"How many clear?"
"Three of us."
"When do you go?"
"First."
"Oh, Casey, no," Jennifer wailed.
Casey laughed. "Watch."
Travis boosted her up, and she trotted toward the schooling ring. She turned suddenly. "Jennifer, if you're late..."
The three of them ran to the stands to get a good place to watch.
"What's wrong with being first?" Travis asked. He was glad she was first, glad to get it over with.
"Oh, everything. You really have to go for time, since you don't know how anyone else will do--you don't get to watch anyone. Sometimes the last rider knows all she has to do is go clear--first, and you have to be clear and fast."
Travis stared unseeingly at the jump crew taking down the top rails of some of the jumps, raising some of the others. The jump-off course was shorter, tighter, higher.
"You know, I think she broke some ribs yesterday."
"That's nothing," said Kelsey. "Two years ago she rode all day with one arm in a cast and was reserve champion."
"The Star Runner, on course."
The Star Runner trotted sideways into the ring, Casey holding him together like a coiled spring. Then the time buzzer sounded and the Star Runner shot forward like the head of a striking snake.
It was wrong, all wrong. Travis had been watching this stuff for weeks and nobody could jump at this speed, the horse would run right through the fences. Nobody could make those turns, pivoting two strides in front of the jumps, turning in midair like a cat, changing direction like a slammed tennis ball without slowing--
Casey, with the first visible effort Travis could catch, swung the Star Runner around just in time to keep him from jumping the exit gate.
She was through, it was over, and they hadn't touched a rail.
The crowd was frozen. Then Kelsey yelled, "Yea, Casey!" and a blast of applause boomed across the ring. Usually each barn cheered its own riders--this was the first time Travis had seen everyone in the stands on their feet clapping.
"Time for the Star Runner: nineteen point nine seven seconds."
Behind Travis a voice said, "That will teach me to ride against an ex-barrel racer."
Travis turned around, and the two remaining riders, a man in his early thirties, and a girl on a horse rumored to cost fifty thousand dollars, sat shaking their heads.
"Well, I'm going to save my neck, my horse, and my insurance," said the man. He did the course in twenty-six seconds with one rail down. The girl made an effort--you could see it really amazed her to hear her time of twenty-three seconds. It wasn't until after her round that Travis realized he'd been gripping the arena rail so hard his hands were going numb.
"First place goes to the Star Runner, owned and ridden by Casey Kencaide," said the loudspeaker. Casey, on foot, trotted the Star Runner into the arena to pick up the ribbon and silver trophy. She took her prizes with a remote smile--a king of a conquering army accepting baubles, still reliving the battle.
Travis joined in the clapping, moving like a sleepwalker to the exit gate with the chattering girls.
"Casey, that was wonderful!"
"Congratulations!"
"Great, great ride!"
"Thanks." She smiled back at every compliment.
"Let me cool him off," begged Kelsey. Casey handed her the reins and she walked off with the gray as proudly as a groupie with a rock star.
"Go get Sandman warmed up while I change," Casey said to Jennifer. Travis held the ribbon and trophy while she pulled off her helmet. The hairnet went with it, and her hair, shining gold-on-brown, tumbled down her back. "Hurry."
Jennifer ran off. Travis followed Casey into the curtained tack stall, and after she'd shrugged out of her jacket he pinned her against the wall and kissed her. He had never said "I love you" to anyone in his life, but he was saying it now.
When he released her, she was staring into his eyes. Calmly. Not angry, not even halfway surprised.
"So what's all this about?"
"You know," he said, suddenly convinced she did know. There was something between them. Her upper arms in his hands were strong and warm; he desperately wanted all of her. Strong and warm and unafraid...
Something like the polite mask she wore for the parents slid over her face.
"Jennifer's a sweet girl. I think she could schedule in a boyfriend."
"Don't," Travis said. It would kill him if she hid from him now. He was terrified that he'd blown everything. "You tell me there's nothing between us," he challenged.
"Okay," Casey said, "I like you. You're ... brave."
"I killed the snake," Travis said, almost absently. She liked him. He hadn't even been convinced of that, only that there was this strange tie, bond, fate, between them.
"Snake, hell. Anyone could do that. You came down to the barn and helped me clean up that mess you made, when I never expected to see you again. You haven't been afraid to ask when you don't know things ... I like you a lot." She paused. "All day long people are asking me 'how?' and you come along, knowing why."
She slipped out of his grip, facing him levelly.
"But you saw what I just did. It wasn't being 'brave' for nineteen seconds. It was being brave a year ago when it took two people to hold him while I mounted. It was being brave enough to spend money I don't have on dressage lessons. It was all the time I spent riding instead of movies, pizza--and rolling around in the hay with a boyfriend. Can't you see that was more than just a jump-off? It was ... it was..."
"It was art," said Travis.
Her eyes narrowed like Motorboat's in front of a mouse hole.
"How do you know this stuff? You know things about me my own mother doesn't know."
He just leaned forward and kissed her again, softly.
"With us, it'd be a lot more than a roll in the hay."
"I know," Casey answered. "That's what scares me."
He backed off, knowing if he pressed her he'd lose her.
The regret in her voice, saying no, thrilled him more than any yes he'd ever had.
Chapter 12
He did his first interview on television. It wasn't a big success. Ken's friend, Steve Slade, managed a local TV station and asked him to be on the noon news. Not a long interview, just a couple of minutes, nothing in depth. A piece of cake.
Travis said sure. He wasn't certain what indepth was anyway; a couple of minutes shouldn't be too hard. He might as well start getting used to it.
Ken arranged to get him out of school for two hours, and drive him to the station.
"I've got to see a realtor anyway."
Travis was trying to figure out what he ought to wea
r; it took a long time for his mind to replay that last statement.
"What you going to see a realtor about?"
"I'm putting the place up for sale and looking for a house in town."
"What about Casey?" It popped into his head and it bounced right out of his mouth before he could stop it.
It certainly wasn't the first thing Ken expected him to ask. His eyebrows twisted upward.
"What about Casey?"
"Well," Travis said, "is she gonna have to get another barn or something?"
"Probably. I'll give her enough notice. Afraid of losing your job?"
Travis shrugged. He had thought of something else. He didn't know how to ask if there was going to be room for him in the new house.
"You won't mind changing schools?"
His neck muscles relaxed so suddenly he felt limp.
"Naw. I won't mind."
A new school. God, he'd love a crack at a new school. Maybe it'd be a bigger one with more different kinds of groups, he could find some people to hang out with and not be stuck playing the Invisible Man.
"Thanks," he said absently.
Ken didn't say, "For what?" He said, "You're welcome." So that saved a lot of embarrassing conversation.
"You want to sell the place?" Travis asked.
Ken sighed. "Kid, your mind travels in the strangest directions. Most people go from A to B to C--you go from A to maybe Q and end up at L ... I've got to sell it. I don't have the time or the capital to get into horse ranching, especially in this economy. I don't like to spend as much time driving as I'm doing. I think it'd be easier for Christopher if I were in town too."
"I thought maybe you guys were going to get back together."
"I don't know. You know what I dread? Dating. God, it used to be bad enough, asking 'What's your sign?' Now, it'll be 'How'd your blood test?' "
Travis shook his head. These old guys, they could think of the weirdest things. Dating.
"Aw, it'll be fun," he said, trying to cheer him up.
"You have no idea how much fun a Saturday night at home with your wife and kid and a pizza can be."
Travis sighed. The day a Saturday night home with a wife and kid and pizza looked fun to him, he was going to blow his brains out.
"Don't wear black," Ken said suddenly. "Steve told me to tell you not to wear black."
He wore his olive-colored long-sleeved buttoned undershirt, and when he realized how cold it was going to be here in the studio he left his jacket on too.