Free Pleasure Horse by Bonnie Bryant Page A

Woods on a Snowy Evening” as he went.
    A few more hearty guests arrived in four-wheel-drive vehicles, on cross-country skis, or simply on foot. By eight o’clock, the kitchen was packed. Almost all of the guests had gravitated to the room and were busy putting away mugs of hot chocolate and whatever food Angie’s parents had managed to dig up. Three or four large guys who Stevie decided had to be football players volunteered to shovel the stone path up to the house.
    Meanwhile the phone was practically ringing off the hook. Stevie’s mother, who was guarding the receiver, had to keep shaking her head at the question on Angie’s face: No caterer—just another guest canceling because of the weather. When a report came over the radio saying the snow would continue all night, it was the last straw for the birthday girl. Angie burst into tears and sat crying in the living room, trails of black mascara and eyeliner running down her face.
    Not knowing what to say, Stevie perched on the windowseat watching different people come in to try to comfort her cousin. Her mother tried, then Chad and Alex, then the Davison kids, then Michael, then Uncle Chester. But Angie just cried harder.
    At first Stevie couldn’t help feeling a bit smug. After all the planning, it looked as if the party was going to be a huge disaster. Probably the New Jersey Lakes—and especially Angie—had cursed it by worrying about every last detail so much. Now they would learn their lesson. But then Stevie felt a pang of guilt. Something in her reasoning wasn’t right. Just then Chad walked by with a couple of cheerleaders. Stevie tried to think up something she could say to tease him, but Chad beat her to it.
    “I’m giving Brenda and Diane a tour around the house now,” he said happily. Then he whispered to Stevie, “Maybe you could show them the manure pile later—I know it’s your favorite spot.”
    Stevie made a face. Chad had never gotten over the fact that at Pony Club rallies the stable management judges even examined manure piles to make sure they were up to their standards. But that was Pony Club: Every last detail was—Stevie clapped a hand over her mouth. How could she have been so blind? Of
course
something in her reasoning was wrong! She had been annoyed at Angie all weekend not because she was discussing and planning every last detail but because shewas discussing and planning every last detail
for a party
! If Angie had been getting ready for a show, Stevie would have been the first to agonize with her over what color breeches she would wear and what food the horses would eat, and to review the classes one by one.
    There was no denying that Angie’s priorities had changed from horses to clothes, cheerleading, and boys. But the truth was Stevie had been so disappointed by the change that she hadn’t been able to see the parallel between planning for a Pony Club event and planning for a social event. When she thought about it, it wasn’t surprising that Angie pursued her new interests with the same single-mindedness that had once made her so successful in the show ring.
    Even more importantly, no matter what Angie liked to do with her time, she was still family and always would be.
    “Hey, Angie?” Stevie said quietly.
    “What?” came a choked response.
    “You know, I was thinking, even though some people are canceling, your family’s almost all here, and so are most of your close friends, aren’t they?”
    Angie nodded dully, her eyes on the living room floor.
    “And even if there won’t be live music, a couple of the guys in the band said they would deejay with the stereo.”
    Angie nodded again.
    “So all we have to do is wait for the caterer. I’m sure she’ll come,” Stevie predicted, crossing her fingers. “In fact, that’s probably her now,” she added, hearing the phone ring again.
    But no sooner were the words out of her mouth than Aunt Lila appeared in the doorway, her face grave. “Angela, that was the