True Riders (10 page)

She glanced at Adam, not sure if he was close enough to hear what she'd said. But he wasn't even looking at her. He was peering in the direction of the driveway.

“Look out—incoming,” he said.

“Huh?” At first Brooke wasn't sure what he was talking about. Then she heard the slam of a car door from that direction, and a second later Ethan came barreling across the backyard, with Emma a few steps behind him.

“Hi, Foxy!” Ethan shouted. “Want to go for a ride?”

“Stop!” Brooke's mother hollered, running after the twins. She grabbed them each by an arm as they started to duck between the fence boards. “No playing with the pony in your party clothes.”

“Aw, Mommy!” Emma whined.

But Ethan didn't look that upset. “It's okay,” he told his twin. “We'll be able to ride her a lot at the party next week.”

“Huh?” Brooke frowned at him, wondering if she'd heard him wrong. “What do you mean? What party?”

Ethan grinned up at her. “Owen is having a birthday party on Saturday,” he said. “He has a huge yard, bigger than Foxy's whole pasture even! So I told him we'd bring Foxy and everyone could go for pony rides.”

“With lots of galloping and jumping,” Emma added cheerfully.

“What?” Brooke yelped. “No way!”

By then her stepfather had strolled over to join them. He chuckled and tousled Ethan's hair. “Don't worry, Brookie,” he said with a wink. “I imagine they'll forget all about it by next Saturday.”

“No I won't!” Ethan wiggled away and glared up at him. “I
promised
Owen I'd bring her!”

“Too bad,” Brooke snapped. “Because Foxy's going to a horse show next Saturday, not your dumb party.”

“Yeah, we can't miss the show,” Adam put in.

“Settle down, Brooke. There's no need to get worked up. I'll speak to the child's mother and deal with whatever promises Ethan made,” Brooke's mother said, rolling her eyes. “Now come on, you two—let's get you inside and changed before you make yourselves filthy.”

That night Adam stayed for dinner—just like old times—and then hung around to play board games with the whole family. Brooke was having so much fun that she actually forgot about the Pony Post for a while. But when she went upstairs to take a bath, she suddenly remembered, grabbed her laptop, and logged on right away.

She scrolled past a couple of posts by Haley and Nina until she reached one from Maddie. Brooke's heart leaped as she read it.

[MADDIE]
I'm back! Thanx for the extra b'day wishes! The party was super-fun. About a zillion people came, and I think everyone had a good time. But I'll tell u more about that later. First I have some AMAZING news: WE'RE NOT MOVING!!!!

Brooke gasped, eagerly scanning the rest of the post. Maddie explained that it had all been a big misunderstanding. Yes, her parents had reserved plane tickets to London for the whole family. But they were for a fun vacation, not a move.

“Wow,” Brooke whispered. “A trip to England? Cool!”

Below that news was another post from Maddie. Brooke was surprised to see her own name near the beginning.

[MADDIE]
Btw, Brooke, I hope your lil bro and sis are letting you ride Foxy again by now. B/c I def. know how you feel about having to share. I mean, I'm used to having to share Cloudy with other lesson students and stuff. But it was still rough being expected to share MY Cloudy with someone else all the time—even tho that someone else is one of my bffs!!

Brooke smiled, amazed as always by the way her Pony Post friends seemed to really get her. She opened a text box and started to type.

[BROOKE]
YAY MADDIE! I'm so glad you don't have to leave Cloudy behind! What a great birthday gift. As for the twins, they haven't ridden F. since Fri, and I'm glad about that. I'm afraid having them ride is confusing Foxy and hurting her training, and I don't want that to happen, esp. now. See, I've been meaning to tell u all—Adam talked me into entering a horse show next Sat. It's riding distance from here and he says it's mostly for green horses and riders, so he thinks we'll do great. But I'm not so sure if E&E keep messing up Foxy's training . . . But whatevs, we had two good rides this w/e, so maybe we'll do OK after all!

She yawned as she hit enter. It was tempting to wait around to see if any of the other Pony Posters checked in soon, but it had been a long, busy weekend, and she wasn't sure she could keep her eyes open that long. She logged off and went to take her bath.

CHAPTER

“TRY IT AGAIN,”
Adam said as Brooke trotted past him after jumping a crossrail. Well, not
jumping
it exactly. . . .

“I think she's getting bored with hopping over the same three jumps all the time,” Brooke said, bringing the pony to a halt. “That's probably why she's started just trotting over the crossrails instead of actually jumping them.”

“Hmm.” Adam scratched his chin, glancing around at their homemade jumps. “She doesn't do that with the coop, though.”

Brooke shrugged. “That's because it's taller.”

“Oh!” He grinned. “Okay, then we have our solution.” He hurried toward the nearest crossrail and lifted the pole out of the notch.

“What are you doing?” Brooke asked.

“Making it higher,” he replied, sliding the rail farther up the standard. “Then she'll start jumping again, right?”

“I guess.” Brooke felt a shiver of nerves as she watched him set the jump at the new height. Still, she reminded herself that even at the higher height the jump was lower than the ones they'd done at camp. “No problem. Right, Foxy?” she murmured, giving the pony a pat.

As Adam adjusted the second jump, there was a yell from the back door. It was the twins. Both of them were dressed in jeans and puffy jackets.

“Hey, Brooke!” Ethan hollered as he ran toward her. “Mom said we can ride, since we didn't get to yesterday.”

“What?” Brooke looked toward the house just in time to see her mother emerge, looking frazzled as she zipped up her down jacket with the hand not clutching her cell phone.

“You don't mind, do you, Brooke?” she called, waving the phone as she came toward the pasture. “I really need to check my messages, and they won't give me a moment's peace.”

Brooke frowned, wanting to say no but not quite daring—not with her mother looking like she was ready to blow her top. “Um, sure,” Brooke said. “But we have to keep it short, okay? We're sort of in the middle of something.”

“Yeah,” Adam said. “But hey, Foxy could probably use a break.”

“Thanks, kids.” Looking relieved, Mrs. Rhodes patted Emma on the head. “Be good, you two,” she said, then wandered over to lean against the barn as she pressed the phone to her ear.

As Brooke dismounted, Ethan stared at Foxy. “Hey, that's not my cowboy saddle,” he said.

Brooke glanced at her English saddle. “We don't have time to change saddles.”

“Yeah,” Adam said quickly as the little boy's frown deepened. “But that's okay, because this is a super-special mega-cowboy saddle. Only the greatest bronc riders use them.”

“Really?” Ethan looked slightly suspicious, but he didn't argue as Adam swung him into the saddle and adjusted the stirrups.

Brooke rushed her brother through his pony ride, circling half the pasture instead of all of it and urging Foxy into a trot at the end just to get back sooner. “Okay, next rider up!” she called, waving Emma forward.

“I want Adam to lead me,” Emma said. “Not you, Brooke. You're too bossy.”

Brooke couldn't help snorting and rolling her eyes at that. “Look who's talking!”

Adam chuckled and grabbed Emma, tickling her and making her giggle before hoisting her onto Foxy's back. “It's okay. I'll do it,” he told Brooke. “Come on, Ems.” Taking the reins, he started forward.

Brooke stepped back and watched them go, feeling impatient and rather grumpy. Why did the twins have to come along just when she and Foxy had been making such good progress on their jumping? Still, there wasn't much Brooke could do except hope they didn't demand more than one turn today.

Adam seemed to take forever to lead Foxy and Emma around the field. Finally he started back across toward where Brooke and Ethan were waiting. Their mother had finished with her phone by then and wandered in to watch.

“Thanks for letting them ride again,” she said. “They're really enjoying— Oh dear!”

Adam had clucked Foxy into a trot, just as Brooke had done a few minutes earlier. This time, though, Foxy didn't step into a slow jog like before. Instead she shook her head and leaped forward, ears flattened back. Brooke gasped, realizing that the pony was about to take off at top speed.

Emma shrieked as she started to tip off to the side. Adam yanked on the reins, stopping Foxy in her tracks—and somehow he managed to reach back and steady Emma at the same time.

“Nothing to see here, folks,” he called once the pony was still, though his voice sounded a little shaky. “We're okay.”

“No I'm not!” Emma yelled, her face beet red. “Foxy tried to make me fall off!”

“Yeah, that was cool!” Ethan ran toward the pony. “Foxy's a bucking bronco! Can I try?”

“No, not right now,” his mother said firmly, hurrying over and lifting Emma out of the saddle, and giving her a big hug before setting her down. “I think that's enough riding for today, you two.”

Ethan looked disappointed, but he didn't argue as he patted Foxy on the shoulder. “Make sure you do that at Owen's party, okay, Foxy?” he said with a giggle.

“I already told you, she's
not
going to your friend's party,” Brooke snapped, her heart still racing from the close call. “She's going to a horse show with me.”

“But I told everyone she was coming!” Ethan protested. “Owen's expecting her!”

“All right, that's enough.” Brooke's mother grabbed his hand. “I'll deal with it, Brooke,” she said over her shoulder as she dragged the protesting twins toward the house.

“Wow, I wonder what got into Foxy just now,” Adam said when they were gone. “I've never seen her like that.”

“I told you, the twins get her too revved up.” Brooke frowned at him. “She's not used to that sort of thing.”

He shrugged and grinned. “Well, at least Ethan got a real cowboy moment out of the deal,” he said. “Come on. Let's get back to work.”