It was only the second event of the horse show. She should have known she would get herself into trouble the minute she went along with one of Laura’s crazy schemes. Laura Kelsey, who was very far along in her first pregnancy, had persuaded Emily to volunteer to help out at the riding club’s annual charity horse show while she stayed home and took care of Emily’s ailing parents.
She watched the horse and rider running in the arena vaguely, with an amateur’s eyes. The action in the arena meant less than nothing to her. She didn’t know anyone there, had no knowledge of horses or horse shows, and she was not coping very well with her first introduction to them. The horses were large beasts, hairy, smelly and covered with sweat. They left muddy spots of smelly urine and the huge piles of smelly manure on the ground behind them was even worse! It drew flies by the dozens. It was hard to avoid stepping in some of it, sooner or later. Sooner in Emily’s case.
Not only that, but some of the gigantic beasts pitched a fit before going into the arena. They terrified Emily. Even worse, some of the them acted as if they were going to smash through the fence coming out. And, to top it off, one of the great beasts had sneezed on her! Yuck!
Emily decided she was going to kill Laura when she got home. Just because Laura was eight months pregnant she thought it would be too hard on her to work all day at the charity horse show. Ha! She was probably even lying about having a difficult pregnancy just so she could convince Emily to come help out at the show in her place. Emily thought back once again to the conversation she had with Laura.
Laura had made it sound like helping out at the horse show would be fun, selling Emily on the idea of taking a day off from the grinding routine of dealing with her father’s terminal cancer and her mother, who was in the early stages of senile dementia. She pushed Emily to get out of the house and meet some new people. Laura stressed how nice the members of the riding club were. She pleaded that the dust and the unseasonable heat were too much for her at that stage of her pregnancy. She complained that there wasn’t any place at the arena that was comfortable for her to sit and put her swollen feet up. She even laughed away Emily’s protests that she didn’t know anything about horses.
“They’ll stick you in the food stand, or ask you to help out the announcer or the show secretary, something like that. You’ll hardly even see a horse. I’ll have Kate and her husband, Bob, watch out for you. Trust me.” Laura conned her with a smile before continuing, “And you know that I’ll take good care of your folks, I’ll even get Jack to help me.”
“Well. . .” Emily hesitated.
“Come on Emily, let’s trade places, just for one day.” Laura persuaded, “Jack and I will take care of your folks and you can help out at the charity show. It benefits the American Cancer Society.”
“But I don’t know anything about horses,” Emily protested weakly, “and I think I’m afraid of them.”
“Chicken!” Laura teased in a gentle tone. “I’ll take care of it. You won’t even have to go near a horse. Do it Em, you might even meet a cute cowboy.”
“Sure, and what cute cowboy would be interested in me?” Emily muttered.
“Stop it, Em,” Laura snapped, her temper flaring. “I’ll tell you what kind of cute cowboy would be interested in you, a smart one! One who could see what a really terrific person you are.”
“Oh sure,” Emily said, shaking her head sadly. “I’ll keep an eye out for him.”
“I’m sure you will,” Laura said softly, “just so you can push him away.”
“Laura,” Emily was suddenly suspicious, “this business of me going to a horse show isn’t just one of your famous set-ups, is it? You wouldn’t dare do that to me, would, you?”
Laura was infamous for her skill and success at matchmaking.
“You know me, Emily.” She grinned widely. “What do you think?”
“Never mind, it wouldn’t work anyway.” Emily smiled sadly as she went out the door. “I’ll probably be your only failure.”
Emily never knew that Laura had grinned at the closed door and stuck out her tongue before saying to the empty room, “Wanna bet?”
So the job trade had taken place. Laura, the riding club’s show secretary, was taking care of her parents, and Emily was standing in the hot sun at the horse show, covered with dust, acting as a very unglorified doorman for rowdy gymkhana horses. Kate and her husband had not shown up because two of her children had come down with the flu. To top it off, the people who were in charge of the horse show ignored her protests that she didn’t like horses or know anything about them and put her on duty at the arena gate.
“You can open and close a gate, can’t you?” a harried woman said, pointing Emily towards the arena.
Emily had learned several things about horse shows: to keep out of the way of the horses’ hooves, to lean against the fence and pretend to watch the event, and most importantly she was to never, ever open the gate until she was sure the rider inside was ready to exit the arena. Emily had even learned a few new words, words she was sure she’d never use herself, words like: hoof pick, sweat scraper, and pole bending.
Emily was jerked back to the present when a horse stopped right in front of her, kicking up a small cloud of dust and dirt that showered over her. It caused her to blink her eyes and cough.
“Hey Ma’am,” a male voice said with a subtle trace of amusement, “you gonna open that gate or do I have to make Target here jump over it?”
“Sorry.” Emily nearly jumped as she looked up at the rider on the other side of the fence. He was grinning at her, a warm friendly grin and he was gorgeous. Emily was stunned.
“Of course I’ll open it.” A rare hint of humor crept into her voice as she returned the smile. “Unless you want to just pick up that horse there and toss him over it.”
“No ma’am.” The cowboy winked at her. “I think I’ll just let you open the gate so I can go through the normal way, if it’s all the same to you.”
“As long as you’re sure.” Emily managed to sound doubtful as she opened the gate and let the rider out.
She watched him as he rode away, then waited until the next rider went in before closing the gate again.
Surprisingly, she was beginning to relax. Unfortunately the next horse shattered that tiny bit of calm because it shied from entering the arena. This was one of the recalcitrant horses, intent on backing away from the opening his rider was asking him to go through. He was causing a lot of trouble, bumping into other horses and upsetting them. He took one step in and pushed back. He pushed the gate against Emily, who was backed up against another fence, sandwiching her. Emily was terrified, afraid of being crushed to death on the spot, when suddenly the pressure on her eased as the cowboy swung off his horse and quickly worked his way in beside her, pushing hard on the gate and yelling at the horse and rider.
“Damn it, Mark!” he yelled at the horse’s rider. “Get him off this gate before you scare this girl to death!”
“Sorry!” Mark yelled, kicking frantically.
Even as he kicked at the horse, two other men came behind the animal and locked arms behind the horse’s massive hindquarters, while a third grabbed the reins and pointed the horse’s head into the arena. Careful to avoid the animal’s hooves, the men pushed the horse into the arena. As the horse moved forward the cowboy next to Emily began to shut the gate, keeping a pressure on the horse, so that the only open space for the animal was the actual arena.
Some of the other riders even got behind the horse and slapped his rump, clicking at him and at the same time avoiding the horse’s hind hooves. They grabbed the reins and led the horse up to the edge of the gate. The longer all this went on, the more frightened Emily became. Due to