Dream On (Dare to Dream Book 2), page 15
“They didn’t want you to be a farrier?”
“No, that’s the only thing I’ve done they are satisfied with,” he told her. “Ah, it’s a long story. Wouldn’t want to bore you.” His tone was light, but she knew that he was warning her to leave it alone, so she did.
Half an hour later, as Van was clenching the nails in one of Covergirl’s newly fitted shoes, Seamus came up with a question of his own.
“Can I ask you something?”
“If I said no, would you ask me anyway?” she grinned, but Seamus shook his head, unsmiling.
“This is a strictly only-if-you-want-to tell me kind of question.”
Van raised her eyebrows. “Crikey, sounds serious. Go on then, spit it out.”
“How did your folks die?”
Van set Covergirl’s hoof back down and stood up slowly. Seamus wondered if he’d overstepped his bounds, and tried to explain.
“I’m not being morbid, I just…well, I think I put my foot in it the other night, and I’d like to avoid further awkwardness if at all possible.”
“You’re looking for a trigger warning?” Van suggested, giving Covergirl a scratch on the rump. “It’s fine, it’s hardly a secret. Mum died when Marley was born. Complications, they said, but I don’t know the details. Dad was killed by a drunk driver. Came out of nowhere, hit us head on. I got a broken collarbone. The driver got fined, but avoided jail time.”
Van bent back over and picked up Covergirl’s hoof, fighting the rising tide of anger that consumed her every time she thought about the pathetic punishment that driver had faced. How any amount of money could possibly make up for the loss of an innocent life never failed to infuriate her, and Covergirl swished her tail, picking up on Van’s tension.
Seamus was quiet for a moment before he responded. “Sorry to hear that. It must’ve been hard.”
“Sure hasn’t been easy,” Van told him. “But we got used to it, eventually.” She chewed a piece of dry skin off her lower lip, wondering how much to tell him even as she spoke. Whether she wanted them to or not, the words started to flow. “Mum’s death we’d learned to live with. None of us remember her that well anyway, but Dad…that changed everything. And Kris is the one who took the full brunt of it. Whole thing’s been hardest on her, not that she’d ever admit it. She had these big dreams of going overseas and training with the best people. Could’ve done it too, she’d started getting offers, then bang, everything changed, and she was stuck here looking after me and Marley. Gave up everything she’d been dreaming about. At first it was just going to be temporary, just until Marley was old enough to look after herself, but then she had her accident. Now it’s forever. She’ll never ride again.” She looked at Seamus, meeting his dark eyes. “She was really good, too. She could’ve gone anywhere, done anything.” She sighed heavily. “Not now.”
And it’s all my fault. Those were the words she couldn’t say aloud, not ever. Even though they all knew that if she hadn’t called Dad that night, asking to be picked up from the party that she’d never wanted to go to in the first place, they wouldn’t have been on the road at that time. They would never have met that drunk driver. The chain of events wouldn’t have been set off, and everything would have been okay.
“They say that everything happens for a reason,” Seamus said. Van shot him a furious look but he shook his head. “Hear me out. I’m not saying it’s the right thing, or the best or easiest thing. But everything that happens leads to something else. Maybe something you weren’t expecting. Maybe even something good.”
Van thought about that for a moment, then raised her eyebrows. “You’ve got an awfully high opinion of yourself, you know that?”
Seamus laughed. “I wasn’t talking about me.”
“Sure you weren’t.” But as she lifted her chestnut mare’s hoof, Van couldn’t help wondering if maybe he was right.
* * *
“What’s the matter with you?”
Marley flung herself down on the couch in front of her sister and let out a dramatic sigh. “Everything!”
“Everything, huh? Wow.” Kris folded the towel she was holding and set it into the basket, then pulled another one out of the pile underneath Marley. Her sister shifted her weight slightly in a vague attempt to help. “You could just get up.”
“Can’t. Too sad.”
Kris folded the towel in half and shook the wrinkles out of it. “Come on then, spit it out.”
Marley sighed and sat up. “Well, for starters Maggie is crazy. She wouldn’t let me catch her today, not even get near her. I thought we’d made progress but apparently not.”
“And?”
“And Mihi won’t return any of my calls or texts, because she’s too busy hanging out with her new friends who are all way cooler than me. I probably won’t see her all holidays and I miss her.”
“What else?” Kris prompted as Marley threw her another towel.
“Breeze is lame again. She has a swollen foreleg and Van reckons it could be her tendon so I’ve boxed her for the night but if she’s bowed a tendon then she’ll be out for months.” Marley groaned again and leaned back against the couch, staring despondently at the cracks in the ceiling.
“That’s not good.” Kris paused, genuinely concerned for Breeze. “Have you hosed it?”
“Twenty minutes cold hosing, and I poulticed and wrapped it. I’ll go back after dinner and do it again, and Van’s going to get Mike to come out and scan it as soon as he can. But I just know it’s busted. It would be just my luck if the only thing I have to ride in Pony of the Year is Maggie.” She pulled a face. “If I’m even brave enough to try.”
“It might just be a sprain,” Kris said. “And it’s only December. Even if, worst case scenario, Breeze is out for the rest of the season, you’ve still got three months to get Maggie or even Gothic up to scratch.”
“But this was going to be her season,” Marley grumbled. “Why is it that every time I get a good pony, it breaks itself just when it starts going well?”
“I think you’re forgetting that you had a good pony last season that stayed sound the whole time,” Kris reminded her. “Even when he shouldn’t have.”
Marley’s expression closed, and she stood up abruptly. “Yeah, well. He’s gone, hasn’t he?” She walked to the door and whistled for the dogs, who leapt out of their beds in the hall and came scrabbling eagerly across the floorboards to her. “I’m going to take the dogs for a run, then check on Breeze. See you later.”
“Okay. Dinner will be at seven,” Kris called, but Marley had already gone.
* * *
Christmas came and went in a flurry of wrapping paper and more food than anyone could reasonably eat. As usual, the girls banded together and bought one another practical gifts – a new frying pan for Kris, new spurs for Marley, a suitcase for Van. They’d also pooled their leftover money and given it to Kris, instructing her to find something Seamus would like. After several agonising hours trawling around town, she had settled on a leather belt, well aware that his was cracking at the buckle. He was delighted with it, but Kris was embarrassed when he handed out gifts to each of them, and unwrapped hers uneasily.
Marley was already exclaiming over the expensive watch he’d bought her, and Seamus was teasing her that now she had no excuse for being late for anything as Van admired her new set of shoeing tools. Kris’s hands shook slightly as she unwrapped the box on her lap, well aware that Seamus was keeping half an eye on her as he bickered with Marley. Then the crunch of tyres on gravel outside alerted the dogs to the presence of a visitor, and there was an explosion of fur and barking as they raced outside to greet Mike and Jake. Van and Marley both got to their feet and followed them out, and Kris was left alone in the room with Seamus watching her as she lifted the lid and looked inside. Lying on a pile of crumpled tissue paper was a gift certificate for ten sessions with a local highly qualified osteopath.
Kris lifted her eyes in astonishment to see Seamus looking at her with an edge of concern.
“If you don’t want it, I can get a refund. I just thought it might help. He’s supposed to be very good, your man at the track recommended him after he hurt his own back, so…”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
A flicker of surprise crossed his face, then Seamus smiled. “It’s Christmas. Have to isn’t the point, now is it?”
Kris shook her head. “It’s too much. It must’ve cost…”
“Don’t worry about that. You do enough for me, I wanted to do something for you.”
“But…”
Seamus sat down next to her. “If you want me to cancel it, say so now.” Kris shook her head, and he grinned. “Good. Then quit your complaining and accept your dues.” He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. “You deserve to be looked after, you know. And since you won’t look after yourself, I thought I’d try and help you along.”
Kris nodded, fighting the tears that prickled the corners of her eyes. The dogs came leaping back into the room, and she stood up quickly, shutting the lid back on the box.
“Thank you,” she told Seamus sincerely, then turned to greet their guests. “Merry Christmas!”
CHAPTER 9
Marley didn’t normally bother much about how she looked, figuring that people could take or leave her as she was, but on New Year’s Day she spent almost an hour compiling the ideal outfit for a day out on the boat with Mihi and her new friends. The invite had come on Boxing Day, when Mihi had stopped by for the afternoon. They’d gone swimming on the ponies and hung out in the treehouse, and for a while, it had been just like old times. Mihi had mentioned that her uncle Lance was coming to stay for New Year’s, and was bringing his boat as usual, so they’d planned a day trip to a nearby island. Marley’s reflexive comment that she hadn’t been out there for years had resulted in an invite from Mihi to join them. Marley still wasn’t sure if it had been a reflex action, or whether Mihi really wanted her along, but she resolved not to care. She was tired of missing her best friend, and would take any opportunity to spend time with her, even if she had to share her with her new friends, who were coming along as well.
Marley was feeling strangely self-conscious about meeting these people, who didn’t know her yet, so would judge and form opinions on her based on what she presented to them today. Sure, she was Mihi’s friend, but she was a childhood friend, and they’d grown so far apart recently that the days of “if you’re friends with her too, I’m sure we’ll get along” no longer guaranteed anything.
After excavating the entire contents of her chest of drawers onto her bed, Marley found a passable t-shirt, but after deciding that it would go perfectly with a certain pair of denim shorts, she discovered that she couldn’t find them. They weren’t in her drawers, or in that pile at the end of her bed, or shoved in the back of her wardrobe, or hiding in the bottom of her backpack. Eventually forced to leave her room in the pursuit of this ideal item of clothing, Marley soon discovered that the shorts had entirely disappeared. They weren’t in the truck, or the barn, and she was quickly running out of time.
“KRIS! Where are my shorts?”
She burst into the kitchen, hands on hips and glaring at her sister, who was sitting at the table helping Seamus with his accounts.
Kris shrugged. “I don’t know, Mar. When did you last have them?”
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t be looking for them!” Marley snapped in frustration.
“All right, settle down. Maybe they’re in the wash. I just put a load on.”
“No!” Marley swung back towards the wash house, lifting the lid of the washing machine that was half filled with water, and started swishing frantically through the sodden clothes. “Here they are! Why did you have to wash them?”
Kris was standing in the doorway, with Seamus right behind her.
“We might do things differently in Ireland, but as a general rule that’s what you do with dirty clothes,” he said, and Marley shot him a dirty look.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know that you had to wear them today,” Kris said.
“Well, I do! I’ve got nothing else suitable,” Marley complained bitterly as the front door opened and Jake came in to the house. Seamus went to greet him as Marley slammed the washing machine lid and glared at her sister.
“What am I supposed to do now?”
“Wear something else?” Kris suggested. Marley gave her a withering look, and Kris tried not to laugh. “Since when are you so concerned with what you’re wearing, anyway?”
“Since today. It’s my New Year’s resolution,” Marley lied quickly. “And you’re ruining it.”
“Are you sure that your resolution wasn’t to turn into a stereotypical teenager? Because you’re doing a stellar job of that so far,” Kris snapped, then relented. “Go have a look in my room, you might find something that'll do the job.”
Marley looked relieved. “Okay. What about those black shorts you got in Cambridge?”
“Whatever you find, I don’t care. Hi Jake, what brings you here?”
Jake shrugged as Marley pushed past him and ran back upstairs. “Um, Mike had to go do some emergency C-section on a cow so he swapped me for Van.” They were Mike’s words, not his, but he felt awkward as he repeated them.
Kris didn’t seem bothered by the trade. “Oh right. Have you had lunch? I was going to make a bacon and egg pie.” Seamus rubbed his hands together in anticipation as Jake flicked the hair out of his eyes and nodded.
“Yeah, I’d be up for that.”
Twenty minutes later, Marley was back, wearing a clean pair of Kris’s shorts and a light layer of makeup. Her hair was unbound and hung over her shoulders in gentle waves, and everyone in the kitchen stared at her as she bounced into the room.
“My God, you’ve even brushed your hair!” Kris exclaimed. “This must be a special occasion.”
Marley stuck her tongue out at her as Seamus joined in with teasing her.
“You are looking much less homeless than usual, Marzipan. Are you going to start wearing shoes now too?”
“Let’s not get carried away,” Marley replied as she pulled the pantry door open and started stuffing food into her backpack.
“What are you doing?” Kris demanded as two apples and a box of muesli bars disappeared into Marley’s bag.
“Making lunch.” She picked up a packet of chocolate biscuits, and Kris shook her head.
“Not those. Take that box of crackers if you have to have something else.”
“It’s not even half full,” Marley complained, shoving it into her bag anyway.
“You’re not feeding an army,” her sister replied. “There’s still ham in the fridge, you could make sandwiches.”
“Nah, this’ll do,” Marley said, zipping her bag shut. “Okay, I’m out of here. See you later.”
“What time will you be home?” Kris asked as her sister headed towards the door.
“I dunno. For dinner I guess. I’ve got my phone, I’ll text you.”
Kris hesitated, but she didn’t want to be too controlling, so she nodded. “Okay. Have fun.”
“I will!” Marley left the room, heading towards the front door as Kris turned and her eye caught on Jake, sitting at the table looking bored.
“Hey Mar, wait up.” She followed her sister down the hall. “Why don’t you invite Jake to go with you?”
“What?”
“Come on, he’s stuck here all day with nothing to do. You might as well.”
“But Mihi invited me, and I don’t know if there’ll be room on the boat,” Marley argued. “I can’t just turn up with him as well.”
“Why not?”
Marley rolled her eyes impatiently. She wanted to impress Mihi’s friends, and dragging Jake along wasn’t going to do her any favours, especially with the sullen mood that he’d been lately.
“Because it’s weird, having him tag along like a stray dog. Just because you don’t want to be stuck here with him, doesn’t mean you have to inflict him on me,” Marley complained. Kris just stared at her for a long moment, and Marley started to squirm. “I mean…I don’t mean that. Ugh, fine.” She marched back down the hall and stuck her head into the kitchen. “Hey Jake, you wanna come out on the boat?”
Jake shook his head. “Nah, you’re all right.”
But Kris urged him on. “Go on, you’ll enjoy it. It’ll be better than being stuck here with me and Seamus all day, trying to get his accounts into some kind of order.” She looked at Seamus, expecting a grin, but he looked oddly serious.
Marley was getting impatient. “Well? Hurry up if you’re coming.”
Jake hesitated a moment longer, glancing at Kris, then shrugged and got to his feet. “All right.”
“Good, let’s go.”
They left the room, and Kris sat down at the table, Jake’s lack of enthusiasm leaving her feeling oddly deflated. “He didn’t seem too excited. I hope he’s not too much of a drag on Marley. He can be so surly sometimes.”
Seamus raised an eyebrow as he picked up his pen and pulled a pile of receipts towards himself. “Well, you know how sound travels in this house, and you two weren’t exactly keeping it down in the hallway.”
“He heard what she said?” Seamus nodded, meeting Kris’s red face. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“And embarrass him further? He’ll be all right. Marley’s bark is worse than her bite, after all. Now, where were we?”
It was a hot day, and a thin layer of sweat mixed with Marley’s sunscreen as she strode up the road with Jake on her heels. He had barely spoken since they started walking, and after a couple of aborted attempts at conversation, Marley had given up and focused on the day ahead. The sun was blinding in the bright blue sky and there was barely a cloud in sight. She was looking forward to spending the day out on the water, and the weather was perfect for it.
But when they got to Mihi’s house, there didn’t seem to be anyone around. Marley knocked hard on the front door, but nobody answered. After a moment, she knocked louder, and eventually heard footsteps coming towards her.
