Hunter Derby: (Show Circuit Series -- Book 3) (13 page)

“Maybe that’s why most straight horse show guys sleep around all the time, to prove they’re not gay. I’d never thought of that before. It’s like to prove their virility.” Zoe chanced a look at John. “So you’re not gay?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Then what is it?”

“I live at home. With my parents and my sister.”

Zoe chuckled. “That’s your big reveal? That you live at home?”

“Yup, that’s it.”

“So do most of our generation. If I could live at home, I would because I basically can’t afford to have my own place, which is why it’s totally crappy.”

“I live there because it’s affordable—I mean I haven’t sold a horse since last fall and also because my parents need help with my sister—carrying her up the stairs sometimes, stuff like that.”

Was John telling her because that was why he had put her off when she had come on to him the night they’d gone out for drinks? Even if he had wanted to, could he not take her home because home was
home
? Still, she had a place they could have gone to, and no guy she had ever known who was interested in sex let a lack of appropriate location stop him. But maybe that was just it, though. John wasn’t like the other guys she had known.

For the first time since he’d turned her down, she had a little bit of hope again. Maybe John
was
the right guy for her.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The jumps looked larger than any had in the hunter ring all week and also more solid. There was a wide green roll top and a jump made out of the round hay bales usually found in the middle of a huge field down south.

The only people who had watched Zoe pilot Gidget in the high performance hunters were the few trainers with horses competing against her. Now, however, the sidelines were full of trainers, riders, and owners. The announcer gave a quick run-down of how the derby worked in terms of the two rounds, the open numerical scoring with two judging panels, and the extra points awarded for jumping the four high options.

Zoe and John walked the course together, determining what strides to do in the bending lines and where, if anywhere, Gidget might decide to be spooky. Zoe said she felt good about planning to take all the high options. If Gidget started to unravel for any reason, she’d amend her plan and choose the lower jumps.

Zoe drew tenth in the order and felt very prepared as she walked into the schooling area to warm up. Everything felt like it was on target.

Until after her first jump when Gidget’s fake tail fell out.

“You’re losing parts,” Alison Raynes called out with what Zoe was sure was a smirk.

Zoe pulled Gidget up and John collected the tail from where it had landed in the dirt.

The first rider waited at the in-gate and would be in the ring soon. She was junior rider, Jane Hewitt, a professional’s kid. She was Dakota’s age, one of the youngest riders in the derby, and her trainer was giving her a pep talk.

Zoe said to John, “I’m not sure we have time to put it back in.”

“Should we just go without?” John asked.

“Without a fake tail?” Zoe had never found herself in this position before. All the horses she’d ridden before were expertly groomed and braided. “Maybe you should have had her professionally braided, at least for today,” she said.

“I put the fake tail in fine yesterday and the day before and last week,” John pointed out. “This happens to everyone sometimes.”

“Fine, whatever,” Zoe said as the first rider entered the ring. “Let’s just go without it.”

So one thing had gone wrong. It wasn’t the end of the world, Zoe told herself as they continued to warm up. Only it wasn’t just that one thing.

Four jumps later, Gidget threw a shoe.

“Crap,” Zoe said.

“Should we scratch?” John asked.

“Scratch?” Zoe said, astounded at how quick John was to bow out. “No, we just need to get the shoe tacked back on. We’ll move down in the order.”

She hopped off, instructing John to take Gidget over to the show farrier. She went to the in-gate to let Kevin know they needed to move down, probably to go last of the 36 entries.

She texted John to make sure he’d found the farrier and to let him know she’d wait by the ring.

As she waited she watched the rounds. It was interesting to see who was riding which horse, how the horses were going after Florida. Some horses thrived on showing at the same place all circuit, and looked nervous now that they were in a new setting. One horse ran out at the roll top and another stuck off the ground at the log pile.

Other horses looked reinvigorated by the change in scenery, relieved not to be pounding away in the same ring week after week.

Alison rode into the ring on one of Donnie’s. She went straight to the canter, probably trying to conceal a slight lameness. She put in a good trip, except for one rough lead change. Donnie whooped like crazy and the scores came in on the higher side with the points added on for the high options. She took the lead in the class.

Zoe looked down at her phone. No text back from John. What was taking so long?

Everything okay?
she typed. She would kill him if he found a way to draw this out so much that they couldn’t go.

Yup, just not the speediest farrier I’ve ever met . . .

Zoe looked at the in-gate to see who was on deck. Cassidy Rancher was surrounded by what could only be described as an entourage. There was the trainer, the assistant trainer, the assistant-assistant trainer, two grooms, and a road manager with Cassidy’s mother hovering nearby.

Cassidy motioned in the air with her pointer finger, going over her course by drawing an imaginary line from jump to jump.

The assistant-assistant trainer offered her a drink from an infuser water bottle. Cassidy waved her away.

Zoe watched, transfixed.

She had seen Cassidy ride plenty of times before. She’d even competed against her. But things were different now. Cassidy was the “it” girl of the show circuit. She was the prom queen, the MVP. She was the best junior rider in the country.

Cassidy knew it and so did everyone else. She had a long line of trainers and hangers-on. She had owners clamoring for her to ride their gorgeous horses. She had the luxury of telling no to half of the people who asked her to throw a leg over their mount.

Cassidy entered the ring and the buzz of conversations along the rail quieted. The spectators were expecting greatness, and wanted to be a part of that greatness, if even for a few moments. If only so they could go home to their barns and say they’d seen Cassidy Rancher ride and yes, she was as good as people said.

“Next on course from our junior division we have Cassidy Rancher riding her first of two mounts today. She’s currently up on Lawless, a nine-year old Belgian-bred gelding owned by Hugo Fines and the Autumn Ridge Farm.”

Cassidy rode brilliantly, making the high options seem effortless. Zoe felt more antsy about Gidget and the shoe, when really it was all because she wished she was Cassidy. It wasn’t even that she wished she rode as well as her—Cassidy was maybe a hair better, but Zoe felt she was close in talent. It was Cassidy’s position in life Zoe was jealous of.

Cassidy was still a junior, that blessed time where the world seemed limitless. Where your parents still paid the bills, or other people did. Where trainers let you stay with them and took you out to meals because you built their reputation. When people talked about how amazing you rode and how young you were, how poised in the saddle.

They even forgave your mistakes—riding or otherwise—chalking them up to youthful folly.

Once you graduated from the junior ranks, people automatically expected you to act professionally, to make all the right choices, to essentially grow up overnight. But just because you could no longer show in the junior divisions didn’t mean you were a full-fledged mature adult.

Suddenly Zoe felt overcome by a burst of vindictiveness toward Cassidy. She imagined fast-forwarding a few years to when Cassidy herself aged out. It wouldn’t all be so amazing then, would it? She wouldn’t have trainers fawning all over her anymore.

She’d be just another talented rider in a sea of other talented riders trying to find good horses and eke out a living. Cassidy’s life might seem perfect now but Zoe took glee in the fact that time would catch up with Cassidy Rancher too.

Cassidy finished her round and her entourage went crazy with the whooping. The two panels of judges handed out scores in the high nineties.

Cassidy gave her horse the obligatory pat even though Zoe knew she thought her scores were more a product of her, than the horse. It was probably true that if another rider had laid down the same trip on the same horse, the scores might have only reached the high 80s or low 90s. Those extra points were the Cassidy Rancher factor.

Zoe turned away from the ring, her jealousy making it impossible to watch anymore. She couldn’t stand to see everyone fawn over Cassidy.

She spotted Linda and Dakota coming toward her and nearly wanted to run and hug them, utterly grateful for their presence.

“Where’s Gidget?” Linda said.

“She threw a shoe. After she lost her fake tail. John’s getting the shoe tacked back on.”

“How was Cassidy?” Dakota asked.

“Perfect,” Zoe said.

The class was nearly through by the time John hustled Gidget up to the ring.

“Are we in time?” he asked, slightly out of breath.

Linda tightened the girth and pulled down the stirrups while Zoe did up her chin strap and pulled on her gloves. “Barely.” She was going to make a crack about self-sabotage but let it go, deciding to concentrate on the class.

“I’ll tell Kevin you’re getting ready,” Dakota said.

As she warmed up Zoe worried what would go wrong next. First, the tail. Then the shoe. Bad things ran in threes, didn’t they? She told herself she was being ridiculous but her mind flitted between what might go wrong in the ring, and Cassidy Rancher and how lucky that girl was to be so young and good, and why John seemed to be happy underachieving.

As she rode up to the in-gate and saw the course she was about to ride, Zoe’s mind cleared. Thankfully the only thing she was soon thinking about were the jumps and her horse.

Gidget was maybe the tiniest bit spooky over the new jumps but it only made her jump better. Zoe could feel her skying over the fences, even the high options.

She finished to John and Linda’s whoops and scores in the low nineties.

The handy round didn’t have a trot jump, which seemed like a gift from the horse show gods. Instead there were several roll backs, inside turns, and a hand gallop. They came back in reverse order of their first round scores, which meant Zoe came back third to last. Alison sat between Zoe and Cassidy on one of Donnie’s horses—not the one with the late change but his second entry, which had gone better.

Gidget was slick through all the inside turns and roll backs and she jumped crazy good. She didn’t touch a rail, not even a tiny rub. Zoe really pressed her for the hand gallop too.

Once out of the ring, she slid off Gidget and gave her a hearty pat while John ran up her stirrups.

“See what we can do together?” she said to the mare.

She watched Cassidy’s handy round from the in-gate, pretending to not care as much as she did. In her head, she wished for Cassidy to reveal her human side and flub a distance.

But her round was flawless and Zoe knew before the whooping had died off and the scores had come in that she wouldn’t beat Cassidy. Not today. The scores confirmed it. Cassidy had won with Zoe in second.

“Not bad for your first derby with her, “ Linda said as the ringmaster prepared for the awards ceremony and nearby a horde of people congratulated Cassidy, gushing over how well she’d ridden.

“No kidding,” John said.

Both of them noticed her looking a little disappointed.

“You would have liked to beat Donnie,” Linda said.

“And Cassidy,” Zoe admitted.

“So basically you’re not happy unless you win?” Dakota said.

“I’m happy, but yeah, I always want to win.” She glanced meaningfully at John. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be. You’re not supposed to want to come in second.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Zoe stayed longer at Narrow Lane than she was required to and still didn’t want to go home to her grim apartment. Instead she popped over to Morada Bay. Linda shouldn’t have been there on her day off but Zoe had the feeling she might be and she was right. Linda was in the office, working on the computer.

“Hey, girl,” Zoe said as she came into the office.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Linda said. “I was going to text you to see if you could come by.”

“What’s up?” Zoe said, looking concerned. She couldn’t imagine what was so time sensitive. Had Linda hired someone else? Did she not need Zoe anymore?

“I went for my MRI this morning.”

“Oh, right, shit.” Zoe felt like a jerk for not having remembered and for not having asked right away, or better yet, texted her earlier. “I totally forgot. I’m sorry. I don’t know where my brain is. What did they say? Do you get the results right away?”

“I don’t even know because I didn’t actually have the MRI.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because one of the questions on the form they made me fill out beforehand asks whether you might be pregnant . . .”

Zoe’s hand flew up to her mouth. “Oh no, you might be pregnant?”

“No, I
am
pregnant,” Linda said. “I thought there was a chance I might be since I was late so I told the nurse at the MRI place and she said I shouldn’t have the MRI till I go get a pregnancy test just to make sure so she sent me to the lab at the hospital and I had the blood test and, I’m pregnant.”