The Girl with the Broken Heart by Lurlene McDaniel

Author:Lurlene McDaniel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2018-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

He looped his arm around her waist, and holding her upright, nuzzled her shoulder against his. “Can you walk?”

“Think…so…”

“One foot in front of the other,” he whispered, leading her around groups of people congregated in the barn. “We look just like two people who can’t keep their hands off each other. No one is taking notice of us. Keep moving.”

Her legs felt like jelly, but the strength of his arms helped her move forward. Soon they were in the daylight. Fresh air and sunlight began to revive her.

Austin saw a lone tree around the side of the barn, guided her, and lowered her so that her back was braced on the tree’s trunk. He crouched in front of her. “Let me get you a bottle of water.”

“No. Don’t leave.” She took deep breaths, waiting for the episode to pass. “I’m okay, just got a little overstressed.” The look of concern on his face made her wince. “Don’t look so worried. It’s happened before, whenever my blood pressure goes wacko. But I’m top of it now.”

Memory jerked her back in time.

She was barely sixteen. A summer day…riding Princess bareback, hearing a horse in distress from the barn where Bill and Billy trained. Peeking inside, seeing Bill beating a terrified horse, chains around its front forelegs. Running into her father’s den. “Daddy! Bill’s hurting our horses! I saw him with my own eyes! Stop him!”

Her father’s face reddening. “Did you go down to the training barn I expressly told you to stay away from?”

The truth slamming her. He knew. Her daddy knew! “Don’t make this about me! This is about what Bill’s doing to our horses!”

“Now calm down, honey. You know it’s not good for you to get in a lather.”

Her heart was doing cartwheels, the room spinning, and her father’s voice sounding as if coming through a tunnel, the room going dark…waking in her daddy’s arms, seeing tears in his eyes. “Sorry, Kenz…so sorry, baby. I love you, honey girl….I didn’t mean to upset you. Forgive me…please, forgive me.”

Her heart fluttering, her eyes shut, hearing his words, knowing he was sorry about her passing out, not sorry about Bill’s “training” methods.

On that day in his den, something had broken between herself and her father that had never mended.

She returned to the sunlight, to Austin’s worried eyes. “I have to stop Billy.”

Austin put his hand on her shoulder. “Wait. Your teammate is calling a temporary time-out.” He thought fast. “When was the last time you ate?”

She attempted to stand. “Breakfast?”

“Well, it’s after three. You need to eat something.”

“I don’t want to eat. I want to stop Billy from riding that poor horse today.”

As her color returned and her breathing normalized, “truculent Kenzie” appeared. “Come on, a short change of course is all I’m asking. Can’t go into battle on empty stomachs. Plus, I’m hungry too,” he confessed good-naturedly. “I saw a line of food trucks when we were walking across the field. Let’s grab a bite.”

“I have to stop him now.

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