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“I have a good feeling about this new jockey,” I say.
“You got a new jockey?” Ronnie looks surprised.
“Yeah. I didn’t tell you?”
Ronnie gives me a suspicious look. “This doesn’t have to do with the fact that Jenni has Valentine racing again, does it?”
“Hey, I’m just trying to keep my edge.”
“You were doing great with your other jockey. Why switch it up?”
“You know why.”
Ronnie grins. “Why don’t you tell me?”
Ugh. I don’t want to. “Because Valentine beat Thunder with the old jockey, and I feel the need to switch it up,” I mumble.
“I’m sorry, what was that? Did you say it’s because you’re scared Valentine will beat Thunder?” Ronnie teases.
“Whose side are you on, anyway?” I mount Dash and grab the reins.
Jake finishes up saddling Dragon, and then Ronnie swings into the saddle.
“Valentine’s, of course.”
“Traitor.”
Ronnie throws his head back and laughs, and we head out on the trail I have on my property. My phone buzzes in my front pocket, but I don’t pull it out. “Going back to the Amanda topic. She just reached out to me today.”
We head into the woods, down a trail.
“No kidding. What did she want?”
I fill him in on the details of my exchange with Amanda. I know Amanda is a sore spot between us, so I tread lightly. But if she’s going to be in town, he needs to be prepared.
We come out of the woods into a clearing that overlooks the little town of Blue Mountain nestled among the hills, and we stop and take in the view. My house is situated up the hill from the Finleys’ property and my parents’ place as well. I can see the lake where we were swimming and the Finley’s main house on the other side of a patch of woods. My parents’ historic home peeks at us through the trees and their horses grazing in the clearing look like tiny toys from here.
“My phone buzzed while we were on the trail just now.” I pull it out of my front pocket since we’re stopped.
“Is it a text from her?” Ronnie leans over like he’d be able to see the text from where he is.
“No, this one is from my mom. It looks like Amanda has reached out to her and asked her if she could stay at her place.”
“Oh, great. Your mom is involved now. This ought to be fun.”
I grit my teeth. “Yeah. A total blast. Woohoo.” I spin a finger in the air.
“Do you think she’s after more money? She could have gotten a lot more out of you than she did when you divorced, and maybe she’s interested in patching things up to get more.”
“I didn’t even think of that. You know what my biggest fear is here?” I say. “It’s my mom. What if she tries to push me to patch things up with Amanda?”
“You think your mom would do that?”
“She was just talking about how she thought I could have tried harder to save our marriage. She’s desperate for a grandkid.” I prod Dash forward, and we fly down the hill to the pasture. There’s a reason this horse used to race. His powerful legs tear into the ground as his hooves pound across the grass.
Dragon’s hoof-beats sound behind me, and I slow Dash to a walk. He falls in line beside me. I have a racetrack set up on my property for my racehorses to practice on. Since no one is using it right now, I lead him over to it and enjoy a few laps with the air hitting my face and ruffling through my hair.
The more I think about Amanda coming into town, the more appealing that date with Jenni sounds. I don’t expect it to go anywhere, but I don’t want Amanda getting any bright ideas about turning into a gold-digger either.