Free The Glory Game by Janet Dailey

contact and felt the vibration from the impact travel through her arm as she completed her follow-through. The white sphere arced through the air. Luz didn’t give chase. Rob was coming from the opposite direction to practice a head-on shot. The brown horse snorted its boredom with this stick-and-ball work, preferring the hell-bent-for-leather excitement of a game. She reined the horse in to watch her son position his galloping mount for the shot.
    With the ball running toward him, the correct timing of his swing was essential. His arm came down in an arc, his stick an extension of it. The mallet head made contact with the ball and Rob pushed it sideways, the abrupt reversal of direction giving the ball a topspin. He turned his horse to go after the ball. Luz grimly shook her head when she noticed his pony was on the wrong lead, the stride of the outside leg overreaching the inside leg of the turn. Rob made no attempt to correct it. He knocked the ball to the middle of the field where she waited, then rode up to meet her.
    â€œI think that’s enough for one morning, Rob,” she said as he swung his blowing horse alongside hers.
    â€œAnother hour,” he stated.
    â€œIt’s time to call it quits,” Luz insisted. “You’re makingmental errors. That last cut up the field, your pony was on the wrong lead. That’s an amateur’s mistake, Rob.”
    He shifted in the saddle, putting his weight onto the stirrup irons. Leather groaned as he settled back onto the seat. “I must have been concentrating on the ball.” He avoided her eyes.
    â€œYou’ve been pushing yourself hard all week. It’s time to let up.”
    â€œMaybe you’re right,” he sighed.
    â€œI know I am.” She collected the Thoroughbred, making contact with its mouth, and squeezed her legs to urge it forward.
    While she loped her mount to the sideline where their soft-spoken handler stood, Rob followed, propelling the ball along with his polo stick. She slowed the horse to a halt near Jimmy Ray and, slipping her wrist free of the strap, passed him the mallet, then dismounted. He took the reins and led the horse out of the way as Rob rode up. Luz pulled off the helmet and shook her hair free. Her cream-white Mercedes convertible was parked on the grass not far away.
    â€œI have to get back to the house and help Emma with the party arrangements.” She peeled off her gloves and tucked them inside the helmet under her arm, glancing at Rob as he swung off his horse.
    â€œCan you wait a minute, Luz? I need to talk to you about something.” He turned and held out the horse’s reins to Jimmy Ray. “Take them to the stable and cool them out.”
    Luz waited until the handler had led both horses away. “What about?” She studied Rob’s expression, guessing the subject must be serious.
    â€œDad’s been pressuring me to make a decision about which college I want to attend.”
    â€œI know graduation seems months away right now, but you really don’t have much time to make up your mind,” Luz said in her husband’s support.
    â€œBut that’s just it. I’ve already made up my mind. I don’t want to start college this fall.” He spoke quickly, before she could voice the protest forming on her lips. “I want to sit out a year.”
    â€œRob, I don’t know.” She doubted that Drew would agree to it. “What would you do?”
    â€œI want to concentrate on polo—not just play in a tournamenthere and there, but do it full-time. I want to find out how good I can be,” he argued earnestly.
    â€œHe has his heart set on your attending college.” Luz could hear the arguments in her head. “There are any number of universities with fine polo programs—Virginia, where I went, or USC, Cornell. You could do both.”
    â€œNo.” He stared at the whip he twisted in his hands. “You know what