Show Days (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 32) Read online

  SHOW DAYS

  BY

  CLAIRE SVENDSEN

  Copyright © 2016 Claire Svendsen

  All rights reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission of the Author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Your support of author’s rights is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, places or events is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

  CHAPTER FORTY

  CHAPTER FORTY ONE

  CHAPTER FORTY TWO

  CHAPTER FORTY THREE

  CHAPTER FORTY FOUR

  CHAPTER FORTY FIVE

  CHAPTER FORTY SIX

  CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN

  CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT

  CHAPTER FORTY NINE

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  CHAPTER FIFTY ONE

  CHAPTER FIFTY TWO

  COMING SOON

  PUSH BUTTON: CHAPTER ONE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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  CHAPTER ONE

  Being on the road as a working student for Rae Willingham was like a dream come true. Finding out that Hanna, Esther’s niece had disappeared, was not. I took care of my two horses, washing the sweat off one and then the other. Rubbing liniment on their legs and making sure that they didn’t have any cuts or scrapes. Bluebird liked the attention. Rags did not. Rae’s grumpy black horse just wanted to get back to his stall and eat his hay. I couldn’t blame him. He’d done well in our class and we placed second. I had felt pretty proud of myself, until I went looking for Hanna.

  We had our differences since we’d been on the road. It turned out that she’d expected to be a real student with Rae over the summer and not a working student and Esther had only made her work for it because that was what I was going to have to do. Hanna had resented me for it and now she was gone, leaving a bunch of pillows in her place. When I went back to the show grounds, I was going to have to tell the others. I didn’t want to do that. For a moment I thought about not saying anything but I knew that I couldn’t keep it a secret.

  I’d finished with the horses and was dragging my feet when Julio called me.

  “You coming back?” he said without even a hello.

  “Yes,” I said. “Just leaving now.”

  “Good, Rae wants you to bring Infanta over,” he said.

  “What, ride her over?” I said, not quite sure what he was asking.

  “Yes, ride her over and get a move on,” he said and then hung up.

  Infanta was one of Rae’s best horses, a big gray mare with a sweet disposition and a unique but effective way of jumping. I patted her as I tacked her up and she stuck out her neck when I found an itchy spot and scratched it. If Rae was letting me ride one of her best horses, that meant she really trusted me and now I was going to have to ruin the day with the news that Hanna had run off. I was worried about her but also mad at her too. Why did she have to make such a big drama out of everything?

  I rode Infanta back to the show with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Instead of feeling the joy that was riding Rae’s horse, I just felt impending doom and when I got to the show I quickly handed the big mare off to Julio.

  “Where is Rae?” I asked him.

  He pointed over to where some of the clients and their horses had staked out a place in the shade under a line of trees. Rae was talking with a student and laughing. I didn’t want to ruin her good mood but I was about to.

  “Can I talk to you?” I asked her when I got over there.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked, looking worried. “Is Infanta alright?”

  “She’s fine, she’s with Julio,” I told her. “It’s not the horses, it’s Hanna. She’s gone.”

  I watched confusion flash across Rae’s face and felt a sick feeling of deja vu. Rae looked like my father had when I told him that my mother and Cat had gone. Like she didn’t believe me. I didn’t blame her. I hardly believed it myself but Hanna had most definitely gone and I had no idea where, although I had a sneaking suspicion that the kissing boy had a lot to do with her disappearance and that when they found her, Hanna was going to be in big trouble.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Rae didn’t seem to have time to deal with the fall out of Hanna running off. She had classes to ride in and students to teach. Trixie was getting ready to go in the ring and I helped her get ready.

  “Do you think I’ll win this time?” she asked me, sounding so serious that I wanted to tell her that it wasn’t all about winning.

  “I think you’ll do your best,” I said. “And I know that you have it in you to win.”

  “Thanks,” she said.

  She stole a nervous look over at her mother, who was sitting by the ring with a scowl on her face.

  “Don’t worry about what your mom is doing,” I said. “Forget about her.”

  “Like I can do that,” she said. “She’s there all the time, watching and criticizing me. She makes me so nervous.”

  “So ignore her then,” I said. “Pretend that there is no one here. No crowds. No other riders or horses. Just you and Peter Pan.”

  I patted the pony on the neck, realizing that I was trying to explain sports psychology to a seven-year-old.

  “I think I can do that,” she finally said. “Well, I’ll try anyway.”

  “That’s all that matters,” I told her.

  She rode into the ring looking a little less nervous and I watched as she trotted and then cantered her pony. He hopped over the fences, tucking up his little knees and I wasn’t any kind of expert on pony hunters, I thought they had a pretty flawless round.

  “Where you did pull that one out of?” Rae said, patting the girl on the back afterwards.

  “Emily helped me,” she said proudly.

  And when Trixie and Peter Pan won their class and went in to collect their blue ribbon. I couldn’t have been prouder if I’d won it myself and I wished again that Faith and Falcon were there, even though their round would have been nowhere near textbook. I longed to know how they were all doing. Was she still using the neck strap like I’d told her to? Was she getting any better? Were my other horses
okay? I missed them all so much but luckily there wasn’t time to dwell on matters of the heart because there was the next student to help and the one after that.

  “I feel like a robot,” I told Shelby as I cleaned someone’s boots for the third time.

  “Maybe one day we’ll be replaced by robots,” she said. “You know, in the future.”

  “Probably,” I said. “But by then the horses will be robots too and where will the fun be in that?”

  “True,” she said.

  We were sitting in the shade with our buckets and sponges and I felt at ease, even though I was more tired than I’d ever been in my entire life.

  “You heard about Hanna?” I said.

  “Yes,” she replied. “That was dumb. Rae won’t take her back now.”

  “If they find her,” I said.

  “She probably ran off home.” Shelby shrugged.

  “I don’t think she has though,” I said. “I saw her yesterday with a boy, kissing.”

  I described the boy as best I could, which was hard considering I’d never actually seen his face but there weren’t that many boys on the circuit. Show jumping was primarily a female sport until you hit adulthood and all the women started having babies and raising families and the men took over and dominated. I was never going to let that happen to me. But it meant that there weren’t that many boys at the show and we’d probably be able to figure out who it was that Hanna had been kissing and whether or not she’d run off with him.

  And it turned out that the prime suspect was a boy called William who came from a rich family, thought he could do whatever he wanted and pretty much treated girls like disposable objects when he was bored with them.

  “Have you seen him around before?” I asked Shelby.

  “Last year,” she said. “He was all nice and totally cute and when he asked me to go to the movies with him of course I said yes.”

  “And you didn’t have a very good time?” I asked her.

  “No, I had a great time,” she said. “Until he stuck his hand down my shirt and tried to grope me.”

  “Gross,” I said. “What did you do?”

  “Screamed and pushed him off me,” she said. “I was up for the kissing but I’d already told him that it was as far as I wanted to go. Of course he left me there stranded and I had to call Theresa and ask her to come and pick me up.”

  “Did she tell Rae about it?”

  “No, I think she felt sorry for me,” she said. “But I’ve heard that he’s pushy with girls. I would have warned your friend off him if I’d known that was who she was hanging with. William is not a nice guy.”

  “No, he doesn’t sound like it at all,” I said.

  I scrubbed at one of the dirty bridles and thought about Jordan. How he was so polite and kind. How he’d waited this long to kiss me and never asked for anything else. I was new to the whole relationship thing and I wasn’t even sure that was what we had. Did one kiss make you girlfriend and boyfriend? I didn’t know but what I did know was that right now I cared more about my horses than I did about Jordan and that had to mean something. It didn’t help Hanna out any though.

  “I’ll help you look for her later if you like,” Shelby said. “I know where William likes to hang out.”

  “Thanks,” I told her, feeling relieved.

  But I was pretty sure that Rae had already contacted Esther and so even if we found Hanna, things weren’t going to go well for her now.

  CHAPTER THREE

  We found the boys hanging by the food trucks like a pack of feral dogs. They were talking and laughing, some of them eating food and others sitting on the wooden tables and making fun of people. I could see that Shelby was right. They were not nice. Maybe they were better alone but together in a group, they were the sort of people that I would cross the street to avoid and I was one of the riders that they would probably make fun of the most. One of the people who didn’t really belong there in the first place. Shelby didn’t seem scared though. She walked right up to them and put her hands on her hips.

  “Where is William?” she said.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know,” one of the boys sneered at her.

  “Yes, I would. That is why I am asking,” Shelby said, not put off in the slightest.

  “William’s not here,” the boy said.

  He was tall and lean and apparently the spokesperson for the group. I wondered if he was their leader and whether or not they were in some sort of gang. But I knew for sure that these were the type of people that my father had warned me to stay away from.

  “Obviously he’s not here,” Shelby said. “I’m not blind. But where is he?”

  “I’ll tell you if that girl lets me have a kiss.” The boy pointed at me.

  I took a step backwards. I didn’t care if Hanna was on the moon. There was no way I was kissing that boy.

  “Nice try,” Shelby said. “But not happening.”

  “Too bad you’ll never find out where William is then,” the boy said with a sigh.

  Shelby took a couple of steps forward. I wondered if she was going to punch him in the face. She looked mad enough but then what would happen? Five guys against two girls? We wouldn’t stand a chance.

  “Listen up Henry Watson. I know your trainer, remember? I used to ride with her. She likes me. She’ll believe anything I say. I would be more than happy to tell her about your questionable activities.”

  “What questionable activities?” Henry said but now he looked nervous.

  “You know very well,” Shelby said, her voice low and menacing. “And you also know I have proof.”

  Henry frowned and then shook his head. “Fine. Whatever. William doesn’t deserve my loyalty anyway. He’s back at the hotel, probably in the pool or something.”

  “And does he have a girl with him?” Shelby added.

  “Maybe?” Henry shrugged. “I’m not his keeper you know.”

  Shelby took my hand and pulled me away from the group. Now that she’d got what she wanted, the boys seemed restless and I got the feeling that they might pounce on us at any moment.

  “They’ll probably call him as soon as we’re out of earshot,” she said.

  “And what about Hanna?” I said.

  “He’ll dump her back here,” Shelby said. “He only likes to hang out with girls who aren’t going to get him into trouble.”

  “And if she doesn’t show up?” I said.

  “Then we’ll have to tell Rae and she’ll go and get her. Then she’ll send her packing. Horse show life is hard enough without teenage hormones getting in the way. Rae is not here to be our babysitter and she doesn’t have time for teenage temper tantrums.”

  “I told Hanna that,” I said as a big chestnut horse trotted past us, its rider on their way to one of the rings. “I tried to get her to straighten up.”

  “Life on the road isn’t for everyone,” Shelby said. “I saw a couple of girls come and go last year. Hanna won’t be the first or the last to fail.”

  I didn’t say anything after that. All I could think about was Esther’s face. How she’d asked me to watch out for Hanna. How she’d made her niece be a working student because of me. That meant she’d probably ruined any chance Hanna and I had at having a really good friendship because after this, she’d hate me.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  It was late in the day and we were packing up the final few horses to go back to the barn when I saw her, walking through the thinning crowd with her sandals in her hand. She was wearing frayed denim shorts and a crop top, her long blonde hair hanging down her back in limp, wet curls. She had on makeup, red lipstick and blue eyeshadow. I hadn’t even bothered to put on lip-gloss and I’d also forgotten my sunscreen so my face was red and arms burned. I looked like a lobster. She looked beautiful.

  “You came back,” I said, trying to sound happy but I knew it just came out fake.

  Hanna ignored me. She stumbled past as though she didn’t even see me there.

  “Is she drunk?” I
whispered to Shelby who just shrugged.

  But Rae took control of the situation. She shuffled Hanna into the golf cart and took her back to the barn. By the time we got there, Hanna had been showered and scrubbed clean and was sitting on her bunk bed in leggings and an oversized t-shirt, clutching a rainbow colored plush unicorn. Before she’d looked like a grown woman, now she just looked like a little girl.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her as I stood in the doorway to our room, afraid to go inside in case she yelled at me. “William didn’t make you do anything that you didn’t want to do, did he?”

  She shook her head. “We were just swimming in the pool. Having fun. I don’t know what the big deal was.”

  “That’s a relief,” I said.

  “No, its not,” she said, rolling over and sobbing into her pillow. “I won’t get to stay now.”

  “But you didn’t want to anyway, did you?” I asked her. She didn’t reply.

  Shelby, Theresa and I settled the horses in for the night. They had the next day off so we put away all the show stuff and made sure that everything was clean. They’d all get extra turnout tomorrow and Rae had said that there weren’t going to be any schooling sessions either. As far as she was concerned, the barn was going to be closed and the clients had been told so.

  I was looking forward to a day of rest. We hadn’t had one since Esther dropped us off. I had a mountain of laundry to do and I was looking forward to maybe relaxing and reading a book or taking a nice long nap. But in the back of my mind was the worrying thought that all that might be ruined if Esther showed up to get Hanna.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Even though it was technically our day off, that didn’t mean that we got to sleep in. Horses that weren’t showing still had to eat and there were stalls to clean and endless turnouts.

  “I thought I was bad about protecting my horses but this is ridiculous,” I said as I put four splint boots, bell boots, a fly mask and a fly sheet on Infanta.

  “Can’t have valuable property getting damaged,” Shelby said.

  “But they’re horses too,” I said. “Not objects.”