Winter Wonderland (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 13) Read online

She slithered lazily to the ground and flipped the reins over the horse’s head, throwing them at my father. She obviously thought he was going to show her how it was done and so did I until he beckoned me over. My heart slid into my boots. He couldn’t be doing this to me. This couldn’t be happening. If there was one thing that would infuriate Jess more than anything, it would be having a trainer make me ride her horse and for me to do it better. I thought about refusing. Then I thought about how disappointed my father would be. This was the first time he’d included me and I wanted to be included. I wanted to be included all the time and the lure of that was more than the wrath I would incur from Jess after the lesson was over.

  “Emily,” Dad said. “Please show Jess that her horse is perfectly capable of going down this line of jumps without demolishing them all.”

  The other girls sat on their horses looking at me. Jess’s mouth flopped open and her face turned red.

  “She is not allowed to ride my horse,” she stuttered.

  “Why?” Dad asked her calmly. “Because you’re afraid that she’ll do a better job than you?”

  “No,” Jess said.

  “Then what is the problem?”

  “She’ll mess him up,” Jess said, her voice sounding small.

  I’d never heard her start to back down before. Usually by now she’d be screaming at the trainer and storming out of the ring, dragging her horse behind her.

  “She’ll make him better,” Dad said.

  I got off Bluebird and gave the reins to my father. He patted his neck and for the first time I got the feeling that he realized my pony was something special after all.

  “You got this?” he asked as I adjusted the stirrups on Jess’s saddle.

  “I got this,” I said.

  “Good.”

  I swung up into the saddle, not looking at Jess. I knew how awful I would feel if my father or in fact any trainer told another girl to get up on Bluebird. I would have done the same as I’d expected Jess to do. I would have refused and stormed out of the ring myself. For a moment I thought about messing up. Not riding him properly so that Jess wouldn’t look bad but that was just stupid. My father had put me up there because he trusted me to get the job done and I couldn’t let him down now. I just hoped that Hashtag wasn’t going to be as difficult for me as he was for Jess because there was intentionally messing up but there was also the very real chance that I wouldn’t be able to ride the horse either.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  I knew what my father was thinking. He’d tossed me up on Socks at the show without even so much as a warning and he was doing the same thing here. Hashtag wasn’t a schoolmaster like Velvet and while he had a lot of natural talent and had been quite good when Jess first got him, she’d spent months messing him up to the point where the poor horse wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to do anymore.

  I patted his neck and walked him out. He was a responsive horse but I could already tell he had a hard mouth thanks to the way Jess hauled on the reins all the time. Even at the walk, he was leaning on me heavily. I pushed him on with my legs, forcing him to use his hind end and not be so heavy on the forehand. He started to trot and then gave a little halfhearted rear.

  “See,” Jess cried. “She’s ruining him.”

  But I pushed Hashtag on into a canter, working hard to get him to stop leaning on me. He didn’t like it. Jess had let him get away with things for far too long and this wasn’t something I could just fix in five minutes of riding him.

  “Down the line when you’re ready,” Dad called out.

  I wasn’t ready. I didn’t feel like the horse should be jumping at all until he got up off his forehand but with enough speed and impulsion, maybe we’d get lucky. I circled him in front of the jumps, thankful that the only pair of clean underwear I’d had left this morning were the lucky ones I usually wore to shows. I just hoped they wouldn’t fail me now.

  We came in fast. Probably too fast but we weren’t out of control. Hashtag was pumped up. His head was high and his neck thick and bulging but he was in front of my leg and I wasn’t about to let him do anything but jump down that line with power. He didn’t let me down. He cleared the fences with room to spare and I let the reins fall loose and patted his neck as I walked him back to the group. He shook his head as if to say that he knew he could do it.

  Dad didn’t praise me. He just looked at Jess and said, “See? Do you see now what I’ve been telling you? You let that horse go around like some western pleasure horse, falling on his face half the time. You pick him up and push him on and he’ll jump like that for you.”

  I got off Hashtag and handed him back to Jess. He was all excited now, jumping back and forth, his tail flagged.

  “All she did was make him psycho,” Jess grumbled under her breath.

  “She woke him up,” Dad snapped. “And I don’t want to hear another word about it.”

  I took back my own pony, glad that the exhibition was over but I knew Jess wouldn’t let me forget it, not for a long time. She stormed off to the barn dragging Hashtag behind her but he was still so pumped that he spooked ahead of her and stepped on her foot. She screamed and slapped him on the neck. He took off, snatching the reins out of her grasp and clattering into the barn.

  “Should I go and help?” I asked Dad.

  “I wouldn’t bother,” he said. “She deserved that.”

  “She’s going to hate me even more now.” I sighed. “It wasn’t fair to make me ride her horse like that.”

  “You want to stay in the shadows, you’ll never make it,” Dad said. “Getting to the top means you actually have to show people how good you are, even if that makes them hate you for it.”

  “I suppose,” I said.

  “And you didn’t let me down. You ride with the group from now on. Okay?”

  “Okay.” I grinned.

  It was as close to praise as I had ever got from him and even though I’d kind of hoped that I’d be getting some one on one instruction from him, being in the group was at least better than nothing and a lot better than anything I’d been getting lately at Sand Hill.

  “He did what?” Mickey shrieked on the phone that night when I told her.

  “He forced me to ride Hashtag in the group.” I sighed.

  “Jess is going to kill you.”

  “I know.”

  “No, seriously. I mean she could actually be plotting your murder right now. You need to watch your back. She’s going to have it in for you big time.”

  “She’s had it in for me big time before,” I said. “This doesn’t change anything.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Mickey said. “It changes everything. You’re on her turf now, in her group, showing her up in front of her friends.”

  “I guess,” I said. “But her barn will be finished soon and then this won’t be her turf anymore, it will be mine.”

  “Until your Dad’s barn is finished,” Mickey said, talking about the old farm that my father was renovating.

  “I think that is going to be a while,” I said. “I overheard him talking to Missy about money the other night and it kind of sounded like he’d run out of it.”

  “That’s not good,” Mickey said.

  “I know. And the baby is coming and babies are expensive.”

  “But at least you’ll have a cute little brother or sister,” Mickey said.

  “Great,” I said but I didn’t mean it.

  Dad and Missy were waiting to be surprised by the sex of the baby so I couldn’t call it anything but a little monster that was going to come along and ruin everything just when things were starting to go so well.

  “But it will be fun to have a cute, adorable little baby around for Christmas, don’t you think?” Mickey said.

  And I didn’t answer because sometimes it seemed like she didn’t know me at all.

  CHAPTER NINE

  My new group rode every other night. Not that they were happy about it. Jess thought they should ride every night and the other gir
ls thought twice a week was enough. I overheard them the next day as they sat in the tack room after school, painting their nails.

  “This is such a waste of time,” Rachel groaned.

  “And now we have to ride with that halfwit,” Jess added. “I can’t believe Rob is making us do this.”

  “Maybe he just feels sorry for her?” Tulip said.

  “Sorry for her?” Jess snapped. “Why would he feel sorry for her? He should be getting rid of her, not encouraging her. Did you know that she’s trying to pass him off as her father? I heard her telling that sniveling best friend of hers.”

  “Like anyone would believe her anyway,” Tulip said. “Everyone knows that she’s just trying to get him and Missy to adopt her or something.”

  Jess made vomiting noises and the other girls laughed. So that was why she hadn’t said anymore about it. She thought that I was lying. That Rob wasn’t really my father at all. Trust Jess to think I’d be making something like that up. I walked away, not sure how to feel about the whole thing. On the one hand I was kind of glad that she hadn’t gone around telling everyone but on the other that meant that she thought I was some kind of poor orphan Annie, taken in by the kindly trainer and his pregnant girlfriend.

  I went back to the cottage where Missy was sitting on the couch with her feet propped up on the table. She was trying to reach the remote but it was like watching a beached whale or one of those dinosaurs with the really short arms.

  “Here,” I said, passing it to her.

  “Thanks.” She looked relieved. “I fell asleep and when I woke up this was on.” She pointed to the television where wild animals were attacking each other.

  “Gross,” I said.

  “I know, right?”

  She flipped the TV off and I sat there, awkwardly perched on the arm of the couch. I’d kept my distance from Missy since I moved in, still mad and confused over the whole her and my father thing. It seemed to make life easier if I pretended that they weren’t really together and that Missy was just another person who was living with us like a roommate or an older sister.

  “So,” I said. “Can I get you anything else? A sandwich or some bacon ice cream?”

  “Bacon ice cream?” She raised an eyebrow.

  “Don’t all pregnant women like weird things?” I said. “Pickle doughnuts and tuna with chocolate surprise?”

  “Some women may.” She laughed. “But not me. The only thing I crave is peace and quiet.”

  As soon as she said that Dad burst in, throwing his arms in the air.

  “First aid kit?” he cried.

  “Bathroom.” Missy pointed.

  “Is everything okay?” I asked as he sped by.

  “Kid. Fingers. Pony.” He grabbed the kit and was gone in a flash.

  “See?” Missy said. “Not a moment’s peace.”

  “I’ll leave you alone then.” I stood up.

  “I don’t mean you,” she said. “Sit. We should talk.”

  “I really do have to go,” I said. “I want to ride Bluebird before the ring gets too crowded.”

  “Alright,” Missy said but I could tell she was disappointed.

  I grabbed an apple for my pony and made a quick exit before she could try and talk me into staying. I wasn’t good at talking about things like feelings and stuff and I knew that was what she wanted. Ever since I’d moved in, she’d been trying to have the talk. The one where she would tell me that she wasn’t going to try and act like my step mother and she hoped we could just be friends. Which was fine, I just didn’t want to talk about it. In fact I’d half expected to hate her after everything that had happened but I didn’t. She was a really nice person. She’d told me how amazing it was that I’d been able to ride Socks so well and she’d even given me some pointers for the next time I rode him when I hadn’t even been sure that there was going to be a next time. She was sweet and funny and she was a better person than I was because if someone else had ridden Bluebird really well, I would have been horribly jealous. So I couldn’t hate her. I just didn’t want to talk about it.

  I went and pulled Bluebird out of his paddock and took him into the barn.

  “I’m using that one,” Jess yelled at me as I went to put him in the cross ties opposite the tack room.

  “But Hashtag is still in his stall,” I said.

  “So? I’m going to be using it in a minute,” she replied.

  “Fine.”

  I unclipped the one tie I’d attached to his halter and took him down to the next one.

  “Tulip is using that one,” Jess called out. “And Rachel is using the furthest one down there.”

  “Why don’t I just go and tack up down the street then,” I grumbled to Bluebird under my breath.

  “You don’t belong here,” Jess said as I stood there holding my pony with nowhere to tack him up. “The sooner you get that through your thick skull, the better.”

  “I do belong here,” I said. “And the sooner you get out of my way, the better.”

  My stuff was in the tack room and I had no place to tie Bluebird so I did the only thing I could, I pushed past Jess, dragging my pony behind me. She shrieked as he almost stepped on her foot but he didn’t seem to care that this wasn’t a stall or a paddock. He just stood there next to the shiny oak lockers and gleaming saddle racks while I picked up my stuff.

  “You wait until Rob hears about this,” Jess cried. “Horses aren’t allowed in the tack room.”

  “Neither are idiots,” I said, leading my tacked pony back out into the barn aisle.

  I didn’t turn around to look at her but I was pretty sure that if I had, I would have seen steam coming out of her ears.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “You rode your pony into the tack room?” Dad said.

  I was riding Bluebird around the edge of the ring, trying to dodge the crazies who were out in full force when he came riding up on Canterbury, his big chestnut jumper. The horse looked like a rock star, all rippling muscles and long legs. It was how I imagined Bluebird would look if he’d been born a horse instead of a pony.

  “I did not,” I said.

  “Well then why did Jess say that you did?”

  I sighed. “Oh, all right, I took him in there but I most certainly did not ride him in there. It’s just that Jess and her annoying friends wouldn’t let me use any of the cross ties even though their horses were still in their stalls. She was just being stupid.”

  “And so were you by giving her ammunition to use against you,” Dad said as we walked out of the ring side by side.

  “She doesn’t own the barn,” I said. “It’s not fair.”

  “Life isn’t fair,” Dad said. “You know that.”

  “But I have a right to be here too,” I grumbled. “Besides, it’s Christmas. Aren’t people supposed to be a little nicer at Christmas time?”

  “Maybe if you’re an elf at the North Pole,” Dad said. “I don’t think Jess and her friends care much about Christmas spirit.”

  “Well they should,” I said. “And how come we don’t even have any decorations out around here? At Sand Hill we used to put wreaths on the horses stalls and stockings and then on Christmas Eve we’d go around and fill them with carrots and apples.”

  “Well I suppose if you want to put up a few decorations you can,” Dad said. “But nothing dangerous that the horses can eat or get hurt on.”

  “I know,” I said, feeling hurt myself. “I’ve been around horses a long time. I know that you have to treat them like toddlers because they’ll stick anything in their mouth.”

  “Of course, I know you know that.” Dad shook his head like he felt stupid.

  We rode past the ring and down to the jump field, neither one of us talking. Just like it was kind of awkward between me and Missy, when it came to anything other than horses, things were awkward between me and my Dad too. And even the horse stuff was awkward because I’d had this whole other horse life away from him and he’d had one away from me too. There were pictures in
the house of him winning really big shows just like the ones that had been in Esther’s office only these ones weren’t old and dusty. They were taken over the last few years while he was living and competing in Europe. All that time I could have been with him, riding and getting experience. I felt like he’d let me down in more ways than one but I was trying to make the most of what I had now.

  “Do you think you could give me some pointers?” I asked as we got to the field.

  “Can’t,” he said. “I have to teach.”

  He pointed behind us to where a skinny girl was riding one the Fox Run lesson horses down the lane, trotting because she knew she was late.

  “Oh,” I said. “Never mind. It’s just, with the Winter Wonderland show coming up I was hoping you could help me.”

  “I am helping you,” he said. “I let you in the group, didn’t I?”

  “Yes,” I said. “Thanks.”

  I rode away feeling confused. He seemed like he wanted to help me but on the other hand he didn’t. It turned out that real fathers were just as confusing as stepfathers but at least I didn’t have to sleep with a knife under my pillow anymore.

  I took Bluebird into the dressage ring and worked on his flying changes. He was doing really well and I had to admit that I was super proud of my pony. He’d taken moving away from his old life a lot better than I had but it probably didn’t hurt that all his friends were here and so were mine. My heart lifted when I saw Mickey and Hampton riding towards us. I waved madly and she waved back.

  “Hey, what are you doing?” she said.

  “Nothing much.” I shrugged.

  “You weren’t at school today,” she said. “Are you okay?”

  “Oh right, yeah, I’m kind of sick.” I coughed a couple of times.

  “You are not,” she said.

  “Okay, fine,” I said as we rode around the dressage ring together. “One of the grooms called in sick and I had to cover for them.”

  “Your Dad let you miss school to clean stalls?”

  “I guess,” I said.