“Seriously, Mom?” I said. “You’ve made your decision. I accept it. Why are we here?”
“Because we need to handle being competitors going forward, that’s why,” she said, “even being from the same family and the same damn barn and being bossed all over the place by Caroline Atwood.”
“We’re only competing against each other if we enter the same events,” I said. “This shit is difficult enough already and I’m not even up on my horse yet.”
“But we’ve competed against each other in the past,” she said.
“Things were a little different then,” I said.
I noticed her absently rubbing her right knee. She was still in a lot of pain.
“You should ride in all the big events coming up, same as me,” she said now. “You’re ready for them.”
“Not your call, Mom,” I said.
“You’re right,” she said. “I’ve put everybody in a tough spot, but not by choice.”
“There’re always choices,” I said.
“There was a lot of avoidance the other night,” she said. “And that just ain’t gonna cut it, not around here.”
“Okay then,” I said. “Okay. I heard what you had to say. You heard what I had to say. Now I really am gonna go change and ride my horse.”
“Your horse is what I most wanted to talk to you about,” she said.
“Now you’re an expert on Sky?” I said.
“No,” Mom said. “But I’m still enough of a horsewoman to know you should try to ride her to the Olympics.”
FIFTY-NINE
WELL, I THOUGHT, she’s got my attention now.
“You got that after one session in the ring?” I said. “Pro tip, Mom? You’re the one with the Olympic horse, not me.”
“Maybe not now,” Maggie said. “But in a few months, I’m convinced Sky can be, too.”
“You’re wrong,” I said.
“No, I’m not.”
“Mom,” I said. “I love you. I love Sky to death. But you really are talking some major shit here.”
“No, I’m not,” she said again, with more force this time. “You’re the rider who’s going to scare me the most once I’m back out there. You.”
“It’s nice that you think so,” I said.
“Tell you what,” she said. “Why don’t we go down the hill and ask Daniel?”
Maggie got out of her chair, looking the way Grandmother did sometimes when she’d been sitting awhile, flexed her right knee a couple of times, walked stiffly down the porch steps.
And she’s going to ride in a five-star Grand Prix in two weeks?
But I followed her through the double doors of the barn.
“We may have some breaking news here,” she said to Daniel, who was talking on his phone.
“I need to call you back,” he said, then ended the call to listen to Maggie’s theory on Sky and the Olympics.
Daniel looked at me.
“What do you say about this?” he said.
“You first,” I said.
“Your mother is absolutely right,” he said.
“Ha!” Mom said. “There you have it.”
“Wait,” Daniel said. “I have news of my own I want you both to hear. I was about to come up the hill and tell you.”
Daniel was never easy to read, but whatever was on his mind was serious business.
“I have been doing a lot of thinking since the other night,” he said. “And once Becky was back, I was going to wait a few days. But there is no longer any point in waiting.”
He turned to Mom then.
“You are going to need to find another trainer,” Daniel said.
“Excuse me?” Mom said. She tilted her head, and curiously raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, but have you suddenly inherited your own barn, Daniel?”
“I’m the one who is sorry,” he said. “But I only want to train Becky.”
“No,” Mom said.
SIXTY
Gorton
STEVE GORTON AND Tyler Cullen were seated at Gorton’s table in the tent at the International Arena. Before buying the top-tier table for the season, Gorton had checked its location, a little closer to the ring than Bloomberg’s table and the one that belonged to Bill Gates.
It was a few minutes after twelve. The breakfast crowd had already cleared out. The waitstaff was setting up for lunch, which would be followed by some afternoon event in the arena. Gorton couldn’t have said what kind if somebody stuck a gun in his ear.