No Time for Horses (9 page)

“So, run this by me again,” Jack said. “Why
are we buying groceries when your mom is supposed to be taking over
the responsibilities at your place?”

“Because I need food in the house to cook for
the next two weeks,” I said, “and Mom has to work the big tip
nights at the casino. Believe me, this is much easier than
listening to Cathy whine for candy and snivel when I buy veggies or
Kevin complaining that he’s bored.”

“Or trying to round up the twins when they
want to run amuck in the toy department,” Jack agreed. “Thank
goodness you can still keep Chrissy contained in the cart.”

“You got it.”

When we were in the store, we grabbed two
carts. By now, we pretty much had a system since we’d been doing
this for six months. I stocked up on staples like flour, sugar,
shortening, spices, cake mixes, cereals, bread, and paper products.
Jack headed for the produce, dairy, frozen food, and meat aisles.
We met up in canned goods. I was in the middle of comparing prices
on mushroom soup when I heard someone call my name.

I turned and saw Adam Chambers sauntering
toward me. His cart had several bags of chips and a case of sodas.
I nodded at him. “Hi. What’s going on?”

“Not much.” He eyed the carts that Jack and I
pushed. “Is that for the food drive? Okay if I get a photo for the
paper?”

I laughed. “No, this is just groceries for my
family. We won’t be shopping for the food bank until the weekend
before Thanksgiving. What are you up to?”

“Just loading up on junk food.” Adam
shrugged. “A bunch of us have to put together headlines for the
paper. It always goes faster when I feed the troops.”

“That makes sense,” I said. “So did you have
anybody at the rec cheer competition today? We came in second in
our division.”

“I was there and so were a couple other
reporters.” Adam stuck around, asking questions about the rec cheer
schedule.

I answered while I finished loading up on
soups, canned fruit, vegetables, and beans. Adam had more things he
claimed he’d forgotten to ask regarding the food drive all the way
to the cash registers. I paused long enough in the apparel section
to grab a couple packages of cloth diapers to go along with the
disposable ones I already had in the cart. Now, I wouldn’t have to
count on Rick returning the kids with clean laundry tomorrow night,
much less with completed homework.

Okay, so Mom was supposed to step up. How
could she? If she worked until seven or eight in the morning, came
home and got some sleep, she’d be lucky if she wasn’t a zombie when
she had to go back to the casino. After another swing shift, she’d
be back about ten tomorrow night. By that point, I’d have bathed
the kids and put them to bed. I’d be in the middle of my own
homework.

Adam finally finished up his questions about
everything under the sun, from the student council to the food
drive to recreational cheerleading, when we were out in the parking
lot. He helped us pack the bags of groceries into the car then went
off to deal with his newspaper reporters. I shook my head and
glanced at Jack. “What do you suppose that was really about?”

“I have no idea.” Jack stepped close to me.
He feathered his thumb over my mouth. “If I was the jealous type,
I’d think he was making a play for my girlfriend.”

“No.” I tiptoed up to kiss him. “He didn’t
look at me that way. I’d have felt the vibes if he was interested
in me as a person, not a story for the school paper.”

“I have no idea what the guy wants, and I
really don’t care.” Jack leaned down. He brushed his lips across
mine. “Let’s get this stuff back to your house and go find some pie
before Rocky calls to see what we’re doing.”

“Sounds great.”

* * * *

Sunday, November 17th, 8:40 a.m.

Shamrock Stable didn’t open until noon on
Sunday. I’d forgotten about that when I set up internship hours
with Rocky. When Sierra and I finished watering and feeding the
horses, we returned to the house to find Autumn and her mom dressed
for church. Rocky pointed to the bathroom. “Hustle up, ladies. We
don’t want to be late.”

“I don’t mind staying here by myself,” I
said. “I haven’t been to church a lot in the last six months.”

“We get to go have pancakes first,” Autumn
told me. “At the café. Come on, Vicky. They have berries and
whipped cream.”

“In that case, I’m rushing,” I said.

Sierra grinned at me. “You can use Mom’s
bathroom, and I’ll use this one. Race you.”

Breakfast followed by a cheerful service
started my day off great. We came back and opened the farm to do
pony rides, lessons, and trail rides. I was in charge of the indoor
arena today, teaching the basics to beginning level students.
Autumn decided she was my senior rider. She happily led her pony
Dream, a black and white Shetland pinto, both directions around the
ring. When we started class, Autumn demonstrated how to mount up.
She took charge of the balancing exercises and taught what her
mother called ‘the first fifteen.’

Those were the maneuvers every horseman
needed to know, including how to stop, start, back up, turn left
and right, along with more balance work. Whenever anyone sniveled
that their horse wouldn’t do something, Autumn favored them with a
stern glare. “Don’t be silly. ‘Course your horse doesn’t wanta do
his work. Twenty hours a day, he wants to eat. Four hours a day, he
wants to sleep. It’s your job to wake him up and keep him focused.
Now, do what I do.”

If she’d been ten years older, I was pretty
sure that she’d be doing my job. I wouldn’t mind if another
teenager took over, but being shown up by a seven-year-old could be
a bit tricky. Trying not to laugh, I took charge of my class and
encouraged the students to do their best.

At the end of the hour, Autumn nodded
satisfaction. “You’re learning. Soon, you’ll know as much as
me.”

“I’ll keep studying.” I said, biting back a
smile. I watched her demonstrate how to lead the line of ponies
back to their stalls. She did have a point. If she could do a task,
the other kids wanted to copy her.

Jack arrived in the middle of chores to take
me home. He didn’t do what my stepdad used to do, start hollering
for me to leave before every animal was fed. Instead, Jack took
over pushing the wheelbarrow while I doled out flakes of hay. No
wonder he was my guy.

I never admitted how much I cared about him.
I just wasn’t going to give him up for anyone. If some other girl
looked at him, she was toast. “How’d your day go?” I asked.

Jack waited while I fed the next mare. “Good.
I took Nitro out, and we rode at a walk around the farm. He amazed
me.”

“Why?” We stopped outside the fifth stall,
and I dropped a flake of eastern Washington grass into the manger.
“What did he do?”

“He just walked. He didn’t spook or try to
bolt. I can ride a little, but the doctor doesn’t want me to
stress. No gaming until January. It was like Nitro knew that, but I
don’t remember seeing him at the clinic when I got my
instructions.”

I laughed and fed the last of the hay. “He’s
smarter than you think.”

“Way smarter.” Jack parked the wheelbarrow in
its place. “Robin just about freaked when she saw Lassie and the
pups following us. She said she was afraid my evil horse would kick
one of them, but he didn’t even try. We only took them with us on
our version of a doggie walk. We had to stop and wait for your
favorite to catch up when he chased after a butterfly.”

“Awesome. Next time I’ll go with you.”
Holding hands, we left the barn and headed up to the office to
check out with Rocky. It only took a few minutes for me to set up
the next week’s schedule. I’d be back on Wednesday for a riding
lesson, Friday for a training session before the football game, and
next Sunday to work. Rocky said she wanted me to ride guide with
Sierra and take beginners out on the trails. It was always another
adventure at Shamrock. Rocky didn’t say anything about the barn
manager job and neither did I.

I would have to make time this week to
discuss it with Mom. She always said we were short of money, so my
getting an actual job with a real paycheck would be a help, not a
hindrance. As soon as Jack pulled into the cul-de-sac, I saw Rick’s
new Jeep Liberty waiting in the driveway in front of our house. I
glanced at my watch. “He’s an hour early.”

Jack pulled up behind my stepdad’s rig.
“Yeah, but if he kept the kids any longer, he’d have to feed them
dinner.”

“Oh my Gawd. Have I ever said that I hate it
when you’re right?” I climbed out of his pickup and walked up on
the passenger side of the Jeep. One of the back doors popped open
and Kevin jumped out, followed by Lance. “Hi, guys. How was your
visit?”

“Okay, but Chrissy just pooped, and wow, does
she stink.” Kevin announced. “You gotta take care of her.”

“I will.” Catching the odor of baby crap, I
glanced at my stepdad sitting in the driver’s seat. “How long has
she been waiting for me? Why didn’t you deal with it?”

“I was out of diapers,” Rick said. “When are
you going to housebreak her?”

“What good would that do? You didn’t take her
to a bathroom.” I lifted my youngest half-sib out of her car
seat.

As soon as she saw me, tears bubbled up in
her big, blue eyes. She held out her hands to me. “Mama Vic. Mama
Vic. All bad.”

“No, you’re a good girl.” I dropped a kiss on
her forehead and swung her up in my arms. “Come on, sweetie. Let’s
go deal with you. Kevin, get her diaper bag and your backpack.
Cathy, help the twins.”

Chapter Nine

Sunday,
November 17th, 6:30 p.m.

It took a while to get the kids moving toward
the house. Linda cried when her father wouldn’t get out of the Jeep
to hug and kiss them goodbye. Instead, as soon as I had the four of
them on the sidewalk leading to the front door, Rick backed out of
the drive and left. When I looked, Jack was gone too. I ignored my
disappointment. I’d wanted to spend a few minutes with him and now
I couldn’t. I wasn’t five so I didn’t wail like the little girls,
but oh, I wanted to.

Kevin marched beside me toting his pack and
the diaper bag. Dirt covered his jeans, and he had ketchup and
mustard stains on his shirt. “How long do we have to stay with him?
He was mean all weekend.”

“Tessa wouldn’t come out of their room today
so we didn’t have no lunch or snacks,” Lance told me. “She was sick
yesterday too. Daddy took us to Grandma’s all day. We had a
sleepover, and he came to get us after breakfast.”

I ushered them up the walk to the front door.
“Was it fun?”

“Yes,” the boys chorused, but Cathy shook her
head. “She likes boys better than girls. They got to have their
snacks in front of the TV, but me and Linda had to have ours in the
kitchen.”

I listened to the rest of the stories about
the weekend for the next twenty minutes. Kevin saw to it that the
backpacks ended up in the laundry room. He took Lance off to their
room to change to clean clothes. Cathy and Linda went to ours.
Toting the youngest on my hip, I carried Chrissy into the bathroom.
She stood while I stripped off her overalls and T-shirt. Poop ran
down her legs, so I boosted her into the tub. Okay, so Mom had a
lot to deal with, but she was hearing all about this. I heard
footsteps in the hall and glanced over my shoulder.

A red-haired woman about my mother’s age came
to a stop in the doorway. “Hi, I’m Darby. Kevin told me I’d find
you here. Want some help?”

She wore a white tank top and shorts. Pink
polish glittered on her toenails, matching her fingers. No way
would I turn my baby sister over to someone dressed that nicely. I
smiled at her. “Thanks, but I’ve got this handled. Could you give
the kids some crackers and milk? I’ll fix dinner for them as soon
as Chrissy’s cleaned up.”

Before she answered, the doorbell rang. She
shook her head. “I’ll start with that and then do supper.”

She didn’t come back. Kevin did, eyeing our
baby sister where she stood in the tub while I took off her
T-shirt. “You’re gross, Chrissy. Guess what, Vicky? Jack’s here,
and he brought us pizza.”

“No way,” I said.

“Yes, way.” Kevin beamed at me. “Cheese
pizza, but Darby and Jack say we have to drink milk. Can’t we have
soda tonight?”

“Maybe later.” I peeled the diaper off a
dancing toddler. “You could probably handle it, Kev, but the little
kids can’t. Not if they didn’t have lunch or snacks. I don’t want
to be cleaning up puke too. This is yucky enough.”

“I didn’t think of that. I’ll bring her clean
clothes from the laundry room.”

“Okay. Thanks for the help.” I flicked him a
quick glance. “Sometimes I forget to say I appreciate how good you
are with the little ones.”

A big smile and he was gone. Great, my new
strategy of divide and conquer was working. Right now, he was on my
side. If I remembered to treat him like he was my assistant and not
the same age as the twins, my life could get easier.

I focused on my immediate concern, the actual
baby. She offered up a crooked grin. “Stinky poo.”

“Yes, but you’ll be all clean real soon.” I
reached for the covered diaper pail, grateful to find it empty. Mom
must have done the last load of diapers yesterday. I dropped in the
gross one, wondering what her grandma fed Chrissy. I turned on the
water, letting it warm up in the tap before I grabbed the handheld
shower attachment. “Time to wash off, baby girl.”

A short while later, I strolled into the
kitchen, Chrissy happily holding two of my fingers. “I hope you
guys saved us some pizza.”

“You know it.” Jack stood and pulled the high
chair closer. “Hey, pumpkin. You look gorgeous.”

“And here I thought you never noticed,” I
teased.

He laughed, scooped up Chrissy, and tucked
her into her seat. He put a plate of cut-up bites of cheese pizza
in front of her on the tray. “I was talking to the princess
here.”