Changing Leads Read online

  Her deep brown eyes wandered toward the wide windows at one side of the room as, with a concerted effort, she turned her thoughts to more neutral topics. It was a beautiful late-summer day, and the weather promised to hold through evening at least. Carole was happy about that. She planned to head over to Pine Hollow right after school to give Starlight a good workout over some jumps in the outdoor schooling ring. Starlight had been fairly young when Carole’s father had bought him for her for Christmas a few years earlier, and Carole had been training him ever since, honing his technique and increasing his skills. The bay gelding was a talented jumper, and she had enjoyed molding him into the calm, confident, accomplished horse he was today. Together they had entered a number of shows and won quite a few ribbons.

  Speaking of shows, Carole thought, it would be so cool if Starlight and I could enter the Colesford Horse Show. Now that would be a real test of his ability. Mine too.

  She sighed and doodled absently in the margins of her math book as she thought about the article she’d read a few days earlier in the latest issue of her favorite horse magazine. The nearby town of Colesford had never hosted a major horse show before, but it was debuting with style. The article had raved for several pages about all the fabulous horses and famous riders already signed up to compete.

  For a second, Carole allowed herself to sink into a daydream.… Starlight and I will be the underdogs, of course. When we ride into the ring for the stadium jumping event, hardly anyone will even applaud. But the second Starlight clears the first jump, the spectators will start to take notice. Then, by halfway through our clean round, they’ll realize that we are moving faster than any other competitor so far. Then …

  She forced herself to snap out of it. Carole loved her horse, but she was realistic about him, too. When she was younger, she had been quite sure that her beautiful bay gelding could jump the moon if she asked him to. But now, with a little more experience under her belt, Carole knew that while Starlight was good, he wasn’t in the same league as the horses that would be jumping at Colesford. Not now, and probably not ever. It would be a waste of time and effort to enter the prestigious show—not to mention a tremendous waste of money. There was no way Carole could afford the entry fees, which according to the article were exorbitant even by horse show standards. Most of what she earned working part-time at Pine Hollow went toward Starlight’s care. And she didn’t want to ask her father for money, not for this show. It wasn’t that Colonel Hanson couldn’t or wouldn’t pay if she asked. And it wasn’t that Carole didn’t think there were valuable lessons to be learned at every show. But with so little chance of winning, she had to admit—reluctantly—that it just didn’t seem worth the money.

  Finding these thoughts a bit depressing, Carole once again forced herself to change tracks and think of something else. Something more pleasant. Like the latter part of her discussion with Max the afternoon before—the part when they had talked about her new duties at Pine Hollow.

  “I know you’ve had to deal with a lot of the paperwork and grunt work this summer, Carole,” Max had said rather apologetically.

  “It’s okay,” she had assured him quickly. “It’s all part of running a stable, right? That means it’s automatically interesting.”

  Max had cocked a skeptical eyebrow.

  Carole had grinned weakly. “Well, okay,” she’d amended. “Maybe ‘interesting’ isn’t the right way to describe it. How about ‘an unfortunate part of the job’?”

  “Okay, I’ll buy that.” Max had chuckled. “In any case, now that Denise has started as full-time stable manager and you’re going to be back at school, I think it’s time to shift things around a bit.”

  “What do you mean?” Carole had been a little wary. The last time Max had talked about shifting things around, a couple of years before, he had ended up selling half a dozen Pine Hollow school horses to a stable in the next state, including a few of Carole’s old favorites like Coconut and Tecumseh. That had been a shift, all right. Carole wasn’t sure she was ready for another big change like that.

  But Max was smiling. “I mean, part of the reason you’re working here is to learn everything about running a stable, right?” He waited for her to nod, then continued. “Well, there’s more to it than paperwork, although sometimes it doesn’t feel like it. I think it’s time to give you a taste of some of the more interesting aspects of stable work before you decide to chuck it all and become an accountant or a stockbroker or something.”

  Carole had grinned, knowing that he was kidding.

  Now, as she thought back on the conversation, the possibilities of what those new tasks might include made Carole shiver with anticipation. But her job wasn’t the only thing she was looking forward to. She also couldn’t wait until Saturday and the big barbecue blowout by the banks of Willow Creek. It would be the perfect way to celebrate the end of the first week of school. Besides, she was looking forward to hanging out with her friends. Lisa had spent most of the summer in California, and Carole herself had put in an awful lot of hours at the stable. It would be nice to just kick back, relax, enjoy each other and the day and the horses.… Plus she would get to see A.J. for the first time in a while, and his girlfriend, too.… Callie would be able to show off the progress she’d been making in her physical therapy.…

  Carole felt herself drifting off again. Mr. Whiteside’s voice was just a little too deep and soothing—it was putting her straight to sleep.

  She forced herself to sit up straighter. That worked for a few seconds. But when she tried to focus on what the teacher was saying, she felt herself slumping again, against her will, deeper into her seat.

  She pinched herself on the arm again—harder this time. Too hard.

  “Ouch!” she cried involuntarily.

  Mr. Whiteside paused and peered at her over the tops of his rimless glasses, looking surprised. “Ms.—er—Hanson?” he said, after glancing at his seating chart. “Did you have something to add?”

  Carole felt her face turning bright red. “No, sir,” she muttered. “Sorry.”

  As the teacher turned back to the chalkboard to continue his lecture, Carole slumped down into her seat again. But this time she wasn’t the least bit sleepy.

  I’m not sure I can take two more whole years of this! she thought desperately.

  Lisa Atwood was only a few doors down from Carole, but her thoughts were miles away—in California, to be exact. Maybe I should have stayed out there and lived with Dad after all, she thought, only half jokingly. Then maybe I’d be learning something right now instead of sitting here feeling my brain cells rot from underuse. She was annoyed because her calculus teacher seemed to think that the students were so brain-dead from their summer vacations that he should just let them laze around for the first few days of school instead of getting down to work.

  She glanced toward the front of the room, where her teacher, a thin-lipped young man named Mr. Halliday, was pontificating about his five favorite action movies of the past summer. The other students seemed to be enjoying the exercise, calling out their own opinions and cracking jokes.

  But Lisa found her mind wandering. She wasn’t really surprised—she had no interest in action movies. But then again, she had found herself having trouble focusing even in the few classes where her teachers had actually started teaching. She guessed she was still adjusting to being home after a summer away.

  Most of the time her homecoming felt exactly the way it should—like a return to the people and places and routines she knew and loved, where everything made sense and moved along as it always had. Her trail ride the day before with Carole and Stevie was a perfect example. As they had ridden along the familiar trails behind Pine Hollow, she could almost have closed her eyes and imagined that they were all still as young and carefree as they’d been back in junior high when the three of them had started The Saddle Club and talked about nothing but horses all day long. Then there was Alex. Her reunion with him had been even more wonderful than she had expe
cted. Somehow, being apart had made their bond—and their attraction—stronger than ever. After just a few days back together, Lisa couldn’t imagine how she had ever survived two long months without him. In fact, the two of them had slid so easily back into their relationship that it already felt almost as if the summer separation had never happened.

  Still, at other times she found herself taken by surprise at the amount of adjusting she had to do. For one thing, spending two months in a loving, happy home with her father and stepmother and baby half sister, Lily, had dulled Lisa’s memory of what life with her mother had become since the divorce. Mrs. Atwood hadn’t reacted well to the breakup of her marriage. She had always put a lot of energy into maintaining the illusion of a perfect home and a perfect family. Now that her illusion had been shattered, she was having trouble picking up the pieces and moving on. Even after all this time, she spent far too many evenings each week with her therapy group, complaining bitterly about how Mr. Atwood had ruined her life.

  As a loving daughter, Lisa had found this very difficult to watch and even more difficult to live with. And nothing had changed with her return from California. Between coddling her mother by pretending to enjoy their marathon trips to the mall—shopping being one of the few activities that still seemed to give Mrs. Atwood any pleasure—and setting the house back in order after two months’ worth of her mother’s listless housekeeping, Lisa was exhausted. She welcomed the routine of school, with its specific and finite assignments.

  There was one other adjustment that Lisa had had to make. She’d had to get used to missing her family and friends on the West Coast. Part of her life was there now, and being away was hard. She missed seeing her father every day; she missed the warmth and friendship of her stepmother, Evelyn. Even more, she missed being there to watch Lily grow up.

  Still, for every way that it was hard to be back, there were several ways that it was wonderful. One of the most difficult things about spending the summer in California had been leaving her friends and her boyfriend behind. In the few days she had been back, she had been so busy preparing for school that she hadn’t had nearly enough time to hang out with them. That was why she was looking forward so much to the outing planned for Saturday. All of them had enjoyed their end-of-summer trail ride so thoroughly that they hadn’t wanted to let it end, so they were extending the fun with a trail ride and barbecue for all their friends.

  Of course, it won’t be the same as it was back in the days when it was just the three of us, Lisa thought a bit wistfully. I mean, I’m glad that Alex will be there, and Phil and A.J., too, but …

  Her mind skittered away from the thought before she could finish it. But she couldn’t quite shake the topic of change from her mind. So much had changed this summer. Lisa herself had changed, of course—spending the entire summer in a different state, with different people and a different way of life, could do that to you. And Lisa wasn’t sorry about that, since she was sure those changes had made her a better, more interesting, and more mature person.

  But while she’d been changing out in California, things had been changing in Willow Creek as well, and Lisa wasn’t nearly as thrilled about those changes. Some of them she had more or less expected. For instance, Max’s two daughters seemed to have sprouted up almost overnight. That wasn’t so different from Lily, who had grown an incredible amount in the two months Lisa had spent with her. But other changes had taken Lisa by surprise, such as returning to find that Prancer, the Thoroughbred mare she had ridden for years, was now a favorite with a whole new generation of Pine Hollow riders.

  I suppose I should have seen that coming, Lisa told herself ruefully. After all, Prancer belongs to Pine Hollow. And it isn’t as if I’ve ever been her only rider, though I always spent so much time with her that it sometimes felt like it.

  Still, Lisa felt strange when she realized that others might feel just as proprietary about Prancer these days as she always had.

  It’s funny, she thought, tugging absently at her hair. Even now, after a summer apart and all these reminders and everything I still can’t help thinking of Prancer as mine. All mine. She bit her lip. Sort of like my friends …

  TWO

  “Take it easy, boy,” Carole murmured under her breath. She steadied her hands on the reins, letting Starlight know that she was there to help him. “We’re in no hurry here. Don’t start rushing the fence. You know better than that.”

  Starlight seemed to understand. His pace steadied as he approached the low oxer Carole had set up in the middle of Pine Hollow’s main schooling ring. Carole felt her horse’s eagerness and attention as they came within a few strides of the fence.

  “Here we go,” she whispered. Her motions practiced and almost automatic, she leaned forward until the top half of her body was at an incline. At the same time, she shifted most of her weight from her seat onto the balls of her feet while keeping her legs close to her horse’s side. A moment later, Starlight was airborne.

  He landed lightly, and Carole settled smoothly back into her original position, smiling with pleasure. She signaled for Starlight to stop, then leaned forward to pat him soundly on his shiny neck.

  “That was great, boy,” she told him. “Just great.”

  She turned Starlight, preparing to leave the ring, and almost lost a stirrup in surprise when she saw Ben Marlow leaning on the gate watching her. How does he do that? she wondered, a little irritably. Sometimes he just appears out of nowhere. It’s creepy!

  She knew she wasn’t being fair. The young stable hand’s appearance was hardly a mystery—Carole had been so wrapped up in her work with Starlight that she probably wouldn’t have noticed a comet crashing to earth in the next paddock, let alone a quiet guy like Ben stopping by the ring. But did he always have to stare at her with that solemn, intense expression? Did she always have to find herself wondering exactly what was going on behind those dark, brooding eyes?

  She forced herself to smile as she rode toward him. “Hi, Ben,” she said, pushing back a springy dark curl that had escaped from under her hard hat. “I haven’t seen you all day.”

  He grunted faintly—a sound that often passed for conversation with Ben. But he did open the gate and hold it for her so that she could ride Starlight through. And he reached for Starlight’s bridle and held him steady so that she could dismount.

  Once her feet were on the ground again, Carole took hold of the reins and Ben stepped back, seeming a bit uncomfortable. Of course, that’s probably at least partly my fault, Carole thought, her mind wandering back a few weeks to the day when she’d suddenly realized that she knew next to nothing about Ben, even though the two of them had been working together for some time. She didn’t know anything about his family, his past, even where he lived. That had nagged at her for a while, enough that she had impulsively decided to follow him home from the stable one night and put at least one question about him to rest. The plan hadn’t worked out quite the way she’d hoped, though. She had seen Ben’s home, a decrepit little place across town, but he had caught her following him. Carole had realized too late that to an intensely private, rather suspicious soul like Ben, her innocent curiosity had been akin to betrayal. Ever since that night, things hadn’t been quite the same between them. Not that things between us were ever particularly normal, Carole reminded herself. Still, she felt bad about the incident. She had apologized, of course, but that didn’t seem like enough, and she was still trying to figure out how to make it up to him.

  “Max wants to see you,” Ben said abruptly, interrupting Carole’s thoughts.

  Carole nodded. “Okay. Thanks,” she said automatically.

  But she hesitated before heading inside. There was something she wanted to do. Something that might help heal the rift that still lay between her and Ben. Maybe even something that could help Ben lighten up and have some fun. After all the hard work he’s put in around this place lately, he deserves it, she told herself, wrapping Starlight’s reins nervously around one hand and then th
e other.

  That didn’t mean this was going to be easy. Ben had never exactly been a natural conversationalist. And lately he had been more sullen than ever. Carole knew it was at least partly because he had just lost out on a college scholarship he’d been counting on. That didn’t make his prickliness much easier to take, though.

  She screwed up her courage and smiled at him tentatively. “Listen,” she began. “I was just wondering … I mean, I thought maybe you … I mean—” She forced herself to stop and take a deep breath before continuing. “What I’m trying to say is, my friends and I are getting together on Saturday for a little picnic.” Suddenly she wondered if calling it a picnic sounded too babyish or dorky. She gulped. “That is, we’re going on a trail ride, and then we’re going to have a sort of barbecue. There’s this clearing in the woods near a deep water hole—well, you’ve ridden in the woods, so you probably know the place, but—” She paused for another breath. “Anyway. What I wanted to know was if you wanted to come along with us. It’s Saturday. Did I say that already?”

  Ben was staring at her. His mouth opened, then closed again. His expression was hard to read, as always, but it seemed to be some mixture of confusion, suspicion, and astonishment.

  Suddenly Carole started to wonder if what she had said had come out wrong. She hadn’t meant to imply … “A bunch of us are going,” she added quickly, her face burning. She busied herself with removing her hard hat to hide her embarrassment. “Together. All of us, I mean. Stevie and Lisa and, well, Phil and Alex, and Phil’s friend A.J.—I think you’ve met him a couple of times—and Callie, of course, and we invited Scott, but he—”

  “Sorry,” Ben interrupted. “Can’t make it.” With that, he spun on his heel and stalked off in the direction of the feed shed, a dark scowl on his face.

  Carole stared after him, feeling a little hurt at his blunt reply. “Why do I keep trying with that guy?” she muttered to Starlight, who was munching on a mouthful of weeds he’d snitched from the edge of the ring while she wasn’t paying attention. The horse simply gave her a wise look and continued chewing.