The Farm Hand by Katie Cole

Author:Katie Cole [Cole, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-19T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Isabel

Isa spends her mornings working with horses while Adam cleans. Whenever they cross in the stable, she steals a passing kiss. At night, after her parents think she’s gone to bed, she sneaks over to Adam’s room. During the next two weekends, which both involve horse shows, they manage to spend quite a bit of time together, flirting when nobody else is around and kissing just out of sight in the tack stalls.

Her video interview passes in a breeze, and it’s a lot less nerve-wracking than she thought it would be. Adam assures her that she’ll definitely get into Syracuse.

She smiles but avoids talking about it any further. She’d checked tuition. She’d known the United States could have expensive universities, but there’s no possible way for her to come up with nearly seventy thousand dollars for a year of school. Even if she does get in, and even if her parents do allow her to attend, there’s no way it could happen. They aren’t poor, but that amount is far too much.

Two weeks later, she’s lunging a saddled two-year-old bay Westphalian filly on the opposite side of the arena from Jen when her phone dings with an email alert.

She switches the filly’s direction, and Jen calls tauntingly, “Is that your secret boyfriend?”

The comment makes her drop her lunge whip, and the filly takes the opportunity to prick her ears back and toss her head, the bridle jingling. Isa catches a glimpse of Adam walking by, trying to stifle his laughter.

“Of course not,” Isa says, plucking the whip from the ground. It’s not a lie, but it sure sounds like one. At least if Jen thinks a secret boyfriend is the cause of her discomfort, she won’t mention to Isa’s parents that something’s up. And they won’t have a reason to suspect that she’s with Adam.

Jen snorts, pulling the Quarter Horse she’s riding to a stop, and then she backs him up quickly. The palomino stallion is supposed to be on the show track, so Jen has been working with him a lot lately. “What’s this boy’s name?”

Isa rolls her eyes. Of course Jen is going to be nosy. She says the first name that pops into her head. “Sebastian.” It’s German enough. There’d been two Sebastians in her University classes her final term alone.

The stallion stops just outside of Isa’s filly’s ring, and the filly tosses her head again. In response, Isa taps the end of the whip on the ground behind her. “Ignore him,” she instructs even though the filly doesn’t understand her words. The point of loping her in a circle is so that she learns to listen to her handler and ignore all outside influences. The point of the whip is to keep her moving, although she generally doesn’t have to so much as tap her lightly with it. A flick to the ground is enough.

“Sebastian,” Jen says, the name rolling off her tongue. She purses her lips. “Do I know him?”

Isa shakes her head. “No, we met at University.

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