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“Jolene, I love you dearly, but you are always mean. You’re coddling her. Stop it. Push her, make her do it. You’ve eased her in enough. I’ve been watchin’ Micah. He’s fine. He’s ready, and waitin’ for her.”
“I don’t know.”
“Do it, Jolene. She’ll be okay. Stop protecting her.”
“That’s it for today,” Jolene shouted to Liv, who waved and rode Micah in the direction of the barn.
Jolene walked away in the opposite direction, but Mary Beth knew she’d been listening. She couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen tomorrow.
She made a couple of calls on her way home that night. “Yep, you might wanna try to get down here tomorrow morning,” she told each person she called.
“We’re running the timer today,” Jolene said when Liv walked into the barn.
“Good morning to you, too. What did you say?”
“You heard me. I’ve had enough sittin’ around watchin’ you stroll around the barrels. We’re either gonna start runnin’ times or you might as well go back to Monument.”
“But—”
“Those are the only two options I’m willin’ to put out there, Olivia. Which is it gonna be?”
Liv turned and stomped out of the barn.
A few minutes later Liv stomped back in. “Are we gonna do this or not?”
“Sure, um, you wanna get Micah saddled up?”
“Yep.” She stomped to Micah’s stall and led him out.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Where’d you go?”
“To change my shirt.” If she and Micah were doing this today she wanted Ben wrapped around her, so she went back to the hotel and put on one of the shirts he left on the door knob of her closet, but that was none of Jolene’s business.
Over and over Jolene made her do it. Her first times were in the high twenties.
“Get the lead out, girl.”
Sixth time out, she came in at twenty seconds.
“What’re you doin’ out there? Is that Micah or Pooh you’re ridin’?”
Mary Beth was sitting on the f
ence at the opposite end of the arena and wasn’t certain, but she swore Liv flipped Jolene off.
She turned around and waved at Renie, Paige and Mark, who were sitting in a truck taping Liv’s practice, and Mark gave her a thumbs up.
The next day when Liv came in just above seventeen seconds, Liv jumped off Micah, threw her arms around Jolene, and kissed her. Mary Beth hoped Mark had a zoom lens strong enough to pick up the tears on Jolene’s cheeks.
Mark uploaded the video, and hit send on the email.
“Ready?” Renie said, and the three of them got out of the truck.
Liv heard yelling and turned to see her daughter and her two best friends jumping up and down, waving their hands and running toward her.
