The A Circuit 04- Rein It In (24 page)

Tommi had barely set foot in Drummond’s lobby the next morning when she heard someone calling her name.

“Oh my god, Tommi, welcome back,” Court exclaimed, rushing over. “You’ll never believe the party you missed this weekend, or who was there acting like she—wait, are you okay?”

She peered into Tommi’s face with sudden concern. “I’m fine.” Tommi pasted on a smile.

“Does this mean you didn’t win your big championship thingy?” Court fell into step beside Tommi, both of them heading toward the hall where their lockers were located.

“No, I did fine. Really well, actually.” Tommi shrugged. “Ninth out of like two hundred and fifty in the eq.”

“Wow.” Court looked impressed. “So what’s with the face?”

Tommi hesitated. Court was one of her best friends, and normally she would probably be the first to hear about the disaster with Scott. Somehow, though, Tommi just wasn’t in the mood to get into it right now.

“Nothing,” she said, forcing another smile. “I’m just tired. Didn’t get in until really late, and it’s not like I’m looking forward to that calc test today.”

Court barked out a laugh. “Tell me about it! My eyes were crossing trying to cram for that thing last night.”

“So what’s this about a party?” Tommi asked.

Court’s face lit up. “Oh man, it was legendary …” She started chattering on about the party, though Tommi wasn’t really listening. Her mind drifted back to Scott. He’d sent her a text last night, trying again to apologize for what had happened, insisting again that the thing with Fable hadn’t had anything to do with her.

Could he be telling the truth? Tommi thought back to what
he’d said yesterday—that she would have done the same thing if the situation were reversed. At first Tommi had dismissed that. But she’d had lots of time to think about it on that long, mostly quiet ride back to New York last night, and now she wasn’t so sure.

What
would
she have done differently, after all? What if Scott had been riding a promising young prospect—one that could have been a match for Tommi’s business plans, one that was for sale at a fair price? She would have jumped at the chance, even if it meant being a little cagey. Right? It would have been stupid to do otherwise. So maybe he was right. They really weren’t so different.

Of course, that didn’t make Tommi feel much better about what had happened. Or any less guilty every time she thought about Kate …

“Tommi!” Zara’s excited voice broke into Tommi’s thoughts—and Court’s story.

Court frowned slightly. “Hi, Zara,” she said in her legendary blow-off voice. “Look, Tommi and I are right in the middle of—”

“Not interested.” Pushing past Court, Zara grabbed Tommi by the arm. In her other hand, she was clutching her phone. “Tommi, I need to talk to you about something. Right now.”

Tommi could see that the HorseShowSecrets blog was on the phone’s screen. She frowned. “Can it wait? I’m not really in the mood for—”

“This can’t wait.” Zara yanked impatiently on her arm. “I mean it, girl. I’ve got to show you something—
now
.”

Kate was late arriving at the barn on Tuesday afternoon because Mr. Barron had insisted that she stay after school to take the quiz she’d missed on Friday. Kate had tried to explain that she was supposed to work every day after school, but when he’d started talking about calling her parents to discuss whether her schedule was too demanding, she’d given in and agreed to stay.

The parking area wasn’t very full. Most of the adult riders wouldn’t be out this week, since their horses were at the show. As Kate pulled into her usual spot, she saw that Tommi and Dani were already there, though there was no sign of Fitz’s car. Kate hadn’t heard from him all day, and she hoped he hadn’t forgotten that the juniors had a lesson that afternoon. Joy might be an easier teacher than Jamie in some ways, but she was just as strict when it came to expecting everyone to be on time. Kate glanced at her watch. Come to think of it, she would have to hurry if she wanted to get anything done before it was time to start tacking up.

She cut her engine and just sat there staring into a space for a moment, realizing that she’d almost added one more word to the last part of that thought: before it was time to start tacking
Fable
up. For the past few months, she’d ridden the big gray gelding in most of her lessons. It was going to feel weird to go back to switching back and forth onto whichever horse Jamie thought needed more schooling that week.

Kate closed her eyes for a second as an intense feeling of loss washed over her. Not just the loss of Fable—she’d always known he wasn’t really hers. She just hadn’t expected him to go so soon. More importantly, she hadn’t recognized until too late how tied in he was with her hopes for the future.

Shaking her head to clear out those kinds of thoughts,
Kate yanked the key out of the ignition, grabbed her boots, and headed inside.

Tommi was perched on the bench in the entryway, fiddling with the laces on her paddock boots, when Kate entered. “Oh, hi,” she said, glancing up. “Joy asked me to tell you to come see her when you get here.”

“Didn’t she get my text saying I’d be late?” Kate said with a flash of panic. The last thing she needed to do right now was make Joy and Jamie think they couldn’t rely on her.

Tommi gave her laces one last yank and straightened up. “She didn’t say anything about that. She didn’t seem mad or anything, though.”

Kate nodded and relaxed, belatedly remembering that the assistant trainer had responded to that text, saying it was no problem if she was a few minutes late. So what was this about?

“I’d better go find her,” she told Tommi. “See you at our lesson.”

Joy was in the office when Kate peeked in, poring over some paperwork. At Kate’s soft knock on the doorframe, the assistant trainer looked up with her usual cheerful smile.

“Kate!” she said. “How was your quiz?”

“Fine,” Kate lied. “Tommi said you wanted to see me?”

Joy pushed back from the desk and stood. If Kate hadn’t been watching so carefully, she might not have noticed that the assistant trainer was moving a little more carefully than normal.

“Follow me.” Joy brushed past Kate. “Something came for you this morning.”

Confused, Kate trailed behind Joy as she hurried down the aisle to the tack room. “Something came for me? What do you mean—like a letter or something?”

“It’s from Fable’s owners,” Joy explained. “A gift to thank you for the work you put into him?”

“Really?” Kate was touched and surprised. “Wow, they didn’t have to get me anything. That’s really nice of them.”

“No kidding.” Joy grinned, leading the way into the tack room. “Voilà!”

At first Kate didn’t understand. Joy was gesturing toward a saddle sitting on the stand in the center of the room. It looked a lot like Tommi’s best saddle, except that there were no wear marks from the stirrup leathers on the flap.

“What do you think?” Joy was still grinning as she stepped over and patted the soft leather of the saddle. “They said if it’s the wrong size, you can exchange it.”

Kate gasped as she realized what Joy was saying. “Wait,” she said. “They got me a
saddle
?”

“A nice one, too.” Joy ran her fingers over the pommel. “County, which makes me think Jamie must’ve told them which of his extra saddles is your favorite to ride in.” She winked. “Brand-new, though, unlike Jamie’s dinosaur. The guy from the tack shop dropped it off about an hour ago.”

Kate couldn’t answer. Couldn’t do anything but stare at the saddle. Was this really happening? There had to be some mistake. Fable’s owners hadn’t actually bought her a
saddle
, had they?

“Wanted to make sure you saw it before you start tacking up for the lesson, since I’m sure you’ll want to break it in.” Joy checked her watch. “Speaking of which, I’d better finish that grain order before it’s time to start. Feel like taking Jupiter for a spin today?”

“Huh? Um, sure.” Kate wasn’t really thinking about the
spunky large pony, one of her favorite rides before Fable had come along. She was staring at the saddle—
her
saddle—trying to comprehend the idea that she could own something so nice.

As Joy hurried out, Kate cautiously put one hand on the seat. The leather was buttery soft and smooth.

Just then Marissa and Dani hurried into the tack room, chattering about the lesson. “Hey, Kate,” Marissa said. “What’s up?”

“Nothing.” Kate cleared her throat, a little worried that she was about to start laughing hysterically. “Um, except that Fable’s owners sent me a saddle.”

Dani’s eyes widened as she glanced at the saddle Kate was caressing. “Whoa! Really? What kind is it?” She grabbed the flap, flipping it up to check out the name printed on the panel underneath. “Nice!”

“What a sweet gift,” Marissa added. “The Langleys seemed like really nice people—I’m not surprised they wanted to thank you for helping them with Fable.”

Just then Fitz stuck his head into the room. “Am I late?” he asked.

“Get in here, dude.” Dani grinned at him. “I’m thinking you’re going to have to start buying your girlfriend much nicer gifts if you want to keep up.”

“What?” Fitz sounded confused. “Gifts? What are you talking about?”

“Check it out—Fable’s owners gave Kate a saddle!” Dani waved a hand at the saddle.

“Oh!” Fitz stepped inside. “Really? That’s great, babe. You earned it.”

“I—I don’t know.” Kate gulped. “Can I really accept something like this?”

“Sure, why not?” Fitz walked over to check out the saddle. “It’s a gift. It’d be rude
not
to accept it.” He glanced up with a grin. “At least, that’s what my mom tells me every time my crazy great-aunt Phyllis sends me another ugly sweater.”

Marissa laughed. “Are you going to ride in it today, Kate?”

“Duh!” Dani stepped over and grabbed her bridle off the wall. “Of course she’s going to ride in it! Why would she ride in one of Jamie’s thousand-year-old spares when she could ride in
that
?”

Tommi hurried into the room, followed by Summer. “I’m serious, Tommi,” Summer was saying. “If you see any good eq horses for sale while you’re looking for prospects and stuff, let me know.”

“What’s going on?” Tommi asked, surveying the room and ignoring Summer.

Everyone started talking at once, filling her in. Well, everyone except Kate. She just stared at the saddle in wonder.

“Whoa,” Tommi said when she caught on. “That’s awesome, Kate! Congratulations—you definitely deserve it.”

“It’s a County?” Summer sniffed and turned away. “Too bad they didn’t get you a French saddle—they’re much nicer.”

“Is that right?” Tommi said with a slight smile. “Hmm, guess I missed that memo.”

“Oh, I wasn’t talking about
your
saddle, Tommi,” Summer said hurriedly. “Um, I mean, if you have a County, I’m sure they’re really nice.”

At any other time, Kate might have laughed. Leave it to Summer to accidentally insult Tommi while acting snooty toward Kate. Right now, though, she wasn’t really focused on anything except trying to accept that this was really happening.

Just then Zara stepped into the tack room. Marissa waved to her. “Check this out, Zara,” she said. “Kate got a new saddle.”

“Really? That’s nice.” Zara barely glanced at the saddle before her eyes swept around the room. “Is everyone here? Good. Because I have something to tell all of you.”

“Bad timing.” Marissa grinned. “We’re too busy drooling over Kate’s new County.”

Zara pulled out her phone and held it up. The HorseShowSecrets logo was gleaming out from the tiny screen.

“I think you guys are going to want to hear this,” she said. “I finally figured out who’s behind the blog.”

Chapter Nineteen

Zara smiled at the looks of surprise and curiosity on everyone’s faces. Well, everyone except a couple of people. One was Tommi—she already knew what Zara was going to say, of course. As for the other person …

“Seriously?” Summer exclaimed. “Who is it?”

“Yeah, spill.” Fitz looked excited. “Don’t keep us in suspense!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.” Zara surveyed the room. “See, I figured it out when I saw what was posted on HorseShowSecrets first thing yesterday morning.”

“What was it?” Marissa pulled out her phone, quickly pulling up the blog and scrolling through it. “Not the thing about the weirdo from Kentucky with the horseshoe fetish?”

“Nope. The post before that.” Zara glanced at her own phone. “See? It talks about how Pelham Lane did so great at Medal Finals. …”

“‘And they might do even better next year, since at least
one more junior from that barn was inspired to start shopping for an eq horse so she can go for it next season,’” Marissa quoted from the blog. She looked up. “They must mean Summer, right?”

“Right.” Zara glanced at Summer, who looked as perplexed as the rest. “But how could someone find out she said that? Only the seven of us were there to hear her say she wanted to start doing the eq.”

“Wait.” Summer frowned as several people turned to stare at her. “
I’m
not writing the blog, if that’s what you’re thinking. I swear!”