Team Play (13 page)

“Well, not exactly. It’s in your seat, too. And, of course, your hands.”

Lisa thought for a few seconds about what he’d said. It sounded awfully familiar. Then she realized why. She’d heard it dozens of times from Max! “That’s how it is with all riding,” Lisa said. “That’s no secret.”

“Just so!” Enrico said. “I knew you would understand. Now, shall we dance?”

“Sure,” Lisa said. “And I’ll promise to teach you all the
secrets of American dances. See, it’s all in the legs. And the feet. And the hips. Oh, yes, and the arms.”

Grinning, Enrico offered her his hand and they joined the others on the dance floor.

P
HIL LOOKED DOWN
at the top of Stevie’s head, resting on his shoulder. They moved slowly to the music.

“I think my favorite part of today was Veronica at Booth Thirteen. That was a stroke of genius, Stevie. Of course, what you did for Bobby Effingwell was probably even better. You could have beaten him in the election, but the fact is, he’ll do a good job. And he’ll have a better time doing it. You’d get tired of being a goody-goody and he was born that way, wasn’t he, Stevie? Stevie?”

She didn’t answer him. She was fast asleep.

“I
CAN
’
T BELIEVE
they’re gone already,” Stevie said sadly. “It seems like they just got here yesterday.”

Stevie was talking about the Italian boys. She and the other four members of The Saddle Club were sitting in a crowded booth at TD’s on Tuesday afternoon. They’d just finished a class at Pine Hollow and were having a meeting.

“But wasn’t it great having them here?” Lisa asked. “We learned so much from them.”

“I think they learned a lot from us, too,” Christine said.

“That reminds me. What were you and Gian talking about so seriously on Saturday night at Stevie’s?” Carole asked.

“Oh, things,” Christine answered evasively. Then she smiled.

“I guess we know the answer to that!” Kate joked.

“Well, you and Andre seemed to be having a pretty good time, too!” Christine countered.

“Actually, we were,” Kate said. “We found we had a few things in common.”

“Liking each other, you mean?” Lisa asked.

“I guess so,” Kate admitted. “Anyway, he promised to send me postcards from all the places they visit.

“Speaking of getting along, Carole,” Kate said. “You certainly managed to show Marco some moves on the dance floor!”

“He found he had a natural talent for American dancing,” Carole said. “I just helped him discover it, with the help of a few horseback riding hints.”

“Are you going to explain that?” Stevie asked.

“No.” Carole grinned. “Let’s just say, we had fun.”

“You all did,” Stevie said.

“You did, too,” Lisa said.

“Maybe.” Stevie shrugged. “I just don’t remember much of it. Phil told me I fell asleep while we were dancing. Can you believe it?”

“Considering how tired you were that night, I believe it,” Kate said.

The waitress arrived with their orders. She delivered two fudge sundaes, one on vanilla ice cream, one on
mint chocolate chip, a caramel sundae on vanilla, and a strawberry sundae on strawberry, all with maraschino cherries on top. “Now, let me see. Who ordered the banana ice cream with blackberry syrup, marshmallow topping, walnuts—”

“That’s me,” Stevie said.

“I never would have guessed,” the waitress said. “Here you go.” She put the dish in front of Stevie and walked away.

“She’s getting better, you know,” Stevie said. “She used to slap my dish down and run away. Now she just walks. That’s progress.”

“You are one of a kind, Stevie,” Christine said.

“And we wouldn’t have it any other way,” Lisa added.

“Because who could stand more than one friend like Stevie?” Carole finished.

“Friends!” Stevie said, grinning. “You’re all just wonderful. Oh, and speaking of wonderful. I got the greatest idea today at riding class. We’re going to be having our first pony club rally next week and I thought that maybe it might be fun to plan a sort of fund-raising picnic beforehand. You know, we could set up some booths and games, do some sort of demonstration. It wouldn’t be too much work. If you could all pitch in—”

Four maraschino cherries hit Stevie at the same time.

Bonnie Bryant is the author of nearly a hundred books about horses, including the Saddle Club series, the Saddle Club Super Editions, and the Pony Tales series.