North Oak 3- Morning Glory Page 14

  Hillary worked around the baby, singing Kumbaya. Alex grinned. She ruffled Venus Galaxies’s mane. “Good job, Mama.”

  Hillary glanced toward her, smiling. “Filly,” she announced. “Born at midnight, on the dot.”

  North sounded pleased. “Nothing better than a mare in foal with a filly.”

  Alex looked at the end of the stall where Hillary and the foal were. She was big and jet black like her sire, Black Knight.

  “Especially when she’s built like a colt,” North added. “Alex?”

  She looked at him, wondering what he could possibly want from her.

  “What shall we name her?”

  Alex pointed at herself, eyebrows raised. Her? Name a foal? Something that would go down in history books. She swallowed, looking once again to the filly. She was already trying to get to her feet. Venus’s baby, born at midnight.

  “Venus Nights.”

  Hillary wrapped her hands around a mug of coffee and sank into the chair beside Alex in the surveillance room. “What’s up?”

  Alex shrugged, thinking about their teamwork delivering Venus Nights. This single moment where she felt like they were a family again. Could it be like that all the time? A question started gnawing deep in Alex’s bones.

  “Something’s bothering you.”

  Alex tapped her finger against the counter. “You noticed.”

  “I’m trying.” Hillary smiled between sips.

  Alex looked at her. “Is there a reason you haven’t adopted me yet?”

  Hillary’s brow arced. She looked like she would spit-spray her coffee.

  Alex felt guilty for asking. “I mean, it’s been a year since I started officially living here. Is there something wrong with my papers? Like you can’t adopt me.”

  Hillary set her mug down and turned in her chair toward Alex. She folded her hands between her knees and stared at them.

  “I’m sorry, I just,” Alex paused. “I started thinking about it. I know you’re working through stuff.”

  Hillary took Alex’s hand in her own.

  Alex swallowed the lump in her throat. “Do… do you want me?”

  Hillary continued to stare at their hands in silence. She lifted her gaze to meet Alex’s green eyes and squeezed her hand firmly. Her own eyes were teary as she nodded.

  “Why won’t you adopt me?”

  Hillary ran her thumb over the back of Alex’s hand. A look in her eyes said she was trying to figure out how to say it. Alex gave her a minute, trying not to flinch beneath the gentle touch.

  “It’s time you talk to North.”

  “Why him? What’s he got to do with anything?”

  Hillary swallowed, her voice about to betray her. “He and I, we knew your mom. And I think he’s got some answering to do.”

  Alex chewed on her finger tips as she paced outside of North’s office the next morning. What did Hillary mean she knew Alex’s mom? And North too? Was she, like, an old girlfriend?

  She shivered. Holy crap, she had a mom. Well, she knew she had a mom, she had to have come from somewhere. But was she alive? Did North know where she was? Was that why Alex hadn’t been adopted yet?

  She couldn’t quite piece it together. How was she going to lay this all down to creepy Mr. North?

  The door swung open and he smiled from behind it. “Come in.”

  Alex took a deep breath and entered, shutting the door behind her. As she turned, her eyes widened at a huge corkboard with tons of horse pictures, hung beneath pins that held a giant spider-web of yarn. She couldn’t help herself. “What the hell?”

  North followed her gaze. “Oh.”

  She pointed at it. “What is that?”

  He moved excitedly, his hands moving every which way, Alex could hardly remember what she came in for. “It’s my breeding plans for Venus Galaxies. See?” He pointed to the mare’s picture smack dab in the middle of the board.

  “It looks like a conspiracy theory,” Alex said.

  He grinned at her. “Brooke’s been up to Clearbrook and said they had some nice stallions, so I’ve got a few of those here.” He motioned to the upper left corner of the board with pictures of them and notes hanging beneath, then moved to the other side of the board in the lower right corner. “And I’ve got some of our stallions over here. And the others are just some ideas.”

  Alex couldn’t even process it. “Didn’t she just foal?”

  North smoothed over his tie and sat at his cluttered desk. “We’ll aim for breeding her in April again. She’s got some time to be a mom. In the racing business, we try to catch them right on their first cycle after foaling.”

  Alex winced, thinking of her own ‘special time’ as Hillary sometimes called it. Doing that thing North mentioned sounded super sucktastic.

  He clasped his hands on a messy pile of papers. “You had something to ask me?”

  Alex sat slowly, her gaze shifting around the room. What had she come in for again? She settled on a picture on the wall of a good-looking girl in North Oak’s silks, with green eyes and dark copper hair. Her heart skipped a beat, but it was different than when Carol hugged her or anything. She felt drawn to her for some reason.

  “My mom,” she said in sort of a daze.

  North made a funny, choking noise. “Excuse me?”

  She looked at him. “Hills said you knew my mom.”

  He tugged his tie loose and leaned back in his big leather chair, drumming the desktop.

  “Why can’t the Showmans adopt me? Is my mom still alive? Is that why? Does she still want me?”

  North cleared his throat. “I knew your mom a long time ago.”

  Alex couldn’t stop the flood of questions that started pouring out. “Where is she? Do I look like her?”

  A bead of sweat trickled down North’s temple. He played like he didn’t know it was there, but it was super obvious. His lips puckered. “You have her eyes.”

  “Can I meet her? Will she take me back?”

  North frowned, his chin trembling a little. “No.”

  “Than why can’t the Showmans adopt me?”

  He took a breath and moved to the door, opening it for Alex. He glared at her, the corner of his eye twitching. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  VENUS NIGHTS

  “So I asked him to the Girls Choice dance at school, and he said yes,” Brooke bubbled.

  Alex rolled her eyes, thinking this obsession Brooke had with Dejado was kinda gushy. She sat on the straw of Venus Galaxies stall, eyes trained on the new filly.

  Venus Nights approached her cautiously, practically vibrating with energy and nerves. Alex didn’t make a move, even though she really wanted to reach out and cuddle the cuteness right out of the bugger.

  The filly’s nostrils flexed, trembling with each new scent. Alex thought she could relate to her, remembering how it felt coming into this crazy new world of straw and horses and weird people. The closer Venus Nights got, the harder it was to resist reaching out to her.

  She was so fuzzy and stupidly adorable, Alex almost felt embarrassed over wanting to squish her like a teddy bear. As Venus Nights stretched out her neck, tickling Alex’s arm with tiny little chin whiskers, it took everything Alex had to stare straight ahead.

  It wasn’t just the tingle from contact she felt, but a total body rush that this new life would brave trusting her. She listened intently to the soft breaths coming from the foal, the silky touch of newborn skin against her own.

  Brooke crept over slowly, easing a foal halter down to Alex. “We like to halter train them as soon as we can. Easier to handle a little one like this, than fight a four hundred pound weanling.”

  Alex wrapped her fingers around the cool leather, waiting for Venus Nights to step closer. Without looking at her, she reached her other hand toward the filly and tickled under her neck.

  “We’re not going to be forceful with her or anything. We’ll move on her terms. Curiosity is on our side at this age.”

  Alex got to one knee, resti
ng her elbow over it, hand still clutching the halter close to the straw on the other side. Venus Nights sniffed and lipped her, ears pricked. She smacked her little bubblegum tongue and eeked closer, lowering her head.

  Alex let her check out the halter, shivering to be this close to new life. Venus Nights scuttled away when Alex stroked a hand across her back, but she came back, still checking out the halter.

  Brooke stooped close to them. “When you can, lift the halter closer to her. Keep that arm close to her chest, and ease your other arm around her back like you’re going to hug her.”

  Venus Galaxies whickered then, crossing to Alex and her baby. Brooke reached to stroke the mare’s chest reassuringly. “She’s not thrilled, but I think we’ll be okay. She knows us.” She spoked softly, continuing to soothe the mare.

  Alex gradually lifted the halter to Venus Nights’s head, drawing her close with her other hand. The filly jostled and did a tiny half buck, ending in an awkward straddle over Alex’s knee. “Whoa, babe,” Alex cooed, easing the halter closer to the foal’s face.

  Venus Galaxies whinnied, circling her stall. She bumped into Brooke, but she only rose to rub the mare’s neck. “You’re alright, mama.”

  Alex managed to slip the filly’s nose through the halter, and though a big part of her wanted to burst into a grin, her instincts told her to stay chill.

  “You got it,” Brooke murmured. “Don’t have to get it all the way on. Just hold it there, let her get used to it.”

  Alex held the back of the halter in place behind Venus Nights’s ears and rubbed her side and chest with her free hand.

  “We’ll work with her as often as we can, but remember to never leave a halter on her in the stall.”

  Alex nodded, tucking her lip with concentration. Her heart swelled against the soft warmth of the filly. Venus Nights threw her head, trying to wiggle out of the halter. Alex switched hands holding it and moved her fingers to scratch the baby’s chest and legs.

  The heat beneath the foal’s neck was wonderful, and Alex let her hand rest there, relishing the tiny heartbeat fluttering beneath her fingertips. She had no idea she could be more in love with a horse than she was right now.

  Brooke patted Venus Galaxies and dropped a treat into her feed bucket to distract her, then got down by Alex and Venus Nights, helping to secure the halter.

  With her hands free, Alex loved up every inch of that little fuzzy shadow, finally surrendering to the joy inside her. She was very sure, in this moment, there was nothing better than loving on a brand new foal.

  Brooke joined in, rubbing the filly’s face and scraggly mane. “It’s called imprinting. What we do with her now will help her be a better racehorse tomorrow.”

  Alex shook her head. Two days old, and already plans for greatness. Couldn’t these people just live in the moment? She sighed, instantly hit by two thoughts at once. Ashley would’ve loved this, and Oh my gosh I have to show Carol!

  How had she not called her yet?

  Brooke eased off the halter when Venus Nights finally calmed and relaxed in their embraces. She lightly noogied the filly’s barely-there forelock and rose. “We’ll play again tomorrow, baby.”

  Alex couldn’t resist officially hugging the filly before letting her go. Venus Nights tottered over to her dam and settled in for nursing.

  Brooke and Alex stood in the open stall door, watching her until she looked at them with a funny milk mustache and collapsed into the straw for a nap.

  Brooke cleared her throat. “Should we get some real work done?”

  Understanding what she implied, Alex wondered if this day could get any better. She grinned at her. “I thought you’d never ask.”

  They raced to the parking lot near the Showmans’ farm house and got there just as Dejado ambled up in his truck. He hopped out and raced around to open the door for them before Brooke had a chance. “Good afternoon, Egg.”

  Brooke grinned at Alex, wriggling her eyebrows, like isn’t this great? And got into the cab, scooting all the way to the middle.

  Dejado turned his attention to Alex. He placed his hand on his chest and did a little bow. “Hello Ishmael. Or was it Lame-ish?”

  Alex squinted at him, still not entirely sure what to make of his accent and the way he looked at her. She pulled herself up into the cab beside Brooke. “It’s Crazy Horse today, Dork.”

  Dejado bowed even lower. “Oh, pardon me, Your Highness.”

  Brooke leaned around Alex. “That’s kind of a perfect name, actually.”

  Alex looked between them. “What is it with you guys and lovey names? I’m just Alex.”

  Dejado smiled, revealing his dimples. “Than I shall call you Just Alex.”

  Brooke lifted her hand, laughing. “No, no. Believe me, Your Highness fits waaaay better.”

  “Carol calls me Princess Charming when I’m ultra nice,” Alex said.

  Brooke elbowed her. “You must mean irritating.”

  Alex stuck her tongue out.

  Dejado shut the door, and Brooke did that obnoxious thing with her ponytail and brushing herself off and stuff. Then she gave Alex a smoldering look that Alex could only guess was a warning.

  If this was how boys made girls behave, Alex wasn’t so sure she wanted anything to do with them. She wanted to stay herself, not be all googly-eyed and prissy.

  Dejado hopped into the driver’s seat. “Clearbrook?”

  Brooke nodded silently.

  He dropped them off as close to Morning Glory’s barn at Clearbrook as he could, before driving off to the office parking lot. Brooke’s shoulders were tense and she stared at the white barn before them.

  Alex rolled her eyes. “Relax, Stick. I don’t want your stupid boyfriend.” She sighed. How did that euphoria she felt around Venus Nights fade so quickly, especially with the chance to ride Morning Glory again?

  “Why do you get all weird when he’s around? Can we just focus and get things done?”

  She saw Brooke’s jaw muscles tense and flex before she marched off. “Yeah. Sure.”

  Alex, left there on her own, tipped her head back and groaned. Hillary always called it her cave girl grunt. Apparently, Alex and Brooke were back to just business again.

  She hiked off after Brooke, trying to make conversation while they tacked up Morning Glory. “Been watching Promenade work. I think your gramps is gonna point him to a race soon.”

  Brooke’s mouth was tight as she brushed down her filly in the aisle.

  Alex grabbed a comb to work out any snarls in Mags’s tail. “Y’think I’d have a chance at becoming his workout rider?”

  Brooke shook her head. The sound she choked on made Alex think she took it as a joke.

  “Overeager much?”

  “What?” Alex asked innocently.

  “It would take a lot of work to convince Pop to put you on Promenade. You’re going to have to prove yourself. I mean, you just started exercise riding.”

  “So?”

  Brooke sighed, leaning against Mags’s back. Her expression finally softened, like she’d forgiven Alex from talking to Dejado in the truck. “I think learning on Morning Glory is the best thing we can do together for now.”

  Brooke let out a breath, the tension visibly easing from her shoulders. She picked up a hoof pick and Morning Glory’s hind hoof. “In honesty, I thought I had a clue about how to train horses.” Debris flung from Mags’s hoof as Brooke dug through it. She set it down gently and moved to the next one, glancing up at Alex. “But then, every once in a while, something comes along that makes you doubt everything you know.”

  Alex squatted beside her. “Tell ya what. You help me, and I’ll help you. Despite our differences, I think we make a good team.”

  A few minutes later, Alex was in the tiny saddle barely bigger than her butt. She still couldn’t get over how small it really was, barely more than a few pounds. Brooke said she wanted to start trying to replicate racing circumstances as much as she could for Mags, right down to the tack she would
wear.

  Alex had spent more and more time with Speedy, building up her strength and balance. They headed to the track, and as Dejado finally caught up to them, Alex gathered the reins and swung Morning Glory around before the tall one could turn into Brookezilla.

  She was relieved she got to go without Dejado as an outrider, glad to put them behind her so they could make their ridiculous googly eyes at eachother. She had her instructions for the workout, and that was enough.

  She funneled her concentration into Mags, and the filly must have sensed it because she flicked her ears like she was listening. Every little shift, every breath Alex took, Morning Glory was paying attention to.

  Alex hunkered down just a tiny bit, to the point where all she saw was the track ahead between the filly’s ears. A certain kind of tunnel vision that made all other worries melt away.

  And she remembered what joy was.

  ***

  Laura held her phone out in front of she and Brooke, grinning at their gussied-up reflections. “Say besties.”

  Brooke smiled, pressing her cheek against Laura’s as she took the picture of them. “I’m so glad you’re feeling well enough to go. It’s about time we had a double date.”

  Laura nodded, slipping the phone into a baby pink clutch. “Me too. I’ve been dying to get out.” She leaned back, regarding Brooke.

  “What?” Brooke asked.

  Laura giggled. “Gosh we look good.”

  Brooke laughed softly, but tensed when a knock fell on the Showmans door downstairs. “That’s them.”

  They listened to Cade greet Dejado and Johnathan at the door, welcoming them in. Brooke tried to go to them, but Laura held her back. “It’s tradition that they wait five minutes. And by five, I mean ten.”

  Brooke shook her head. “That’s a dumb tradition. Who does that anymore?”

  Laura gave her a playful pout and big doe eyes.

  Brooke shook her head. “It’s rude.”

  Laura huffed overdramatically. “Fine.” She offered her arm to Brooke, still needing a little help to stay steady. Brooke took it.

  “Ready?” Laura grinned.

  Brooke nodded and guided her to the top of the stairs where they paused.