Stacy Gregg - Riding Star

It was James Kirkwood.

James cantered right up to her and pulled his horse to a halt. “Hi, Parker. Have a good holiday?”

Suddenly face to face with him, Georgie’s first thought was her hair. The hair earmuff trick had worked – her ears were nice and toasty. But she knew that she must look ridiculous, like some sort of demented Pippi Longstocking. And here she was for the first time with the boy who had dumped her last term.

“My holidays?” Georgie said, self-consciously trying to flatten her sticky-outy plaits. “OK, I guess.”

James grinned. “Don’t give me too much detail, will you? We might end up having a conversation.”

Georgie wanted more than anything to pull her helmet off and fix the plaits, but she was certain she would have helmet-hair underneath. Luckily James didn’t seem to have noticed the weird hairdo.

“I went back home to Little Brampton,” she said. “Dad cooked a massive Christmas dinner and everyone came over. Apart from that I was at Lucinda’s helping out at the stables. How about you?”

“The usual Kirkwood family Christmas,” James groaned. “The stepmom spent the whole time planning cocktail parties for people that she doesn’t even like. Dad disappeared with the hounds every day and Kennedy and I managed to stay in different wings of the house most of the time so we could avoid speaking to each other.”

“Sounds like fun,” Georgie said dryly.

“Belvedere misses you,” James added, referring to the big brown hunter that Georgie had ridden when she had stayed at the Kirkwood mansion. “I took him for a hack to cheer him up and we went down to the edge of the woods – you know, where we went that day?”

He gave Georgie that cute lopsided grin of his. She knew the woods that James meant. They had been out hunting and they had somehow ended up there alone. That was when he kissed her. Georgie felt herself blush. Was James flirting with her again?

“So anyway,” James tried to sound casual, “are you still seeing that guy? The one you were with at the School Formal? What’s his name again?”

“Riley,” Georgie said. She wasn’t about to tell James that she hadn’t spoken to Riley since the Formal, or that she wasn’t even sure if she was still dating him.

“He doesn’t go to Blainford, does he?” James asked.

“No,” Georgie said, “he’s at Pleasant Hill High School.”

“So this Riley,” James said. “How did you meet him if he doesn’t go to school here?”

“He’s Kenny’s nephew,” Georgie said. “He was helping me to school Belle.”

“So, he’s some kind of horse whisperer?” James sneered.

“No,” Georgie said, “He rides trackwork. Racehorses.”

“Does he have his own stables?”

“You’re asking a lot of questions about him,” Georgie frowned. “You’re acting like my dad.”

“Am I?” James said, a fraction too quickly. “I’m just wondering what you see in him, that’s all. A guy like that…”

“Like what?” Georgie said.

“You know,” James said. “He’s not one of us, is he?”

“I didn’t know there was an ‘us’,” Georgie said.

“Oh, yeah,” James said. “Totally. There’s a ‘you’, and there’s a ‘me’ and I definitely think there’s an ‘us’…”

As he said this he reached out a hand and gently touched Georgie’s cheek. “You’ve got a snowflake on you,” he said. “I thought I’d better wipe it off.”

Suddenly Georgie’s cheeks burned so hot they could have thawed a snowdrift.

“I better get back,” she somehow managed to get the sentence out. “It’s getting late.”

“I’ll come with you,” James said. “This snow is getting pretty heavy.”

They walked back down the hill, both of them staying off the subject of Riley. Instead, they talked about their new classes for the term. James was a year ahead of Georgie and he was a showjumper. But he’d already decided that next year he would switch his option and major in polo.

“I tried to fight it, I guess,” he said. “It was just such a cliché, what with my dad being on the school polo team when he was at Blainford. I wanted to be different, but I’m playing for Burghley this season and Heath Brompton, the polo master, thinks I could go pro one day. I guess it’s in the blood, you know. Like with you and your mom and eventing.”

“Not so much,” Georgie groaned. “I’m out of the cross-country class this term, remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” James winced. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. What are you taking instead?”

“Dressage,” Georgie said.

“And it’s not going well?” “It’s so boring,” Georgie said. “And everything is complicated. It’s like she’s speaking a foreign language.”

“German?”

Georgie giggled. Bettina was also her German teacher. “I’ll get used to it, I suppose,” Georgie said, trying to sound positive.

They had arrived at the turn-off that led to her stables.

“Well, this is me,” she said.

“I guess I’ll see you later.” “I guess you will,” James said. He turned his chestnut to ride away and then he halted the horse and looked back at her.

“By the way,” he gave her that killer grin, “love the Princess Leia plaits.”

*

Georgie didn’t know quite what to make of her conversation with James. He’d seemed jealous at the mention of Riley – but he was the one that had split up with her! Although, it wasn’t actually James’s fault that they’d broken up – it was Kennedy’s meddling that had caused it.

Her heart was still thudding as she unsaddled Belle and rugged the mare up for the evening, letting her loose with her hard feed. Did James want to get back together again? And was that what she wanted too?

It must have been freezing cold as she walked back from the stable block to Badminton House, but Georgie didn’t notice. She felt as if she were floating like a snowflake, light and ethereal. It was getting late and the skies were darkening. As she walked along the driveway the lights above her began flickering on. They glowed overhead, lighting her way like a row of tiny moons illuminating the road between the school and the boarding houses.

Still walking on air, Georgie bounded up the steps of Badminton House. She was about to open the door when she heard the voice behind her.

“Georgie!”

She turned round. There was a boy, his dark brown hair squashed underneath a woollen beanie. He was wearing a blue and black checked shirt and dark denim jeans. Swinging the door shut on his red pick-up truck he walked up the path and that was when Georgie saw the bunch of white flowers in his hand that were clearly intended for her.

It was Riley.

Chapter Three Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen About the Author The Pony Club Rivals series Copyright About the Publisher Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

“Welcome back,” Riley said, holding out the white lilies to her.