Gift Horse (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 14) Read online

  “Because you told Ethan that I like him, that’s why,” she said.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  It took ages to convince Mickey that I had not told Ethan anything of the sort and she finally relented and told me that Rachel was the one who told her that I had.

  “Why would you believe her?” I said. “She’s one of Jess’s friends.”

  “I don’t know,” Mickey said, looking forlorn. “She sounded convincing.”

  “Well please don’t believe anything they say,” I said. “I told you, they are out to get me. Ever since I won the spot in the clinic, Jess has been really mad. She’s out for blood now, real blood and she won’t stop until she gets it.”

  “You think that’s what this new horse is about?” Mickey said.

  I suddenly realized that was exactly what it was. Jess needed a horse that could win her a spot in the clinic. There were only a few left. Some had been given to winners at other shows and a couple had been reserved for riders that had showed the most promise over the last year but the jumper class at the Sandman show was a qualifier and if Jess won then she’d get her own spot. In fact she didn’t even need to win. It didn’t matter if she couldn't beat me because I already had a place so even if I won the class, the next spot would go to the second place finisher so all she really had to do was beat everyone else, which she could have easily done on Hashtag if she just focused on her riding for two minutes.

  “Please,” I said, standing up and grabbing a rope halter. “Don’t listen to those girls. All they do is lie.”

  “I know,” she said.

  “And I’m glad you like Ethan,” I said softly.

  “Really?” she said, her face brightening. “You’re not mad?”

  “Why would I be mad?”

  “Because I thought you liked him too,” she replied.

  I thought back to when Ethan had come to Sand Hill. He was the first boy I’d ever had a real crush on but that was all it turned out to be. I liked him and he was nice but now he felt more like a brother than anything else. Then I thought of Will and the way he grinned with those stupid dimples. He definitely did not feel like a brother.

  “I like him as a friend, nothing more,” I said.

  “Cool.” She grinned. “Just promise that you won’t tell him that I like him.”

  “I promise,” I said.

  Out in the barn aisle, the girls were all still fawning over the new mare. She was standing in her stall like a statue as they posed for pictures with her. I knew by the end of the day, Jess’s new horse would be trending all over the local horse community’s social media. It usually didn’t take long for news of a new horse to spread but Jess was making sure that everyone had the scoop as soon as possible this time. I couldn’t help but wonder why she felt she needed all that extra attention.

  I slipped past them and went to hang out with my own new horse. Mickey was right. If Jess had a new horse that she couldn’t do anything with, I would have been laughing behind her back and here I was a complete and utter failure. I’d been using the hurricane horse’s past as an excuse and that couldn’t happen anymore. Maybe the woman who bought him from the auction was right. You couldn’t win them all over with love. At least not love alone anyway. I opened the door and went into his stall. He scuttled to the back and eyed me warily.

  “I know,” I said, pulling a bag of treats out of my pocket. “You don’t like me. That is fine. It’s your choice. You don’t have to like me but you do have to respect me.”

  He snorted but looked mildly interested in the treats.

  “And we are going to have to figure out a way to work together,” I continued on. “You live here now and you belong to me. If you can’t find a way to accept that then I don’t know what will happen to you. This is your last chance. Can you understand that?”

  His ears flicked back and forth and I knew he had absolutely no idea what I was saying but my voice was steady and even, my words calm and soothing. I stood there with the treat bag and the rope halter, slowly making my way to the back of the stall. And suddenly there I was, standing right next to him. His body was tense. I could see his muscles tight beneath the skin. He was ready to explode at a second’s notice and even though I was ready to jump out of the way if he did that, I also stood my ground, letting him know that I wasn’t afraid.

  I held out my hand, one treat laid on it. A peace offering. I’d been cleaning his stall since we got back from volunteering at the rescue. He was getting used to me being around him but it was time to stop treating him like a baby or a damaged soul. He was a horse and he had a job to do, even if that job was only to accept his halter and go out for a walk.

  “Come on,” I said. “It’s yummy.”

  I held my breath as he reached out his nose and sniffed my hand. Then his lips were fumbling with my fingers and grabbing the treat. He crunched it thoughtfully and sniffed my hand, looking for another one. I fed him more, not wanting to break the spell of trust the treats had woven between us.

  “I see you’re bribing that loser of a horse now,” Jess shouted as she walked past, slapping her hand along the bars of the stall as she went.

  The horse leapt out of his skin, jumping straight up into the air and then landing on my foot. I let out a yelp and he flew away from me and stood at the other side of the stall shaking.

  “Thanks a lot Jess,” I yelled after her.

  But she didn’t care. She got what she wanted. It took the rest of the afternoon to get the horse to take another treat and even though he finally let me put the halter on, I never did get him outside for that walk.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  I had finally been allowed back in the jumper group so the next night I tacked Bluebird up for a lesson. Dad said I could ride my own pony in the group lessons and that he would try and fit in some privates for me on Socks. I hoped that he would keep his word because so far Missy had been too occupied with the baby to even try and start teaching again and I didn’t see how on earth she was going to manage it. Owen was a full time job. He needed constant feeding and changing and burping and it felt like he only slept for minutes and then the whole cycle started all over again. She was going to need a babysitter or a full time nanny. In fact I was pretty sure she’d only agreed to the whole virtual school thing because she thought it would give me more time to help her with the baby.

  So far I’d managed to slip out of the house every morning and I spent every minute of the day down at the barn, riding and working and not coming back until it was late. I didn’t know how much longer I’d be able to get away with that though. Dad kept dropping hints that I should help Missy out more but I didn’t see why. She wasn’t my mother and Owen wasn’t my baby and while he was kind of cute some of the time, the rest of it he was a pooping, screaming ball of fury.

  Jess had her new mare out in the cross ties tacking her up. Her name was Sabrina and I could already tell she was kind of a witch. She was sensitive, just like Socks but where he usually gave a warning before he bit you, Sabrina had no such qualms. She bit Jess when she used the hard brush and she bit her when she used the soft one too roughly and I thought Jess was going to go into orbit when she bit her as she put the saddle on.

  “Cut it out,” Jess screamed, slapping the mare for the third time.

  Sabrina pinned her ears and kicked out a hind hoof, narrowly missing Jess’s shin.

  “I hate this horse,” she said. “She is ridiculous.”

  “Maybe you should try bribing her with treats,” I said sweetly as I walked by.

  Jess just glared at me but at least I wasn’t the only one having horse problems. Not that it meant much. Jess usually had horse problems in one form or another and it wasn’t exactly the sort of thing I wanted to have in common with her anyway. But it did give me a small piece of satisfaction to think that even if you had all the money in the world, there was still no such thing as a perfect horse.

  I slipped into my own troublesome horse’s stall and stood there. He pricked
his ears and came over to me. I pulled a treat out of my pocket and fed it to him, gently stroking his neck. He was slowly coming around. There probably wasn’t really much trust in it. He just saw me as his human treat dispenser and that was at least a start but he was flighty. He reminded me so much of the horse he’d been when I first saw him galloping through the hurricane, chasing the foaming white horses across the lake and rearing up to strike out at the wind. I had to wonder if he would ever truly be tame and part of me didn’t want to control that wild side. I just wanted to be able to meet him somewhere in the middle.

  “I have to go now,” I told him as I heard Dad calling us out to the ring. “One day that will be you and me going out there and jumping.”

  He shook his mane and went back to his hay. It was a nice thing to believe in and I was trying to hope for the best but the truth was that I didn’t know if he would ever be jumping sound but that was okay. I had enough on my plate with both Bluebird and Socks.

  I grabbed my pony and ran out to the ring. He trotted beside me, his ears pricked.

  “You have to be good today,” I told him. “Don’t let Jess and that silly new mare make us look bad, okay?”

  He shook his head but I didn’t need to worry. Bluebird and I were a team and jumping was our thing. We didn’t need words or treats or anything else. We knew what each other was thinking and maybe if Jess kept a horse long enough, she’d have that too.

  “Are you okay?” Dad asked Jess as Sabrina tried to bite her again.

  “This mare has no manners,” she said. “I don’t know what my father was thinking.”

  “Maybe he was thinking that her manners might suck but she is really good at winning?" Tulip said.

  “She’s just getting used to a new place,” Dad said. “Give her time.”

  “She’s a show horse,” Jess snapped. “She shouldn’t need time and she should know that biting people is bad. Whoever has let her get away with this is an idiot.”

  I had to admit that Jess was right. Even if the horse was a fantastic jumper, a horse that had been allowed to go around biting people was not only annoying but also a danger to be around. Except I couldn't help wondering how much of the aggression Sabrina was displaying was just because she didn’t like Jess and their personalities clashed.

  “Let’s get on with the lesson then, shall we?” Dad said.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Despite my reservations, the lesson went quite well and Sabrina was, as Tulip had predicted, quite talented. And of course she was otherwise Mr. Eastford wouldn’t have bought her. It also seemed as though riding all the different horses had rubbed off on Jess. Even I had to admit that she rode the mare well.

  “Maybe mares are just her thing,” I said to Mickey afterwards.

  “Or maybe the horse is good and so is she,” Mickey said.

  “Maybe.”

  I looked at Hashtag, who was standing there in his stall looking sad. He was the latest casualty to be cast aside in favor of a newer model and I wondered what was going to happen to him. After all, I’d ridden him so I knew what he was capable of and he was a nice horse. He just needed someone who wasn’t as flaky as Jess was to ride him. For a second I thought about asking my dad to buy him but it was only a second later that I realized it was a ridiculous request. He’d just bought me a horse and besides, Jess would probably rather send the poor horse to auction than sell him to me.

  Dad had a group of adult amateurs that were riding later and he said I could tack Socks up and join in so I hustled to put Bluebird away. I was in the tack room getting the grooming box for Socks when Jess came in.

  “I told you,” she said. “No matter how good you think you are, there will always be a horse out there that makes me better.”

  “She’s a nice horse Jess,” I said, rummaging around in the tack locker for the soft brush I knew was in there. It was the only one that Socks let me brush him with but I couldn’t find it. It had to have fallen out.

  “She’s not nice,” Jess said. “She’s evil. She has the worst personality of any horse I’ve ever ridden. She’s a bitch.”

  Just like you then, I thought, wishing I had the guts to say the words out loud. But last time I’d done so it had back fired and I couldn’t risk that happening again.

  “I don’t have time for this,” I said. “I’m glad you got another horse and I’m very happy for you.”

  Jess took a step closer and I suddenly found myself backed against the tack lockers. She was in my face now, her skin all flawless and the berry stain on her lips a striking complement against her dark hair. I wondered how she could be so mean and pretty all at the same time. I also wondered if she was going to hit me or something but I wasn’t afraid of her. She wasn’t like the stepfather I’d lived with who was twice my size and evil to the core. She was just a spoiled brat with too much money and free time on her hands.

  “I have to get out to my lesson,” I said, pushing her out of the way.

  “So you think you are Daddy’s little star pupil? I heard he was going to let you ride with the housewives. Too bad they don’t really care about things like riding or showing. You know, they only take lessons with your dad because they think he is hot.”

  “Don’t be disgusting,” I snapped.

  “It’s not disgusting. It’s the truth.”

  “Then I’d rather not hear it.”

  I’d given up on finding the brush and was walking past her and out of the tack room when she grabbed my arm. Her thin fingers dug into my arm and the scent of her perfume enveloped me in a fruity cloud.

  “There are lots of things I am sure you’d rather not hear about your precious father,” she hissed. “Like what went on in Europe. That drugging scandal? Don’t tell me you don’t know anything about that.”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about,” I said. “And I think you’re a liar.”

  “You think so do you?” she called out after me. “Why don’t you ask him then?”

  I ran to tack Socks up with tears in my eyes. Jess was just full of hot air. She was entitled and rude and trying to upset me. My father was not the type of person who would be involved in any kind of scandal. He was sweet and patient and he understood horses. He didn’t need to drug them to win and neither did I.

  Socks could tell I was upset. He fed off my energy, dancing about in his stall as I tried to tack him up. I knew it was hopeless. I couldn't ride when I was like that. It wasn’t fair to Socks and it wasn’t fair to me either. I texted my dad to say that I couldn’t join the group. Then I went to the hurricane horse. I wanted to throw my arms around him and sob into his gray mane like I would have done with Bluebird but our relationship wasn’t there yet. Instead I fed him a treat and put his halter on. Then I took him out for a walk.

  As we went past the ring I could hear Jess calling out to my father, asking sweetly if there was room in the group for her to ride Hashtag and him telling her yes. My heart sank. Of course she had an agenda and I’d played right into her little game. Now she would get to ride while I was stuck walking my horse around, the one I couldn’t even ride.

  “It’s okay,” I told him. “I still love you. I don’t care. She can ride in the group.”

  The gray danced around on the end of the lead rope. I snapped it a couple of times to encourage him to settle but I’d already learned that he’d let me say no but if I said it too loudly then he’d lose his brain. As it was he settled down to a fast walk.

  We got to the best patch of grass on the property and he stuck his nose greedily into it. The grass was still green and juicy because even though it was January and we’d had cold weather, we hadn’t had any frost. He munched his way across the patch and back again while I stood there still fuming about Jess. Why couldn’t my father see her for what she really was? For some reason she was out to destroy us all. It wasn’t just me anymore. Now she had my father in her sights and I didn’t know how to make her stop.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Jess rode
in the group that I was supposed to ride in and rode Hashtag better than she had done in weeks. I was mad at myself for letting her bully me into quitting and vowed not to let it happen again. I also vowed to name my horse by the end of the night. He deserved a name and I was going to make sure that he got a good one.

  I put him away and went back to the cottage. It was quiet. Missy had fallen asleep on the couch and Owen was in her arms, his little fat face scrunched up as he slept. I wondered what he was dreaming about and if he would like horses. It seemed as though he would have some pretty good horse genes considering he came from two people who had not only made horses their careers but were actually really good at it too. I only had half the riding genes because Mom couldn’t have cared less about horses if she tried. I knew one day that baby was going to beat me.

  I wandered past the bookshelves. There hadn’t been any books in Mom’s house. She liked to read those novels where young innocent women fell in love with rogue pirates or shrewd businessmen and those weren’t the sort of books you proudly displayed in your home. Those she kept hidden under the mattress until Derek found them and made her throw them out. He said that wasn’t literature but then again he wouldn’t have known literature if it hit him over the head.

  Dad was different. He liked Jules Verne and Shakespeare and I had vague memories of him reading us War and Peace while my four year old self fussed and fretted for him to read The Cat in the Hat instead. His bookshelves were full of leather bound first editions and signed copies of hardbacks. I ran my fingers over them. Some were really old, their pages thin and worn. Almost everyone read on e-readers now but my father still loved real books. The smell of the paper. The weight of the binding. He said that it was what made the book come to life. I wasn’t sure if that was true or not but I had to admit that sometimes I’d take a copy off the shelf and stick my nose in it just to get a good whiff. There was no smell quite like it and although it wasn’t as good as the scent of horses, which was by far the best smell in the whole world, it was still pretty good. Almost as if the smell could transport you to a faraway land where the story would unfold right before your eyes.