The a Circuit (19 page)

After putting a safe distance between herself and Summer, Tommi stopped and stared at the text message. She couldn’t believe Grant wanted to drive four hours to see her ride. Yeah, it was time to let him down easy. Past time. But she’d fix that tomorrow.

EIGHTEEN

It was Friday afternoon, and Zara was feeling good. She leaned on the door of Ellie’s stall, allowing the mare to delicately lip small pieces of carrot off her hand while Jamie’s big bulldog watched and drooled.

“You’re a superstar,” Zara told the horse. “I knew it the first time I rode you.”

The mare seemed much more interested in the treats than the compliment. But Zara didn’t mind.

Jamie had ridden Ellie in the pro classes earlier in the week, and when Zara had ridden her into the ring for the Small Juniors the mare had been perfect. For once Zara didn’t even wonder if they’d pin as she left the ring, because it didn’t matter. They’d kicked ass, and whether the judge used them or not was almost beside the point. Nobody would be whistling “Golden Girl” at her today!

It had been icing on the cake when she’d discovered that they had, indeed, pinned in one of their three jumping rounds. Only sixth place, but still. On top of that, they’d gotten third in the hack despite a couple of sloppy transitions. Score one for fancy gaits!

“I’m back in the game, baby,” she whispered. She couldn’t wait to take Keeper in the jumpers the next day.

Just then Jamie hurried down the aisle. “Nice job today, Zara,” he said, pausing for a second to smile at her. “Keep it up, and you and Ellie’ll be bringing home the tricolors before long.”

“Thanks.” Zara smiled back, even though the trainer was already moving again. As annoying as the guy could be, she was starting to realize that Jamie really knew his stuff. Her riding had improved more in the past few weeks than it had in the six months before that. Her performance today proved it. Maybe this barn was going to work out after all. She tossed Chaucer a piece of carrot, feeling good.

She heard voices coming her way and glanced around. Tommi was walking toward her with a guy at her side.

“Hi, Zara,” Tommi said. “Remember my friend Grant? You guys met at the club that time.”

“Nice to see you again, Zara.” The guy actually stuck out his hand.

“Hi,” Zara said, already checking him out as they shook. She hadn’t really paid much attention to him before, but now she saw that he was worth a second look. Tall, broad-shouldered, good-looking in a straitlaced preppy kind of way. Pretty much exactly the type Zara would expect a Wall Street tycoon’s daughter to date.

Tommi elbowed him. “Hey, Grant, feel like making a run to the food stand? I could use a soda.” She glanced at Zara. “Want something?”

“Yeah. A Scotch on the rocks.”

Grant chuckled. “Iced tea close enough?”

“Guess it’ll have to do.”

As he headed down the aisle, Zara enjoyed the back view for a second. “Not bad if you like the type,” she commented. Shooting a sidelong look at Tommi, she added, “And I’m guessing you do.”

“Grant and I are just friends,” Tommi said, giving Ellie a pat as the mare nosed at her, hoping for more treats. “But listen, while he’s gone, I need to talk to you about something.”

“Yeah?” Zara was instantly on guard.

“Yeah. I was kind of a jerk to you yesterday, and I’m sorry.”

Whatever Zara had been expecting, that wasn’t it. “Oh. Um, okay,” she said cautiously.

“Seriously,” Tommi said. “I was on edge, and I took it out on you. I know you were only trying to help. And it turns out you were right. I tried what you said, and Legs went way better.”

Zara shrugged. “Thought so.”

Tommi laughed. “Yeah. So thanks, and sorry again, okay?”

“It’s cool.” Maybe it was just her good mood making her feel generous. But at that moment, for the first time, Zara could almost picture hanging out with this girl. Maybe. If she didn’t have anything better to do.

Yeah, it was turning out to be a hell of a day.

Grant pulled into the parking lot of the hotel where Jamie’s barn was staying. “Thanks for the ride,” Tommi said as she unbuckled her seat belt. “And thanks for being so understanding.”

“No worries.” Grant smiled. “Can’t say I’m not a little bummed, but hey.”

Tommi smiled back. She’d pulled him aside after her final class of the day and let him down easy. He’d taken it really well, which somehow had made her feel even worse.

“Anyway,” she said, relieved that he’d be gone soon and she wouldn’t have to think about it, “you’ve got a long drive back, and it’s getting late, so I guess I’ll let you—”

“Hey!” a loud voice interrupted before she could finish. “There’s some more of my Pelham Lane peeps!”

Zara raced up to the car and leaned in the window. Her face was only inches from Tommi’s, making it impossible to miss the smell of beer on her breath.

“Hi,” Tommi said. “I was just saying good-bye to Grant.”

“No way, dude, you can’t leave!” Zara leaned in even farther. She was wearing shorts over a bathing suit, and her boobs were almost spilling out of her bikini top and into Tommi’s lap.
Lovely
.

“Sorry, I’ve got to head back. Long drive.” Grant didn’t sound very convinced as he stared at Zara’s cleavage.

Zara pouted. “But we’re having a party! Everybody fun is there. And I want to celebrate my awesome rides today. Just stay for a while, okay?”

It was pretty obvious that for Zara, the party had already started. But Tommi wasn’t in the mood. She was already stressing over tomorrow’s jumper division with Legs. Sure, they’d recovered from that disastrous warm-up yesterday. But were they ready to show? A bad performance at a show like this could give the horse a reputation it would be tough to shake.

But Grant was already grinning at her hopefully. “What do you think?” he asked. “I guess I could stay for a little while if you want to hit this party. I don’t have to get up tomorrow.”

Tommi wanted to say no. But she still felt guilty about the whole Grant situation. Why not go along with it? Maybe then he’d feel like his drive up here hadn’t been a total waste of time.

“Sure,” she said. “I guess. I can’t stay too late, though. I need to be back over at the showgrounds early to lunge Legs.”

“Cool! Then get your asses out to the pool.” Zara shot Grant a wicked grin. “Maybe later we can do some skinny-dipping.”

Soon Tommi was perched on the edge of a lounge chair, a barely touched beer in her hand, watching her barnmates party. It was almost ten o’clock, and the pool was officially closed, though all that really meant was that there was no lifeguard on duty. The pool was located some distance away from the hotel building, on the far side of the parking lot and tennis courts. That was probably a good thing, considering the loud music and the shrieks of laughter.

“Quite a party, huh?” Grant said.

Tommi glanced over at him. He was lounging in the next chair, shirtless and bopping his head to the music. They’d barely spoken since they’d arrived, mostly because her mind kept wandering back to Legs. She’d already moved on from stressing about tomorrow’s jumper class. They’d just do their best and take it from there. If they did well, great. If not, there were plenty of other big shows coming up where they could prove themselves.

“Yeah, I guess,” she said, realizing Grant had to be kind of bored. “You don’t have to sit here with me if you want to go dance or something.”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind.”

There was a sudden ear-piercing shriek of laughter. Glancing over, Tommi saw Zara racing down the diving board.

“She’s the life of the party, isn’t she?” Grant commented as he watched her cannonball into the pool.

“Yeah, guess so.”

A couple of guys tried to grab Zara and dunk her, but she escaped and climbed out of the pool. Noticing Tommi and Grant watching her, she danced over to them.

“Okay, at first I thought this barn was hardcore boring,” she said, her voice a little too loud as she squeezed water out of her curly hair. “But hey, I’ve been wrong before.”

“Great party, Zara,” Grant said, sitting up and taking a swig of his beer.

“Yeah. Where’d you find so many guys at a horse show?” Tommi asked, only half kidding. She recognized the show farrier’s cute young assistant, the source of gossip among the female population of the barn all week, and also spotted one of their own younger grooms, Max. And she was pretty sure the two guys over there doing body shots with Dani were from the barn in the next aisle of stalls. But there were several guys she’d never seen before.

“Call it a talent.” Zara smirked. “As soon as Jamie and the other tight-asses left for dinner, I rounded up everyone cool I could find.” Her smile faded slightly. “The only one who blew me off was Javier. I don’t know what his problem is.”

“He’s shy, plus I think he’s kind of self-conscious about his English,” Tommi said. “Anyway, the grooms all work really hard. He probably just wanted to sleep.”

“Whatever.” Zara took a swig of her beer. “His loss.”

Suddenly Tommi realized someone else was missing. “Where’s Fitz?”

“Dunno. Couldn’t find him. I left a message.”

“Then I’m sure he’ll be here soon. Fitz never misses a party.”

“Me neither. But you two look like you’ve never been to one before. You need another beer.”

Grant lifted his beer and shook it. “I think you’re right. Get you one, Tommi?”

“No thanks, I’m good,” Tommi said.

“Come on, big guy. Let’s get you liquored up.” Zara grinned and grabbed Grant by the hand. He let her pull him out of his chair, then followed her over toward the cooler by the diving board.

Tommi was kind of relieved. Now she wouldn’t have to feel as if she needed to entertain him for a while, and she could go back to planning out the rest of Legs’s show season in her head.

Kate checked her watch and winced. Eleven o’clock. Her 4:00 a.m. wake-up call wasn’t going to be fun.

It had been a long day, and she was so exhausted that her head was spinning. But she could never let herself leave until everything was done, even though she knew Jamie and the grooms probably thought she’d headed back to the hotel hours ago. They were all long gone themselves except for Elliot and Javier. Security at this show was notoriously lax, and the grooms were taking turns sleeping over at the showgrounds to keep an eye on things. Kate could hear the sounds of snoring drifting out of the tack stall right now. There was never any mistaking when Elliot was sleeping nearby.

Then she heard another sound: footsteps. Good. Maybe Javier could finish tidying the meds cabinet, and she could head back to the hotel and get at least a few hours’ sleep before she had to get up and do it all again.

“Javier?” she called. “In here.”

But it wasn’t the groom’s face that appeared around the corner of the equipment stall. “Kate? That you?”

“Fitz!” Kate couldn’t help smiling despite her exhaustion. “What are you doing here? I thought everyone went back to the hotel ages ago.”

“They did. But when I realized you weren’t there, I came back to find you.” He stepped in and gently pried the bottle of Banamine out of her hand, shoving it back into the cabinet. “Come on, even
you
can’t work twenty-four-seven without keeling over.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right.” Kate allowed him to take her hand and lead her out of the room, though she felt a guilty twinge when she noticed that the supplement shelf was a mess. Oh, well. Maybe she could come back a little early tomorrow and take care of that.