The A Circuit 04- Rein It In by Georgina Bloomberg Page A

over her horse’s head. “Unclip him on that side and get the halter off—I’ll do the rest.”
    Marissa’s smile was insanely grateful. “Thanks, Zara.”
    “Where are all the grooms, anyway?” Summer sounded vaguely annoyed. “Shouldn’t they be here helping you? Isn’t that what they get paid for?”
    “Hello! Kate’s standing right in front of you.” Fitz pointed at Kate, who was helping Tommi wrestle with her hunter. Toccata was clearly picking up on the nervous energy zipping around him and had started dancing in place.
    “Okay, but she’s not really a groom.” Summer shot Kate a dismissive look. “Just a working student.”
    At that moment a girl around their age came rushing down the aisle, trying to shrug on her jacket as she went. Zara had seen her around all week, which meant she probably rode with one of the other barns stabled nearby.
    “Are you guys in the hack?” the girl blurted out breathlessly. “Because we’re supposed to be out there right now. They said if we—hey, aren’t you Zara Trask? You know, Zac’s daughter?” She stopped dead in front of Zara, the panic on her face suddenly replaced by naked curiosity. Her gaze slid toward the other girls, quickly looking each of them up and down.
    “Zara Trask? Nope, never heard of her,” Zara said, deadpan.
    A muffled announcement came over the loudspeaker—something about a five-minute warning. The girl let out a squeak of terror. With one last curious glance at Zara and the others, she raced off.
    “Looks like everyone’s still wondering which of you ladies is Zac’s jailbait, huh?” Fitz’s tone was light, but Zara was pretty sure she actually saw a hint of sympathy in his eyes. “Some people really need to get a life.”
    “You’re telling me,” Zara muttered.
    Summer finally glanced up from her own fingernails. “You can’t blame people for being curious about something like that,” she said. “I mean, for a second I even wondered when I first read that post.” When Zara glared at her, she opened her pale blue eyes wide. “What? It’s not like it couldn’t be true.”
    “It’s not,” Zara told her through gritted teeth. “Trust me.”
    “Oh, I totally believe you,” Summer assured her, suddenly sounding more like her usual suck-up self. “I’m just saying, Ican sort of understand why other people might believe something like that.”
    “Whatever.” Zara tightened the bridle’s noseband a little too abruptly, causing Marissa’s placid hunter to lift his head in surprise. Giving the horse a pat by way of apology, Zara glanced around at the others. “Anyway, I’m definitely over it.”
    “How do you think Joy feels?” Fitz grinned. “Everyone thinks she’s either scamming her boss or has, like, an inoperable brain tumor.”
    “I know, right?” Marissa fastened her helmet strap. “It’s a good thing Joy never gets on the Internet unless she absolutely has to. She probably doesn’t even know about all the rumors.”
    “Whatever,” Zara said again. “I just wish I didn’t know about that blog. I’m sick of everyone at the stupid show asking me about it.”
    Marissa looked sympathetic. “Don’t worry. All you have to do is wait for the next superjuicy rumor to come along, and everyone will forget about your dad.”
    “What if I don’t want to wait that long?” Zara was feeling more irritable by the second. “Maybe I should do something about it now .”
    “Like what?” Fitz raised an eyebrow. “Track down the blogger and pull his hair out? Or her hair—you know, whichever.” He shrugged. “Anyway, good luck with that. I mean, if nobody’s figured out who’s writing that blog by now, I’m not sure we’re ever going to know.”
    That gave Zara an idea. So far, the blogger pretty much had the entire A circuit at his or her mercy. That needed tochange, and if nobody else was going to make it happen, it seemed to be up to Zara. “Don’t count on it,” she told Fitz. “Because