “Sorry, I’ll wait for Karen next time,” I promised.

  He leaned his muscular frame against the wall by the door; he seemed to be in a good mood.

  “I don’t know why it’s so hard for you to listen, Téa,” he said. “When I was a kid I did what my father told me to, period. Or I suffered the consequences.”

  I sighed; I’d heard this speech before. So I chose ‘suffer the consequences’ more often than I did ‘listen’. Sue me. Dec saw it differently. His father had been in the military, and had raised his kids according to its principles; I suppose Dec was following in Grandad’s footsteps. I wished he wouldn’t. It would make our relationship so much easier.

  I shrugged. “I just got carried away, Dec.” I felt a flutter in my stomach at the thought that I’d forgotten to wear a helmet again. I knew that if he found out about that, the tenor of this conversation would change in a hurry. He seemed to be over it, though.

  “I’m glad you and Seth got to spend some time with Jaden. I always thought the three of you would get along... I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of him, now that he’s back in Toronto.” The thought obviously made him happy.

  “Yeah, that would be great.” I didn’t really care. I had more pressing concerns than a long-lost cousin, like pulling off my secret job, the details of which Teri had yet to share. Not to mention finishing my homework.

  “Well, goodnight, honey.” He smiled at me before leaving. Jaden’s visit had certainly lifted his spirits.

  “G’night.”

  * * *

  I stayed up late doing homework, so I started off my week tired. Life at our rural Ontario school this year was the same as always — I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. I was pretty good at academics, but I wasn’t particularly popular. I hung out mostly with Teri, Seth, and Kabir, Seth’s best friend. When I wanted one, Seth was my ‘in’ to social events; he was Mr. Popularity and got invited to everything worth going to.

  I found Teri at lunchtime.

  “Okay,” she began as soon as we’d found seats, “I got us the job! Are you sure Dec will be away that week?” Her light green eyes sparkled with excitement.

  “Yeah. Wow, we’re really doing this.” My pulse sped up at the thought, though whether with excitement or fear I wasn’t sure. I turned to give her my full attention. Barely five foot two, Teri was tiny, yet also curvaceous in a way that I wasn’t. Her small size had drawn the attention of a girl named Lori who, it transpired, was an exercise rider at a nearby racetrack. Lori had taught Teri the basics of galloping racehorses, and now Teri had managed to finagle us both jobs as fill-in exercise riders for a week.

  “We’ll need to leave by 4:45 a.m.,” Teri was saying.

  I groaned aloud and she nodded, looking glum.

  “Yeah, it sucks, but we’ll be getting on our first horse
s by 5:30. That gives us a couple of hours to work, and still be at school on time — but we’ll make a pile of cash!”

  “Woohoo!” I whooped, “Royal Winter Fair, here we come!”

  Thanks to numerous wins at horse shows over the summer, Teri and I had both qualified for the Royal Winter Fair that November. The Royal was a big deal; it was the last indoor show of the season, the prize money was substantial, and it was prestigious. Unfortunately, it also cost a lot. Dec normally covered half of my costs — I competed a lot more than he considered necessary — but we were already way over budget this year, so Teri and I had hatched our brilliant exercise riding plan to make up the deficit in our funds. There was only one slight drawback: I was absolutely, completely, without question, forbidden from setting foot on the racetrack. To hear Dec go on about it, you’d think the track was a cross between a gang clubhouse and a crack house. But since he was fortuitously leaving for a week on business, I felt as though the heavens had finally conspired with Teri and me to get us to the Royal. The excitement of that prospect helped me ignore the little voice in my head that was squeaking in panic at the thought of defying Dec.

  We finished working out the details, which included having Lori coach me in exercise riding techniques. Teri had already shown me the basics, but we didn’t have the proper equipment or an actual racehorse to practice with, and as I needed to be reasonably competent in order to avoid killing myself, it was worth putting in the effort to learn.

  * * *

  The dry weather held, so we’d be putting the hay up into the barn’s loft that weekend. Even though it was only the second week of school, I already had less time to ride. I taught two nights a week, which left only three weeknights for riding, and I had two horses in training — Blaze and Zachary, the horse I was bringing to the Royal. I hoped we’d get the hay done quickly so that I could ride them both over the weekend. Not that I was that useful at haying time. The bales weighed anywhere from fifty to seventy pounds, and on a good day I might hit a hundred and five, so I couldn’t exactly toss them around.

  I decided to ride Zac early Saturday morning before we got to work. I was almost done and had just set up a fairly large combination when a voice made me jump.

  “Won’t you get in trouble for that?” Jaden was leaning on the fence, watching me. I wondered how long he’d been there.

  “Not if you don’t tell.” I grinned at him. I was surprised he remembered; we had barely mentioned it in his presence. When he didn’t answer right away I added, “Okay, this is the part where you say ‘Tell on you? I wouldn’t dream of it.’”

  He smiled then. “Actually, I’m torn between wanting to stop you and wanting to watch you.”

  “Well, good luck stopping me,” I muttered. I glanced at him. The sun created a golden halo around his light brown hair — not very fitting, I thought. I found his presumption irritating. I turned back to Zac, who was standing with the reins hanging loose on his neck. He was great that way, sometimes following me, but usually standing quietly and waiting. I mounted, and patted his sandy bay neck.

  “Okay boy, let’s show Jaden what you’ve got,” I murmured to him. We picked up a canter and Zac bounded over the three fences with ease. I patted him enthusiastically as we landed.

  “Nice,” Jaden commented. “Did you start riding after Dec married your mom?”

  “No, the year before, when I was nine,” I said as I walked Zac on a loose rein to cool him off. “That’s how they met, did you know that? Seth and I wanted riding lessons, and we came here.”

  “Well, you’ve definitely got natural talent,” he said.

  “Um, thanks.” I wasn’t too sure about that. I worked very hard at my riding.

  By the time I’d put Zac away, everyone was laboring at putting the hay up. Dec was on the wagon chucking bales onto the conveyer, and I went up to the hayloft to lend a hand there.

  “Hey, sweetie.” Kabir grinned at me as he heaved a bale onto a stack that was already four bales high. I sighed. That was something I could never manage, and it irked me. He came over and gave me a one-armed hug. Seth and Kabir had become instant friends when we moved here six years ago, and he and I had grown close, too. He was of Indian descent, with milk-chocolate skin, wavy black hair, and two huge dimples that made him look like a little boy when he smiled. That little-boy visage was at odds with his body, though, which could only be described as huge. He was a few inches shorter than Seth, but stocky, with enormous bulging muscles that came in very useful at the barn.

  “We don’t need you up here, Sis,” Seth pointed out. “We’ve got this covered.” He, Jaden and Kabir were very efficiently taking the bales off the conveyer and piling them. I’d probably get in their way.

  I found Teri and Julia in the barn when I went back down.

  “I see your handsome, rich, international-polo-playing cousin is back,” Julia giggled.

  “Come on, Jules.” I rolled my eyes at her. “What makes you think he’s rich?”

  “Uh, hello, polo player?”

  “Yeah,” Teri added, “doesn’t he need at least four horses for that?”

  “He’s only got two now, he sold four when he got into law school,” I corrected.

  Both my friends watched me with their mouths hanging open. I sighed.

  “Yes, Mr. Perfect just started law school,” I said. “And Dec’s been throwing that in our faces at every opportunity. It’s getting pretty annoying. As is Jaden himself.”

  “So he’s smart, too?” Julia’s perfect eyebrows got lost under her bangs. “And you haven’t introduced us yet because...”

  “Because I’m a thoughtless, inconsiderate friend.” I grinned at her. “I’m sorry I didn’t immediately consider him for your dating pool.”

  “Apology accepted,” she sniffed theatrically. “Are you coming on a trail ride with us?”

  “I can’t, I’ve got to help with the hay.”

  “By the way, Lori said this weekend would be perfect,” Teri confided. “She’s got time to teach us.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know how I’ll get away; today there’s the hay and tomorrow I’m teaching lessons all day.”

  We wandered outside to get Picasso, who was in a paddock.

  “Hi girls,” Dec greeted them cordially. “Téa, can you take over here for a little while?”

  I ran to get some gloves from the feedroom, then climbed onto the wagon and took over from Dec. The job here was easier than in the hayloft, I just had to place the bales, one at a time, onto the conveyer that trundled them up to the loft. I heard a sharp intake of breath from either Ter or Jules, who were standing by the wagon with Picasso in tow. I followed their gaze up to the loft’s open double doors.

  “What?” I demanded.

  “Wait...” Teri murmured.

  I shrugged and kept heaving bales.

  “Look up,” Julia said in a low voice.

  Jaden was taking a bale off the conveyer. He’d taken his shirt off... and I had to admit the view was impressive. His muscles weren’t huge like Kabir’s, but there seemed to be so many of them — you could have used him for anatomy class.

  “Now that’s vampire hot,” Teri breathed. The three of us exchanged a grin; it was our highest form of praise. A minute later we all jumped as Jaden rounded the corner, pulling on his shirt as he approached.

  I decided to make Julia happy.

  “Jaden, these are my friends, Teri and Julia.” I indicated them in turn, and battled a smirk at their wide-eyed expressions as he greeted them.

  He turned and hopped onto the wagon in one easy bound.

  “Why don’t you let me take over here, Téa.” He was tossing a bale onto the conveyer as he spoke; it looked effortless for him. “These bales are almost as big as you are.”

  I dithered a minute. I knew I was probably good for about an hour of lifting.

  He saw my hesitation. “I’m sure you can find something better to do than lug haybales around.”

  I met Teri’s gaze
with a smile. Indeed, I could find something better.

  So we spent my serendipitously free afternoon at the Thoroughbred farm, and Lori taught us to gallop racehorses. It was unbelievably hard, exhilarating, and terrifying all at once. I loved it. I wished I could get in more practice before I had to face the real thing in a week’s time, but these few hours were all I could manage to sneak away.

  Dec was on the hay wagon when I got back. “Where have you been?” he demanded.

  “We went to Ter’s to do homework,” I replied innocently. “I wasn’t needed with the hay.”

  “You shouldn’t have left without telling me.” He frowned.

  “Sorry, I couldn’t find you,” I said, trying to look contrite. My stomach twisted uncomfortably at the lie, and I was glad he would be away during my week at the track. I didn’t think I could pull it off if I had to lie to him every day.

  * * *

  Our first day at the racetrack was brutal. It started off tense for me; Dec was leaving on his business trip that morning, but I had to sneak out before he got up — the birds weren’t even chirping yet, for crying out loud. I wouldn’t know whether Dec had noticed my absence until I saw Seth at school.

  We arrived at Fort Erie Racetrack, heavy-eyed and clutching our Tim Horton’s coffees; the first fingers of light were just poking over the horizon as we stepped out of Teri’s car. My heart picked up its pace. Thoroughbreds were walking up and down the dirt road, voices called morning greetings in the barn, and from behind us, I heard the distant thunder of galloping hooves — an exhilarating sound. Also a bit scary for me right now. We paused uncertainly in one of the doorways of the barn.

  “Can I help you?” A big blond head emerged from a stall, followed by a massive, muscular body.

  “We’re looking for Mike,” I told him. “We’re the new exercise riders.”

  “Oh, right. I’m Ben,” he said. Ben helped us find the trainer, a dark-haired man with a mustache, and we introduced ourselves. As usual, my name took a couple of tries.

  “Tay-a,” Mike said finally. “Okay, let’s get you started. Lori said you’re not very experienced, right?”

  We nodded our assent. I wondered if Teri was feeling as suddenly petrified as I was. ‘Not very experienced’ was so inaccurate it was almost a lie. I’d done it once.