Summer Rider by Bonnie Bryant Read Free Book Online

Eyre
that night, even if she had to stay up all night to do it.
    It took an effort not to groan out loud when she thought about all the work that lay ahead of her. Jogging was definitely not an option. Still, Lisa couldn’t help feeling bad. Not only was she letting herself down by not sticking to her vow, but in a weird way she felt as though she were letting Piper down, too. Piper always made time for the things she needed to do. Lisa couldn’t remember how many times her cabin mate had spent her free time working with her horse, or had skipped lunch or dinner to jog or take care of other important things.
    That last thought gave Lisa an idea. Since it obviously wasn’t going to be easy to fit a daily jog into her already crowded schedule, maybe she could compromise a little on her vow. If she couldn’t exercise to stay in shape, she would go on a diet instead—just until the show was over and she had won her blue ribbon in show jumping.
    She smiled, feeling satisfied with her solution. But shewiped the smile off her face before her friends could notice it. She didn’t feel like sharing her decision with them. For one thing, they hadn’t even known about her jogging vow, so they might not understand how important it was. Besides, Lisa couldn’t help remembering all the times her friends had laughed about the girls at Pine Hollow who were constantly on diets. Lisa knew there was nothing wrong with dieting. After all, lots of people—including her own mother—were on diets most of the time. But she decided it would be easier to keep the whole plan a secret for now.
    Since she was already compromising by substituting one vow for another, Lisa decided she wouldn’t let herself compromise at all on her new diet. Luckily, she had been so lost in thought that she had only eaten a few bites of her lasagna. She pushed the rest of it aside and scrutinized the other food on her plate, deciding what she would eat.
    Meanwhile, the rest of the group was still discussing Barry’s news. Stevie and Phil had convinced the others that they had to make a serious effort to save the camp. “Otherwise, no matter what happens at the horse show, we’ll all be losers,” Stevie said dramatically.
    Carole started her second helping of lasagna. “All right, then,” she said. “We need to come up with a plan.”
    “Right,” Phil said. “But I think we need some more information first. Like how much money those brothers are getting from the developers, and exactly when they’re expecting the deal to be final …”
    Stevie was already nodding. She glanced across the crowded mess hall at Barry, who was sitting with Betty at a table in the corner of the room. “I was thinking the exact same thing.”
    Phil grinned at her. “Great minds think alike, right?”
    “Absolutely.” Stevie smiled back at Phil, thinking once again how cute he was when his green eyes sparkled at her that way. That reminded her that the two of them still hadn’t had much time alone together. Since they had made up after their fight, they had been so busy that they had only taken one evening stroll down to the pond—the site of their very first kiss.
    “Ahem,” Carole said loudly, bringing Stevie’s mind back to business.
    Stevie jumped up from her seat. There would be time for romance once they had saved Moose Hill. “Come on, we need to go talk to Barry. We have to find out a little more about these Winter brothers if we’re going to convince them not to sell.”
    Carole stood up, too, but Phil stayed seated. “You go ahead,” he told Stevie. “I don’t think we should let Barry know that Todd and I are involved unless we have to.”
    “Good point,” Carole said. “He might not appreciate the fact that we only managed to keep his secret for a few hours.” She glanced at Lisa and noticed that her plate was still more than half full. “Hey, are you feeling okay?” she asked, suddenly concerned. “You’ve hardly eaten a