Golden Filly Collection Two by Lauraine Snelling Page B

time she was out, though, didn’t she?”
    Trish felt her jaw drop in amazement. Since when had her mother cared anything about how a horse ran? She caught a grin that David tried to hide behind the filly’s neck. What was going on here? Her brother trotted off with the horse in tow.
    “Patrick, I think Hal told you that we’d ordered a mobile home for you.” Marge leaned against the truck’s front fender. “The people installing the septic tank will be here tomorrow. The power and phone will be in by the end of the week, and the trailer should be here Friday too. In the meantime, you can have David’s room. He’ll take the couch.”
    “No, no.” Patrick shook his head. “Ye needn’t be putting yourself out like that. I’ll just fix a cot down here and…”
    “No, Patrick. This is the way Hal would want it. We had planned to have everything ready before you arrived, but…” She raised her hands in a helpless shrug. “We’ll make do until then. You’re a member of our family, and while the kids used to have slumber parties down in the barn, you’ll be much more comfortable up at the house.”
    Trish could hardly believe her ears. Who was this person who’d taken over her mother’s body? And her mouth? Trish looked up in time to catch her mother wiping away a tear from the corner of her eye. Patrick looked misty-eyed too.
    Trish dashed after David. “I’ll see if he needs help.” But David already had the filly loosed in her stall and was closing the lower half of the stall door.
    “You know, I thought about bringing Dan’l up to keep her company, but Mom said to wait a couple of days. She’s right, of course.” David checked the latch and turned toward the house. “I’ve already done all the other chores.”
    “All right, what’s going on here?” Trish kicked some gravel off to the side.
    “What do you mean?”
    “You know. Since when has Mom cared about what goes on down here?”
    “Down here?” David picked up a stone and pegged it up the driveway.
    “David!” Trish jerked on his arm.
    “Okay, okay.” He raised his hands in surrender. “We had a long talk, Mom and I, and she said it was time she learned more about the horses and racing—since she doesn’t want to sell the farm.…”
    Trish breathed a deep sigh of relief.
    “You thought she might, didn’t you?”
    “It crossed my mind.” Trish shoved her fingers into her pockets.
    “Well, she isn’t. She said she and Dad had talked it all over. He told her to sell if she wanted to.”
    Trish felt a boot-kick in her gut. Her father had said that?
    “But Mom says she wants to keep the farm; that with Patrick’s experience, and maybe hiring some more help when I leave for school…”
    She felt the kick again. “But I—you—but…” David couldn’t leave too.
    “I know.” David stopped and picked up another piece of crushed rock. He ran his finger over the rough edges. “But Mom said…”
    Trish felt an arrow of anger again, the sharp one that caused her to clench her teeth. Since when did her mother know all about what was best for everybody? That was her dad’s job. She yanked her mind back to what David was saying.
    “We had to pick up our lives and go on. My goal has always been to be a veterinarian, and now I want to specialize in equine medicine. You knew that.”
    Trish nodded. She kicked another rock and watched it bounce off into the grass. Sure, pick up our lives and go on. He makes it sound so easy. As if the world hasn’t totally fallen apart.
    “I know this is hard for you, Tee.”
    She shook her head. “Yeah.” You don’t know the half of it, buddy-boy. What do you think you’re doing, just making plans like…like…
    “Trish, Dad would want us to get on with our lives too—school, racing, all of it.”
    Trish flung away his arm when he reached out to touch her. “Easy for you to say. You just go away and step back into a life that didn’t include us anyway. And Mom—she just acts like