Setting the Pace

"Did you decide on your music yet?" Stevie Lake asked Denise McCaskill as she stepped into the stall where an Appaloosa gelding named Chip was sniffing at his empty grain bucket. The horse cocked his head at her hopefully. "Sorry, boy." She gave him a pat. "Not dinnertime yet." She continued to stroke the horse as Denise entered the stall. At twenty-four, Denise was only eight years older than Stevie, but she had a lifetime of experience riding and caring for horses. That was why Max Regnery, the owner of Pine Hollow Stables, had made her his full-time barn manager. "Well?" Stevie asked expectantly when Denise didn't answer. "You mean for the reception?" Denise sighed and checked the dosage of the dewormer she was holding. "No. I guess that's one more detail to think about." "Oh, but you've got to think about that!" Stevie exclaimed. She wrestled Chip's head down so that Denise could shoot the dewormer into his mouth. The gelding pinned his ears back, shook his head, and rolled his eyes distastefully. Stevie gave the gelding's shoulder a comforting pat and glanced at Denise. "The music is important. You don't want to be scrambling at the last minute. Or dancing to one of Maxi's or Jeannie's CDs." She grinned at the thought of what kind of music Max's five- and three-year-old daughters liked as she followed Denise down the aisle to the next stall. There, a tall chestnut mare named Calypso was eyeing them suspiciously from the farthest corner. "But don't worry. I'm sure Deborah can give you some ideas." "I'm sure she can. I just hate to lay one more thing on her when she and Max are already being so generous." Denise sounded frazzled, and Stevie shot her a sympathetic glance. Max and his wife, Deborah, had offered to throw a New Year's Eve wedding for Denise and her fianc , Red O'Malley, who was the head stable hand at Pine Hollow. The couple had been together for years, but recently, when Denise discovered she was pregnant, she and Red had decided it was time to get married. Now the wedding was less than a week away, and although Denise seemed more than a little nervous about the big event, Stevie could hardly wait. Stevie entered Calypso's stall and stroked the mare soothingly as Denise prepared the next dose of dewormer. "Don't worry, all the fast planning will be worth it," she assured the bride-to-be. "Phil and I are totally looking forward to it." She smiled, imagining how romantic it would be to dance the old year away and greet the new one with her longtime boyfriend, Phil Marsten. For once they would have New Year's Eve plans worth mentioning. "It'll be a real change of pace for us from last year," she added. "Of course, nothing can compare to listening to my brothers have an hourlong argument about whether Batman could beat Superman in an arm wrestling contest, but we'll just have to make do with a nice, romantic wedding instead." "I'd vote for Superman myself." Denise smiled, then glanced at the roof as a sudden gust of wind howled around the building. Stevie followed her gaze with a shiver, even though it was warm and cozy inside the stable. Until just a day earlier the weather had been unseasonably mild. But suddenly, on Christmas Day, winter had arrived full force, making the northern Virginia town of Willow Creek feel more like the North Pole. The temperature had dropped about fifteen degrees, and a cold wind had been moaning around the eaves and jostling the bare branches of the trees for the past thirty-six hours. The conversation paused as Stevie and Denise focused on getting a full dose of dewormer into Calypso, who was always difficult to treat. They had just finished and were heading for the next stall,Bryant, Bonnie is the author of 'Setting the Pace' with ISBN 9780553493054 and ISBN 0553493051.