Sam

I’m tying Ziggy and Peppy up at the arena fence at around one fifteen when the door opens, and in walks Angel.

She’s wearing a skirt that’s black and comes to her knees, and a white short-sleeved shirt that says “Mike’s” above the pocket. She’s also wearing heels and her hair is pinned up. It brightens my day to see her.

Yeah I know I’m a sap. You don’t have to remind me.

When she sees me she comes over.

“Hey,” she says with a smile. “It was shorter from Mike’s to here than I thought. Like my uniform?” She twirls.

“Lovely,” I say, meaning it.

She makes a face as she scratches Peppy’s nose.

“Well, I’m going to change,” she holds up a bag, “and then brush Peppy.”

“Ok,” I say, and watch her go. However, she runs into Dan, and I watch them interact. When he leans down to kiss her, I turn away and take Ziggy’s saddle off him and lean it against the fence. Then I start to brush him.

I don’t get far, when Angel reappears, holding Peppy’s grooming supplies.

We brush our horses and chat for a few minutes, until Angel asks, “So what are you going to do with Peppy?”

“Well, I think I’m going to-“

”Harrison! Even if you are injured, it doesn’t mean that you can miss the safety speech! In fact, it means that you need to hear the speech more than everyone else! Stop batting your eyes and GET OVER HERE!”

That would be Rick, the health and safety boss. As in, health and safety are his department. Normally Doc would speak to us, but he’s not here. I roll my eyes as Angel blushes a little.

“See you in a bit,” I say, and walk over.

A few of the guys grin as Rick barks, “HARRISON! We’re WAITING!”

I get there and Rick starts reading down a list of names. He’s down toward the bottom of the list, and calls out, “SNYDER!”

I look around. Ben isn’t here. Lucky devil.

Unfortunately, he knows Angel is Ben’s sister, so he barks, “MISS SNYDER. A WORD?”

Angel comes over, looking slightly amused. ‘Yes?” she asks, an eyebrow raised.

A couple of the guys snicker, as Rick seems a little taken aback. Rick, of course, expects submission from everyone. But Angel doesn’t go by his rules. She sneaks a peek at me and I wink. She gives a barely noticeable nod. She’s not going to make this easy for him.

“Miss Snyder. Where’s your brother?”

“I don’t know. With Doc, I think,” she says innocently. “Oh wait, maybe not. He might be with Broc, or Jacques or maybe... Richard. Eavesdropping is hard you know. Well, maybe not if they were eavesdropping on you, because I’m pretty sure that they heard you in England.”

The guys all laugh as Rick turns a little red.

“Very well. Mr. Snyder is MIA.” Rick says.

“Oh, Mr. Snyder? You mean my dad? I thought you were talking about Ben!” she exclaims.

This gets another round of hoots and hollers.

“You can go now,” says Rick, beet red.

Angel walks past me as she leaves and says under her breath, “Ben skipped.”

I grin.

After calling out the remaining names, Rick starts the talk. Naturally, I zone out. I manage to sneak a peek at Angel partway through the talk. Of course, I’m not subtle.

“MR. HARRISON? What was I just saying?” Rick roars.

I look at him. “You were asking what you just said.”

I swear you can see steam coming out of Rick’s ears as the guys laugh once again.

“So Mr. Harrison,” he manages to say without yelling. “Are you that worried about your horse? Are you worried that your girlfriend won’t be able to take care of your horse? And are you that lazy so that you have your little girlfriend take care of your horse for you?”

Everyone is silent, as I contemplate what to do to Rick. I think boiling him in oil is too good a punishment. He can’t talk about Angel that way. I won’t let him.

“Well you wouldn’t have to be worrying about my horse if I wasn’t detained by this stupid talk. And quit picking on Angel. Isn’t she a little young for you?” I practically growl. The guys burst into laughter once again.

Rick looks at me with an expression of disgust, and I’m ready for whatever he’s planning on doing to me.

But then Ross steps in and says, “Let’s get back to the speech now, shall we?”

I finish the rest of the lecture without murder, and Ross walks over with me to see Angel.

“I have something to tell you guys,” he says as we walk over.

We reach Angel and I see that both our horses are shining.

“Hey Ross,” she exclaims, and gives him a hug.

I’m jealous.

Angel releases him, and there must be something in my expression, because she says, “Sam. Would you like a hug too?”

I grin, and Angel comes over and hugs me. I love it.

She lets me go, and Ross says, “Taylor wanted me to invite you guys to this party he’s throwing for no good reason on Saturday at his house at seven. Iggy and Ben are invited too. You up for it?”

“Sure,” I say.

“Sounds fun!” Angel exclaims. We promise to tell Iggy and Ben, and Ross goes to tell some other people.

“Ok,” I say, and Angel looks at me. “We can use the arena, and I’m going to take Peppy in and lunge him first, so I know what I’m up against.”

“Ok,” she agrees. “Do whatever you want.”

I lead him in, and it doesn’t take long before I see how obedient Peppy is. So I lead him to the fence where Angel’s standing. She scratches his ears as I say, “I’m going to try riding him. But I swear Angel, this horse is the most willing horse I’ve ver met. I bet he’d jump over the moon if you asked him too.” she smiles, and I amend, “well, at least he’d try. But I swear Angel, if you just got on him, you’d forget your worries.”

“We’ll see. You ride him first.” She hands me the saddle over the fence, and I saddle and bridle Peppy.

I mount up, and with me sitting on Peppy and her standing on the fence we’re roughly at the same level. I’m about to ride around the ring when Angel says, “Sam?”

I look at her. She’s looking down, and as I turn toward her, she looks up and smiles. “Just, thanks for helping me get past this. I know it’s silly, but I can’t help it.”

“If you just get on the horse, you’ll have so much fun you’ll forget about your worries. What happened before was a freak accident.”

“A freak accident?” asks, with a smile. “Or a freak having an accident?”

I grin and say, “Well . . .”

She laughs, then says, “Seriously though, thanks.”

She leans toward me and kisses, my cheek. She leans back and I tuck a loose piece of her hair back behind her ear. And before I lose my nerve, I go, “For you, anything.”

Then I turn and urge Peppy, onward. I ride around the ring, telling Peppy to do everything I can think of. Whenever I ride past Angel, I say something like, “boy, this is fun!” or “you should try it, I bet you’re a really good rider” or “man, I wish I had a horse like this. No offense, Ziggy!”

I finally stop in front of Angel again.

“Man, have you go yourself a treasure here!” I exclaim. “Are you sure you don’t want to try?”

She looks at me shaking her head, a smile on her face. “Fine, fine. You got me. I’ll try.”

I grin at her and say, “you won’t be sorry. I promise nothing bad will happen.”

I dismount, and she comes into the ring saying, “well . . . I’m trusting you Sam. If anything happens you will be held directly responsible.”

I place my hat on her head and she looks at me quizzically. “It’s also a helmet,” I say.

She nods, and gets on Peppy. She sits there for a moment, and I ask, “Well? How’s it going up there?”

She looks down at me and sighs. “Man do I feel like a fool!”

I grin, and start leading Peppy around the ring, but Angel seems completely relaxed. We start talking, and I let go of the reins without her knowing. So we keep walking, Peppy plodding around the arena like the calmest carousel horse.

After a while without Angel noticing me not holding the reins - don’t worry about the reins horse fans, they’ve been looped around the horn the whole time, not dragging in the dirt - I tell Angel, “Watch me for a second. I have something to show you.”

She looks at me, her eyes on my face, and I slowly walk backward into the middle of the ring. She doesn’t realize what’s happened until I’m about five feet away.

“Sam!” she exclaims. Peppy perks up his ears, but otherwise keeps plodding along.

“What?” I answer innocently.

She laughs, and when she reaches the fence where she was standing before, she tells Peppy to stop and I walk over. When I reach her, she dismounts Peppy and turns to face me.

She has a sheepish smile on her face as she says, “I never thought I’d say this, but thanks for making me feel like a fool. If I’d only just gotten back on Peppy before, I would have been worried for a year. Thanks,” she says again, and throws her arms around me, hugging me tightly.

And once again, I love it.

“No problem,” I say as she releases me and goes to praise Peppy. We decide not to do anything else today, as we both have to be getting home. She puts Peppy’s tack and grooming stuff in the car, still smiling, while I put Peppy’s halter on him and lead him home. Well, to his home. And as I lead him home, I can’t keep a smile off my face, either.

I still can’t believe how happy Angel is. And I caused her to be that happy. All I did was encourage her. And she kissed my cheek, and she hugged me. Twice. All-in-all, a good day.

I meet her at the barn at her house, hand her Peppy, say good-bye and ride home. I reach home and give Ziggy a brief brushing, then let him loose.

I spend the rest of the day cleaning and organizing the barn. And thinking about Angel. But because I was forced to by my mom. Forced to clean the barn, not think about Angel.

Mom calls me in to eat dinner. As we eat we talk, and I tell Iggy about Taylor’s party Saturday, while wondering how he found such a good hiding spot from mom when she was looking for someone to clean the barn. After we eat, Dad goes to read the paper, Ig goes to our room - jeez, he must have a radar when it comes to chores - and I have to help Mom clear the table. I’m not complaining, but I wish Iggy would tell me his secret to escaping chores.

As we put things away, my mom begins a conversation that insults me.

She begins, “Sam, your father and I were talking last night, and we deemed it inappropriate for you two to sneak off like that. What were you two doing?”

I know my parents mean well, but this is insulting. What do they think we did? Considering this is an insult to me and Angel, and my mom sprang this on me without warning, I sense no need to play nice.

So I tell her what she doesn’t want to hear. I know I’m being completely rude, and normally I’m friendly and stuff, but occasionally - ok, when I get mad - my smart aleck-y side comes out. So I begin to say in a perfectly normal voice, what - didn’t - happen.

“I really hadn’t wanted you to find out, but now you grilled us. But seriously, except for this moment I thought you were ok with it. I mean, you even helped it along.”

My mom is taken aback. “What?” she asks.

“You know, helping us plan the meeting at the arena today? You see, yesterday when we were upstairs, we were talking, and one thing led to another, and your aid in the planning helped us make everything better.”

“What? What the hell happened Sam?” my mom asks, still not turned around to face me.

Whoa. I am definitely going to regret this. My mom has never really cursed when she was trying to get me to tell her something. I mean, come on. I’m the nice one. Sorry Iggy.

So I press on into my doom. “You see mom, you helped us finalize our plans. We’re eloping to Vegas because,” I lower my voice and I can see her stiffen, “Iggy’s going to be an uncle.”

She whirls around and gives me the evilest glare I’ve ever seen her give. I fold my arms and raise an eyebrow. When she finally sees I’m kidding, she raises a hand to her forehead and groans.

“Samuel Chadwick Harrison,” she says firmly. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again.”

So I being dead three times over already, play the smart aleck again and say, “Mother, then you and Father never insinuate something like that about me again.”

She raises an eyebrow at this, but says, “Fine.”

We’re in this kind of stare-down, when she goes back to what she was doing, and says, “you really like her don’t you?”

“What makes you say that?”

“You’ve never gotten this angry in an argument before. You’ve also never called us ‘mother’ and ‘father’ before.” I think about that and Mom continues, “it’s fine if you like her. We like her too. We just wanted to know what you were doing.”

“Fine. We just talked. That’s it.”

“Ok Sam. I believe you.”

She goes to leave the kitchen so I’d be free, but I have to spill it now that she nailed me.

“Mom, I love her.”

Mom looks at me. “Are you sure it’s the real thing?”

“Yes.”

“Then follow your heart,” Mom replies. “And hope it guides you well.”

I walk over to puzzle what she said for the rest of the night. Ok, I think about it at least until my head hits the pillow.

I wake up late the next day, so I hurry out of bed and get dressed. I head downstairs to make breakfast. I’m putting a bagel in the toaster, when mom comes in and says, “I forgot to tell you last night, but Doc called and said you could take your bandage off, and keep it off, if when you move your wrist it doesn’t hurt.”

I unwrap the bandage immediately and move my wrist. It doesn’t hurt.

“All better,” I say.

I roll up the bandage as Mom continues, “Your dad went into town for something, and Angel called. She says she has your hat, and wondered when she could bring it over. I told her anytime, and that you’d be in the barn probably.”

I butter my bagel - which has popped up from the toaster - and ask, “when did she call?”

“About half-an-hour ago.”

“I’ll be in the barn,” I say, taking my bagel with me, eating it as I walk out the door.

Iggy’s down at the barn already, doing chores. I quickly feed the horses while ig finishes mucking. While the horses finish their breakfast, I finish mine.

Iggy comes up and asks, “why were you late this morning? Dreaming about the ‘One With Wings”?”

“No,” I growl. “And you better lay off it because she’s coming over sometime to give me my hat.”

“Oh. So you proposed, and gave her your hat because you didn’t have a ring, only now she’s rejecting you and giving it back?”

“You should try writing stories,” I say, “because you’re good at creating them.”

I start brushing Zig since he’s finished eating.

Iggy now says, “Maybe I will. I’ll write a story about a super-hero. Her name is ‘Winged Wonder’ and she’ll have a magic halo of truth. She’ll also have to keep rescuing the one who is practically fixated on her, ‘Lovesick Loser’ who keeps getting into trouble. But she only speaks to him when she rescues him, and other than that won’t give him the time of day -“

I lunge at Ig, and tackle him. Maybe I should have considered ‘wrestler’ or ‘football player’ as a career. It would have come in handy.

Unfortunately, I tackle Ig but he’s really for it, so we wrestle in the barn aisle until someone says, “So this is what guys do in the morning.”

I look up. It’s Angel.

Ig and I release each other and start brushing ourselves off. Iggy goes to saddle Mira while I open Zig’s stall and say, “Good morning Angel. If you have a few minutes, would you like to help me groom Zig? I’ve already done his feet.”

“With an offer like that, how can I say no?” she teases, then comes into the stall.

She’s wearing her own helmet - hat and places mine on my head.

“Thank you kind lady,” I say while she laughs and picks up a brush.

Then she responds with, “You are most welcome sir gentleman.”

Grooming doesn’t take long, and as I saddle Zig, Angel puts his grooming stuff away. Iggy has already left the barn with Mira to ride, so we’re alone.

When Angel comes out and sees Ziggy all saddled, she says, “Well, I guess I should go.”

“No! I mean, you don’t have to go. Why don’t you ride with me for a little bit? Like for fifteen minutes?” I hurriedly backtrack, practically pleading, and she looks at me with a bemused expression.

“Ride?” she asks.

“On the same horse,” I clarify.

“If you insist,” she says smiling.

We go outside near the fence, and I mount up. I guide Zig so he’s standing near the fence and instruct Angel, until she’s sitting astride Ziggy, behind me, her arms around my waist.

“Do you want to go slow or fast?” I ask, conscious of her arms around me.

“Whichever you want. I know I’m safe with you.”

So we ride around, having fun. I tell Ziggy to walk and jog, and we even lope a little, until I notice one of the bells on my saddle is coming loose. I tell Angel about it as I get off, and she says she’ll be fine just sitting on Ziggy while I go to the tack room and see if there’s anything that will fix the bell.

So I open the tack room door, happy that I convinced Angel to ride with me for a little while. I open the door, and there’s Sophie. I shut the door behind me as she begins to talk.

“How could you choose her over me?” she asks furiously.

“Easily,” I say. “You weren’t even in the running. Besides, I barely know you.”

“And you think you know her better?” she asks icily. “Even after moving away and back?”

“I don’t think I know her better, I know I know her better,” I respond, wondering how she knows I moved away and back, and why she even bothers when it’s obvious I don’t care for her in that way.

Wait. Could that also be about Angel and me?

No. Angel doesn’t know how I feel.

Does she?

Sophie steps in front of me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Well, if you think you don’t know me enough, we can change that very easily,” she says, and kisses me.

At that exact moment, the tack room door opens. I break the unwanted kiss, and there’s Angel, eyes averted, a blush on her cheeks.

She mumbles ‘sorry’ and turns to leave. I follow her.

“Angel!” I call. She turns but won’t look at me. I feel desperate to explain.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen. What you saw. What were you coming to tell me?”

“Iggy is holding Ziggy because I have to go to work. And I wanted to tell you goodbye. So bye,” she finishes, and leaves, still not looking at me.

I watch her go, my heart hurting, feeling like I’ve betrayed her.