Then they had both been quiet, staring at each other until Maggie had gotten up from his couch and walked over to him and kissed him. Had gotten her arms around him and then they were kissing again.
When she’d pulled back, he’d said, “You sure about this?”
She’d laughed.
“Hell, no,” she’d said.
He had always been great looking and, she’d always thought, sexy as hell. He still was. When he was in his bed, on his back, head on the pillows, he’d turned so that their faces were nearly touching.
Grinning again.
“Don’t worry,” he’d said. “Nobody’s broken me yet.”
“Stop talking now,” she’d said.
They both did.
NINETY-SEVEN
Maggie
WHEN HE WAS FINALLY AWAKE, she told him her plan, what she planned to do this week, and why.
“You okay with it?” she said.
“Ballplayers go down to the minor leagues all the time to get themselves straightened out, no reason why riders can’t do the same,” he said. “I did it myself once or twice. Helps you remember shit you forget when you’re going good.”
“I just need to get around,” she said.
Now, late Wednesday afternoon, she was trying to do just that. She felt as if she’d traveled back in time to pony camp as she prepared for an event at Ring 9, Level 1 jumps, just over three feet. She was as far away from the International Ring as she’d ever been and close to being all the way off the property. But it had to be done, she was more certain of that than ever.
One round, a speed class, nothing more. The only other top riders anywhere near Ring 9 were on their way to their barns across the way, or to the parking lot. Most of the riders had entered her class to try out young horses.
She hadn’t even told Daniel what she planned to do until the previous afternoon. Now they were talking it over again as they finished the course walk.
“I really should have thought of this myself,” he said.
“Can’t think of everything.”
“It’s still the right thing to do.”
“Better be,” she said, pacing off the distance to the final jump.
There were other familiar trainers in the ring. Occasionally she had to raise her voice to be heard over the sound of the tractor dragging a nearby practice ring, and all the golf carts racing past them, like they were the ones in a speed class.
They had finished dragging the practice ring. Seamus was there with Coronado, having walked him over from Gus’s barn. Seamus helped Maggie up and then she was doing some practice jumping before they got to her place in the order. Doing what Daniel had told her to do today. Riding her horse.
When she was at the in-gate, Maggie looked to the other side of Ring 9, the small viewing area over there behind the taco stand. Gus was there, and Becky. Maggie and Becky had been talking the past few days, the way they used to. Maggie had asked her what had melted the ice. Becky had grinned and said, “I just can’t watch you suck.”
“That bad?”
“Worse.”
“Because I’m your mom?” she’d said.
“Because you’re too damn good to suck this badly,” Becky had said.
Maggie was two out. Looked at a scoreboard about half the size of the one in the International Ring and saw that the time allowed was 72 seconds.
Not for me, Maggie thought. All the times in her life when she’d wanted to go fast. Just not today. Today she didn’t care if it looked like she was pulling a carriage up in Central Park if she got around clean.
She did. Two full seconds over the time allowed. Nearly five seconds behind the winner. Not even close to winning the class. And could not have cared less.
Because she’d gone clean.
“I found what I was looking for,” she said to Daniel when she hopped off Coronado herself, not waiting for Seamus, and was on her way over to Becky and Caroline and Gus Bennett.
“You just needed to slow things down,” he said.
“Well, I sure did that,” she said.
“You know you sound like Becky, right?”
“Don’t tell her I said this,” Maggie told him, “but maybe I need to be a little more like my daughter.”
“In what way?”
“Attitude,” she said.
Daniel smiled.
“Ask her,” he said. “I’m sure she’d be happy to loan you some.”
Maggie smiled then. It was not something she had done lately, especially when leaving the ring.
“I got my groove back,” she said.