That Horse Whiskey! Page 7

  She tugged at the rope facing away from him, and he came with her as she stepped toward the car. He could easily have slid out of the loop she’d made, or yanked the rope out of her hands, but he moved along docilely to within a few feet of the Jeep. There he stopped and snorted, pulling his head back.

  “He doesn’t like cars. Can you ride him bareback?” Lopez asked.

  “I’ve never tried.”

  “It’s a long way to walk. I’ll give you a boost up if you want to try it.”

  “Sure,” she said. Whiskey’s trust in her made Lainey feel invincible. She stroked him to keep him calm as Lopez approached. He made his hands into a basket. She stepped into it with her left foot as if it were a stirrup and threw her right leg over Whiskey’s bare back. The horse stood obediently still.

  Lopez retied the rope around Whiskey’s neck into something resembling a hackamore. He gave her the ends of it as reins. “If you get scared, pick a good soft spot and roll off,” he said. “Ill drive far enough behind you so I don’t spook him.”

  She nodded. Riding bareback was something she’d done only a couple of times in her life, and that on reliable old horses in a corral. Riding Whiskey bareback might be a foolish return of his trust on her part because the sense of mischief that made him interesting also made him dangerous. Probably her parents and Mr. Dodge would consider what she was doing reckless. Well, they weren’t around to stop her.

  Whiskey walked quietly along the wash toward the road, as if her weight didn’t bother him. She turned him with the rein against his neck to get him to climb the bank when they got to where the roadway bridged the riverbed. He let her guide him. Going up the bank, though, Whiskey stumbled and went down on one knee. He recovered, but Lainey lost her balance and slid off him, losing the rope reins in the process.

  She scrambled up the slippery bank after him and found him waiting for her at the top. “Oh, you good boy. You good, good boy,” she told him, hugging his neck in a burst of affection.

  Lopez had gone under the bridge. She heard him gunning the engine on the other side as if he were stuck or else trying to climb the bank.

  It made more sense to walk Whiskey back to the ranch from here, Lainey decided, rather than risk riding him bareback on the road, where she could get tossed into the path of a car. Besides, she wasn’t sure she could heave herself onto his back without an assist. She began the mile or so hike on the verge of the highway, leading Whiskey by the improvised hackamore. As she was walking past Cobb Lane, Lopez finally drew abreast of her in the Jeep. She grinned because it was the first time she’d ever seen the dapper cowboy looking grungy. He and the Jeep were thoroughly mud splattered.

  “It seems you have the instincts to be a good horse trainer,” Lopez said, gesturing at Whiskey, who was ambling docilely beside her.

  “Thanks.” She smiled with pride at the compliment. “Whiskey’s a good horse.”

  “Could be you’ll make him into one someday.” He took off without further notice from Whiskey, who had stopped to paw at a dead plant he must have thought was edible.

  “Come on, you hungry animal. Let’s get back and I’ll give you some oats,” Lainey said happily. Lopez might disapprove of giving Whiskey a reward for bad behavior, but good treatment had inched her close to winning Whiskey’s complete trust, and she meant to continue with it.

  She even spent a sweaty hour grooming him in the partial shade at the front of the barn after he’d gotten his oats. Besides, why rush home with Dad in such a foul mood and no friend to call on?

  “It’s just you and me, Whiskey,” Lainey said. “You and me and maybe Ryan. But he’ll go back to New York by the end of the summer.” It gave her a pang to realize that Whiskey wasn’t going to be around for long either. As soon as she got him trained enough so that other people could ride him, he’d be sold.

  Mr. Dodge came out of his office. He hobbled toward them as if his joints were giving him trouble today. “Hear you had quite an adventure,” he said. “Lopez says it was you brought Whiskey back.”

  “If Whiskey becomes reliable, couldn’t you keep him on the ranch, Mr. Dodge?” she begged.

  “Got to sell off some stock anyways,” he said evasively. He eyed her under a wrinkled brow and confided, “Business isn’t what it used to be, and me neither. I can’t keep going like this. Got to sell Whiskey one way or another, Lainey. I’m sorry.”

  She groaned. If it didn’t matter what she accomplished—if she was going to lose everybody she cared about, including Whiskey—what was the point of trying?

  Chapter 9

  Mom had been right about Dad. He had enough courage back by Monday to sit at the breakfast table reviewing old customers who might give him leads on remodeling jobs. Over his fried eggs and hash browns he even made Mom laugh about the customer who’d wanted a doghouse big enough for a bed so he could sleep there when his wife locked him out of their house.

  “Lainey,” Dad said, as he was about to leave, “I’m sorry if I talked mean to you on Saturday. You sure didn’t deserve it.”

  “That’s all right, Daddy.”

  He stood facing the door, as if he couldn’t bring himself to face her, and his voice got husky as he added, “I just felt so bad about losing Cobb Lane and your having to move from here.”

  She caught her breath. They were moving? No one had told her that. But she didn’t say a word for fear her dismay might send him skidding back into despair.

  She waited until he’d gone before asking her mother, “What did Dad mean, we have to move?”

  Mom’s plump shoulder rose in a shrug. “He thought I’d already gotten around to telling you, Lainey.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because. You were dealing with so much bad news, I didn’t see the sense in rushing to deliver the rest of it.”

  “We’re losing everything?”

  “Well, we’re not quite out in the street yet, but the bank’s taking over Cobb Lane Development at the end of the month. That’s unless we can come up with enough of a payment on our loan to persuade them to extend it some more, and that’s unlikely.”

  “The end of the month. That’s less than two weeks,” Lainey said.

  “Don’t look so tragic,” Mom said. “Nobody’s dying. We’re just losing Cobb Lane and this house. That’s the way it is with most builders when they start out. You put up a house, and if it doesn’t sell, you move into it and wait for a buyer. Then you build another house and so on. Only this time we’re not exactly selling. We took a risk and lost, that’s all.”

  Lainey chewed on her lip, trying to absorb the bad news as her mother eyed her with concern. Finally, she said, “Mom, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t keep things from me. I’m not a little girl you and Dad have to protect anymore. I’m part of this family, and I need to know what’s going on in it.”

  Mom nodded. “Okay, from now on, I’ll keep you posted. You’ll get the news as it happens. I promise.”

  “So when’re we moving?”

  “Soon. I’ve started looking for a smaller place. We really don’t need four bedrooms anyway with just the three of us.”

  Mom looked around her spacious kitchen, and even though her face didn’t show regret, Lainey suspected it was there. Mom had handpicked the colorful Mexican tiles that made the kitchen so attractive. Most of her time at home was spent in this room cooking, or doing household bills at the built-in desk, or watching the portable TV from a counter stool.

  “You really love this house, don’t you, Mom?”

  A lightning streak of pain flashed across Mom’s face. “Yes, I love it, but a house is just a thing, Lainey, and things don’t hurt too much to lose.”

  “They don’t? They hurt me,” Lainey said. She was thinking of the horse she didn’t get for her birthday.

  Mom gave her one of her cool blue looks. Quietly, she said, “I never had any ambitions like you and your brothers, Lainey. Your father was all I ever wanted. He’s all I need.”

  M
om had not said her children were essential to her, Lainey noticed. But she wasn’t surprised. She’d known that about Mom, that her husband came first with her. “You met Dad in high school, didn’t you?” Lainey said now, to keep her mother talking.

  “Yes, we were high school sweethearts.” Mom set down the frying pan she had wiped clean. “I weighed too much even then, but he never cared. He likes big women.” She flushed slightly and laughed and shook her head.

  Having her mother talk intimately to her was so rare that Lainey wanted to hold on to the moment. “You really never thought about becoming anything like a nurse or a teacher?” she asked.

  “No, I always figured who you loved mattered most. I never planned how I’d earn a living. I just knew I would somehow.”

  Thoughtfully, Lainey said, “It would be nice if you could find a house near here. I mean, so I could still walk to the ranch and over to Amber, if Amber ever forgives me. She’s mad at me right now.”

  “I’m sorry honey. About your friend. And I’ll certainly try to find us a place near here.… Lainey, there’s no point worrying ahead of trouble. Just enjoy training your horse while you can.” In a gesture unusual for her, Mom squeezed Lainey’s shoulder.

  Lainey took her mother’s advice to heart. That week, she spent the whole of every day with Whiskey. Twice she got him past the quarter-mile mark, but both times he reversed direction and went back to the stable just when she thought she had him under control.

  Chick razzed her about how much of Mr. Dodge’s expensive feed she was wasting on Whiskey. Lopez said nothing, but he watched her all the time. When Mr. Dodge asked her if she’d had any luck with Whiskey yet, she was tempted to tell him about the times the horse had broken his quarter-mile limit. She held back only because she was afraid Whiskey would make a fool out of her if she boasted that he was obeying her—sometimes. Actually, he wasn’t obeying, she suspected, just acting on his own whims.

  It was Friday when Lainey led Whiskey up one of the state forest trails through saguaros high as telephone poles and onto a hilltop from which she could see the haze-coated sprawl of Tucson in the distance. That day it was she who decided when they should turn around, she who chose the paths they took through the rocky desert. Whiskey let her guide him with barely a touch of her leg on his side and a rein against his neck.

  “So you’re Mr. Good Boy today, huh, Whiskey?” she said. “Just the most amiable, best-behaved horse. How come? Are you in the mood to be good for a change, or is this the beginning of a new you?”

  She loved the way his ears turned back to hear her when she spoke to him as if they were having a two-way conversation. And this time when she came riding with rocking chair ease back into the stables, she was ready to tell Mr. Dodge about Whiskey’s progress.

  They were all there as she dismounted. Mr. Dodge had come out of his office. Chick was holding a horse in front of the barn for Lopez, who was examining its hoof. And every eye was on her.

  “You been gone all morning, Lainey,” Mr. Dodge said. “Where’d you get to?”

  “I don’t know what it’s called,” she said, “but the hill where you can see Tucson? We went up that trail.”

  “You done it?” Chick chortled. “What’d you offer him, Lainey, a bushel of apples or an air-conditioned stall in the barn?”

  “Whiskey just went where I told him,” Lainey said. “Nothing to it.”

  Lopez curled his lips down as if he were impressed.

  Mr. Dodge said, “Well, I’ll be! I didn’t really believe you could retrain an ornery, no-good, useless animal like this one, but you did it. Broke every rule in the book, and you did it.” He shook his head in amazement. Then he added, “Well, you just keep breaking him in like you been doing, and if he stays broke, we’ll sell him for a hefty price. He’s looking like a quality horse now. Wouldn’t you say, Lopez?”

  “Top quality,” Lopez said.

  Lainey swung out of the saddle feeling as if she’d just won first prize for horsemanship. But in her heart she knew it wasn’t what she had done, it was Whiskey. She planted a kiss on his spongy nose. When he rolled up his lips as if he were smiling, it made all the men laugh.

  The daily trail rides continued without a hitch. Whiskey behaved as well as Lady or Shiloh. “My good buddy,” Lainey called him often. “Look at what a sweetheart you can be.” She didn’t feel lonely when she was alone with him. His ears would turn to catch the sound of her voice as she mused aloud on what they were seeing or what she was thinking. He listened so intently that she became convinced he not only heard, but understood her.

  Riding Whiskey made Lainey happy except when it struck her that she was training him for someone else’s benefit. Then she cut to some other less painful thought. “Don’t worry ahead of trouble,” Mom had advised, and more and more Lainey was realizing how wise her mother was.

  On Thursday, Lainey was listening to Whiskey’s hooves clopping musically against a rocky canyon floor when who should she see sitting on a boulder eating a picnic lunch but Amber.

  “I can’t believe you did it,” Amber said.

  “Did what?” Lainey asked in momentary confusion.

  “Trained that horse good enough to ride him way up here.”

  “There wasn’t much to training him. He’s a great horse. He just needed some personal attention.” Lainey smoothed his black mane over to one side of his neck.

  “Are you going to get your dad to buy him for you?”

  Lainey shook her head sorrowfully. “No chance.” Then she asked, “You want to buy him, Amber?”

  “Can’t. I got Belle here, and my folks won’t let me have more than one horse.”

  Lainey kept stroking Whiskey’s neck, avoiding Amber’s eyes, as she said, “I’d like a person who’ll treat him right to buy him. He’d be best off as part of a family. He’s got too much personality to be a hack anybody can rent.”

  “You’re really stuck on that horse, aren’t you?”

  “I like him a lot, yeah,” Lainey said.

  “Too bad you can’t keep him for yourself.”

  “Well, I can’t.” She kept her eyes on Whiskey’s mane to hide the quick rise of tears the admission had brought.

  “You know what you could do if you really want to get some private party interested in him?” Amber said. “You could show him off in the parade Saturday. That’d do it—if he shows good on parade.”

  “What parade?”

  “The one to open the new park in Tucson where the old courthouse is. Didn’t you hear about it? And they’re holding a horse auction afterward. If Whiskey showed good and people spent big bucks for him, they’d treat him right. You know how it is; the most valuable horseflesh gets the best care.”

  That sounded reasonable. But Lainey said, “The only thing is Whiskey’s not ready for a parade yet, Amber. He’s still a little unpredictable, and I—”

  “I’m going to be in it. You could ride with me. I’ll even lend you my old riding outfit—that green one you admired? I got too big for it, but it should just fit you. Come on, Lainey, it’d be fun to do it together. Wouldn’t it?”

  “I thought you were mad at me.”

  “I was. When I saw you with that guy, I thought you were a traitor, dropping me for a boy just like any twitty girl would do. You know, it was bad enough when you couldn’t see me because you had a job, but that boy—”

  “He was never my boyfriend, Amber. He’s just a kid from New York City that I was supposed to teach about horses.”

  As if she hadn’t heard, Amber said, “You always say boys aren’t interested in you, but they are. You just don’t see it. Like in fourth grade, that kid who gave you the roses?”

  “Oh, Amber! You still remember that? I was so embarrassed I wanted to die, and I wouldn’t take the roses, and then the teacher came into the room. And that boy felt bad and I felt bad that he felt bad, and it was awful.”

  “Yeah, but he had a crush on you.”

  “So, big deal. He was a nerd and
that was fourth grade.”

  “Okay, but I saw the way this guy from New York was looking at you, Lainey.”

  “How could you see anything? You loped by so fast you didn’t even have time to wave.”

  “Have it your own way and don’t believe me.” Amber looked disgusted.

  “Besides,” Lainey said, “Ryan and I don’t have anything in common. Like, he loves to read.”

  “Well, so do you.”

  Lainey hesitated. It was true that compared to someone like Amber who based her book reports on jacket flap copy alone, she, Lainey Cobb, was a reader. But she never thought of herself that way. What she read for mainly was information and to learn how to do something, while Ryan was a book person. He read for pleasure. And he wasn’t really that interested in horses. He was a big-city boy. He didn’t know cacti and lizards and snakes; he knew subways. It would take forever to explain all that to Amber, and she’d never believe it anyway. So let her think what she wanted. That way they wouldn’t be likely to get mad at each other again.

  “Amber, he’s not my boyfriend,” was all she said.

  “You sure?… He was cute.”

  He was cute, Lainey thought, and she was sorry Ryan had disappeared from her life so fast, but he had. Briefly she wondered how his camping trip had come out. It certainly hadn’t turned him into a horse lover because she hadn’t seen him at Dodge’s ranch for nearly two weeks. “Anyway,” she said, “Ryan’s only visiting in Tucson. So can we be friends again?”

  “I guess,” Amber said. “You’re stubborn as a mule, but I miss you. Besides, you’re the only friend I’ve got.”

  Lainey smiled into the flaxen-haired girl’s fierce, square-jawed face. “I could say the same about you.”

  “So?”

  “So, sure,” Lainey said, “I’ll ride in the parade with you. Or anyway, I’ll give it a try.”

  She tethered Whiskey to the same tree Amber had used because it was the only vegetation around that didn’t have prickers or spines on it. The two horses eyed each other, ears going back and forth as they snuffled in a non-threatening manner. Lainey watched them getting acquainted while Amber rattled on about Belle’s recent horseshoeing experience. She’d kicked the farrier in punishment for his careless handling. “Belle’s so smart. That klutz deserved to get kicked,” Amber concluded, loyal to her horse as ever.