Safe Landing (14 page)

The kiss was the part of the story that kept replaying in my head, and it came out differently each time. One minute I’d convinced myself I was just a stupid pawn who happened to be standing there at the wrong time. The next minute I’d convince myself that there was more behind the kiss. All I knew for sure was that I’d felt it down to my toes, and my legs felt like rubber for an hour afterward, which would make it extra pathetic if he’d only been using me.

****

The crappy day at school had dampened my spirits enough that I wasn’t even looking forward to the stables anymore. I’d thrown my riding boots into my backpack and put them on in the car as Mom drove me to the stables.

“How was your day?” Mom asked as I tied up the laces.

“Let’s just say it didn’t go quite the way I’d expected it to.” Talk about a major understatement. “I hope my first day of work goes better.”

“It’s been a while since you rode so be careful.”

“With the mood I’m in, it’s the horses that better be careful.” Suddenly a swift canter around an arena sounded like the best therapy in the world.

Moses was at Legend’s stall with the hay wagon. “I’m going to feed right now. You could help and I’ll tell you about some of the animals you’ll be working with.” He glanced around the stable area. “My stable hand quit yesterday so I’m looking for a new one. I could use some help mucking too.”

“No problem,” I said, but I was itching to get in the saddle.

We filled up a wheelbarrow with flakes of hay and started down the row of stalls. “This bay gelding is Cash. His owner leaves brushes and hoof picks in the trunk in front of his stall. Use the round pen. He won’t give you any trouble. Cash is a real sweet horse.”

A paint horse was pawing at the ground waiting anxiously for his hay in the next paddock. “It’s coming you spoiled horse.” Moses leaned over the wheelbarrow and lifted two flakes of alfalfa into the air and tossed them to the ground. The horse trotted to it and lowered its head to graze. “Throw a stud chain on Pipe Dream when you get him out. He thinks he’s part of a circus act.”

I helped throw out the rest of the hay. Moses handed me a mucking fork. “Let’s start over here. If you get three stalls mucked, I’ll show you to the tack room and you can saddle up Dusty.”

I shoveled up a pile and tossed it into a wheelbarrow. “Looking forward to riding him. I have to admit, it’s been almost a year since I’ve ridden.”

“Just like riding a bicycle. You never forget how.”

“Considering I’ve nearly lived in the saddle since I was eight, I’m sure it’ll all come back to me.”

Moses bent over and wheeled the barrow to the next stall. The grimace on his face showed the pain in his hands and knees while he moved it. “Divorce can be hard on everyone.”

“Even horses, I guess.” I smiled realizing how the manual labor of moving horse poop was making me feel better. “My poor horse, Carrington, has a new owner who thinks pulling on the mouth is the best way to control a horse.”

Moses shook his head. “It’s amazing how many people can ride horses and never actually figure the animals out. You can’t be a good rider if you don’t connect with your horse.”

“You and I think a lot alike, Moses.”

“This should work out great then.” He straightened and rubbed his lower back. “Now if I can just find a decent stable hand.”

“Maybe you should put up a flyer at the high school. I’m sure there are a lot of kids who’d like a job.”

Moses nodded. “I think I’ll do that.” He leaned back over his fork. “So what’s it like in that old house? You settling in?”

“Well, it’s not exactly Buckingham Palace, but it’s growing on me.” Slowly I’d begun to realize that even though we were short a major player, I still had Mom and the stink twins, so it was home.

“My wife, Trudy, used to tell me some stories about the boy who drowned out there. The uncle was a wretched man. He swindled half the townsfolk out of their life savings all the while squandering his nephew’s trust fund.”

I stopped mucking. “How does your wife know about the family? It happened so long ago.”

“From what Trudy’s told me, the nephew, the boy who drowned, was desperately in love with her grandmother, Emily.”

The handle slipped out of my hand and smacked the pipe corrals. The horses lifted their heads momentarily to see what the clamor was about then returned to their hay. I retrieved the fork.  A billion questions raced through my head, but I knew which one to ask first.

“Did her grandmother love him?”

Moses shrugged. “I suppose. Love and commitment were different back then. She eventually moved to New York to marry someone else. As you said, it was long ago. Not many details remain. There’s always been some question about how the boy died. Trudy had heard that her grandmother was quite distraught when she heard the news about his death.”

This was life in a small town. Everyone was connected in some way or another. Never in a million years did I expect to be having a conversation with Moses about Sebastian. If Emily was distraught then she had to have loved him. I couldn’t wait to talk to Sebastian. Maybe the diary wouldn’t be necessary after all. Considering how the start to my plan went this morning, that was probably a good thing.

Moses wheeled the cart past the stalls. “You ready to ride?”

“Absolutely.”

I was standing in the tack room picking up the saddle and pad Moses had pointed out when small, light footsteps sounded behind me. I turned. Trudy was petite and slightly hunched over. There was a swirl of ginger in the gray hair swept up into a bun on her head. Blue eyes clouded by age smiled out from skin that had been weathered by a lot of time in the sun, no doubt while on the back of a horse. She stuck out a frail hand. “I’m Trudy and I understand you’re Brazil.”

I nodded.

“Well the names are definitely getting more unique these days. Just be thankful you weren’t saddled with a name like Gertrude. Thank goodness for nicknames.” She smiled, and I knew I liked her instantly. “Dusty goes rough on his left lead so don’t let him lean on you. Don’t let him take advantage even once or he’ll keep trying you.”

“Got it. He sure is a cool horse. Did he win a lot of ribbons?”

“We were quite a team out there. Unfortunately my hips have told me to retire. His too, I’m afraid.” Trudy pulled out a small footstool, stepped on it, and plucked a bridle from a hook on the wall. She handed it to me. “Use this bit. It’ll make him pay attention.”  She winked. “Now let’s get that lazy guy out to the arena.”

Even old and retired, Dusty was an awesome gelding. I could only imagine what a blast it would have been to ride him over jumps. The first time I pushed him into a canter, I actually laughed out loud. Trudy laughed with me. I’d missed riding but I hadn’t realized how badly till Dusty and I were flying around the arena with the ocean wind cooling my face and the soft thud of horse hooves filling the air. I don’t know why I’d stop riding in the first place. The problems my parents were having seemed to lull me into a state of existence where I had little enthusiasm for anything, even my horse. Man, did I miss Carrington. Losing him was losing another piece of my existence.

Trudy stayed to watch me ride. It had been awhile since Dusty and I had had such a workout so the ride didn’t last too long. Trudy opened the arena gate. “You ride beautifully, Brazil. Reminds me of myself up there.”

“Thanks.” We walked to the barn. “Trudy, do you mind if I ask you something about your grandmother?” Curiosity was eating a hole in me.

“Grandma Emmie? Not at all. Although she died when I was quite young, so I don’t remember too much about her.”

“Before she left to New York to be married to the man whom I suppose must be your grandfather was there someone else in her life?” It was a poorly worded and ridiculously leading question, but I couldn’t just shout out did Emily love Sebastian? After all, how was some new teenage kid in town supposed to know about Sebastian. Unless, of course, he was popping in and out of her life as an unsettled ghost. Trudy was easy to talk to but I think if I brought that up, she might think I was nuts. I tied up Dusty and removed the tack.

“Well, she had some friends here in Pelican Bay if that’s what you mean. Her betrothal to Sammuel, my grandfather, was very sudden. Her father whisked her out of town without warning. He was in some kind of dispute with another man in town.” Her eyes widened. “In fact it was the man who owned the house you live in, the Middleton house. I don’t really know any of the details though.” Trudy brushed Dusty’s coat. “How do you know about my grandmother?”

Now I was in trouble. I had to formulate an answer without sounding crazy. Keeping a secret like a ghost hanging around is harder than I thought. “Letters.” It was the first thought that popped into my head. “I found some old letters written by the boy who lived there. They are letters to your grandmother.”

Trudy looked up from her task. “Letters from the Middleton boy? I’ve never heard about them.”

“They were unopened when I found them.” I stared down at my feet to hide the blush I felt in my face. “I suppose I shouldn’t have opened them.”

“Why on earth not? It’s not like the boy is around to care whether you read them or not.”

I smiled and shook my head.
            “What a shame my grandmother never saw the letters. Are they nice letters?’

“Sebastian Middleton was very in love with your grandmother.”

“I believe she was fond of him as well.”

Darn it. That statement did not tell me much. I was hoping she would say Emily was madly and tragically in love with Sebastian. Then I could tell him and that would be the end of his unfinished ghost business. He could move on knowing she loved him and I would not have to think about the diary, or Hank, or Seth. Or that damn kiss that I had shoved out of my mind until just now. “I’ll take Dusty back to his stall so he can finish his hay.”

“It’s been a pleasure meeting you, Brazil. I think this will work out nicely for Moses and me.” She reached up and patted Dusty on the neck. “And for the horses.”

I smiled at her. “I think it’s going to work out great for me too.” On the way back to the stall, I contemplated lying to Sebastian about what Trudy had said. It wouldn’t really be lying. I’d just be embellishing it a bit. But something told me, he could tell if I wasn’t being honest. He seemed to have incredible senses, dead as they were, when it came to me.

****

 “Something happened today. I can see it in the flush of your skin,” Sebastian’s voice drifted over my shoulder as I finished an essay for English. It was the worst I’d ever written, but my mind had been jumbled all day.

“The flush of my skin? You’re making that up because you’re curious if I talked to the Warner boy. You could just ask, you know.”

“I’m not making anything up. You’re much more—much more pink than you were when you left this morning.” His mood seemed brighter. The cocky grin surfaced through the mist.

“There is this strange, little star in the sky during the day called the Sun. You may have heard of it. It sort of follows us around while we are outside, and it causes us to get pink.”

“Did you use this sarcasm on the Warner boy today? If so, I’m sure he has already fallen madly in love with you.”

I laughed nervously. “I don’t think love would be the word to use. Mad—yes. But love—no. I sort of referred to him as a lump of shit today.”

With a flash, Sebastian was sitting on my computer desk glowering down at me.

“And why, pray tell, would you call him a lump of shit?”

“Because he is one.”

My homework books flew off my desk and crashed into the opposite wall. I jumped off the chair and backed away. “You know maybe your temper is what scared Emily away.” I heard the words spill out of my mouth before they could be stopped.

But nothing else flew against the wall or, for that matter, my head. Sebastian vanished.

“Don’t I get to explain at least?” I called into the air. “He called me a bitch.”

As if someone had flipped a switch, he was back sitting on my desk. “What kind of gentleman calls a girl a bitch?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Hank is a pig. He is a crude, despicable bully.”

“Then forget the diary. You must stay away from this swine.”

“No problem.”

Sebastian’s form washed over the floor. He laid back and put his arms behind his head. The rose pattern on the area rug showed through his shirt and face. “I guess I will have to haunt you forever then.”

I glared down at him. It was surprising how smug a ghost could look. I shrugged. “Go right ahead. Besides, when I die, I’m going to track you down in whatever world you’re floating around and annoy you for eternity.”

I removed my boots and lifted them up to smile at the dust covering the brown leather. I drew a heart in the dirt. “I rode today.”

“Rode what?”

“A horse.”

“You’d mentioned you were an equestrian. I owned a horse in England, but I never had one here in the states.”

“I left mine behind in Boston, but I’m going to get him back one day.” After several hours at the stable, I was determined to buy Carrington back and bring him here to Pelican Bay. I placed my boots beneath my computer desk and glanced down at the ghost floating above my rug. “The horse I rode belongs to an older woman named Trudy.”