The Glory Game by Janet Dailey

Author:Janet Dailey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 1985-03-29T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XVI

The Florida sun was still making its morning climb into the blue summer sky, but its heat was already felt on the green practice field near the private stables on the house grounds. Luz could taste the salty sweat on her lips as she galloped the pinto horse after the ball. She lined the pony so that the ball would be on the right when they approached it, allowing her a simple offside forehand stroke.

Rising in the stirrups to brace for the shot, Luz put her full weight on the irons and gripped with her knees and thighs to maintain her position on the horse’s back. As her hand cocked the long stick above her head, she twisted her body from the hips, pointing her left shoulder at the ball, and leaned out to the right. She kept the hand holding the stick well above her head so the mallet head could gather speed when she made the downward swing.

With her eye on the ball, she timed her swing to begin when the ball was a couple of feet from the point of her shoulder. At the moment when her shoulder, arm, and stick were in a straight line at the lowest point of the swing, the broadside of the mallet made contact with the ball, a solid thunk, the impact vibrating up her arm. She completed the follow-through of her swing as the ball sailed ahead, bouncing toward the near side of the field, where the groom, Jimmy Ray Turnbull, was standing. Someone was with him, she noticed. The pinto’s sides heaved beneath her as it blew out a rolling snort. At almost the same instant, Luz recognized that trimly built figure with a flash of silver-gray in his hair. A sudden tension raced through her. Instinctively, she checked the pinto, obeying her initial impulse to turn and run rather than face Drew, but that was countered almost immediately by a surge of pride, and she urged the horse on. The conflicting signals had the horse sidestepping nervously.

The last time she’d seen him had been at the graduation exercises over two months ago, and then only briefly. And Claudia had been with him. What was he doing here now after all this time? It wasn’t to welcome her home. They’d been back from Europe for three weeks. Why was he here? What did he want? Her nerves suddenly felt raw, the wounds reopened.

Fighting the suffocating memories of the fool she had been, Luz let the polo mallet dangle from its wrist strap, unhooked the chin strap of the helmet, and pulled it off, trying to clear her head. With the back of her hand, she wiped at the perspiration that had collected on her upper lip and realized what a mess she was. No makeup, sweat streaming down her face and along the creases of her eyes, her hair flattened to her head—this wasn’t the way she wanted him to see her again after all this time.

Damn him

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