Horse Power by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online Page B

for my first date. And he
is
kind of cute,” Lisa added, glancing at Stevie. “But I’m scared at the same time, you know what I mean? And it’s funny, knowing there are these feelings, like they’re hanging around in the air, but everybody’s pretending not to notice them.”
    “I saw a movie once where this boy and girl just looked at each other and they were madly in love and they never even had to say anything to each other because they each knew exactly what was on the other’s mind. It was so romantic!” Carole said, almost breathlessly.
    “Uckko!” Stevie said. “I sure don’t want any boy toknow what’s on my mind! It was awful when Will Chambers knew what I was thinking because
somebody
told him.”
    “But what if it were like your minds were one?” Carole persisted.
    “I don’t want any part of it if that means he’d know how badly I did on my last science test.”
    “That’s not what we’re talking about at all,” Lisa said. “We’re talking about
romance
.” She sighed dreamily.
    “Maybe,” Stevie said dubiously. “But somehow I can’t picture the word ‘romance’ and my brother Chad in the same room. Can you, honestly, Lisa?”
    “Oh, I don’t know,” Lisa said. “That’s part of what’s so confusing about this whole thing. But you should realize that he’s not
my
brother and I just don’t see him the same way you do. I don’t think of him as the boy who uses the last of the soap, or borrows your hairbrush—”
    “Or chews with his mouth open, or who teases me about all sorts of things. Okay, okay. So, then, how
do
you think of him?” Stevie asked.
    “I guess lately I’ve been thinking of him as maybe the boy who might ask me out,” she confessed in the darkness.
    There was a long silence and then Carole spoke. “First date,” she said, as if she were entranced by the mere sound of the words.
    “It could be years away,” Lisa reasoned.
    “And it could be next week,” Carole reminded her.
    “And it could be with my
brother
!” Stevie said.
    With those thoughts on their minds, the girls eventually drifted into sleep.

C AROLE GLANCED AT the clock for the umpteenth time Saturday morning. The Devines would arrive any minute now, she knew. She looked out the window again.
    “They’ll get here, honey,” her father said. “Frank said they’d arrive between ten and eleven. It’s only ten-fifteen now.” He spoke gently. Carole was glad that he seemed to understand her nervousness.
    “And besides, you told Max we’d get to Pine Hollow around noon,” Lisa reminded her. “There’s plenty of time yet.”
    “Uh, sure,” Carole told them, but their words didn’t relieve her discomfort. Now that Kate was just about to arrive, all she could think of was how foolish she’d been last week. How dumb she must have sounded.How babyish Kate probably thought she was. How stupid. How— She cringed, just thinking about it all again.
    Stevie stood up from the breakfast table, where the four of them had been lingering over coffee cake. She took her plate to the sink.
    “Green car?” she asked, looking through the window. “With California plates that say KERNEL D?”
    “That’s it!” Carole said. She leapt up from the table, nearly upsetting a glass of milk. “I’ll go get Kate!” she uttered breathlessly, heading for the door at breakneck speed.
    “If my daughter ever enters the Kentucky Derby,” Colonel Hanson said with a grin, “I don’t believe she’ll need a horse under her to win.” He stood up and followed her out the door to greet their guests.
    Lisa and Stevie waited patiently in the kitchen, rinsing the dishes and putting them in the dishwasher for the Hansons. They both understood that Carole needed to clear the air with Kate before anything else.
    Stevie brought the final glass from the table. Lisa, standing at the sink, could see out the window. She provided the play-by-play.
    “Okay, now, first Mrs. Devine steps out of the car. Colonel