Nothing But Horses Read Online Free PDF Page B

arena barn when we finished and met
Vicky and Grandpa on their way up to the office. He grinned at us.
“We beat you.”
    “No way,” I said. “It was a tie. If Vicky
hadn’t helped you, we’d have kicked your butt.”
    He chuckled and mimed a slap at the back of
my helmet, but it didn’t connect. “See what I have to put up with,
a disrespectful granddaughter.”
    “That’s terrible, after you got her into our
school,” Robin said. “You should make her clean stalls with a
teaspoon.”
    “I like this girl.” Grandpa told me. “I think
I’ll take her back to Arizona with us.”
    “Only if you give her a ’68 Mustang,” I said.
“She has her standards.”
    We continued to mess with each other while
Robin and Vicky filled out their time cards and filed them in the
appropriate folders. After they promised to be in on Saturday to
practice for the Christmas party, they strolled down to the parking
lot to meet Jack. Once they were gone, I realized we hadn’t looked
at my schedule to figure out what classes I should take.
    There was only one thing to do. I needed to
arrange a sleepover. I tracked down Mom and asked her if I could
invite them to spend Saturday night with me. She agreed, provided I
looked after Autumn. She and Dave were taking Grandma and Grandpa
out for dinner.
    I blinked and tried not to stare at her. “No
way. You mean you were serious when you told Meredith that you
intended to date the guy?”
    “Hey, you’re the one who said you liked him
and invited him for Christmas,” Mom retorted. “Now, let’s go put on
supper.”
    “How does Grandpa feel about going out for
dinner tomorrow?” I asked.
    “Considering he keeps lecturing me that I
need a man to take care of me, he deserves this,” Mom said. “I
figure one of two things will happen. One, he’ll like Dave and get
off my back. Two, he’ll hate Dave and while Dad worries that I
might marry again, he’ll also get off my back.”
    “Good point.” I followed my petite,
red-haired mother to the kitchen. She’d actually cooked a regular
meal tonight, baked chicken, brown rice and a huge salad. Dessert
would be a Marie Callendar Dutch apple pie with ice-cream. Okay, so
we hadn’t gone over to the dark side and opted for total
domesticity, but the barn was super-duper clean.
    * * * *
    Shamrock Stable, Washington
    Saturday, December
21 st , 5:15 pm
     
    Chores were finished and the Saturday
students were long gone. Only my friends spending the night had
stayed. Robin, Dani, Vicky and I were in the middle of decorating
Nevada’s stall door when Queenie woofed. I glanced at the barn
entry in time to see her dash up to greet Dave. He leaned down to
pet the collie mix. He wore regular clothes, jeans, a western shirt
under a jacket, not his cop uniform.
    “Hey,” I said. “Are you looking for Mom?
She’s at the house.”
    “Okay.” He eyed my horse’s door. “So, what’s
your theme?”
    “A winter wonderland,” I said, pointing to
the blue holiday paper with its snowflakes we’d used as a
background. “I have to get this done because the party is
tomorrow.”
    “Nothing like leaving it to the last minute,”
Vicky told me again.
    I sighed and introduced them to Dave. “You
know Robin because you always check out her horse. Twaziem is
looking good. We’ll be working him a lot over Christmas break. This
is Vicky.”
    “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