Just After Midnight by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Author:Catherine Ryan Hyde [Hyde, Catherine Ryan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503904859
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2018-12-03T16:00:00+00:00

Faith sat under a huge canopy on a folding chair at a concessions stand, watching a woman she didn’t know ride a test. It was a fair distance from where she sat to the arena, but it felt important to Faith to stay in the shade.

It was the following late morning, just as the day eased into its overwhelming heat.

She looked up to see a man she’d never met standing over her, staring down at her. Something in her gut jumped, froze, then flipped over. At least, that was the way it felt.

“Sorry,” he said. “Did I startle you?”

He was in his late thirties, prematurely bald, with soft-looking blond hair—what there was of it—and dressed in formal riding gear. The coat had tails, which Faith now knew signified the upper-level FEI classes.

“Not your fault,” she said. “It seems to be my default mode.”

“You’re Sarah’s new friend?”

“I am.”

“Dean Burwell,” he said, and stuck out his hand.

Faith shook it. But still she made no connection with who he was to Sarah, or to her.

“I’m Midnight’s trainer and Sarah’s riding instructor. Or at least I was, until a handful of weeks ago. From her old barn. Dressage Journeys in Moorpark.”

“Dean,” she said, and relaxed the rest of the way back to normal. At least, her new normal. “Right. I was there in the car with Sarah when she called you last weekend. I told her I wanted to meet you next time.”

“I wanted to meet you, too,” he said. “Buy you a soft drink?”

Faith looked at the bare table in front of her. It did seem odd, she supposed, to sit in this booth and eat and drink nothing. Truthfully, she was a little bit thirsty, but had fallen into the habit of saving money whenever possible.

“Sure,” she said.

She stood.

They walked together to the table where drinks and sandwiches were being sold, one of his hands outstretched as if to guide her by the small of her back, but not touching her. It was an oddly formal gesture, she thought.

“We had no idea Midnight was being sold,” he said, his voice dense with what sounded like genuine sorrow. “Not until the minute John Wintermeyer pulled his trailer onto our property and loaded her up. So far as we knew, Sarah and her grandmother were going to board the mare in Los Osos until they got all their trouble worked out. And then we figured they’d come back when they could. When John showed up with a bill of sale, we cried. Literally cried. All three of us. Cara and Lainie and me. And I’m not a crier. Last time I’d cried was twelve years ago when my mother died.”

Faith chose a bottle of apple juice from a cooler filled with crushed ice. Its freezing wetness felt good in her hand. Dean grabbed a bottle of water and paid with a five, not bothering to wait for his change. Or maybe there was no change.

They found a seat at an empty table. The table Faith had been using was now taken.

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