Blue Moon by Marilyn Halvorson

blurry. I drove slowly past Cole’s turnoff, staring as far as I could see down the empty lane. Suddenly, I hit the brakes. “Sorry again, Blue Moon,” I muttered as the truck jolted to a stop. I backed up and turned into the lane. I wasn’t sure what I was doing, but I couldn’t stop myself.Not until I was halfway around the curve. Then I stopped real sudden. If I hadn’t, I would have run head-on into Cole’s truck coming from the opposite direction. He hit the brakes, too. Then he pulled his truck off to the side, came running over and jumped in beside me. “Cole…” I began, but I didn’t know what to say. It didn’t matter because he interrupted me anyway.
    â€œHey, Blue Jeans,” he said with that teasing grin. “You weren’t gonna go without me, were you?”
    I spent the next twenty minutes trying to back the trailer around the curve. Cole spent the next twenty minutes laughing at me trying to back the trailer around the curve. Things were back to normal—for now anyway.
    The afternoon that had stretched out ahead was suddenly gone. The afternoon rodeo events ended and everything shut down for an hour. Time to warm up the barrel horses. Blue Moon was calm, in control. She tookthe crowds and confusion in her stride. Somewhere, in a past life, Blue Moon had definitely been around.
    The barrel racing started. The first rider was slow as molasses. Nineteen-five. We could beat that. The next two riders knocked down barrels. Five-second penalties. Out of luck. Then a girl came out on a beautiful golden palomino that ran like the wind. She ran clean—seventeen-six. My stomach knotted. Then came a real young kid on a big bay. She was just going into the first turn when a sudden gust of wind came up. The wind whirled a big piece of cardboard out of the stands and almost into her horse’s face. He leaped straight sideways, slammed her leg against the barrel, lost his footing and fell. They took the girl out in an ambulance. The horse limped out bleeding from a big cut on his leg.
    It was a hot summer evening but I felt myself go cold inside. Did I really know what to expect from my horse? And why did I have to draw second-last place in therunning order? Just one left before me. A young horse. Green as grass at this business. but the rider was experienced. She steered the horse around the barrels and turned for home. That’s when he ducked his head and went to bucking. The girl stayed with him and rode out the storm. The crowd loved it. Except for me, that is. All I felt was a little closer to throwing up.
    Then I heard my name over the PA system. I went on autopilot. Somehow I got Blue Moon lined up behind the starting line. I felt the pent-up power underneath me. She was ready. I gulped a deep breath, looked up and caught a glimpse of Cole giving me the thumbs-up signal from the fence. Then we were gone. How could so few seconds stretch out so long? I felt each powerful stride as Blue Moon closed in on the first barrel, dug in and turned on a dime. I felt her powerful hindquarters push her away from that barrel and on toward the second one. Close around. Pounding down the long stretch to barrel three. Around it and racing for home.
    Then I was circling her to a stop and waiting, breathless as always, for the time. It boomed out from the announcer’s stand. “We have a new leader, folks. B.J. Brooks and Blue Moon, seventeen-three.”
    The grandstand went wild with cheering. I reached down and hugged Blue Moon’s neck. She gave her head a casual toss. “No big deal,” I think she said. But when we’d moved out of the arena, Cole came up and gave her a hug, too. If you really want to know, Blue Moon wasn’t the only one he hugged. And, yes, I did hug him back.
    The last horse ran eighteen flat. Blue Moon and I loped out of the arena with our first trophy just as it started to rain.

Chapter Eleven
    The rain stayed with us