Read Online Holiday Horse by Bonnie Bryant - Free Book Online Page B

turned down the ringer on the upstairs phone, remember?” She rushed into the kitchen and checked the answering machine beside the phone. Sure enough, the red message light was blinking.
    Stevie played it back. Phil’s familiar voice came out of the speaker, sounding tinny and far away.
    “Uh, hi, Stevie,” he said. “Sorry I missed you. And I’m sorry I missed your call at seven; I was late getting back from dinner, as you probably guessed. It’s eight o’clock now. I’m going out for ice cream with my family. I’ll make the next call, okay? My family’s going out to see a fireworks display a little after nine, so it may be a few minutes early. I hope you’re there. I’d really like to talk to you. Bye.”
    As the machine clicked off, Stevie let out a disappointed sigh. “I can’t believe we missed each other again,” she muttered. Still, there wasn’t much she could do about it. They would just have to make up for it at nine o’clock. To be on the safe side, she picked up the phone’s cordless receiver and checked the volume to make sure it was turned up nice and loud. She would take it into the living room with her. That way there was no way she could miss Phil’s nine o’clock call.
    She went back into the living room—and gasped at what she saw. Carole and Lisa were bent over their ownarms, sprinkling little drops of milk from the bottle onto their inner wrists and looking perplexed. Meanwhile, Maxi was crawling across the Monopoly board, scattering paper money and plastic game pieces every which way. As Stevie watched, the baby picked up one of the game pieces and raised it toward her mouth.
    “No!” Stevie shouted. She tossed the phone on an overstuffed chair near the stairs, jumped over a low side table, and scooped up the baby, prying the piece out of her tiny fist just in time.
    Carole and Lisa looked up and quickly realized what was happening.
    Lisa gasped. “Oh no!” she exclaimed. “I’m sorry, Stevie. I guess we got distracted. She didn’t swallow anything, did she?”
    “I don’t think so,” Stevie said. She had bent down to examine the remains of the game setup. “All the pieces seem to be here. Some of this money has a little baby drool on it, though.”
    Carole smiled with relief. “Thank goodness,” she said.
    And her friends knew that she wasn’t talking about the drool.
    Stevie looked down at the piece she was holding. She suddenly broke into a grin.
    “What’s so funny?” Lisa asked.
    Stevie held out the piece. “Look which game piece Maxi decided to eat.”
    Carole and Lisa bent over her hand to see. Soon theywere grinning, too. “Of course,” Carole said. “The horse and rider.”
    Maxi was cooing and reaching eagerly toward the milk bottle in Lisa’s hand. Stevie handed Lisa the baby and started to clean up the Monopoly board.
    “I guess the board games will have to wait until she falls asleep,” she said.
    Lisa nodded and settled down on the couch. Once the bottle was in her mouth, Maxi was silent except for an occasional slurp. “That’s okay,” Lisa said. “We can just talk for a while. Maybe get started on those resolutions.”
    “Okay,” Carole said. “I have one. In the new year, I want to work really hard with Starlight on his half-halt. By this time next year, I want him to be able to do it perfectly every time I ask.” The half-halt was a dressage move in which a horse hesitated, shifting its weight to its hindquarters and awaiting further instruction from its rider. Starlight was pretty good at it already, but Carole wanted him to be even better.
    Stevie laughed. “It figures your first resolution has to do with horses,” she teased. “Although actually, I was just thinking that one of my resolutions would be to practice braiding Belle’s tail so that I can do it faster before shows.”
    “That’s funny,” Lisa said, looking up quickly. “That was one of mine, too.”
    “Really?” Stevie said. “You mean you’re going to