Facing the Music: A Rosewood Novel by Laurence Andrea

Author:Laurence, Andrea [Laurence, Andrea]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2018-04-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Ivy always loved parade day. She arrived early to check in and prepare for her first time being in the parade itself. There were men dressed as clowns, a group of tiny baton-twirling girls, a float with a throne for the new Miss Rosewood, and easily fifty children in red-and-white marching band uniforms.

Her father looked like he was up to his ears in band kids and their drama. She remembered what it was like the day of a performance. The moment he saw her, he grinned.

“Morning, Peaches. Are you ready for your big parade debut?”

Ivy shrugged. “I just have to smile and wave.”

Trent nodded. “You’ll do great. Will you get to come by today after the parade?”

“I’ll try.”

“You know the game is on,” he added with a smile.

“Yes, but I also have prom tonight, Daddy. That trumps football, remember?”

“I suppose,” he said with a touch of disappointment in his voice.

“Are you taking Mama to the eighties prom?”

At that her father laughed. “I did that already. We were the totally awesome class of 1983, remember?”

“Mr. Hudson?” A teenager with a bass drum stood impatiently nearby.

“I’ll let you get back to work, Daddy.” Ivy leaned in and gave her father a hug.

“See you later, Peaches.”

Ivy checked in with the parade organizers, who pointed her in the direction of her queue location. She headed that way, pausing when she noticed two saddled horses waiting there. Horses. Frowning, she tried to determine if she was in the wrong place. The band was in front of the horses and the fire truck was behind them. There was no other place to go, she realized as a cold sweat broke out across her brow.

Gloria’s words from the planning meeting echoed in her mind. “ . . . we’d like both of you riding in the parade . . .”

Riding. Ivy’s heart was jumping in her throat as she looked at the massive black horse in front of her. It snorted and stomped its hoof impatiently on the pavement. There was no way she was climbing on the back of that beast. Horses hated her, and she hated horses. It was a mutual distrust.

“Uh, can someone tell me what that is?”

Gloria, who had been giving a pep talk to a couple of students from the marching band, turned around to face Ivy. She looked in the direction Ivy was pointing with a confused look on her face. “It’s a horse, dear.”

“Thank you for that clarification,” she said, unable to shelf the sarcasm even for her favorite teacher in school as she panicked. “Why are we riding horses? No one said anything about riding horses. When you said we’d be in the parade, I envisioned us waving from the back of a convertible. Not on horseback.”

“Uh-oh,” Blake said, coming up to them from the parking lot where the parade was starting. “Sounds like the city girl is a little rusty on her horseback riding skills.”

Ivy sighed and put her hands on her hips. “I am not rusty. I never had them to begin with, so they couldn’t possibly be rusty.

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