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Chapter One

Monday, May 21st.

Wild Stallion Ranch.

“It’s so quiet without the girls,” said Billy. “I’m not sure I’m going to like only seeing them on the weekend.”

“Marilyn is going to let us know the days we can come to watch them train,” I said. “That’s what I’m looking forward to.”

“Me too,” said Harlan. “I want to see twenty hot girls riding their horses like wild women.”

Billy laughed. “Yeah, it’s going to be fun when we get to do that.”

I cleared the table and stacked the dishes in the sink for later. Harlan and I had chores to do before we left for the station.

“Never been in the habit of missing anybody,” Harlan said as we walked to the barn, “but it is kind of lonely without Lucy and Tammy.”

I laughed. “I was so used to having Tammy with me all the time, when I came back to Montana to help Billy out, I felt like I was lost.”

“She like your real daughter?”

“More like that because she needed me a lot at first. More than she does now. She grew up a lot, and she’s learned so much in the past few months. I’m happy for her.”

“She come from a foster home?”

“Worse than that. No foster home could compare to the one she was in. She doesn’t talk about it much. She’ll tell you when she wants you to know.”

Harlan nodded his head and climbed the stairs to the loft to get a bale of hay down for Outlaw and Windrider.

Pellegrino Ranch. Shelby.

Tammy and Lucy slept in the barracks overnight for the first time. They’d met the other girls the night before at the little meet and greet party that Marilyn put on and some of them were nice, others a little harder to get to know.

Tammy was worried she wasn’t as good a rider as the other girls and the only barrel racing she’d done was on the course set up at Coulter-Ross. Terrified she’d be the worst girl there, she cried, and Lucy got mad at her for acting like a baby.

When they were getting ready to go into the dining hall for breakfast, Lucy was excited. “Come on, Tam, this is going to be so much fun. I can’t wait to get started.”

Tammy didn’t move fast enough to suit Lucy, and Lucy snapped at her, “Would you please stop worrying so much and relax? This is a beginners’ course and Marilyn and her helpers do not expect us to be champions on the first day.”

“That’s true,” said Tammy. “We’re only beginners.”

“Let’s sit with the nice girls we met last night.”

“Which ones did you like the best?” asked Tammy.

“Sage is from Texas, like us. And I liked Sylvie too. She’s from Alberta, up in Canada. Mommy is Canadian and look how nice she is.”

“Right,” said Tammy. “Mama is Canadian, and we should be nice to Canadian girls.”

“I wish Harlan was here,” said Lucy. “I want him to see me race.”

Tammy giggled. “I wonder if he’s missing us.”

“Course he is. He’s got no other girls to love, only us.”

“Hope he doesn’t get a girlfriend while we’re gone,” said Tammy.

“How could he?” asked Lucy. “He doesn’t have his driver’s license yet.”