Sunset Ranch (14 page)

Chapter
Fifteen

The next morning Zach, Magic,
and I crossed the pasture again. This time, the sun shone down brightly on our heads, and there were two more people with us: At breakfast I had, as politely as I could, asked Rick and Stephen to come down to the stream.

Rick looked grumpy, but at least he was coming with us. Stephen wouldn't look at anyone. He just stared down at the grass as he walked. Magic was scheduled to go out to the auction in one hour.

My stomach was in knots. I didn't know where to look—at Stephen, who I felt I'd betrayed somehow by kissing Zach last night; at Zach, who I could hardly look at after our romantic moment; or at Rick, who I was terrified would still send Magic away, even if he could cross the stream.

We reached the banks of the stream and stopped. “Well?” Rick barked. “I've got a lot to do, folks, and this horse is scheduled to go to the auction mart in one hour. The rest of the horses need to be turned out, Stephen and Zach.”

“I know,” Zach said, holding up his hand. “This will only take a minute, and it's important.”

“He deserves another chance,” I said, trying to keep the emotion out of my voice. “We practiced with him last night.” I nodded to Zach, and we took our positions, one on either side of the creek, with the sweet feed at the ready. Once again I patted Magic and spoke to him. I could sense his willingness and his trust in me. Once again I gave him a handful of grain, and then another. Zach shook the can. Immediately, before he had time to get nervous, I led him swiftly and calmly across the stream, his hooves splashing and the water flying up to wet his belly. Zach gave him a handful of grain on the other side, and there he stood, chewing it as if he'd never been afraid of water in his life.

“Well, I'll be,” Rick said, and spit into the creek. “I never thought that horse would cross water. Not after what happened.”

Zach and I looked at each other in triumph. Had we done it? I looked at Stephen.

He wouldn't meet my eyes.

“That's something,” Rick said again. This was the most I'd heard him talk all summer. I guess it took a horse to really get him going.

“I think he just needs a little more work,” I said, and held my breath. Rick was the ultimate decider, so this was it.

“Maybe . . .” He tapped his teeth with his forefinger and then nodded. “Maybe. I'll talk to Jack.” He strode off abruptly, then stopped and fixed Stephen with a look. “We'll talk later.”

For a moment our little group around the creek just stood there awkwardly. Zach touched my shoulder, then dropped his hand quickly. He looked from me to Stephen and then back again.

“Well!” he said. “I think I'll just take Magic back.” With uncharacteristic tact, he quickly took the lead rope out of my hands and led Magic away toward the stable.

Stephen and I looked at each other. Finally, I broke the silence. “Well,” I said.

“Well.”

Then we were quiet again.

“I guess you and I are over,” Stephen said.

I looked at him quickly to detect any bitterness. But there was only sad resignation in his face.

“I guess I blew it, huh?” he said.

I reached out, but he took a step back. “You didn't blow it. It just wasn't meant to be.” I paused. “Believe me, I never thought it would turn out this way either.” I suppressed a smile, and he started grinning too.

“Me neither,” he said. “He's kind of cocky.”

“I used to think that too,” I said.

Then he dropped the jocular smile. “I guess I'm not really ready to talk about it.”

“That's okay. I understand.”

We started back across the grass together. “What's going to happen to you?” I felt like I could say anything to him now. There were no more secrets.

He shrugged. “I don't know. Talk to my brother, I guess. I think my chances for a promotion are shot.”

I thought so too. But probably saying so wouldn't help. “Nothing about this summer has turned out the way I thought it would.”

“Me neither, honestly.” He was quiet again. He seemed to be thinking about something.

At the door of the stable, Zach was clustered with Dana, both of them talking quietly. They broke off when we came up. Stephen faced Zach. “Look, I couldn't stand you most of this summer and I'm not sure I can now, but when I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong. And I was.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and stared past Zach's shoulder at a clump of unwashed halters hanging on the wall.

Dana stepped on my foot and, when I looked at her, jerked her head slightly to the side. I got her point. Discreetly, we strolled a few steps away. Not so far that we couldn't hear, though.

“Okay, that's cool,” Zach replied. “Look, it's in the past, okay? Let's just forget about it.”

“No, it's not.” Stephen scowled at the halters. “I'm pissed off at myself. It was just like I got tunnel vision at the end. And now I've screwed it up.” He looked down the row of stalls at the horses hanging their heads out. As if listening, Magic turned and gazed at him with his big, bright eyes.

A thought was sizzling around in my mind. I turned suddenly and ran out of the stable.

“Hey, where're you going?” Dana called.

“Just to see Rick and Jack,” I called back.

I found them talking seriously in the office, behind the desk of heaped-up papers. I didn't need a degree in rocket science to figure out that Rick was filling Jack in on the Magic situation. They broke off their conversation when they heard my footsteps and turned to me in the doorway.

Jack looked over a stack of file folders. “What's going on, Chloe? Aside from your presentation in the pasture this morning. Rick's been telling me about it. Not totally according to the rules, as I'm sure you know.”

I flushed and looked down at my boots. They were even more creased and dusty than when Dana had given them to me at the beginning of the summer. I wondered what my parents would say when I came home early, without a paycheck, having been kicked out of my summer job.

“Still, nice work,” Jack went on. My head jerked up. There was a hint of a smile around his eyes. “I like to see that dedication to the horses. Shows character.” He offered me a pawlike hand.

I shook it. “Thanks.” I figured I should take my chance, since it looked like I wasn't getting fired after all. “Jack, um, I was ­wondering—could we take Magic and a couple horses out for a trail ride? The guests are in town, so we wouldn't be interfering with anything. To celebrate Magic's staying and all?”

“Rick, what do you think?” Jack asked. Rick was still standing in the corner, stone-faced, his mustache as bristly and unyielding as ever.

“I don't know that that horse needs any more work.”

My stomach sank.

“But I guess an hour wouldn't matter.”

I resisted the urge to clap my hands together and instead murmured, “Thanks. We'll just go through the back pastures, past the creek.”

“Be sure to clean those bridles when you're done.”

“We will,” I promised, backing out of the room.

In the sunshine I flew over the grass. The group was clustered together by Magic's stall when I burst into the stable. “Hey, we're going for a trail ride!”

“What?” Dana asked. “Right now?”

I nodded, trying to catch my breath. “All of us. Jack wants Stephen to ride Magic.” A little white lie, to get him up on the horse.

“Seriously?” Stephen asked. “Why? What did he say?”

I widened my eyes disingenuously. “That was it! Just that he wanted you to ride Magic.”

Dana was watching me closely, and she must have sensed what I was up to, because she sprang into action with Dana-esque efficiency. “Okay, cool! I was dying to ride this morning. I'll take Little Sal. Zach, how about you take Billy, and Chloe can ride Al, okay?”

“What are you doing?” Zach hissed to me as we tacked up.

“Just trust me,” I told him.

Almost before we knew what was happening, we were mounted. We were all watching Stephen on Magic, though we were trying not to. He was handling the reins like they were silk. Magic's head was up and he was alert, as if he could tell who was mounted on him. But Stephen moved carefully, very carefully, and when we started out down the path that ran to one side of the pasture, Magic's head relaxed and I let out a huge breath I hadn't even realized I'd been holding. I saw Stephen relax too. His legs lengthened and his hands buried themselves deep in Magic's mane. By the time we trotted to the bottom of the pasture, Stephen was almost smiling.

“So that's what you were up to,” Zach said from behind me. “You wanted them to make up.”

I twisted around in the saddle. “It didn't seem right to just leave this hanging. Even if we're not getting fired.”

Ahead of us, Stephen leaned forward and gave Magic's neck a firm pat. “Good boy,” I heard him say.

“All right, guys, let's lope!” Dana shouted back to us. I pressed my heels to Al's sides, and the wind lifted my sweaty hair as we picked up speed. I leaned forward and cantered up beside Magic. On my other side, Zach came even with me, and Dana dropped back until the four of us were riding together over the waving grass, side by side, toward the mountains.

Chapter
Sixteen

When we finally pushed our
way through the last layer of ferns near the hot springs, the sun was setting in flaming curtains of gold and crimson and deep violet. Back at the ranch, my khaki duffel was sitting by the door, neatly zippered. The bureau top was bare of its usual clutter. My flight was at ten o'clock the next morning, the rest of the hands' soon after.

Behind me, Zach leaped lightly over a boulder in our path. “Okay, McKinley, you want to tell me what we're doing again? We already went swimming. But if you're interested in ­s­kinny-dipping, then . . .” He reached for me, and I laughed and ran the last few steps to the spring, just out of his reach.

“No, I'm not thinking of that.” I swatted his hand away. “Be serious. Here, sit there.” I pointed to the log we'd sat on before.

“I love it when you order me around.” He grinned.

The hot pool was higher today, and the forest looked different, deeper and more mysterious in the waning light. The steam rising from the water was lit by the sun's long shooting rays, making it look more like a fairyland than ever. “Zach . . . that day in the feed room.”

He looked puzzled.

“The day of the hayride,” I prompted him. “You were thinking about Dan . . . even though I didn't know that then.”

“Oh yeah.” His cheeks grew slightly pink.

“Well, I found something that day.” I put my hand in my jeans pocket and drew out the battered photo I'd picked up from the floor. I held it toward him.

He leaned forward and took it. “The picture! You had it?” He unfolded it and smoothed out the creases.

I perched next to him. “Yeah. I'm sorry I kept it. But that's why I told you I wanted to come out here again.”

Zach looked up, nodding slowly. “Now I can leave it, like I wanted.”

I stood up and took his hand, tugging him up from the log. “And say good-bye to Dan.”

The soft bubbling of the spring in our ears and the sun dipping lower, we made our way to the edge of the river. Zach knelt down amid the small rocks and feathery ferns crowding the banks. He paused, holding the photo delicately. “This is for you, bro,” he said softly, and leaned far out over the water, letting the picture drift from his fingers.

Zach put his arm around me and I laid my head on his shoulder as we watched the small white square swirl away from us, so bright against the dark water, until it disappeared.

“This wasn't exactly what I pictured when I saw you at the airport that first day,” I said finally, breaking the silence.

“Oh, right. Private McKinley.” He touched my eyebrow gently. “How
is
your eye?”

I smiled. “Just a little scar. Enough to remind me of you.”

“What makes you think you'll need reminding?”

“Well, we're leaving. You back to Charleston, me back to Cincinnati.” I traced my initials on the knee of his jeans. We rose and wandered back down the path, holding hands.

I looked back at the shadowy spring bubbling quietly behind us, and ahead at the path curving upward, revealing the soft gray-and-rose sky.

“That still doesn't mean I'll need reminding.” Zach took both my hands in his and rubbed his thumbs over the backs. “Reminding would mean that somehow I'd forgotten you.”

He pulled me toward him and I laid my head on his chest, and we stood together in the forest as the shadows fell around us.