Read Summer Rider for Free Online Page B

and it seemed almost impossible not to talk about it. Still, they kept quiet, since Phil and Todd were sitting with them.
    Once again, the boys were discussing their plans to ride away with all the ribbons at the horse show. “Okay, so if you win the blue in dressage and I win the red, who’s going to take third place?” Todd asked Phil, giving Stevie a mischievous look out of the corner of his eye.
    Phil shrugged and shoveled a huge bite of lasagna into his mouth. He chewed and swallowed quickly. “They’ll probably just decide to retire the other ribbons, since we’llbe so clearly superior to everyone else,” he replied. “And I do mean
everyone.
”
    Stevie knew that the boys were just joking around again, but she definitely wasn’t in the mood tonight. “For your information, that’s not all they’ll be retiring around here soon,” she snapped. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized what she had done. “Oops.”
    “Oops?” Phil said. He put down his fork and gave her a sharp look. “What do you mean, ‘oops’? Spill it, Stevie.”
    Stevie gave Carole and Lisa a panicky glance. But Carole just shrugged. “You might as well tell them,” she said. “We’ll go crazy if we try to keep it to ourselves. We can trust them.”
    Stevie nodded, relieved. She had been dying to tell Phil the news all through the meal. After a glance around to make sure nobody else was close enough to hear, she told the two boys the whole story.
    Phil and Todd were as horrified as the girls had been when they had heard the news. “We can’t just sit back and let this happen!” Phil declared, waving his arms and almost knocking over his water glass.
    Despite the serious topic, Stevie couldn’t help smiling. It was times like this that reminded her why she liked Phil so much. “I agree,” she said. “We have to find a way to save Moose Hill.”
    “But how?” Carole asked.
    “We’ll think of something,” Stevie and Phil said in one voice.
    Todd was shaking his head. “I don’t know, guys,” he said. “This whole situation sounds like some serious stuff to me. What can a bunch of kids possibly do to change it?”
    “I hate to say it, but I think Todd’s right,” Carole said. “I’m not saying we should just give up, but I don’t know if we should expect any miracles, either.”
    Stevie frowned. “It sounds to me like you are just giving up,” she told Carole. She turned to Lisa. “What do you think? You’re keeping pretty quiet.”
    Lisa looked up from her plate. She had only been half listening to the conversation. “I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “Todd has a point. This is big business—and real money—we’re talking about. It would be nice if we could find a way to help, but I can’t imagine how. Your usual moneymaking schemes won’t do it this time, Stevie.”
    Stevie didn’t respond for a moment, and Carole gave her a surprised look. Then she saw that Stevie was glancing back and forth between Todd and Lisa with a satisfied expression on her face. Carole rolled her eyes. Even at a time like this, Stevie was obviously thrilled that Lisa had sided with Todd—even though it meant she was siding against Stevie.
    Lisa was completely oblivious to Stevie’s reaction. After offering her opinion, she had immediately returned to her previous activity—playing with her food and feeling guilty. That was because she had already broken her vowto jog every day. In all the excitement over Barry’s news, she had simply forgotten that she’d planned to go jogging during her free time after lunch. How else was she going to lose weight if she didn’t exercise? And there wasn’t any other time to do it today—her evening was already planned down to the minute. After dinner she had to spend an hour working with Major on lead changes. Then she was supposed to spend another hour helping Betty and some of the other campers muck out the paddocks. And she was determined to finish
Jane