Nothing But Horses (5 page)

“The intern who fell off Aladdin?” Dave
asked, smiling at her.

“Am I ever going to live that down?” Vicky
held up a silver foil sheet that she’d folded into a rectangle. “It
wasn’t my fault or his. It was my stepdad’s. He thought if he sent
my brothers and sisters screaming up to get me, I’d come sooner to
babysit.”

“I’m Dani.” The petite blonde nodded at him.
“Robin calls me her “mini-me” because I’m almost as snarky as she
is, but I think I have a ways to go yet.”

“I see.” Dave watched Robin and Vicky staple
what was going to be an icy pond into place. “Is this fair? You
have friends helping you.”

“I know, but I need to do something,” I said.
“Autumn got my grandfather to take her back to the dollar store so
they could find more decorations for Dream.”

“No more fake apples?”

I laughed. “No, but she told Grandpa that you
were nearly as nice as he was, so be careful tonight.”

“Thanks for the warning.” Dave looked at his
watch. “I’ll head up to the house. I brought that bag of real
apples I promised your sister for her pony and those two large
combination pizzas your mom told me she needed for you girls.”

“Great,” I said. “Thanks a lot. We’ll chop up
the apples for Autumn to feed Dream.”

Robin waited until Dave left the barn before
she asked, “What’s happening? Is he actually dating your mom? He’s
old and he doesn’t look at all like the hot rodeo cowboys she
usually sees.”

“I know,” I said. “He’s a nice change. He
helps with chores, orders in pizza, or brings Chinese take-out for
supper. He didn’t let Meredith bully my sister. He even loaded the
dishwasher last Sunday when Mom was putting Autumn to bed, so I
could get a head-start on my homework.”

The three of them stared at me as if I’d
arrived from outer space. Vicky poked me in the ribs. “Who are you
and what have you done with our friend, Sierra?”

“I’m me and I’m standing right here.”

“She’s in denial,” Dani said. “We have to
find the pod and free the real Sierra.”

“Unless it’s like that old-time, creepy movie
Bill and I watched last night. She could have one of those awful
slug things on her back that arrived in
The Puppet
Maste
r
s
,” Robin said. “Then we have to burn it off and
chuck the leftovers into the woodstove.”

“
I haven’t changed. It’s just that
Dave’s way more decent than the other guys my mom chooses,” I said.
“He even has a job.”

“I know,” Robin said. “He arrested Caine, the
guy who threw Lassie’s puppies in the river. Sierra’s right. We do
like Dave. Let’s finish this door and go have pizza. None of
Rocky’s other guys ever brought us dinner or even talked nice to
us.”

“He could be a keeper. We need to investigate
him some more,” Vicky said. “We’re on break so we have time.”

“And you can stop picking on me,” I said. “If
he turns into a jerk, I’ll be the first one to say he has to
go.”

Chapter
Four

Mom, Dave and my grandparents left shortly
after we arrived at the house. Mom told me to make sure I kept my
cell with me in case I had an emergency. Hello, I was a teenager.
Did she honestly think I ever let it out of my sight or reach?
Autumn loved it when I had friends spend the night because she got
to hang out with us. We ate pizza, played board games and set up
the living room with our sleeping bags. If I only had one friend
over, she slept in my bed with me, but more than one meant a
camp-out.

The farmhouse really wasn’t that big. The
downstairs had a small living-room in the front and the kitchen was
directly behind it. The hall off it held three bedrooms and a bath.
Mom had told me it was a major deal when my great-great-grandfather
installed indoor plumbing. My great-great-grandmother was a city
girl who refused to go to the outhouse first thing in the morning
or any other time of the day. Grandpa told me that when her
soon-to-be father-in-law offered to buy her a new chamber-pot, she
threatened to call off the wedding.

It didn’t happen. She got her bathroom or
none of us would be here and Shamrock Stable would be a housing
development by this time. Okay, so my grandpa had turned the family
homestead into a riding stable, but at least it wasn’t wall to wall
split-level houses. That was another thing that totally ticked off
the various guys my mom married. They always thought they’d be the
ones to convince her to sell off the hundred-plus acres to the
developers. It was so not happening.

Back to the present and my sleepover. When we
got bored, we went upstairs to pull the supplies for tomorrow’s
party games out of the attic. We needed plastic Christmas ornaments
for relay races, holiday CDs for musical cones and gold tinsel
garland for the advanced pairs contest. Robin looked around the
attic, actually a small storage area with a sloping loft ceiling
and the double bed on the far side of the room. “Who sleeps up
here?”

“Meredith on weekends,” I said. “My
grandparents have the guest-room on the other side of the
staircase. It’s smaller so we don’t store anything over there.”

“So, where will I live when I graduate and
move to Shamrock?” Vicky asked.

“Up to you,” I said, passing a plastic
tote-box to Dani. “You can have the room where my grandparents stay
or you can take the apartment in the arena.”

“I have to think about it,” Vicky said, “but
I’m pretty sure that Meredith will totally freak out if we’re
neighbors.”

“She’s not coming back till after New
Year’s,” Autumn announced. “She didn’t like our contest and she’s
no fun at the party, so I’m glad.”

That brought smiles all around, but Robin was
the only one who laughed. Then, she told us it was time for banana
splits so we headed back downstairs with our loot. We changed into
our pajamas before we made the sundaes, mostly to make it easy when
my little sister zonked out. She wouldn’t stay awake forever. We
took our ice-cream in the living room and watched
King of the
Wind
, an old movie about the Godolphin Arabian, one of the
foundation sires of the Thoroughbred breed.

Autumn fell asleep halfway into it. I carried
her off to bed. Once I tucked her under the covers, I turned on the
nightlight. I left the hall door open so she could find us if she
woke up again. I stopped by my room and picked up the catalog for
Lincoln High. Then, I returned to my friends. “Okay, are you ready
to help me pick classes?”

“Sure. It’ll be easy,” Robin said. “We just
get you into the same ones we take.”

“I know I want choir and drama. Do you take
those?”

“Not me,” Robin said. “Dani does.”

Vicky grabbed a pen and pad of paper to act
like a secretary. We worked through the courses, organizing it so I
would have at least one friend in each classroom. I’d start with
English which Robin told me was the worst period of the day and
Vicky said was the best. I figured my experience with their teacher
would fall somewhere in between.

When Robin called the woman a troll, Vicky
traded the pen for a pillow and bonked Robin over the head. “She
isn’t. She totally stood up to my mom last Wednesday.”

“She’s evil,” Robin insisted, going for her
own pillow. “She makes me do my work a thousand times before she
accepts it.”

“Well if you did it right the first time, she
wouldn’t have to call for do-overs.”

That led to a major pillow fight. Dani and I
had to jump into the fray. We dashed around the recliners and
couch. I darted in and nailed Robin, which of course was when Mom
walked in with Dave and my grandparents. Trying not to laugh, Mom
heaved a sigh and Grandpa closed the door behind the four of
them.

He grinned at us. “The apple doesn’t fall far
from the family tree. Do I want to recount the number of pillow
wars your grandma and I saw?”

“Oh, definitely.” Dave chuckled. “We brought
back a sampler from
The Cheesecake Factory
in Bellevue. If
there’s a cease-fire in the near future, come join us.”

Dani dropped her pillow on a sleeping bag.
She hooked her arm through mine. “Okay, let’s go. I’m voting for
keeping him. If my parents or au-pair saw that, I’d be grounded for
the rest of my life.”

“It was just for fun,” Robin said. “What’s up
with your folks that they don’t get it?”

“Some people don’t like kids acting like
kids,” Vicky said. “Come on. If we don’t hustle, we may not get any
cheesecake.”

“Oh yes, we will. My mom will see to that,” I
told them and we hurried for the kitchen.

* * * *

After morning chores, we came back to the
kitchen and found Grandma making pancakes. Normally, we’d have
headed to church at this point. Since I had a sleepover on Saturday
night and we’d be hosting the annual Shamrock Stable holiday party
on horseback today, Mom had said we’d go to services on Christmas
Eve instead. I was good with that and so were my grandparents.

I was in the middle of pouring apple juice
into eight glasses when the phone rang. Mom answered it and
listened for a moment. Then, she covered the receiver with her
hand. “It’s Tanya Jamison. She said that you’re supposed to visit
the senior center today with the 4-H club for community
service.”

“No way,” I said. “I told her I could do it
any weekend except this one.”

“Be nice,” Mom told me. “It’s probably a
mistake.”

“It is and I’m not going.” I took the phone
from my mother and pasted on my nicest tone. “Hi, Mrs. Jamison. How
are you?”

“We’re waiting for you, Sierra. When will you
be here?”

“There must have been a breakdown in
communications, Mrs. Jamison.” I tried to sound super-polite. “I
told you several times that I had to be at home for the Christmas
party today. I emailed the club secretary the date three times
too.”

“I announced the date of this visit at the
last meeting and reminded everyone that attendance was mandatory.
If you choose not to come today, then don’t ask to attend the next
horse training clinic.”

I walked over and looked at the wall
calendar. I’d missed the meeting two weeks ago, because we were
snowed in and I had to wonder how many other members made it.
Probably it was just her daughter and that clique of snotty friends
I hated. “I’m sorry, but I can’t come now.”

While she sputtered, I hung up the phone.
Robin had taken over with the juice, so I got the bottle of syrup
out of the cupboard. I glanced at Mom. “The Silver Spurs was a lot
more organized and a lot more fun when Herb and Virginia Weldon ran
it. I don’t know why they retired or turned it over to that
twit.”

“Because Herb is older than I am,” Grandpa
said. “He and Virginia wanted to have some time to spend together
in their golden years.”

“Yeah, well they understood that I have
responsibilities here and Tanya doesn’t,” I said. “She reminds me
of those city slickers that Grandma talks about and it’s totally
bizarre because Tanya is supposed to be in charge of a horse 4-H
club.”

“She is in charge.” Mom carried the platter
of pancakes to the table. “However, a lot of volunteers really
don’t like people who have riding stables. They’re sure we’re
making a million dollars off our customers. I wish that was
true.”

“I think you better buy that lottery ticket
and win one of those huge jackpots if you want mass bucks,” I said.
“It’s the only way we’ll ever get rich.”

* * * *

By the time most of the students arrived at
ten, we’d groomed the horses and saddled them with their Christmas
blankets. These were thin red or green fleece ones that covered
their regular pads. The little bells Mom and Grandma attached to
bridles lent a festive air. Nevada kept tossing his head to listen
to the jingling sound. He wasn’t afraid of the noise. In fact, he
seemed to like it.

So far, there were twenty attendees. We might
still have a few late arrivals after church, but for now it was a
fifty percent turnout and that was pretty good. I organized the
first round of students, seven younger beginning riders to lead
down to the indoor arena. Robin walked with Tina and Sagedust, a
dainty gray Arabian mare. Five horses later, I brought up the rear
with Eddie and Houston.

Grandpa waited by the main door for us to
exit the barn. He had a clipboard in his hand. I gestured to it.
“What’s up?”

“Your momma put me in charge of judging the
stalls and collecting accounts.”

“All at the same time? What about
bribery?”

“Anybody brings in ten tons of hay or forty
bags of grain or a truckload of shavings can have my vote,” Grandpa
said. “I don’t know about Dave’s or your grandma’s or Robin’s
mama.”

“That’s way expensive,” Eddie piped up.
“Nobody will do it.”

“Then, I guess I’ll have to stay honest and
not upset Sierra by ruining her first contest,” Grandpa said. “It
will be tough, but at least I’ll have Dave on my side.”

I laughed and kept the group moving toward
the ring. I liked the judging committee Mom had chosen and I’d have
to remember to tell her that. Vicky had brought in the four
beginners from the bottom barn so we had a total of eleven riders.
It wasn’t the biggest class our indoor arena had seen, but still it
was a good number.

I gaped at the big, tall, blond guy helping
Rhonda lead Shiloh around the ring. Catching Vicky’s eye, I
signaled for her to come join me by Houston. The students made a
few more circles around the ring before she did. “What is Tom
McNeely doing here?”

She gave me a big-eyed, innocent look. “He
takes lessons and the party’s for all the students.”

“Since when? I haven’t seen him here.”

“On Saturdays or Sundays or when he’s off
from the restaurant during the week.”

“You did this on purpose.” I hissed. “I’m so
paying you back. Who is his horse?”