The A Circuit 04- Rein It In (10 page)

Pelham Lane was usually closed to clients on Mondays, but during Indoors season, the regular schedule went out the window. When Tommi pulled in after school, the parking lot was packed and she could see a few people taking advantage of the last few minutes of daylight in the outdoor rings.

Pocketing her keys, Tommi hurried inside. Marissa and Summer were sprawled on one of the benches in the entry area, phones in hand.

“Tommi!” Marissa immediately looked guilty when she raised her eyes. “Um, hi.”

“What’s going on?” Tommi’s gaze shifted to Marissa’s phone. “Wait, don’t tell me—I’m in today’s blog, right?”

“Maybe.” Marissa smiled sheepishly and held out her phone. “It’s just something about how you were seen hanging out with that cute Scott kid at Cap Challenge.”

Summer’s pale blue eyes glittered with interest. “Yeah, did you know his dad’s some kind of computer tycoon? I heard Scott tried to buy some big-time Grand Prix jumper to do the high juniors with, but the owners turned him down even though he offered like a zillion bucks or something.”

Tommi didn’t bother to respond to that. Summer was always very interested in exactly how much money other people were spending, a habit Tommi found supremely irritating.

“At least the blog’s somewhat accurate for once.” Tommi handed Marissa’s phone back. “Not that it’s anyone’s business who I hang out with. Least of all the entire Internet.”

Marissa looked sympathetic. “I know, right?” she said. “I mean, I like a little gossip as much as the next girl …”

Tommi snorted, and even Summer shot Marissa a disbelieving look. Marissa giggled.

“Okay,” she amended. “Maybe I like gossip even
more
than the next girl. My point is, the blogger’s kind of out of control.”

“Maybe.” Summer shrugged. “But Zara says she’s going to find out who’s doing it.”

Marissa stuck her phone in her pocket. “Do you really think she can figure it out?”

“Who knows?” Tommi had her doubts—Zara didn’t exactly
have the world’s longest attention span—but she was tired of discussing the blog. She glanced at her watch. “Hey, do you know if all the horses are in from turnout? I want to get on Orion, make sure we’re ready to redeem ourselves in Harrisburg.”

“I’m sure you will, Tommi,” Summer said. “Everyone was totally surprised that you didn’t win the eq at Cap Challenge, especially since Orion is so experienced at finals and all. But no big deal, right? It’s not like anyone cares about that one—it’s not even a real finals.”

Tommi knew it was usually better to ignore Summer’s more ignorant comments, but sometimes she just couldn’t resist slapping her down. “You might not want to say that in front of the people who pinned,” she told Summer, her voice coming out a little sharper than she meant it to. “They might not see it that way.”

Summer’s jaw dropped, and Tommi suspected that Marissa was trying not to giggle. “Um, I’m not sure about the horses being in from turnout,” Marissa told Tommi quickly. “I think the guys are still bringing some of them in. Jamie wanted them out as long as possible to stretch their legs.”

Tommi wasn’t surprised to hear it. It had been a beautiful day, warm and breezy with practically no humidity, and she was sure the horses had enjoyed being out after more than a week in the cramped stalls at the show.

“Guess I’ll go see,” she said. “Catch you later.”

She headed for Orion’s stall. He wasn’t there, so she continued out the back of the barn toward his usual turnout. When she reached the gate, he was grazing at the far end of the roomy paddock with his buddy, a placid older short-stirrup hunter
named Scooby. At Tommi’s whistle, both horses lifted their heads and started toward the gate—Scooby at a trot, and Orion at a dramatic hobble.

Tommi gasped. Yanking her phone out of her pocket, she texted Jamie and Joy:

Orion dead lame. Help!

“Easy, buddy,” she said, grabbing a lead rope off the fence and slipping into the paddock as the horses reached the gate. Scooby nosed her, looking for treats, but she pushed his head away and went to Orion. “Let’s see what’s going on, okay?”

She slipped on his halter and shooed Scooby away. It was obvious that Orion was favoring his left front leg, so she ran her hand down it, feeling for heat or swelling. He lifted the hoof, leaving it hovering off the ground as Tommi squeezed and prodded gently. She was feeling around the hoof when she heard footsteps coming fast.

“Feel anything?” Joy asked breathlessly.

Tommi glanced up at the assistant trainer. “Hoof feels warm. He’s not reacting when I poke anywhere else.”

“Abscess then, probably.” Joy came into the paddock and pushed Scooby away, bending to feel Orion’s bad leg herself.

Tommi straightened up. “It’s got to be, right?”

If her hands hadn’t been busy, she would have crossed her fingers. An abscess—a localized infection inside the hoof—wasn’t a
good
thing, exactly. But when a horse suddenly went lame, it was definitely the best of several possibilities. By far.

Just as Tommi glanced toward the barn, wondering how hard it was going to be to get Orion to walk there, she saw Jamie hurrying out the back door. “Got your message,” he said when he reached the paddock.

“Thanks for coming so fast.” Tommi bit her lip, watching as Joy’s slim, tanned fingers continued to poke and prod. “I came out to get Orion, and he was practically three-legged.”

“Yeah, looks like it’s probably an abscess.” Joy straightened up with a groan.

For a second, Tommi forgot about her horse. “You okay?” she asked Joy, flashing momentarily to all those rumors on the blog. Joy wasn’t old enough to be groaning and complaining about her creaky old joints like Tommi’s grandmother down in Florida. Tommi wasn’t sure how old Joy was, actually, but it couldn’t be much over thirty, if that.

“Sure. Just been a long day, that’s all.” Joy flashed her a smile. Was it Tommi’s imagination, or did the woman look pale all of a sudden? “Anyway, let’s get this guy into a stall, and I’ll get the farrier out ASAP.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Jamie stepped in and grabbed Scooby. “Time for you to come in too, buddy.”

Soon Orion was in his stall nosing at the pile of fresh-smelling hay one of the grooms had put in there. Joy pulled out her cell phone and wandered off down the aisle with it pressed to her ear while Tommi and Jamie stood watching the horse.

“Don’t worry. Burt will have him feeling better in no time.” Jamie glanced at her. “But you realize what this means, right?”

Tommi’s heart sank. She’d been so anxious about Orion that she hadn’t thought beyond trying to figure out what was behind his lameness. But now she realized what Jamie was saying. An abscess wasn’t a serious problem, but it was serious enough to keep Orion home from the upcoming show.

“Yeah,” she said, feeling her chances at Harrisburg’s prestigious Medal Finals limping away. “Oh well, that’s horses for you, I guess.”

“All right, Kate.” Ms. Chen handed Kate’s English quiz back to her across her desk, an expression of mild concern on her face. “I realize Shakespeare can be challenging and you were away last week, but I’m concerned that if this happens again, your grade for the semester will suffer. Please ask for help next time if necessary, okay?”

“I will, I swear. Thanks.” Kate grabbed the paper and shoved it into her bag, heading for the door before the teacher could change her mind.

That had been close. Kate had been so desperate to finish her chemistry homework on the drive home from Cap Challenge that she hadn’t had time to finish reading
Macbeth
, and yesterday’s quiz had taken her completely by surprise. Good thing her grades in English had been mostly decent otherwise this year. Because all it would take was one teacher calling Kate’s parents before the trailers pulled out the next afternoon, and she could kiss Harrisburg good-bye.

She tried not to think about that. For one thing, she didn’t have time. It was Tuesday afternoon, and the juniors had a lesson in a little over an hour. Before that, Kate was supposed to repack the tack stall drapes for the show, and there was a feed delivery scheduled that she might need to help organize. …

Kate was so busy listing off tasks in her head as she hurried across the student parking lot that she didn’t notice anyone else
was around until she heard a cough followed by Nat’s nasally drawl: “In a hurry, Katie?”

Kate stopped short. Nat and Cody were sitting on the tailgate of his battered pickup, passing a bag of Doritos back and forth between them. The truck was parked right across from Kate’s car, which was one of the last remaining in the lot.

“H-hi,” Kate responded cautiously. She and Nat hadn’t spoken since chemistry class the other week, and for a second Kate wondered if it was a good sign Nat was talking to her now. Was she finally starting to thaw?

Fat chance. “Let me guess.” Nat popped a chip in her mouth and glared at Kate as she crunched. “You’re rushing over to that fancy-schmancy snob barn of yours, right? Gotta hurry up and get there so the rich bitches can order you around.”

Cody snorted with laughter. “Here’s an order for you, Kate,” he said. “Go get me a beer.”

Nat ignored him, keeping her eyes trained on Kate’s. “That where you’re going, Katie?” she asked.

“It’s not like that there—you know that, Nat,” Kate blurted out, sidling a few steps closer to her car.

Nat shrugged. “While you’re there, say hi to
my
horse, would ya?” she said. “Or wait. I guess you don’t have to do what I say—you think you’re better than me now, right? Only the rich bitches get to tell you what to do, and you just suck up to them and take it like some yappy little dog nobody really likes.”

Kate didn’t stick around to hear any more. She raced to her car, her hands shaking so badly she could barely get the key into the ignition. Finally jamming it in, she gunned the engine and took off without looking back.

She was still stewing over the confrontation with Nat when she arrived at Pelham Lane ten minutes later. Grabbing her well-worn paddock boots out of the backseat, she quickly yanked them on and hurried inside. Nobody was in the entryway except one of the barn dogs, so Kate headed for the office to see if Jamie still wanted her to try to do the stall drapes before the lesson.

On her way, she passed the grooming stalls. Horses were cross-tied in several of them—Fitz’s leased eq horse, Marissa’s hunter, and Dani’s jumper—though it looked as if their riders hadn’t even started grooming yet, let alone tacking up.

Kate soon saw why. All three riders were huddled just down the aisle, along with Zara and Summer. The buzz of excited conversation drifted toward Kate. Was something going on?

Fitz looked up and spotted her. “She’s here,” he said loudly, which for some reason made the others fall silent.

“What’s going on?” Kate took a few cautious steps toward the group. Zara waved at her, looking weirdly excited. Dani had a funny half smile on her face, and Marissa and Summer were staring at Kate as if she were the most fascinating thing they’d ever seen. Which was definitely
not
normal, especially for Summer, who rarely looked directly at Kate unless she was ordering her to do something. Sometimes not even then. For the ghost of a second, Nat’s accusations darted back into Kate’s mind, though she tried not to focus on them.

Fitz was already hurrying to meet her. “Hey,” he said softly, bending to brush her lips with a quick kiss. “I guess you haven’t heard yet, huh? Come on over here. You’ll want to see this.”

“See what?” She followed him back down the aisle. Zara held out her phone.

“Check it out,” she said with a grin. “Guess this explains why Joy’s been acting weird lately.”

Kate blinked, not sure what she was talking about. Then she recalled Zara talking about the blog and Joy at Cap Challenge, though Kate had been too busy to do more than glance at it when Zara stuck it in front of her face at dinner one night.

“There’s something about Joy on the blog again?” Kate said, taking the phone.

“Not just Joy.” Fitz’s arm slipped around her shoulders and squeezed. “Read it. All the way through.”

Kate scanned the post:

Your faithful blogger just uncovered some blockbuster news out of Pelham Lane Stables. Remember how assistant trainer Joy was acting funny? Well, now we know why—she’s preggers! What does this mean for the future of PLS? Only head trainer Jamie Vos knows, and he’s not saying—but odds seem good that he’ll be looking for a new assistant very soon. Who will it be? Again, nobody knows for sure—but some say a certain working student will likely be asked to step into the job!

Chapter Eight

“What do you think?” Marissa asked Kate, her eyes shining with excitement.

Kate couldn’t answer. Her mind felt numb, unable to process this.

Summer wrinkled her nose. “I think it’s totally weird to picture Joy with a baby,” she said. “I mean, I didn’t even realize she was married.”

“Yes, you did,” Dani told her. “She brought her husband to the barn picnic last spring, remember? He’s super shy and adorable. Works in real estate, I think.”

“Not really the point here, guys.” Fitz shot them an annoyed look. Then he turned to Kate. “Congratulations, babe,” he said with a grin. “Should we call you Madame Trainer, or just Boss?”