Winter Circuit (The Show Circuit -- Book 2) Read Free

competing abroad. But his number one horse, Nova, had gotten hurt at Devon, and then both Nova and his other top horse, Titan, had been pulled out from him by his sponsor, millionaire tycoon Harris Delaney.
    I was definitely a contributing factor in Harris pulling his horses, since my former best friend Zoe had posted a fake online journal, supposedly written by me, that detailed my sex life with Chris. I’d learned that top grand prix riders had to have impeccable reputations—or at least that some owners tolerated debauchery more than others did. Because, of course, where there were top classes, big prize money, cocky men, and pretty girls there was debauchery aplenty. Harris might have also pulled his horses because his second wife told him to, after Chris declined her advances. But either way, by the end of the summer, Chris was down to two horses—one of which was my Logan, a recently reformed children’s jumper with possible potential.
    “Sounds like you have to go,” I told Chris. I didn’t want to have him tell me he had to go and the longer I stayed on the phone with him, the more likely it was that I wouldn’t be able to hide my true state of emotions.
    Two weeks. I had to hold it together for two weeks and then I’d see Chris.

 
    Chapter 3
    I was supposed to get more excited about Chris coming as his visit grew nearer. I imagined I’d also stop obsessing about Mary Beth. But the opposite happened—and I couldn’t figure out why. I stalked Chris’s Facebook page and Instagram account and Mary Beth’s too. Sometimes I just stared at photos of her. Most of the photos she posted were of her competing. Soaring over impressive looking jumps, often in Europe. Lush green grass fields paired with primary colored jumps. There were shots of her walking the course and on the medal platform after a Nations Cup class. Then there were the occasional what I would call, “Stars—They’re Just Like Us” photos. A picture of Mary Beth’s top horse curled up in his stall with Mary Beth’s adorable rescue dog snuggled up beside him. Mary Beth grazing her horse under a beautiful sunset. If I looked back far enough on her timeline I could find Chris. Them standing next to each other on the medal platform, caught smiling at each other while walking a course, and my least favorite photo and the one I stared at most: Chris, in the middle of the ring after the Central Park Horse Show, spraying MB with a bottle of champagne that must have been given as a prize. Chris had won the grand prix and Mary Beth had come in second.
    From looking at her timeline you wouldn’t necessarily know that she and Chris had been a couple. And not just any couple but the circuit’s young royal couple—show jumping’s Will and Kate pre-marriage and babies. It would have been a lot worse if Mary Beth were a regular twenty-something woman. Then there would be the obligatory photos of her and Chris, lips plastered together, or totally drunk. There would have been the inane postings of “Feeling grateful for my boyfriend today, who always brings me my favorite coffee” and the heart emoticons. But Mary Beth and Chris were professional athletes and so their Facebook pages and Instagram accounts were for promoting an important, successful, and mature image.
    Mary Beth came across as pretty, talented, and driven. And looking at that persona as I sat hunched over on my bed, tablet on my lap, blanket pulled half over my head, made me feel even more worthless. Why would Chris be interested in me when he could have her? Everything that had happened between us in Vermont seemed fake, like it was a figment of my imagination. Or at the very least like it was only possible because Mary Beth had been away in Europe and Chris had been desperate. Maybe he’d picked me on purpose. Maybe I was just the kind of disposable interval girlfriend he needed until he and Mary Beth realized they couldn’t live without each other a minute longer. If he had dated