Stable Groom Read Free Page A

wife, whoever she might be. They hadthought she might distract Max from his horses and want him to stay at home. But they hadn’t counted on a fiery redhead like Deborah Hale coming into his life. Deborah’s own career as a prize-winning Washington, D.C., journalist left her little time for distracting Max. If anything, Max had to distract her. When she came to Pine Hollow, she was eager to learn as much as she could about Max’s business. She threw herself wholeheartedly into life on the farm and, since the beginning of their engagement, had won the respect of everyone there. Now there was no doubt in the minds of The Saddle Club that she was the perfect match for Max.
    “We have to decide on a date,” Lisa reminded Carole and Stevie as they got up to go back to the stables. Lunch hour was almost over, and the unmounted meeting would resume in five minutes.
    “I was thinking about that, and I think it should be on Saturday, the twentieth,” Carole said. “We have a Horse Wise meeting that day, so we could plan it for right after. That way, a lot of the people we’re planning to invite would be here already.”
    “And it’s only a week before the wedding. There would be no chance of Max forgetting to invite us to something that close,” Stevie said.
    Lisa agreed that the date was a good one. It alsogave them plenty of time to get organized, which, with The Saddle Club, was always a plus.
    On their way back, an inspiration came to Stevie. “Listen, if it’s the custom to give the
bride
a
shower
, then maybe what we’re doing is giving the
groom
a
bath
?”
    Lisa and Carole laughed, but they liked the idea a lot. They decided to dub their plan the “Groom’s Bath.” It was such a strange name that they figured no one would be able to guess what they were up to.
    “Now, who’s going to bring the food?” Lisa asked, getting right to the important things as usual.
    Before Stevie or Carole could respond, the conversation was interrupted by the unmistakable sound of Veronica diAngelo screeching. Veronica had skipped lunch to go riding, as she often did these days. Since she was totally uninterested in horse care, she thought unmounted meetings were a huge waste of time. So that she wouldn’t “waste the entire day,” as she put it, she had started riding during the break. Now she jumped to the ground, flinging her reins angrily at Red O’Malley.
    “Thanks to you, I had a terrible ride!” she fairly screamed. The loud noise made Garnet prance uneasily. Red put a soothing hand on the Arabian’s neck, not bothering to respond to Veronica’s latest tantrum.
    “Did you hear me? Garnet behaved horribly, and it was your fault. You intentionally put this harsh bit on her to make her uncomfortable. Obviously a horse this sensitive doesn’t need a bit like this! Poor thing, she was so nervous and scared, she could barely walk.”
    Red sighed. In a quiet, polite voice, he reminded Veronica that she had specifically asked him to switch Garnet’s usual bit for the more severe one.
    “I did
not
!” Veronica exclaimed. She eyed Red menacingly. “How dare you say that! How dare you talk back to me! Or have you forgotten who’s the paying customer around here and who’s the stable hand? I guess I’ll just have to have my father talk to Max about you.” With that final threat, Veronica stormed off into the barn.
    As usual, Red had taken a tongue-lashing from Veronica with incredible patience. Watching her go, he merely shook his head. Then he rolled up the stirrups on Garnet’s saddle, loosened the girth, and began cooling off the sweaty horse.
    The Saddle Club looked at one another angrily. Veronica’s treatment of Red was nothing new, and lately she seemed more out of control than ever.
    “The sad thing is that Red knows what she said is true: She’s the paying boarder, and the diAngelos willmake trouble for Max if she doesn’t get her way,” Carole said quietly.
    “And Red doesn’t want Max to have to