Leaping Hearts(70)
Author: J.R. Ward

“Hold up. You’re going to have to lose the shoes,” Devlin told her. “They’re meant to be worn with only a pair of socks.”

“An’ a blindfold, if ya happen to be around any mirrors,” Chester said.

With a curse, she stripped off her barn boots. “Off-loading some self-esteem no doubt helps as well.”

When she pulled the waders up, the waistband came to her chest and she had to readjust the suspenders to their limit. Excess rubber flapped around her as she walked around, sounding like fish on the bottom of a boat.

“They smell like old sneakers,” she said, wrinkling her nose.

Chester laughed. “When they made ’em, had to make sure all the senses were offended. Seemed only fair.”

“I feel like I’m wearing the Jolly Green Giant’s Depends.”

“Enough with the wisecracks,” Devlin cut in. “They’ll keep you dry and that’s what matters.”

“All right, then, let’s get down to it. These things aren’t going to look better with time.”

She took Sabbath off the crossties and saw he was giving her outfit the once-over. His look seemed to say, You can’t be serious.

“Don’t start,” she told him. “In a few minutes, you’re going to be so busy being nervous you’re not even going to notice what I’m wearing.”

Once A.J. and Devlin got the stallion into the ring, they turned him loose for a few minutes. After Sabbath had settled down, A.J. hooked a lead line to him and took him over toward the water, being careful to keep her injured arm out of the way. As a result of their hard work, she was able to get him standing at the edge of the pool but he balked as soon as she asked him to step into the water with her.

Turning around, they approached again. And again. In time, the stallion eventually gave in, tentatively reaching a foreleg out and pawing at the water as A.J. stood in the pool. Another hoof followed but the rest of him refused the baptism by fire. With his front legs splayed out widely, most of his weight was on his hindquarters and his massive muscles were quivering, ready to contract and propel him backward the instant his fear overwhelmed him.

As it soon did.

With a frantic whinny and a maneuver so abrupt it surprised even A.J., he bolted. Things didn’t go well after that. In his panic to leap away from the water, Sabbath accomplished the opposite as he lost his footing and ended up with every hoof he had, and a little more, in the pool. The commotion stirred up a fury of spray, which only scared him more and drenched A.J. as she struggled to hold on.

“I think that’s enough,” Devlin called out from his position at the rail.

“I don’t want to end this way.”

“You’re soaked.”

“Thanks for the news flash.” She smiled to take any sting from the words. “But we need one more try.”

One more try turned into several. At first, the stallion refused to go anywhere near the jump. Having had his fears confirmed thanks to his own flailing, he was more determined than ever to keep dry and distant. But A.J.’s sweet talking and patience paid off. He was getting ready to put a foot in again when she noticed Devlin walking toward them. Pulling Sabbath around to give him another break, she was annoyed at the interruption.

“What?” she asked, trying to hide the shiver that racked her.

“Time to go in.”

“Just one more—”

“Nothing. You’re wetter than the bottom of a lake.”

“We’re making p-progress,” she forced out between teeth which chattered like castanets.

“Your lips are blue.”

“They mmm-match my eyes.”

His look held frank challenge. Now was an opportunity to prove she could be sensible, it said.

“Fine,” she muttered, and led the horse from the ring.

Back at the farmhouse and standing in front of the bathroom mirror naked, A.J. raised her arm over her head. It was something she did regularly, a test she took whenever she had a moment to herself. Each time, she measured in vain for some improvement, some lessening in the stiffness and pain.

She grimaced and turned away from the mirror. Devlin was making dinner downstairs and she could catch a whiff of stir-fry vegetables drifting up from the kitchen. As she went into the bedroom, she looked at the bed they shared, remembering all the times they had made love in it.

Their conversation in that trophy room came back to her and her heart ached. With each day that passed, she was relying more and more on her ability to keep going physically by will alone. And as time went on, her lies to Devlin accumulated, raising the stakes. With a cold trickle of fear, she realized how much she was wagering. As long as she was able to tough it out, she was convinced her injury wouldn’t be exposed and he’d never have to know what she was really going through. He wouldn’t have to worry. And they wouldn’t have to argue about her training.

But what if she couldn’t make it? What if the pain got to the point where she could no longer go on?

A.J. pulled her hair back and started to get dressed.

She had enough juice to make it to the Qualifier, she told herself once again. She just had to have enough.

“You about ready?” Devlin called up the stairs.

“I’m almost dressed.”

“Pity.”

A.J. grinned.

And then took two more painkillers.

15

A WEEK later, Sabbath was lobbying for a reprieve like a flounder in a shark tank.

“I mean it,” A.J. was saying. “Come on. You’ve done this before.”

Standing in the six inches of ice-cold water she’d learned to hate, A.J. tugged on the lead line again. Her nose was running, she couldn’t feel the tips of her fingers even though she was wearing gloves, and her feet were wet. Which was always a mystery. No matter how often she checked for holes in the waders, she couldn’t find any. They were supposed to be watertight but her soggy socks told a different story.

Talk about your bad combos, she thought, looking down at the suit. Butt ugly and nonfunctional.

The stallion put out a front hoof as if he stood to lose the entire leg and submersed it with an expression of distaste. The other followed and then Sabbath paused, checking to see if she was serious. When she took a step farther into the pool, he heaved a great sigh and then his hind legs came along. Standing in the water together, with A.J. stroking his neck along with his ego, the magnificent stallion looked miserable. But he wasn’t running scared.

It was the breakthrough they’d been working so hard for, A.J. thought. Although more to the point if she was teaching him to swim.