Long Road Home by Joann Ross Read Free Book Online Page B

factored in butt books.”
    “No,” Heather said emphatically. “I was thinking more along the lines of Dr. Seuss, Where the Wild Things Are , and fairy tales.”
    “Yuck.” Jack’s freckled face wrinkled up as he stuck his finger in his mouth and made gagging sounds. “Fairy tales are for girls. I like the wild things book,” he allowed. “But I’m too old for it now.” He started to climb on the fence again. “Can I ride him?”
    “He’s still too young for riders,” Austin said. “He’s not even a week old. But if you’re very gentle and quiet, you can pat him.” Austin turned toward Sophie. “You, too, if you’d like.”
    “Be careful,” Heather warned. “He’s just a baby and you don’t want to upset his mother.”
    “I’ll be super careful!” Jack promised.
    “And quiet,” Austin repeated.
    The seven-year-old made a zipping motion against his lips, then threw away an imaginary key before scrambling over the rails to the other side. Sophie followed with much more decorum.
    “He’s so soft.” The girl ran a hand down the side of the foal’s face.
    The foal’s mother’s ears pricked up, and she moved a little closer, but having had both children on her back before, she didn’t appear to take them as an immediate threat. “I like his star.”
    Sophie traced the white marking between the eyes on the horse’s forehead. “Maybe you could call him Stardust,” she suggested.
    “That’s a stupid girl’s name,” Jack hissed in a loud whisper.
    “Why don’t we take some time to get to know him a little better before we decide,” Austin suggested diplomatically. “Meanwhile, you both can make up lists of possible names.”
    “Okay.” Jack’s attempt at whispering appeared as unnatural as it would have been for Desperado to do jetés across the pasture. “I wanna touch his star like Sophie did.”
    “Sure. Just remember to be gentle.”
    His sister hefted him up so he could run his fingers, one of which was sporting a Darth Vader Band-Aid, over the star. The mother horse sidestepped slightly, as if realizing the perils presented by an energetic boy.
    “Why don’t you two go into the house,” Austin suggested when the heels of his cowboy boots reached the ground again. “Winema’s back and I baked some chocolate chip cookies with your name on them.”
    “Yay!” Jack shouted, then immediately put his hands over his mouth. “Sorry,” he mumbled through his fingers.
    “That’s okay.” Austin smiled. “His mother knows you’d never hurt him.”
    She watched him race toward the kitchen door, with his sister following behind.
    “You’re a lucky woman,” she murmured.
    “You always see them on their best behavior,” Heather countered. “You’ve never had to deal with a Lego Transformer clogging up your toilet at midnight on Christmas Eve, or the mood swings of a twelve-year-old girl going on thirty-five.”
    “I remember that age,” Austin said. “Every single thing seemed life-and-death.”
    “And just think, we were ideal adolescents.” Heather’s dry tone made Austin laugh. “Do you remember my mad, crazy crush on Maddox Mann?”
    “Only too well.” The skateboard-riding, leather-jacket-wearing, garage-band-guitar-playing eighth grader had been the bad boy of Mountain View Middle School. “I was amazed when he grew up to become a bazillionaire tech mogul.”
    “He was named the most likely to either become a rock star or end up in prison.”
    “He sort of did both,” Austin pointed out. “Vicariously, anyway.”
    His first game had had players gaining levels from garage band to international rock stardom. His second, and the far more popular with players, if not their parents, had involved planning a prison break with rewards for number of days spent before capture. These days, according to the article the River’s Bend Record had reprinted from the Wall Street Journal , he’d gotten into venture capitalism, of all things.
    “He was so hot,”