Horse Love (15 page)

“The minute he forgot to meet you to go riding,” Carole said. “That was a sure sign that he was a rat.”

“Almost as bad as when he couldn’t remember your last name, even after he’d kissed you,” Stevie said.

“And when he forgot to go riding the second time,” Carole said. “Bad sign, for sure.”

“And then when he skipped out on the auditions and rehearsals,” said Stevie.

“But then when he didn’t stand up to Kiki about the smell of horses,” Carole said, “I’d have known he was nothing but bad news.”

“You two know everything!” Lisa said. “I wish you’d been there, but even here, you’re making me feel a whole lot better.”

“That’s what friends are for,” Stevie said, fluffing her pillow and reaching for another chocolate chip cookie.

“And while you should have been down there, saving my heart, I should have been up here, painting.” Lisa poured herself a glass of milk.

“We did okay without you,” Stevie said.

“Sure you did, and I knew you would. I just feel like I let you down.”

“You didn’t,” said Carole. “You didn’t have a choice.” She chewed on a cookie thoughtfully.

“Unlike a certain P. Marsten,” said Stevie.

“Maybe the only good males in this world are stallions,” said Lisa.

“And geldings?” Carole asked. Starlight was a gelding.

“Definitely. Any horse, actually—male, female, or neutered.”

“Okay, so if I’ve got this straight, what we’ve just agreed to is that the only good men are horses, right?” Stevie asked.

“Something like that,” Carole agreed.

“Sounds good to me,” Lisa said. “Oh, can we add Max to that?”

“Sometimes,” Stevie said. “Like today.”

“He was really surprised with all the work we’d done, wasn’t he?” Carole asked.

“Knocked his socks off,” Stevie said proudly.

“And he didn’t believe Veronica for one half of one nanosecond when she tried to tell him she’d helped,” said Carole.

“He’s no fool,” Lisa reminded them.

“Okay, we can add Max,” Stevie conceded. “But that’s the limit.”

There was a knock on Stevie’s door. It was Mrs. Lake. She asked Stevie to open the door for her because she couldn’t manage it with her hands full.

“Of what?” Stevie asked, moving over to the door.

“Open the door and I’ll show you,” she said. There was a funny, happy sound to her voice.

Stevie opened the door. Her mother stood there with a very large arrangement of flowers, which she had to hold in both hands.

“The florist just delivered this,” she said. “It’s for you.”

“Me?” Stevie asked as if there were any other daughter of hers in the room at that moment.

“You,” Mrs. Lake confirmed.

Carole took the flowers. Stevie went for the card. She pulled the little greeting out of the very small envelope and read it.

“Okay, guys, we’ve got a problem,” she said.

“What’s that?” Carole asked, placing the flowers on Stevie’s desk.

“The flowers are from Phil,” Stevie told her friends.

“That’s a problem?” Lisa asked.

“Well, here’s what the card says: ‘Stevie, I hope you can forgive me for letting you down about the painting.
I was being foolish and selfish. You are far more important to me than some old skiing trip. Any day. Love, Phil.’ ”

“What’s the problem?” Carole asked.

Stevie grinned. “It means I’m going to have to ask you if we can include Phil on that list.”

Lisa and Carole exchanged glances. Lisa shrugged.

“Okay,” said Carole. “That means that the only good men are all horses, Max, and Phil.”

“That’s enough,” said Stevie.

“For now,” said Lisa.

B
ONNIE
B
RYANT
is the author of more than a hundred books about horses, including The Saddle Club series, The Saddle Club Super Editions, the Pony Tails series, and Pine Hollow, which follows the Saddle Club girls into their teens. She has also written novels and movie novelizations under her married name, B. B. Hiller.

Ms. Bryant began writing The Saddle Club in 1986. Although she had done some riding before that, she intensified her studies then and found herself learning right along with her characters Stevie, Carole, and Lisa. She claims that they are all much better riders than she is.

Ms. Bryant was born and raised in New York City. She still lives there, in Greenwich Village, with her two sons.