Second Chances (Show Jumping Dreams ~ Book 25) Page 6

  “What on earth are you doing here? Why didn’t you call?”

  “My phone fell in the creek,” she said, pointing to a cell phone that was drying out in a bag of rice. “And I couldn’t remember anyone’s number.”

  “We wanted to take her to the hospital,” the man said. “But she wouldn't hear of it.”

  “Emily?” a voice said from behind me.

  “Rose,” I cried, turning around. “It is you. I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my whole life. I thought maybe you guys were serial killers or something.”

  Rose and her father looked at me like I was crazy and Faith just shook her head.

  “She watches too many horror movies,” Faith said.

  “Your wrist,” I said, taking a closer look. “You need to go to the emergency room. It really does look broken and your parents are going to be so mad. What happened?”

  “I know.” She sighed. “You were right about the woods. They are nothing like the Fox Run trail. Macaroni spooked at a creepy bird that swooped down at us. He took off and got all tangled in the roots of a tree. I fell off in a swampy creek and he just ran away. He’s okay though, isn’t he? You found him?”

  “Yes,” I told her, thinking that she was so much like me it was ridiculous. Thinking of her pony first even though she was badly hurt. “He is fine. My father took him back home. He’s scratched up and he has a nasty cut on his chest but he’ll be fine and now I have to call your parents.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “You want to sit here all night with a broken wrist?” I asked her.

  “No, I suppose not.” She shook her head.

  I called my father and told him where we were. He said that the vet was there stitching up Macaroni and that Faith’s parents would be there right away and then he would follow with the trailer, for which I was very glad. I didn’t think I had the strength or the nerves to ride back through the woods again tonight.

  “You can stay here if you like,” Rose said. “And so can your pony.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “But I really should get back.”

  We sat and waited and watched Faith’s wrist get bigger and bigger. It had to hurt but I could tell she was putting on the best brave face she could.

  “If I have to get a cast, do you think I’ll still be able to ride?” she asked.

  “What do you think?” I said.

  “I think I’ll be lucky if my parents even let me come back out to the barn,” she said.

  I didn’t say anything but I thought that we’d be lucky if her parents didn’t yank her and her pony right back to Fox Run where the children were supervised and not allowed to just wander off the farm on their own and get hurt and end up at a stranger's house in the middle of the night.

  “I’m really sorry,” Faith said, looking at my face.

  “I know,” I told her. “But it's a little late for sorry now.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

  Faith’s parents swooped in like I knew they would, her mother in tears, hugging her daughter one minute and then yelling at her the next that she was never riding again and they were going to sell the horrible animal that had thrown her off. Her father just stood there patting her back and also choking back tears. At least they remembered to thank Rose’s family for taking care of their daughter as they dragged her out to the car.

  “It wasn’t Macaroni's fault,” Faith protested as they took her outside. “It was all mine.”

  “I know,” her mother said. “And we’ll be having a serious discussion about the consequences of your actions young lady once you get this wrist looked at.”

  I hoped that discussion didn’t really end in Macaroni being sold because I knew it would break Faith in more ways than one. Not that she’d ever let them do that. While I was the one who daydreamed about running away, I knew that she was the kid who would actually do it.

  And as their car zoomed down the drive, the lights of my father’s truck bobbed into sight, our trailer swaying behind it.

  “Thank you so much,” I told Rose. “You have no idea how worried we all were.”

  “It’s fine,” Rose said. “We would have taken her home but she wouldn't tell us where she lived. I think she knew that she was in a lot of trouble.”

  “Her parents will get over it,” I said.

  And I knew that they would because Faith would heal. Their daughter hadn’t been permanently damaged or killed and Macaroni would eventually be forgiven and all would go back to normal.

  Dad went to introduce himself to Rose’s father while I pulled Bluebird out of the paddock and loaded him into the trailer.

  “Who is this guy?” Rose asked as she followed me with a flashlight so that I could see what I was doing.

  “This is Bluebird,” I said. “The wonder pony. That course we jumped today? He could have totally nailed it.”

  “So why isn’t he your team horse then?” she asked curiously.

  “Because he is the one that Jess poisoned,” I told her.

  “Oh,” she said. “That is too bad. When is he going to be back to normal again?”

  “He almost is,” I said, tying him up and giving him a pat on the neck. “I just don’t want to push him too much just yet.”

  “You are lucky that you have another horse to ride,” Rose said. “I only have Noelle.” She looked out into the dark where her gray horse stood by the fence looking at us curiously.

  “Yes.” I nodded. “I am lucky.” And sometimes I forgot it but I really was.

  CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

  Back at the barn Macaroni was feeling pretty sorry for himself. His chest was all stitched up and covered in a bandage and he had ointment over all of his scratches. He was also wearing a cooler that was four times too big for him because it used to belong to Bluebird as Dad had to hose all the mud off him before the vet could treat him.

  “You are a bad pony,” I scolded as I stood there looking at him in the yellow electric light.

  But really he wasn’t. Faith had been the one who made the decision to leave the farm and ride into the woods and she was the one who fell off when he spooked. I went into his stall and ruffled his forelock, then gave him a carrot. Bluebird got one too and so did Socks. Too bad there was no one to give me a carrot. I thought I’d done a pretty good job going from the clinic to finding a lost kid all in one day.

  I dragged myself inside and up to the bathroom where I took a shower that alternated between hot and cold because the water heater was dodgy and then I crawled into bed. I was almost asleep when Cat knocked at the door.

  “I thought you might be hungry,” she said, bringing in a toasted cheese sandwich.

  “Thanks,” I said, wondering why my own mother hadn’t been worried about my welfare. And I was starving. I hadn’t realized how hungry I really was.

  “Your mother wants to leave,” Cat said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Because of that girl that fell off and got hurt. She says she can’t live around horses anymore. She said she is going to have a nervous breakdown.”

  “So let her,” I said, feeling too exhausted to argue about it. “I don’t care. And I think that tomorrow we should go out and get a Christmas tree.”

  “A Christmas tree?” Cat said.

  “Well it isn’t exactly Christmas without one and I did say that I wanted to make this the best Christmas ever and so far it's been kind of a dud, don’t you think?”

  “I guess,” Cat said. “But where are we going to get the money for a tree from?”

  I thought of the tin that I’d taped under my bed, the one with my winnings from all the shows I’d been to. Some of it had been spent on the everyday care of my horses. Farriers. Vet bills. Tack. But there was still enough left for a rainy day and so far this December had been one long rainy day and we needed to be cheered up. All of us did.

  And before I’d even finished eating the sandwich, I fell asleep and dreamed of a forest filled with gnarled old Christmas trees that tried to attack Bluebird and I with thei
r prickly branches filled with spiky tinsel that was made out of barbed wire, which wasn’t very Christmassy at all.

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

  The next morning I slept late and when I woke up the sun was already streaming through the windows. When I looked at the time on my phone, I realized that it was nearly lunch.

  “Why didn’t you wake me up?” I cried as I dashed down the stairs in my pajamas.

  “It's okay,” Cat said, looking up from the kitchen table. “I helped your dad feed the horses.”

  “You did?” I said. “Why?”

  “Why not?” she replied. “There is nothing else to do around here. And besides, your dad said that he’s going to need to get a lesson horse, a proper one that is good at teaching people to ride, not like your pony and when he does he said that he’d give me lessons. How cool is that?”

  “Pretty cool,” I said, looking at her happy face and trying to be glad for her and at the same time ignore the remark about Bluebird who had basically been a saint when Cat rode him and not a bad lesson pony at all.

  “So,” she carried on. “Are we going to get a tree or what?”

  “Can we?” I asked Dad as he came into the kitchen with muddy hands and boots.

  I don’t know what he’d been up to but it looked like it had been messy work.

  “Can we what?” he said going to the sink.

  The water spluttered a few times before finally turning on. Everything in this house was wonky or broken, kind of like us. But we’d put it all back together in the end and maybe in doing so, we’d fix ourselves as well.

  “Can we get a Christmas tree?” I said. “Please.”

  “Yes please,” Cat added.

  Dad looked at us all excited about something for a change and smiled.

  “Fine,” he said. “But please tell me you are going to change out of your pajamas before we go. People around here already think we are crazy enough as it is.”

  “Oh, right,” I said, looking down at the pajamas I was still wearing that had reindeer on them. “They are kind of festive though, don’t you think?”

  “Yes but not out in public,” he said with a wink.

  I guess he was right.

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

  Before we left, I went to check on everyone. Bluebird was outside grazing. He nickered when he saw me but didn’t bother and leave the patch of grass he was munching on. He obviously hadn’t been scarred for life by his journey into the woods last night. Socks was in the barn, his head down napping. I wasn’t surprised. He’d worked hard at the clinic and I’d been proud of him.

  I slipped into his stall and stroked his sleek neck, then ran my hands down his legs. What with all the drama I had forgotten to liniment and wrap his legs like I usually did after a hard workout but there was no heat or swelling. I let out a sigh of relief. Missy would have killed me if anything had happened to him and we hadn’t even participated in our first team show yet.

  Macaroni was also stuck inside as he wasn’t supposed to get dirt in his wounds. He still had the dressing on his chest where the vet had given him stitches. He pinned his ears when I tried to take a look.

  “Don’t you dare,” I said as his teeth snapped mere inches away from my hand. “You’re lucky you are still here and don’t think you’ve got away with it either. I know it wasn’t exactly your fault but what are you going to do if Faith’s parents decide to sell you? You’ll never find a kid that loves you as much as Faith does.”

  Macaroni didn’t seem to care. He just stood there all sullen and sulky and I left him to his bad mood because there wasn’t really much I could do about it anyway.

  I’d texted Faith to see how she got on at the emergency room but I hadn’t heard back, probably because her phone was still dead from being dropped in the creek. Or maybe her parents had grounded her forever and that meant no phones and no horses and basically no life. I hoped she was okay though and that maybe her wrist was just sprained because a break would take ages to heal and would keep her out of the saddle for a while and put Macaroni’s future in jeopardy.

  “Ready to go?” Cat called out from the truck.

  “Yes, I’m coming,” I said.

  And I ran out into the sun where the day was bright and warm and didn’t feel like December at all, even though we were going to buy a Christmas tree.

  “I wish it would snow,” I said with a sigh as I got in the truck. “Just for one day.”

  “You wouldn’t say that if you’d lived in Wisconsin,” Cat said. “Snow sucks. I should know. I was the one who had to shovel it every day.”

  “Well the shoveling part doesn’t sound so fun,” I said. “But it just looks so pretty. That’s all.”

  I stared out the window as we drove down the road, everything all green and fresh like spring. It would all turn brown when we had our first frost but so far that hadn’t happened. In fact they were saying that it would be in the eighties on Christmas day. Not really Christmassy at all. I leaned my head against the warm glass of the window and let out a sigh. I hadn’t even started my Christmas shopping yet. Things were getting away from me. I’d planned to be so organized this year but I was failing miserably.

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  The Christmas tree lot looked like a herd of elephants had trampled through it. There were trees on their sides, others all tilted over in a pile and some just lying flat out like they were dead, which they sort of were but we at least liked to keep the pretense that they were alive until after Christmas anyway.

  “I guess everyone got their trees already,” Dad said as we got out of the truck.

  “How are we going to get the best tree ever now?” I sighed.

  But it turned out that getting the best tree ever was going to cost more money than we had anyway. Even the half falling down ones were expensive.

  “They’re dead,” Cat said. “How can a chopped down tree cost so much?”

  I picked up a couple that had springy branches and needles that didn’t fall off. I liked them and wanted to buy one but that would be money that could go towards feed or show fees.

  “Don’t you have any cheaper ones?” I asked the guy running the tree lot.

  He had ripped jeans and tree sap on his shirt. He didn’t look like he was the kind of guy who was in the business of giving discounts.

  “You know,” I said. “The sad embarrassing ones that no one wants.”

  “You mean the ones we feed into the chipper?” he said, spitting onto the ground in front of me.

  I took a step back.

  “Yes,” I said. “Those ones. That is the kind we’d like to buy.”

  “You mean that is the only kind you can afford, am I right?” he said.

  He looked me up and down. I didn’t look like a hobo or a homeless person. My clothes weren’t ripped or dirty. I just couldn’t justify spending a fortune on a tree that would sit in our living room for a few weeks and then go out with the trash when that money could put new shoes on my horses. And I knew my father felt the same way too.

  “Can we just see the sad trees?” I said.

  “Alright.” He sighed.

  I guess he didn’t like it when people wanted the cheap ones or something. I couldn’t really blame him. After all, he had to make a living too. He took me round the back where there was a rusty chainsaw and a rather large machete and I hoped that my father had noticed where I had gone otherwise I might never be seen or heard from again because the guy might chop me into little pieces and feed me into the chipper but it turned out that Dad was right behind me. When the tree man saw my father his face fell. I wasn’t sure if that was because now he couldn’t murder me without anyone knowing or just because he wouldn’t be able to rip us off as easily.

  “What is going on back here then?” Dad said, his voice all stern and gruff.

  “This is where they keep the sad trees,” I said. “The embarrassing ones that no one ever buys so they end up in the chipper.”

  “Well why would we want
one of those then?” Dad said.

  “Because they’re cheap,” I told him.

  “Right,” he said like he suddenly just remembered we weren’t flush with cash anymore.

  Not that we ever really had been, except for the fact that his Fox Run job had been pretty cushy and Missy had stolen it from him. I bet she didn’t have to go round the back with the creepy guy to get a wood chipper tree. She probably had one of the big fancy ones that were out front with decorations made from diamonds. I couldn’t even remember where our sad little box of decorations was. At this rate we’d be decorating our tree with baling twine.

  The guy showed us a couple of trees that were basically just branches without needles. One had a broken trunk and stood there all lopsided and drunk and another had been completely split in half. Then I saw it just as the sun broke through the clouds and shone down on it like a sign from above.

  “That is it,” I cried. “That is our tree.”

  “Fine,” the guy said, pulling it out of the chipper pile and realizing that it was better than all the other trees he’d shown us. “Twenty bucks.”

  “No way,” I said. “That sign there says the chipper trees are ten dollars.”

  Dad crossed his arms and put on his best mean face.

  “Fine.” The guy sighed. “Ten dollars.”

  I handed him a crumpled bill and we put our tree in the back of the truck before the guy could change his mind.

  “Don’t worry,” I whispered to it. “I won’t let anyone put you in the wood chipper.”

  “You know that tree is already dead, right?” Cat said, looking at me like I was crazy.

  “It will get water every day and it won’t go brown until Christmas is over and then we will cremate it,” I said.

  “No you won’t,” Dad said. “No one is burning dead trees anywhere near my barn.”

  “Fine,” I grumbled. “But it's still not dead yet.”

  “If you say so,” Cat said.