My Favorite Mistake (23 page)

“Git up!” Vanessa growled loudly, turning her foot out and jabbing the horse with both spurs.

Legs's head shot up, and he spurted forward. Tommi winced as he flung himself over the jump and galloped toward the next one.

“At least that proves he's honest,” Fitz murmured in Tommi's ear as the horse flew over the oxer.

“Bring him around and try it again,” Abby called. “A little less leg this time.”

Things continued pretty much the same way for a while.
They jumped the new line several times, then raised the jumps again. And again after that. The horse's hooves never even came close to touching a rail despite a few scary distances. But Tommi could see him starting to get frazzled.

“Put it up again,” Vanessa called to her trainer as she landed from the oxer yet again. “Let's see how high he can go.”

Tommi bit her lip. They were already at the maximum height Tommi had schooled with Legs so far. And now Vanessa wanted to go higher? No way. It was time to put a stop to this before Legs totally freaked out.

She shot a look at Jamie, hoping—and half expecting—that he might do it for her. But he was leaning on the rail nearby, watching with a neutral expression as Abby stepped over to set the fence.

That made Tommi hesitate. If two experienced trainers didn't see a problem with this, who was she to second-guess them? Maybe this was normal for the trial of a high-level jumper. Maybe Legs was handling it better than she thought.

Before she could decide, Vanessa was bringing him around again. He wobbled a bit on the approach, acting as if he might be thinking about running out. But Vanessa held him on the track and he ended up going over. He gave the vertical a hard rub with one hind leg, but cleared the oxer with room to spare. Vanessa didn't even slow down, taking him around again, and this time he sailed over both.

“You were right, this horse can jump,” Vanessa called to Tommi as she hauled the horse to a stop. Legs jigged, looking sweaty and a bit wild-eyed, but the girl didn't seem to notice. She glanced at her trainer. “He'll be perfect for me, don't you think?”

“You look good on him,” Abby replied.

Vanessa nodded, looking pleased. “I'll have to clear it with my parents first, of course,” she told Tommi. “But I'm sure we'll be in touch soon.”

Tommi felt vaguely queasy as she untacked Legs back at the stabling tent. She was just pulling the saddle off the horse's back when Zara wandered by with Chaucer at her heels.

“How'd it go?” Zara asked. “I heard someone just tried him. Was it that girl I talked to earlier? I forget her name—Veronica or something, maybe?”

“Vanessa. Yeah, it was her. And Legs was a good boy,” Tommi said as she bent to unhook his boots. “Actually, that's an understatement.”

“What do you mean?” Zara dug into her breeches pocket and came up with a horse treat for Legs. “They got along really well?”

“Not exactly.” Tommi grimaced as she remembered some of the highlights. She felt pretty certain that Legs wouldn't tolerate Vanessa's impatient, ham-handed riding for long if she ended up buying him. He was likely to end up just like the rest of her rejects, dumped and forgotten.

She gave Zara the CliffsNotes version of the trial ride. “Wow,” Zara said when she finished. “So are you actually going to sell him to her, or what?”

“I don't know.” Tommi grabbed a brush out of her grooming tote. “I mean, I really like this horse and he has a ton of talent. I'd rather wait and find someone better for him—a rider who
can bring him to his full potential and still treat him well, you know?”

“Sure. So you tell this wench no sale, life goes on.” Zara shrugged. “Easy.”

“Not exactly.” Tommi started brushing the saddle marks out of Legs's glossy bay coat. “It's kind of tempting to just go for it. Get him off the books ASAP. That's sure to impress my dad—he's all about the quick close.” She smiled wryly. “And Vanessa's kind of famous for paying too much for all her horses. I doubt she'll even try to haggle on my asking price.”

“Okay.” Zara bent to play with Chaucer's ears. “So sell, then. What's the worst that could happen?”

“Probably not much,” Tommi said. “I mean, I'm sure it wouldn't be long before Legs bucked her off one too many times. She's likely to get sick of him way before she has a chance to break him down, and her trainer'll snap him up for somebody else in her barn. Or at least convince her to sell him on to a decent show home.”

“Cool. Then it's a win-win,” Zara said. “Right?”

Tommi ran her brush over the tired horse, who was trying to stretch the cross-ties enough to reach out and nose at the dog.

“Right,” Tommi said, trying hard to convince herself that it was true.

Saturday morning came early, just like every other show day. But Kate woke up even before the alarm went off, staring up at the hotel room ceiling and listening to Dani snore and mutter in the next bed. This was it. She was supposed to show several horses today, including Fable in the eq. And she had yet to figure out what to do about her breeches situation.

She was still lying there when the buzzer sounded. Dani didn't move for a long moment, then finally stirred, pushed herself up into a sitting position, and smacked at the alarm until it shut off.

“Ugh,” she moaned, shoving a chunk of hair out of her face. “Remind me again why we do this?”

Kate sat up, too. “I don't know,” she said, too distracted to play along.

Dani swung her legs over the side of her bed. “First dibs on the shower,” she muttered sleepily.

She disappeared into the bathroom. Kate just sat there,
her mind skittering around as frantically as a weanling newly separated from its mother. She knew she should just ask one of her friends to loan her a pair of breeches. It was the only possible way she'd still be able to ride today. Even Dani, whose family had to budget carefully to afford her riding, usually had a spare pair of Tailored Sportsmans on hand in case of stains or other disasters.

The trouble was, Dani was an athlete and built like one. She was also several inches shorter than Kate. Glancing toward the bathroom door, behind which she could hear Dani humming over the sound of the shower, Kate knew there was no way her breeches would come close to fitting well enough to pass. Especially now.

Kate ran through the other options in her mind. Marissa was almost as tall as she was, but nowhere near as slim. Tommi was slim, but quite a bit shorter. What about Zara? She was a lot curvier than Kate and not so tall, but tended to favor form-fitting styles. Kate might be able to make something of hers work. But anytime she thought about asking her, her stomach clenched and she kind of wanted to cry. When it came right down to it, she hated the idea of asking any of her wealthier friends for anything. It just wasn't her.

“It's not that big a deal,” she murmured aloud, trying to convince herself.

She stood up and dug into her suitcase, pulling out the ripped breeches. If she showed them to her friends, maybe came up with a good story to explain what had happened, she knew any of them would immediately offer to help. Probably even loan her enough cash to pick up a new pair in her size at the tack vendors.

That reminded Kate of those pricey show gloves Zara had bought her, which were laid out on the dresser along with her helmet and crop. She still felt guilty for accepting those. Hadn't even really wanted to wear them today, though she'd just about convinced herself that Zara might be insulted if she didn't. How could she accept even more from her—from any of them?

As she stared at the gloves, a new idea popped into her head. Kind of a crazy one. Crazy enough to work? Kate squeezed the gloves in her hand, not sure she'd have the guts to try it.

Then again, what other choice did she have?

Kate glanced up from picking out a horse's foot when she heard footsteps coming her way. But it was only Zara. She was munching on a doughnut, probably swiped from the hotel's breakfast buffet.

“Hey,” she said. “You showing today?”

Kate's stomach grumbled as she watched the other girl take another bite. She'd been so busy watching for Summer at breakfast that she'd barely eaten a thing.

But this was no time to think about food. “Um, yeah,” she told Zara. “I'm doing two of Jamie's in the schoolings in a couple of hours, then Fable right after that.”

“Cool. Light day today for me.” Zara leaned against the wall and picked at her cuticles. “I should probably get a new eq horse myself—give me something to do.” She glanced up and grinned. “Besides, my father owes me.”

Kate had no idea what she was talking about. But she was starting to feel nervous. Zara couldn't be here if she was going
to put her plan into action. She had to get rid of her. But how? Zara wasn't the type to volunteer to run to the office to pick up numbers or anything like that.

“Um, hey,” she said as an idea popped into her head. “I heard some girls from another barn gossiping about some super cute guy riding in one of the schooling rings right now. Did you see him?”

“Really? No,” Zara said, suddenly perking up. “Seriously, a real live hottie at a horse show? Is he straight?”

“I don't know, they didn't say. It sounded like it, though.”

Zara grinned. “Thanks for the tip; I think I just found something to do. Want to come check it out with me?”

“I wish.” Kate gestured with her hoof pick at the horse in the cross-ties. “Can't. Sorry.”

“Your loss.” Zara hurried out without a backward glance.

Kate breathed a sigh of relief, fighting back a few pangs of guilt. Okay, now all she had to do was find Summer. She hadn't made it to breakfast before Kate had to leave, so it was now or never. Kate put the horse back in its stall and started to search.

Ten minutes later, she tracked her down in the tack stall. Summer was sitting on one of the director's chairs watching her dog, Whiskey, jump around and nip at Chaucer, who was trying to sleep.

“Hi,” Kate said, glancing around to make sure nobody else was nearby. All clear.

Summer shot her an uninterested look. “Hi.” Then she went back to watching the dogs.

Her hands shaking, Kate pulled the Roeckl gloves out of
her jeans pocket. “Hey,” she said, trying to sound casual. “Check out my new show gloves. Do you like them?”

“They're okay, I guess.” Summer barely glanced at the gloves.

“Yeah, Zara must think so, too,” Kate said. “She has the exact same pair.”

“Really?” For the first time, Summer's pale blue eyes showed a glimmer of interest. “Are you sure they're the same?”

“Absolutely. I was with her when she bought them.” Kate flapped the gloves against her other palm. “She's been wearing them this whole show, didn't you notice?”

“Well, of course I noticed she looked amazing, as usual.” Summer hopped to her feet, hurried over, and plucked the gloves out of Kate's hand. She pulled one on, then held her hand out to admire it. “I should probably get a pair of these myself. I wonder if they sell them at the tack vendor here?”

“I don't think so.” Kate shrugged, still working hard to keep it casual. “But if you really like them, I guess you could buy these off of me. I don't really need them, and they're brand-new—I haven't even worn them yet.”

“Seriously? It's a deal!” Summer clutched the gloves to herself, as if fearing Kate might change her mind and grab them back. “I'll pay you back for them later, okay?”

“No!” Kate blurted out, panicking. “Um, I mean if you want them, I kind of need the cash now. If you have it.”

“Of course I have it.” Summer rolled her eyes. “But I really don't feel like walking all the way out to the car to get it.”

“I'll come with you.” Kate kept her voice firm. “We can go right now.”

Summer hesitated, glancing down at the gloves. Then she sighed. “Fine,” she said. “Let's go.”