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“You’re not pushing her hard enough.”
The sound of her father’s angry voice pulled her up short two steps from the tack room door.
“She complains I’m pushing her too hard,” Charlie argued.
“She walks all over you, and we both know it. If she doesn’t get back to competition level, she won’t have time to qualify.”
Raine grit her teeth, so sick of the two of them getting on her case about the Olympics. What did they want her to do, force Fire over the jumps? He’d really hate her then.
“I keep telling her that,” her trainer told her dad.
“And then you let her off the hook and cut practice short.”
“I’m doing my best.”
“Then your best isn’t good enough. She needs better. Different.”
Impatience dripped from her dad’s voice. She could picture the two of them facing off, her dad’s dark, brooding expression challenging the younger man’s.
“I’m sending her and Diamond Fire up to my brother’s in Denver for the next month.”
What?
Raine stiffened at her dad’s words. That was news to her.
“Am I being fired?” Charlie asked.
“Of course not. You’ll stay here to work with the alternates while they head up north. A change of scenery will do them both some good, and my brother has a trainer who works wonders with their rescue horses.”
Indignation spurred her around the corner to confront her dad. “Fire isn’t some broken down rescue horse.”
He didn’t seem the least bit concerned she’d been eavesdropping. “No, but he does need some work. You both do.”
“Which we can do here.” She hugged the saddle tighter against her churning stomach. “I’m not going to Uncle Mark’s.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, dark eyebrows rising toward dark hair just beginning to gray at the temples. “Yes, you are.”
“I’ll miss two events.”
“After where you finished last week, that’s the least of our worries.”
“Dad.”
“Raine, it’s not up for discussion.”
It took everything she had to not stamp her foot like when she was five and didn’t get her way. “Fire and I will be fine. We are making progress. We just need more time.”
He shook his head. “You don’t have time. If you have any hope of making the Olympic team, you have to
get back to where you were.”
Those damn tears threatened again as she choked out, “We will.”
Her dad put his hands on her shoulders, the weight of them as heavy as his voice. “Honey, you’ve talked about going for gold since you were ten. I told you I’d help you get there, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.” He pulled her in for a quick hug. With her tucked in under his chin, he dropped a kiss on the top of her head before setting her back with a firm grip. “You leave first thing in the morning. Pack for a month.”
She sputtered furiously as he strode away, even though she knew from that tone, nothing she said would change his mind. She should’ve known he wouldn’t let her stonewall Charlie forever.
The trainer gave her a helpless shrug before following her father. She growled under her breath as they both disappeared.
