Castaway Colt Read Free Page B

out.
    Tomorrow would have been a fresh start, Darby thought, if Megan—star forward on her soccer team—hadn’t missed an important game.
    The team had lost.
    You should have heard all my teammates. They wouldn’t stop harassing me until I told them the whole stupid story, Megan had said, rolling her eyes as she’d explained to Darby that instead of taking the blame in silence, she’d admitted she’d missed the game because she’dhad to make sure her city-slicker houseguest—Darby—hadn’t broken her neck after jumping off a cliff to rescue a horse.
    Darby hoped the students at Lehua High School had more to do with their brain cells than remember her name.
    â€œHere comes the story we’ve been waiting for,” Megan said suddenly. “It’s something about a missing horse.”
    A missing horse? On the news? Darby’s mind started making connections.
    â€œHey, I bet—”
    But Aunty Cathy was already shouting, “Jonah! You’ll want to see this!”
    â€œI won’t,” his booming voice insisted, but Darby heard her grandfather padding down the hall.
    Darby was surprised to see him. Jonah usually worked until Kimo had left for the day and Cade and Kit had gone to the foreman’s house for dinner.
    Rubbing his wet hair with a towel, her grandfather pointed at Darby. “Why didn’t you see off that old gelding that was bothering your filly?”
    â€œI did,” Darby said, confused.
    â€œGood,” Jonah answered, then left the towel hanging around his neck as he faced the television’s scratchy picture. “Now hush.”
    As they all stared at the screen in silence, Darby made out a surfer gliding along a white-tipped waveand the sound of strumming ukuleles.
    â€œWhat’s that got to do with a lost horse?” Jonah grumbled.
    â€œIt’ll be on after the commercial,” Aunty Cathy said. She was standing, but she didn’t leave the room.
    â€œThey showed Babe in the little preview thing,” Megan assured Jonah.
    â€œDressed like an angel.” Jonah’s sarcasm suggested that he didn’t consider his sister angelic.
    â€œEverything up at Sugar Sands Cove is white. It’s their signature color,” Megan explained. “I think it’s cool.”
    â€œCool,” Jonah repeated. “My big sister is very cool when it comes to money.”
    Darby’s brow tightened in a frown, but she kept quiet. She hadn’t yet met her wealthy great-aunt.
    â€œMakes me crazy up there,” Jonah muttered. “And now she’s got the pupule idea that throwing away money will make her more.”
    Aunty Cathy handed Darby the gym clothes, but kept her eyes focused on the television as she said, “Sometimes it’s true that you’ve got to spend money to make money.”
    â€œBut those tourist rides,” Jonah grumbled.
    Tourist rides at Sugar Sands Cove or ‘Iolani Ranch? Darby wondered. ‘Iolani was a working ranch, and Darby had figured out that every hour of every day was needed to keep it running. Just as she was about to ask for details, the news came back on.
    â€œA Moku Lio Hihiu innkeeper makes an appeal for the return—”
    â€œInnkeeper.” Jonah sneered, but this time both Megan and Aunty Cathy shushed him.
    â€œâ€”and tells how a valuable cremello foal was swept overboard during a struggle with the sea…”
    The screen was filled with the vivacious, concerned face of a Hawaiian woman with short, shingled hair and slick mango-colored lipstick.
    â€œI just hope he’s okay. He’s such a baby,” she said.
    â€œBabe Kealoha Borden is best known for the world-class Sugar Sands Cove Resort, which she opened with her internationally famous polo-player husband…”
    So that was her great-aunt Babe, Darby thought.
    The reporter’s voice continued as photographs showed Babe in gauzy white, floating