Horse Love (4 page)

Lisa glanced over the shoulders of the people in front of her, looking for her parents. She didn’t have to look very far. They were at a table close to the door, and they were sitting at one of the rare tables for two.

“Hi, sweetie!” Her mother waved to her cheerfully. “We’ll see you after dinner, okay?”

Lisa sighed. If only she’d known. She could have soaked in the shower a good deal longer! And now she was faced with the prospect of eating by herself or with a whole group of strangers. It didn’t make her feel any better. She found herself looking forward to the day when her parents would start behaving normally again.

“One,” she said to the hostess.

“Make that two,” said someone behind her.

Lisa turned. It was Tec.

“What luck!” he said to her.

He doesn’t know the half of it
, Lisa thought.

The hostess led the two of them over to a table where there were six other people. Later on, Lisa realized that she couldn’t have identified the other people at the table if her life depended on it. The only person she saw was Tec Morrison.

Together, they looked over the buffet. Lisa took a plate and made herself put some food on it, although she knew she had no appetite whatsoever. Tec piled his plate high.

“You don’t know what you’re missing!” he said. “But don’t worry, I’ll let you taste some of my goodies and then you can go get some yourself.”

“I think my appetite got ruined on the airplane this morning,” said Lisa.

Tec laughed. “Airplane food is the worst!” He held her chair for her while she sat down. “Did you have a long flight?”

“From Washington—uh, D.C.,” she said.

“Really? Do you live in Virginia?”

“I do. I live in Willow Creek. Do you live there, too?” she asked.

He told Lisa the town and she’d heard of it. It was about seventy-five miles from Willow Creek. There were fifty states in the country, and it turned out that the most attractive boy in all fifty of them lived in the
very same state that she did. Was there a more perfect world anywhere?

“When did you get here?” Lisa asked.

“Two days ago, and we’re staying until Tuesday.”

“Just Tuesday?” she asked. Maybe the world wasn’t so perfect.

“I mean a week from Tuesday,” he corrected himself.

He would be there every single day that she was. And he’d be there after she left, too. But two days later, he’d be back in Virginia. Lisa’s mind raced. Seventy-five miles was a long distance, but at least it wasn’t 750 miles. Stevie had a boyfriend who lived ten miles away and they managed to work it out and stay together. She and Tec would find a way, she was sure.

“I’ll be here until next Sunday,” Lisa said. “I have to go back to school that Tuesday. You have a really long spring vacation, huh?”

“It’s worked out pretty well,” he conceded.

“So, tell me, since you’ve been here so much longer than I have, what’s fun to do around here?”

“With you? Almost anything,” Tec said.

Lisa’s heart skipped a beat. Two, maybe three, she thought. Tec wanted to spend time with her. She wanted to spend time with him. She put her fork down. There was no way she could eat another bite.

“Lisa, honey!” It was her mother. “There you are!”

“Hi, Mom.”

Her mother looked at Tec. “It’s nice that you’re making friends, dear,” she said rather expectantly.

“Mom, I’d like you to meet Tec Morrison. Tec, this is my mother, Mrs. Atwood.”

Tec stood up and took Mrs. Atwood’s hand. “Pleased to meet you.”

Mrs. Atwood glowed. She loved good manners, and Lisa knew that Tec had just earned himself a whole stack of points by standing up and shaking her hand.

“Well, sweetie, your dad and I are going to have an after-dinner drink in the lounge and then we’re going to the show. Will we see you both there?” she asked.

What an awkward question
, Lisa thought. It was as if her mother wanted to know if she and Tec would be together later, and much as Lisa suspected and hoped that they would be, she wasn’t about to jump to any conclusions. At least not out loud.

“I’m not sure what we’ll be doing, Mrs. Atwood,” Tec said, answering for Lisa. “I’m sure we’ll see you later, though.”

“I’ll look forward to that,” Mrs. Atwood said, smiling back at Tec. “Have fun, sweetie,” she said, and then she left them, heading for the lounge with Lisa’s father.

“I, uh—”

“Don’t say a word,” said Tec.

Lisa looked at him, wondering what he meant.

He answered her unasked question. “I’ve got parents, too,” he said. And she got it.

There was a moment of quiet understanding. Then Tec spoke again. “Look, since you pigged out so badly on dinner, how about you try a few of the desserts here. I’m telling you, the cheesecake is really great. Want me to bring you some?”

“That’d be good,” said Lisa. “A really small piece,” she added.

“I’ll bring you a big one and I’ll eat whatever you don’t,” he said.

“Deal,” she said.

Lisa looked across the room, trying to take in the crowd while Tec maneuvered through the throng and fetched them two large plates of cheesecake. The room was full. Everywhere she glanced, people with various levels of tans and relaxed looks seemed busy, happy, full, and content. Lisa was sure, though, that none of them was as happy as she was that night.

Tec was right about the cheesecake. It was very good, but she could only eat a few bites. Tec was true to his word. While they talked about all the activities they could do the next morning, he finished off the considerable remains on her plate.

And when he was finished with that, he did something
that totally surprised her. He reached under the tablecloth and took her hand. She felt a shiver of pleasure pass through her.

“And now that we’ve decided what we’re going to do tomorrow, let’s talk about what we’ll do tonight. I heard a rumor that there’s a nearly full moon. We could go down to the beach and look at the reflection on the water. Would you like to do that?”

“Yes,” Lisa whispered. She was sure that was the loudest noise she could make at that very moment. “Yes,” she said again.

“O
UCH
!” S
TEVIE SAID
.

“What?” asked Carole.

“I pinched my hand.” Stevie was trying to set one of the heavier saddles down on a sawhorse in the feed room and had managed to trap her hand against the raw wood. Carole lifted the saddle enough for Stevie to pull her hand out.

“It’s nothing,” Stevie said, shrugging.

“It’s a bruise,” Carole corrected her, pointing to the mild swelling that was beginning to show on the back of Stevie’s hand.

“Nothing,” Stevie repeated.

“It’s not nothing if that’s your painting hand,” Carole said.

“I’m a totally ambidextrous painter,” Stevie assured her.

The two of them returned to the tack room to move the next batch of saddles and bridles.

They had been working for hours. It didn’t really surprise either of them that Stevie was getting a little careless. What did surprise them was what Stevie saw when she looked out the window.

It was dark out there, but the sky was filled with stars and a beautiful nearly full moon. “Check that out!” Stevie said, pointing to the sky.

Carole leaned over to see out the dusty window of the tack room (soon to be washed
and
freshly painted). The sight nearly took her breath away. “It’s so big and it’s not even full yet. It’s like it’s sitting just above the horizon.…”

“It’s that pretty orange-gold color, almost as if it’s been toasted,” Stevie said.

“I like it when it’s not quite full,” Carole said. “It has a sort of lopsidedness to it, like it’s not perfect but will be.”

“You mean, like it’s got promise?” Stevie asked.

“Exactly,” Carole said. “But speaking of promises, we’ve got one to work on.”

Stevie shook her head in dismay. The fact that it was night and the moon was up meant that they’d been
working even longer than she’d thought, and it was beginning to seem like they would be working forever.

“I think maybe this was a bad idea,” Stevie said.

“No, just a big one,” Carole told her, handing her a box of bits. “Look, we’re getting tired. Why don’t we quit for the night and pick up where we left off tomorrow?”

“But it’s just a few more loads.”

“It’s not a few more loads, it’s a lot more loads,” Carole said sensibly. “And they’ll still be here tomorrow. By then, we’ll be a little more rested.”

“And we will have eaten,” Stevie said. Food was not often far from her mind.

“Yes, that, too,” said Carole.

They took the last load of the night into the feed room and rearranged some of the grain bins.

“That’s it. It’s time to go home,” said Carole, slinging her arm across Stevie’s tired shoulders.

Stevie stood up and followed Carole out of the room and along the aisle to the door of the stable.

“It’s really time to murder Phil Marsten,” Stevie said. “If he’d stuck to his promise, we’d have had everything moved by now.”

“And if Lisa had been here, too, it definitely would’ve been done,” Carole agreed. She zipped up her windbreaker
against the chill of the spring evening. “And if pigs had wings—”

“But he promised,” Stevie whined.

“Hey, think of it this way,” Carole said. “You’re forever telling me there’s nothing Phil does that you can’t do as well.”

“True, but I didn’t say he’d do this any
better
than I can. I just said we need his help. And instead, he’s skiing a zillion miles away.”

“And Lisa’s on a beach a zillion miles in the other direction.”

“Oh, she’s not on a beach at this hour of the night!” Stevie said.

T
HE SOFT
,
WARM
waves tugged at Lisa’s bare feet. The receding water pulled away sand, making Lisa feel as if she were sinking. But if she was sinking, so was Tec, because he was standing right next to her, still holding her hand. He hadn’t let go of it since they’d left the dining room, and Lisa found herself hoping he never would.

“… and then yesterday morning, they told me we were going on a vacation. It’s like it was … I don’t know, fate,” she said. “Yesterday, I thought it was a strange idea. Now, well …” Her words hung, the rest unspoken, unnecessary.

“My parents planned this for months,” Tec said. “It
was a Christmas present, but I’ve known about it since August.”

“Well, it’s a nice place,” she said.

“Yeah,” he agreed. They splashed along the beach where the tide lapped at the sand.

They had been walking and talking for two hours. The moon, once an orange platter near the horizon, was now a nearly round silver plate high in the blue velvet sky, attended by thousands of stars. Lisa felt more alive than she had ever felt in her life. It was as if she could feel, see, hear, smell, and taste the entire world around her. The salt sea smell mingled with the sweet scent of Tec’s aftershave. The tropical breeze caressed her shoulders—except where her arm touched his. The stars and moon seemed to reflect in his eyes and off his tanned skin, making him glow. And inside, Lisa felt a similar glow warming her.

They talked, and they listened to each other, too. Everything about Tec, everything he told her about himself, everything he said about her, all seemed right, balanced, true. Although they’d known each other for only a few hours, Lisa was beginning to think that their souls had known each other forever—that they were almost one.

“What would you be doing now if you were home?” Tec asked.

“That’s easy,” Lisa said. “I’d be with Stevie and Carole.”

He frowned ever so slightly. “Who’s Stevie?” he asked. “A boyfriend?”

It took Lisa a second to understand what he was asking, because it had been so long since she’d thought of
Stevie
as a boy’s name. “Short for Stephanie,” she explained. “Those two are my best friends. We do almost everything together. You’d love them. They’re great.”

He smiled, lighting up her world again. “I bet I would.”

“Although they might not like you, because I don’t think they’re very happy with me at the moment. See, Stevie had this great idea—Stevie has a lot of great ideas, only sometimes they’re not actually great, but they usually turn out okay, as long as Carole and I help, but I can’t help this time because I’m here and the stable is a zillion miles north. On the other hand, Stevie said Phil would help and I’m sure he’ll do a better job than I would, so I shouldn’t worry, and maybe Red is going to help, but I know Veronica would be useless.…”

Lisa realized she was blathering, but she couldn’t help it. The very thought of her friends trying to finish an enormous project without her had reminded her of
the fact that part of her thought she ought to be in Virginia.

She interrupted herself. “Am I talking too much?”

“Absolutely,” Tec said. “And you should stop because I want to kiss you, and it’s very hard to kiss a girl who’s talking.”

Lisa stopped talking.

Tec took a small step toward her and pulled her to him. Still holding her right hand with his left, he put his right hand on her shoulder and slid it around her back, drawing her closer still. Then he leaned down, looking uncertainly into her eyes. Lisa couldn’t help smiling at him. All uncertainty left his face. He smiled back. And then, as their lips met, she closed her eyes. All her senses became one, and they all focused on Tec Morrison.