Dreams for Stones (8 page)

“Nonsense,” Grace said. “I’m only here for
Delia’s sake. I don’t need to ride.”

“I can always saddle another horse,” Alan
said, but he didn’t make it sound like that was an appealing idea.
“It’s up to you, but there’s no reason for you to leave.”

“
Por favor
. You must stay. I’ll feel
terrible if you leave.” Grace looked both concerned and sincere.
“I’m Grace Garibaldi, and this is my daughter, Delia.” Grace
stepped toward Kathy, extending her hand.

“Kathy Jamison.” Kathy tried to smile, but
she doubted it was a success. Peachy. Just peachy. She’d finally
decided to try to conquer her fear of horses, and this is what she
got. Fourth wheel on a date with a man she’d hoped never to see
again.

She shook Grace’s hand and smiled a hello at
Delia, who gave her a sunny grin.

“You must stay,” Grace said.

And where was the ability to click her heels
and wish herself away when she needed it? “Okay. Thanks.”

“
Mira
. You don’t need to saddle
another horse, Alan.”

Alan shrugged. “It’s no trouble.”

Grace shook her head.

“Let’s get started, then.” Alan took Delia’s
hand in his and led the way to the side of the barn where the
horses and pony stood waiting.

The pony whickered softly and rubbed its
head against Alan’s arm. “Her name is Arriba,” he told Delia.
“She’s a Galiceno, from Mexico. These other two are Paso Finos from
Puerto Rico.”

“Like my
mami
,” Delia said.

Alan pulled a carrot from his back pocket
and handed it to Delia. “Hold your hand out flat. Like this. Let
her take it from you. Don’t worry, she won’t bite.”

“Oh, she wouldn’t bite me. She knows I’m her
friend.” Delia sounded as serious as an elderly schoolmarm. Then
she giggled. “Ooh, she’s tickling me.” She gave her mother a
luminous smile, a smile that caught at Kathy’s heart, causing a
sharp pain. It was her biggest regret—not her broken engagement—but
the loss of possibility, of children, a family.

“You ready to ride?” Alan asked Delia, his
words pulling Kathy from dark thoughts back to the sunny day.

Delia nodded, her whole body joining in. She
was obviously so filled with joy, there was simply no room for
words.

As Alan lifted the little girl onto the
pony’s back, Kathy turned to Grace. “I’m really sorry to have
barged in like this.”

“
Ay bendito
. Not your fault Alan’s
sister picked today to have her baby. Besides, to tell you the
truth, I was looking for an excuse not to ride.
Entonces
,
I’m glad you’re here.”

Grace
did
look relieved.

“Here, Grace.” Alan handed Grace the lead
he’d attached to the pony’s bridle. “You can lead Arriba around the
ring, while I get Ms. Jamison started.”

Ms. Jamison indeed. Kathy wondered if she
was supposed to call him
Mr.
Francini, or
Professor
Francini, or perhaps something more casual like,
Your Almighty
Professorial Majesty
? And couldn’t he be a little friendlier
instead of acting like he’d just been told he had an unpleasant
disease?

As Alan approached the remaining two horses,
the chocolate-colored one leaned into him, lipping his pockets.
Obviously kids and animals loved this man, although Kathy failed to
see the attraction herself.

“This greedy gut is Sonoro.” He pushed
Sonoro’s head firmly out of the way in order to untie the other
horse, which he led over to Kathy. “And this is Siesta. She’s a
real sweetheart.”

Right
. Kathy gave Siesta a tentative
pat.

“You’ve ridden before?”

“Once or twice. With a western saddle.”
And got tossed on my tush for my trouble
. Darn Amanda. She
was out of the story—if Kathy survived long enough to delete
her.

Alan’s eyes narrowed. “These are Spanish
saddles. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.”

If he was trying to be reassuring, his tone,
brisk and business-like, ruined the effect.

“Here’s your get-acquainted carrot. You know
how to hold it?”

She nodded and held her hand flat trying not
to think about how large Siesta’s teeth were. If a small child
could do this, so could she.

Siesta blew a warm breath across her palm
before delicately lifting the carrot and crunching down on it, and
Kathy couldn’t help but smile. It
did
tickle. But when
Siesta butted her, Kathy couldn’t help that reaction either. She
jumped back.

“She’s just hoping for another carrot.”
Alan’s cool tone clearly indicated his opinion of Kathy’s
instinctive recoil. He patted the filly, which, thankfully,
switched her attentions to him.

At least Siesta was acceptably skinny. Kathy
winced at the thought of Alan’s reaction if she insisted on a
different horse.

Alan motioned Kathy to move closer. “Best
way to mount is to face the back. Put your hand up here on her
neck, turn the stirrup, put your foot in, then swing up and
around.”

Siesta wasn’t a tall horse, but the swing up
was more difficult than it looked, and Kathy was relieved to manage
it with reasonable grace. She didn’t want to appear clumsy when she
was working so hard to look down on this man.

Alan adjusted her stirrups, took the reins,
tied them in a knot, and handed them to her. “Hold them up a bit,
right at the knot. That will make her arch her neck. Give you a
better ride. Sit up nice and straight with your heels down.” He
smoothed his hand over the filly’s neck. “She has a real soft
mouth. She starts backing up, means you’re pulling.”

“Heels down, reins up, don’t pull,” Kathy
chanted under her breath as Alan went over to the other horse and
swung gracefully into the saddle. Of course he’d be graceful.

“Okay. We’ll begin with a slow walk around
the ring. Relax. Siesta knows what she’s doing.”
Which you
obviously do not
was clearly implied by his tone and the look
on his face.

As the two horses walked side by side, Alan
showed Kathy how to signal the filly to turn to the right or to the
left. Then he had her walk Siesta through a large figure eight
while he watched.

“You ready to try something faster?”

I don’t do faster
. Then why was she
nodding?

Because she couldn’t stand the thought of
seeing another one of his cool, superior looks. A look that wasn’t
going to be any easier to take from a prone position in the dirt,
which was where she was headed if she let Siesta do anything but
walk.

Alan’s horse moved into a fast gait, and
before Kathy could react, Siesta joined in. Kathy’s heart hammered
against her ribs as she clutched at the edge of the saddle with her
hands and gripped Siesta with her legs. She squeezed her eyes
shut.

One breath, two, and she realized she was
still sitting on Siesta. And instead of bouncing, she was moving in
an easy side-to-side motion. She opened her eyes, and after several
more careful breaths, she unclenched her legs and let go of her
death grip on the saddle.

She lifted the reins the way Alan had told
her to, and after she did, she began to notice other things. Like
how the world looked from the back of a horse, as if there were
more of it, somehow. The way it had looked when as a small child
she’d been lifted onto her father’s shoulders in order to see
better.

The autumn air brushed her cheeks, lifting
her hair and cooling her neck. In an instant, delight replaced
fear. She was riding, and not only that, she understood for the
first time why people actually did it for fun.

After several circuits, Alan slowed his
horse back to a walk, and Kathy’s horse quickly followed suit.

“How was that?” he said.

It was...wow
! She couldn’t tell him
that. Their relationship was much too cool and distant for that
kind of sharing. “She’s so smooth. I didn’t bounce at all.”

“That’s a Paso Fino for you. Do you know any
Spanish?”

“Fine passage?” Kathy hazarded.

“Close. Fine step or fine gait. Let me show
you something. Stay here.”

Kathy tightened her reins slightly, and
Siesta stopped and stood quietly. It made Kathy feel in control,
safe.

Alan, meanwhile, rode over to Grace and
Delia and spoke to them briefly before turning Sonoro toward the
center of the ring, where Kathy had noticed a wooden platform
embedded in the dirt. At an invisible signal from Alan, Sonoro’s
legs began moving in a quick step that, given his forward progress,
was rather like jogging in place. Reaching the wooden platform,
Sonoro danced slowly across, rapping out a staccato rhythm.

Delia clapped her hands in delight, and
Kathy felt the same delight as the little girl. It was magic.
Enchantment.

When Sonoro’s dance ended near Grace and
Delia, Alan leaned over to say something to Grace before riding
back to Kathy.

“I see why you call this TapDancer Ranch,”
Kathy said.

They began walking around the ring again.
“You know." He stopped and cleared his throat. "I’ve been trying to
figure out how to apologize.”

Kathy, still feeling exhilarated from having
faced her fear, was abruptly reminded she didn’t like this man.
“Oh.” She tightened her legs, and Siesta danced sideways.

“Easy.”

Kathy didn’t know if he was speaking to her
or to the horse. She relaxed her muscles, and Siesta instantly
responded with a return to a slow walk.

“You surprised me at the tail end of a bad
day, and I acted like an idiot,” he continued. “No excuse. But,
well. Anyway. If you still want to use the office in the evenings,
it would be fine.”

“I’m using a carrel in the library.” Okay,
now she was the one sounding like the recipient of a bad diagnosis.
“Thank you, though. It’s kind of you to offer.” Better, but still
not award-winning.

“I also want to thank you for not
complaining to Hilstrom.”

“How do you know I didn’t?” Kathy said,
feeling a sudden urge to tease him.

He glanced at her quickly, looking glum, and
Kathy remembered her first impression of Hilary Hilstrom—that the
woman wasn’t someone she’d want to cross.

“I’m not a snitch. And I fight my battles
myself.”

He met her eyes briefly looking relieved,
then he signaled Grace to lead the pony over. “Time we call it
quits for today.”

When they reached the barn, Kathy
dismounted. Not smoothly like Alan, but awkwardly. Her leg muscles
were already letting her know they would be reminding her of the
ride for several days to come.

She held Siesta’s reins until Alan came and
took them from her.

“Thank you for the lesson.”

“You’re welcome.” He glanced at her briefly
before turning to Grace. “You and Ms. Jamison ought to talk,” he
said. “She’s an editor.” Then he turned to Kathy. “Grace writes
children’s books.”

“Oh. How nice.” Kathy’s face felt stiff as
she smiled at Grace. But after all, it wasn’t Grace’s fault she was
being foisted on Kathy.

Alan and Delia started for the barn, Delia
leading the pony and Alan one of the two horses. He spoke over his
shoulder. “We’ll just get the horses unsaddled while you two
chat.”

To Kathy, it sounded more like an order than
a suggestion, and that sundered the tentative truce he’d achieved
with his apology.

She turned toward Grace, wondering what the
other woman’s relationship was with Alan, then decided they had to
be dating. After all, Grace was wearing more makeup for a horseback
ride than Kathy would wear to the opera.

Although on Grace it did look good,
enhancing her already vivid eyes and lips. The truth was, Grace
made Kathy feel drab.

“You and Alan.” Grace glanced at her. “Do
you know each other well?” An echo of what Kathy had been
thinking.

“Not exactly.”

“
Mira
. You should work on that.”

“Excuse me.” Kathy examined Grace, trying to
make sense of what she’d said. Maybe there was something in the
Spanish sprinkled among Grace’s words that Kathy wasn’t getting.
What she did get was that Grace seemed determined to drag Alan into
the conversation while Kathy was equally determined to ban him.

There was only one way to move the subject
to safer ground, and Kathy took it. “So, what kind of children’s
books do you write?”

She’d tried to make her tone interested, but
Grace tensed, and her face took on a defensive look. “Short chapter
books for middle readers. I’ve been told they’re good stories, but
they rhyme, and they mix English and Spanish together. And
everybody who knows anything about publishing tells me nobody is
going to take a chance on a book like that.”

“It’s an interesting concept.” Kathy’s
comment was sincere. Grace’s book might well fit into Calico Cat’s
new bilingual book line. “I’d be happy to take a look and tell you
what I think.”

Grace gave her a searching look before
beginning to smile.

“I’ll get you my card,” Kathy said. “I have
one in the car.”

As Kathy turned to hand the card to Grace,
she found the other woman watching Alan and Delia lead the last
horse into the barn together.

“
Ay bendito
. Those two.
Son
amigos
. It’s a good thing I’m crazy about Frank or I would be
sorely tempted by that man.”

Once again, Kathy found herself shuffling
through Grace’s words looking for the meaning. “Frank?”

“My husband.”

Husband? Grace was married? “You’re not
Professor. . . I mean Alan. . . his date?” And there was absolutely
no reason why that should make her feel like giggling.

“
Ay Dios mío
. Is that what you
thought?” Grace chuckled. “That’s why you looked so shocked when I
suggested you get to know him better.”

“Maybe.” Kathy narrowed her eyes to stare at
Grace.

Grace laughed again. Then her expression
turned serious. “You act like you don’t like him much,
querida
.”