Rachael felt herself turning red. She probably wouldn’t have asked that particular question if she had known the answer.
“Oh. Like a steer horse,” Rachael commented.
“Yep. Exactly.” Maysie smiled.
Travis just grinned.
All three led their horses to the back gate. A horse trailer was parked along the board fence.
“I think we should have Rachael get on how we had to when we were little.” Travis glanced in the direction of the horse trailer.
“No, I think she can do it,” Maysie said. “She’s a dancer. She must be flexible and have strong legs too. Let’s at least let her try.”
“Try what?” Rachael asked.
“Getting on the horse from the ground,” Travis said as if he wasn’t sure Rachael could do it.
Oh, I can do it. Rachael decided she would do it, whether it took her all afternoon or not. “Yep. Just show me how and I’ll do it.”
“Okay.” Maysie demonstrated. “Stand on the left side of your horse like this. Put your left foot in the stirrup. Grab the saddle horn and straighten your left leg while simultaneously swinging the right leg around. Then sit in the saddle like so. To get down, just do the reverse. You shouldn’t put a lot of pull or torque on the saddle horn. You aren’t supposed to use your arm strength to muscle your way up into the saddle. You should be using your leg strength.”
“Okay,” Rachael said, as if mounting the horse would be an easy task.
She attempted to imitate what she had seen Maysie do, but it was much more difficult than it looked. Her first two attempts were weak at best. She could get her foot in the stirrup, but had trouble straightening her leg and swinging the other leg around.
John stood patiently. On her third attempt, he actually turned his head back to look and let out a groan or grunt as if saying, “Come on now! Jeez. We haven’t got all day.”
Travis quietly watched while Maysie offered words of encouragement.
Finally, on her fourth try and nearing exhaustion, Rachael mounted perfectly. Thank goodness…for me and for John.
“See—you did it!” Maysie shouted in glee.
“Finally,” Rachael answered.
“That wasn’t so bad for the first time. Let’s just keep you up there so we won’t have to do it again,” Travis joked. “I could always lift you up there.”
“Hey, I did it. Practice makes perfect, right?” Rachael smiled. “Besides, I wouldn’t want you to have to lift me. You may injure yourself.”
“Hardly.” Travis smirked. Mounting, he expertly sidled Coal up to the gate, unchained the chain, and swung it open.
“Just kick him, Rachael,” Maysie said as she rode through the opened gate on Pretty Girl and whirled to wait on Rachael.
Rachael sat kicking John, and he didn’t move.
“He can be a little stubborn at times. Kick a little harder,” Maysie instructed.
So Rachael kicked and kicked and kicked…finally John took ten leisurely steps through the gate and stopped.
“He just doesn’t want to leave the barn is all,” Maysie added.
“Oh.” Rachael began to wonder about this horse. Travis had said John was gentle, but she could barely make him go. This horse seems to have two speeds: slow and stop. Isn’t there a horse that’s somewhere in the middle?
Travis backed his horse in to close the gate. Rachael could tell just from the opening and closing of the gate on horseback, she had a lot to learn about riding horses. The way Maysie and Travis spun and backed their horses was similar to the way other people drove cars. Rachael could barely make her horse go!
“How long have you two been riding?” she asked.
“Since we were four,” Maysie said matter of factly.
“Four years old?” Rachael asked.
“Yes. Riding for us is like dance and tennis are for you. If you do something long enough and often enough, you’re bound to get good at it.”
“I hope I get better,” Rachael admitted.
Travis, Maysie, and Rachael walked across the pasture to another cross fence, where Travis once again opened the gate.
Always the perfect gentleman. He opens gates the way other guys open the car door. Ladies first and all that.
After they rode through this gate, Travis said, “We thought we would ride over to the river and cross there. There’s a game trail over there, and by late afternoon we should be able to see some deer and turkey.”
“Cross a river?” Rachael asked, concerned.
“It isn’t deep this time of year. Spring and early summer, and after a tropical storm, it gets deep. Don’t worry. You’re safe with us. This will be fun,” Maysie reassured her.
“Let’s strike a lope. If we continue at this pace, we may never make it there,” Travis suggested.
Rachael knew what a lope was, but wasn’t sure she was ready for that. Maysie quickly explained the difference between a walk, trot, and lope. She showed Rachael how to stop her horse and how to make him go. Just the basics.
“Making John stop won’t be a problem,” Travis added.
Is my face totally betraying my mock confidence? I probably look scared to death…and in all honesty I am. What have I gotten myself into?
“Ready?” Maysie asked.
She inhaled a breath. “As I’ll ever be.”
Maysie and Travis kicked their horses very softly and started to trot. Rachael was getting the workout of a lifetime kicking John, who slowly began to trot. Then Travis and Maysie began to lope. Thank goodness John followed on his own and didn’t require much instruction from Rachael. He didn’t want to get left behind with this girl who couldn’t ride was all Rachael could figure! This horse was smarter than she’d given him credit for.
This loping thing was bumpy. Each time John loped forwards Rachael felt a new bruise forming on her butt and private parts. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. This hurts. Maybe I’m doing something wrong.
Maysie and Travis were loping and weren’t even visibly moving in their saddles. They just seemed to be riding in one fluid motion with their horses.
Rachael was holding the saddle horn for dear life. She was also holding on tightly—very tightly with her legs. Make this hell stop!
Just then Maysie and Travis slowed Pretty Girl and Coal to a walk. They were at the river. John slowed instinctively to a crawl as well. He was obviously following the other horses’ lead. Thank goodness for that.
“Let’s talk a little about riding,” Travis interjected. “If you keep riding like that—bumping all over the place—you’re going to be really sore tonight and tomorrow and maybe the day after. So let’s show you some basic techniques of how to ride with the rhythm of your horse. Stand here. I’ll demonstrate.”
Travis rode Coal in a circle nearby. “Now watch. Every time I feel Coal’s hind legs leave the ground, I prepare to rise and fall in rhythm with his body. It is really that simple.”
Maybe for you, she thought. Instead she said, “Okay. I see what you mean. But doing it may actually be a different story.”
“It’s like dancing, Rachael. You have rhythm. So put it to work out here in the saddle,” Maysie encouraged.
Okay. Here it goes. Rachael trotted John in a circle. Yep. Still bumpy.
“Now bring him up to a lope. He will be smoother in a lope,” Travis chimed from some distance away.
Amazing. Rachael could feel the rhythm of the horse’s lope. One-two-three-four. Four hooves. Four beats. It is just like a dance!
“I think I got it!” she yelled in excitement.
“I think so too,” Maysie called out.
“And it doesn’t hurt my butt anymore, either!” Rachael rode toward the other two.
“See,” Travis was saying to Maysie, “all of your expensive riding clinics and seminars. And to think I taught Rachael to ride in rhythm with her horse in just five minutes.”
“Well, only Rachael can take the credit for actually learning how,” Maysie retorted.
“That and the fa
ct I am one heck of an instructor.” Travis smiled, showing just how proud he was of himself.
“This is an old debate of ours,” Maysie explained. “Travis is a self-taught horseman who rides considerably well while I prefer to attend riding seminars and clinics in order to truly master riding.”
Rachael intervened. “I think you both ride exceptionally well.”
Maysie eyed her brother. “I admit Travis is an excellent rider. He can rope, cut and part—all with considerable ease. I prefer to learn in a different way is all.”
“Maybe I could attend a clinic with you sometime,” Rachael suggested.
“Sounds great!” Maysie said enthusiastically.
“Oh, yikes.” Travis sounded as if the conversation truly annoyed him. “Clinics are expensive. Anything they can teach you I can teach you in the round pen at our house. Don’t waste your money, Rachael. Let a true cowboy teach you to ride.”
Maysie narrowed her eyes. “I could teach her as easily as you could.”
Rachael jumped into the sibling fray. “Then how about you both teach me to ride? It would be fun.”
“That’s a fantastic idea. Maybe Sundays after church.” Maysie suggested.
“It’s settled, then. Sundays after church, if we don’t have too much homework.” Rachael knew her homework being completed would be a stipulation of her mother’s to this riding plan.
“I’m game if Maysie is.” Travis grinned.
“Oh, I’m game, Travis Baxter,” Maysie chided.
“Hey, did we come to ride or to talk?” Rachael asked.
And with those words the three were riding their horses down the river bank to the shallow crossing. The water was only chest deep on their horses where they crossed the river. Their horses climbed the bank on the opposite side and came up into a stand of oak trees. Travis put his finger over his mouth, signaling them to be quiet.
They walked their horses along a trail on the river bank and then Travis held his hand up motioning them to stop. He pointed with two fingers toward a group of turkeys feeding up ahead. After he was sure both girls had seen them, he continued to move forward, keeping his horse in a slow walk. They made what Rachael assumed was a full circle on this side of the river and ended back up at the crossing Rachael recognized from earlier.
“I had hoped we would see some deer. But it’s too hot and too early yet.” Travis sounded disappointed.
Maysie shrugged. “This won’t be our only outing. It’s hot. Come on. Let’s go home and go for a swim.”
“Sounds good to me,” Rachael said.
The three slowly made their way back across the river and through the pastures. They loped across the huge expanse of land they had crossed earlier and arrived at the back gate behind the Baxters’ house.
“I’ll teach you to unsaddle,” Maysie offered. She showed Rachael how to unsaddle and put away all of her tack. Then she taught her how to wash off her horse after a long ride. After each horse was washed off, Travis led them to the pasture and put them away.
It was then Rachael considered the soreness that was creeping into her bones. Maybe the pool would help. She certainly hoped so.
Maysie and Rachael went up to the house to get changed into swimsuits. Travis simply put on a pair of shorts he found in the dryer and jumped in.
Guys are so lucky. Any pair of shorts will do…really.
By the time Maysie and Rachael found a suit that fit Rachael and came outside to swim, Travis was gone.
The girls cannon-balled into the deep end.
Boy, this feels good.
They swam for a while and then started to chat.
“Thanks for taking me riding. I think I’m going to be sore tomorrow.”
“For sure.” Maysie warned. “Rachael, don’t take this the wrong way, but I think my brother likes you.”
“Really? But I thought he had a girlfriend?” Rachael asked, shocked.
“Who? Oh, Sophie? I know he likes her and has gone on a few dates with her even as recently as last week.”
“So what makes you think he likes me?”
“The way he talks to you. He hasn’t said as much, though. Travis would never admit to liking a girl who had a serious boyfriend and was one of his sister’s closest friends. But I’m an expert at reading his body language.” Maysie hesitated, then said, “Forget I mentioned it. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No.” Rachael tried to ease Maysie’s mind. “It’s okay. I like him too. He is a good friend—a cute one at that. And if I didn’t have a serious boyfriend already I’d certainly date Travis. He’s definitely serious boyfriend material. But I do have a boyfriend and dating a friend’s brother would be odd—for us both, I mean.” Since she had no intention of dating anyone other than Colten, she figured it was only fair to clarify that point.
“Thanks, Rachael. I didn’t want to not tell you. Now I know Travis’s dilemma with me dating Jason. That is, if I ever get to date Jason.”
“Oh, I thought it was a date you were on at the movies the other night,” Rachael kind of half asked, half stated.
“No, that was only a group of us seeing a movie. Nothing has happened since.”
“Bummer.”
Next the girls talked about school starting in two days. Rachael was nervous, Maysie excited. When Rachael’s mom called to say she needed to head home for dinner, Rachael and Maysie jumped into Maysie’s car, still sporting their swimsuits.
On the way Maysie asked, “How are you getting to school on Monday?”
“The bus,” Rachael replied.
“The bus! Trust me, you don’t want to ride the bus.”
“Why?”
“Let’s just say the bus can be a bit of a rough crowd. Being that you are new around here and all, it might not be the best idea for you to ride the bus.”
“Oh. So you’re afraid I might get my butt kicked if I ride the bus?”
“Something like that. Melinda…you remember from the river?”
“How could I forget?” Rachael said sarcastically.
“She and her friends ride the bus. It would probably be better and a lot more comfortable if you rode to school with Shannah, Travis, and me.”
“Sounds good. But what if you are sick or something?”
“If that ever happens, just make sure to get a seat at the front of the bus, near the bus driver. Whatever you do, don’t sit in the back!” Maysie was emphatic in detailing her bus instructions on Rachael’s safety.
“Okay.” Rachael smiled. “I’ve got it. Thanks for the warning.”
Can the bus really be that bad? No, probably not. And I hope never to find out. But riding with friends in a car with air conditioning will be a lot more comfortable. Yep, sounds good to me.
“Thanks for the offer, Maysie. I’ll take you up on it. What time will we leave?”
“We’ll be by to get you around six-thirty.”
Just then they pulled up to Rachael’s front door. She waved good-bye and ran inside, where her Aunt Margaret was waiting for her.
“Hey, honey. I was hoping you’d be home soon. I have a surprise for you.”
There was a glint in her aunt’s eyes that told Rachael she would like this surprise. They walked toward Rachael’s bedroom together, and her aunt opened the closet door and stepped back.
Rachael gasped. T-shirts, dresses, shorts, and jeans—all in the latest styles—were on hangers. New sneakers and flats—all closed-toe for school—rested on the floor. She stepped into the closet to inspect them.
“Good. I thought you might like some new things to wear for school. I know at your other school you wore uniforms. Not here.” Her aunt paused. “If anything doesn’t fit, let me know. We still have time to exchange them before school Monday morning.”
“I’ll try everything on tonight.” Rachael turned and simply hugged her aunt. Words could not describe how happy she was. “Thank you.”
After Rachael had tried on all of her new outfits—ten in all and five new pairs of sh
oes—she found only two things didn’t fit. The jean shorts she loved, but they were way too tight. She decided just to exchange those. The other item was a cute jean skirt, but it was too loose and way too long for Rachael’s taste. She decided to exchange the jean skirt for another jean skirt in the right size and a little shorter in length that would suit her better.
At dinner she told her Aunt Margaret how nicely all but two of the pieces had fit. Her aunt gave her an envelope with the receipts and told her she could take her to exchange them in the morning or perhaps she could go with one of her friends to make the exchanges.
After dinner Rachael called Maysie, who said she and Shannah would love to make a final trip to the mall to exchange the clothes. They had already completed their shopping, but Maysie had a pair of jeans and a shirt she and her mother had bought for Travis that he didn’t particularly like. She wanted to pick out something different for him because she knew he’d never actually return the clothes on his own. Shopping just wasn’t his thing.
*
The next morning the girls headed to the mall around ten o’clock. They first went and exchanged Rachael’s things, just like they had planned. Next it was time to return the shirt and jeans for Travis.
“Okay, ladies,” Maysie announced. “We are on a mission. My mom said Travis actually needs a few more items. So we will return these and buy some more shirts and at least two more pairs of jeans.”
“I don’t know about this,” Shannah said. “Shopping for a guy will be fun and all, but without him here, how can we be sure any of it will fit?”
“He’s my brother. I know his sizes. And while our tastes may be completely different, I know what will look good on him even if he doesn’t.”
“Different tastes…that’s putting it lightly.” Shannah grumbled. “You’re all flashy and stuff. Travis is really rugged and hot. He won’t wear any frou-frou stuff, if you know what I mean.”
“I know. That’s why I have you and Rachael. You guys will balance my girly tastes.” Maysie smiled.
“Thank goodness for that. I wish he were here. We could make him try everything on,” Shannah added.
“He’d never go for it. At home the most he’ll do is hold it up in front of himself and say, ‘Yep. That’ll fit. Next,’ ” Maysie stated plainly in her Travis voice.
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