Free D is for Drunk by Rebecca Cantrell

during the rest of the show. Sofia relaxed into it, breathing in the smells of horse, sawdust, and popcorn. The performers were amazing. They must have rehearsed for hours to hit every mark so perfectly. What if she’d been cast in a horse show, instead of a detective one? Would she have ended up in a show like this instead of in a detective agency?
    Life had just happened to her. She’d tagged along with Emily for the audition for Half Pint Detective because she was too sick to go to school that day and her mother hadn’t wanted to leave her home alone. The casting director had seen Sofia, probably high on cold medicine, trying to pry open a window to let out a moth beating itself to death against the glass and insisted she audition, too.
    The moth’s dusty scales had left marks on the glass. The window was painted shut, she’d never have been able to open it, but she’d still regretted she hadn’t freed the moth before she got dragged off to run lines. When she came back after her unscheduled audition, the moth was gone. She always wondered what had happened to it.
    So, her whole career came down to a lost insect. If she hadn’t been standing on the chair struggling with the window, the casting director probably wouldn’t have noticed her. That’s how random her life was. Maybe how random everyone’s life was.
    If she hadn’t seen that surfing documentary and decided to go swimming yesterday, Jaxon might not have a life. He might still be hanging from his surfboard by the leash, his eyes closed, and his skin gone cold.
    “Are you OK?” Aidan whispered to her.
    “Fine,” she answered, but she wasn’t sure. She concentrated on the performance again, but it was mostly over. The actors and horses were coming in and taking their bows. The crowd roared for Jaxon, and he caught her eye.
    “Backstage?” he mouthed.
    She looked from side to side.
    “All of you,” he mouthed.
    She nodded, and he bowed.

                                                                                                                                                                     

    CHAPTER 14
    J  axon’s assistant, a dark-haired boy who looked about eight, came up to them after the show.
    “My name is Sage,” he said. “I’m supposed to take you backstage.”
    “How long have you been working with fire?” Violet asked. “At what age exactly did you start?”
    “When I was five or six, I guess.”
    Violet vibrated with outrage and glared at her mother.
    “Is that a katana embroidered on your jacket?” Sage asked. “It looks cool.”
    “My mom did it for me,” Violet said grudgingly. “It’s a weapon I get to work out with at the dojo on Saturday, if I’m good. The practice one is only wooden, but it’s still fun.”
    Sage and Violet led the way down the aisle and over towards the back of the tent talking about martial arts.
    “That Sage is one to watch,” said Tex.
    “Auntie Sofia will be too busy watching Jaxon,” said Van. “She blushed.”
    She blushed again. What was up with that?
    “It’s hot in here,” said Emily. “That’s all.”
    “That Khal Drogo raised the temperature in the whole tent,” said Tex. “I thought I was having a hot flash.”
    “He’s not Khal Drogo, that’s from Game of Thrones,” said Van.
    “What do you know about Game of Thrones?” Emily asked him.
    “Jake at school watches it. He says a lot of people die, and a lot of people get naked.”
    “Which one is Jake?” Emily asked.
    Sofia slipped through the back tent flap and entered a different world. Horses of every color and size milled around, tended to by performers in and out of costume, and attendants in jeans and t-shirts. It smelled of horse and hay. She liked it.
    “Hey!” called a familiar voice.
    Jaxon stood between two large black horses.