The Wild One Read Free

skirt with a pale blue blouse. Sam noticed its pattern of little red hearts, just before a hug closed around her.
    â€œGram.” Sam’s throat felt tight, but she fought back tears. She didn’t need to look like a wimp already.
    Gram hadn’t missed a week of writing to her in San Francisco. Almost all the news Sam received from the ranch came from Gram.
    â€œBesides, Sam looks like a nice young lady. Not a weasel.” Gram touched Sam’s hair, reminding her of the mistake she’d made cutting it. “You’ll see that for yourself, Jake, when you’ve showered up for dinner and washed the dust out of your eyes.”
    Calling the midday meal “dinner” instead of lunch was one more thing Sam had forgotten.
    When Dad hefted her backpack and duffle bag, Sam wished he’d put them down. She could wait to get inside the house. She could wait to breathe the remembered smells of woodsmoke and coffee and to fling herself down on the patchwork-quilted bed she knew Gram had kept ready for her. She could not wait to see her horse.
    â€œWhere’s Ace?” she blurted.
    â€œLet me drop these inside and I’ll show you.” Dad shrugged the backpack higher up his shoulder and walked toward the house.
    â€œYou’re givin’ her Ace?” Jake shouted after Dad. “Ace?” Jake yelled again, but the screen door had slammed closed. “You gotta be kidding.” Jake rubbed the back of his neck, then faced Sam. He looked her over for just a second too long. Then said,“Ace’s smarter than you and me put together.”
    â€œThen he and I ought to do just fine.” Sam looked down at Blaze. Since the Border collie was begging her to rub his ears, she did.
    â€œYeah? You’re quite some rider, are you, Zorro?”
    Sam looked up. She thought Jake’s eyes clouded with something like worry, but she must have misread his look. Jake’s joke had been aimed at her black tee shirt, black jeans, and black sneakers.
    â€œExcuse me.” Sam placed a hand against her chest and pretended to apologize. “Guess I’ve been in civilization so long I just plumb ran out of cowboy duds.”
    She didn’t mention she’d only ridden four times in two years, and all four times had been in a stable’s riding ring. She sure didn’t tell Jake he’d hit on the one thing she was really worried about.
    â€œYou kids knock it off,” Dad said as he returned from the house. He sounded amused, though, not a bit mad.
    â€œI was only telling Sam how glad I am to see her.” Jake’s arm circled Sam’s shoulders. Although his voice brimmed with sarcasm, Sam felt a genuine warmth in Jake’s hug.
    This might turn into her best summer yet.
    Â 
    Ace was runty. Fourteen hands at best, he stood alone.
    When Sam came to the fence, the other horses lifted their heads and swished their tails with faintinterest. A little grass fell from their lips before they went back to grazing.
    Not Ace. If a horse could put his hands on his hips and look as if he were asking “And what do you want?” that’s exactly what Ace did.
    His hide glowed a nice warm bay and he had neat white hind socks, but a scar made a long line of lighter hair on his neck.
    â€œAce!” Sam held out a hand and smooched to him.
    For a heartbeat, Ace was a horse transformed. His tiny head tilted sideways. His back-cast ears pricked up, black tips curving in. He pranced forward with the fluid grace of a dressage horse—until he saw that Sam’s hand was empty.
    Ace planted all four legs with a stiffness, which showed he was insulted.
    â€œTold you he was smart.” Jake laughed.
    â€œI wasn’t trying to trick him!” Sam said. “I just wanted him to come over and let me rub his ears.”
    From the ranch house porch, Gram clanged something metal against a triangle. She didn’t shout “Come and get it,” but they all