said Cleo, cranking her head around. âI just didnât realize you were Alexâs sisters.â
âThatâs because weâre allowed to roam freely over a wide area,â said May. âBut we are available should a situation arise,â added Maggie mysteriously.
âIâm sorry, I didnât catch that,â said Cleo.
The twinsâ reply was lost beneath the roar of the carâs engine as Alex drove slowly out of the Stoneleigh parking lot.
SEPTEMBER 30
10
Cleo
I CANâT PRETEND I wasnât weirded out. He brought his sisters. On a date. And they were armed . Was Alex Ford from a military family or something? I wasnât even aware that Canada had a military. I thought they were one of those pacifist countries. Like Switzerland.
I considered asking Alex about Canadaâs military, you know, so heâd think I was one of those people who is interested in other countries. Iâd keep it quiet so the junior commandos-in-training in the backseat wouldnât hear and think I was stupid, but then I noticed that driving, even at tranquilized granny speed, took all of Alexâs concentration. Itâs a good thing he doesnât ride like he drives. I may have had adriver most of the time, but I do know how to drive, which is more than Alex can say.
Then there was the issue of his car. Now I know why he rides his horse over to a barn for lessons. The noise alone would be enough to send Tandava through a fence. The car doesnât suit him at all. I may not know him well enough to make those kinds of judgments, but the whole point of our date was to fix that. If we hook up Iâm going to advise him to get a new car.
âSo you ride with Alex?â yelled one of his sisters from the backseat.
âYeah,â I said.
âBut isnât Stoneleigh a girlsâ riding school or something? Why donât you ride there?â
I turned to answer and then realized that my seat belt had pulled open my shirt so that my bra was showing. When I bought it I thought my shirt looked sort of peasant chic, but now I think it makes me look more homeless and color blind than anything else. I tried to be subtle about pulling it closed, but I didnât need to worry. I could have stripped naked and Alex wouldnât have taken his eyes off the road. He looked straight ahead as if the street were lined with improvised explosive devices or something. Hiswhite-knuckled hands gripped the steering wheel at precisely ten and two and he seemed afraid to shift, maybe because that would have meant taking his hands off the steering wheel. The engine screamed as we roared along in low gear.
âThey mostly teach jumping at school,â I yelled back. âI ride dressage. Same as Alex.â The noise from the engine was brutal.
âDo you think maybe you should shift?â I asked him.
Alex didnât react. The left-hand turn signal had been on for at least three blocks.
âDressage, dressage, dressage,â said one of the twins in an exaggerated French accent.
The other one joined in. âPassage, piaffe, renvers.â
I turned around, thinking they were laughing at me.
âSorry,â one of them apologized. âItâs just that when Alex was little he used to wander around muttering those words to himself.â
I glanced over at Alex. He was ignoring all of us.
âDressage, half pass, oui ?â said a twin.
âPiaffe et volte et dressage,â said the other one.
âYou speak French?â I asked, just to be polite. Itwas pretty obvious they didnât know French.
âWe like to think we speak dressage.â
Â
We drove from Yellow Point, where Stoneleigh is located, into downtown Cedar, which basically consists of a baseball field across from a mini-mall.
I looked around as we drove and it occurred to me that there was a good chance Alex was a have-not. I knew he wasnât rich or anything, but I thought heâd be at
âThatâs because weâre allowed to roam freely over a wide area,â said May. âBut we are available should a situation arise,â added Maggie mysteriously.
âIâm sorry, I didnât catch that,â said Cleo.
The twinsâ reply was lost beneath the roar of the carâs engine as Alex drove slowly out of the Stoneleigh parking lot.
SEPTEMBER 30
10
Cleo
I CANâT PRETEND I wasnât weirded out. He brought his sisters. On a date. And they were armed . Was Alex Ford from a military family or something? I wasnât even aware that Canada had a military. I thought they were one of those pacifist countries. Like Switzerland.
I considered asking Alex about Canadaâs military, you know, so heâd think I was one of those people who is interested in other countries. Iâd keep it quiet so the junior commandos-in-training in the backseat wouldnât hear and think I was stupid, but then I noticed that driving, even at tranquilized granny speed, took all of Alexâs concentration. Itâs a good thing he doesnât ride like he drives. I may have had adriver most of the time, but I do know how to drive, which is more than Alex can say.
Then there was the issue of his car. Now I know why he rides his horse over to a barn for lessons. The noise alone would be enough to send Tandava through a fence. The car doesnât suit him at all. I may not know him well enough to make those kinds of judgments, but the whole point of our date was to fix that. If we hook up Iâm going to advise him to get a new car.
âSo you ride with Alex?â yelled one of his sisters from the backseat.
âYeah,â I said.
âBut isnât Stoneleigh a girlsâ riding school or something? Why donât you ride there?â
I turned to answer and then realized that my seat belt had pulled open my shirt so that my bra was showing. When I bought it I thought my shirt looked sort of peasant chic, but now I think it makes me look more homeless and color blind than anything else. I tried to be subtle about pulling it closed, but I didnât need to worry. I could have stripped naked and Alex wouldnât have taken his eyes off the road. He looked straight ahead as if the street were lined with improvised explosive devices or something. Hiswhite-knuckled hands gripped the steering wheel at precisely ten and two and he seemed afraid to shift, maybe because that would have meant taking his hands off the steering wheel. The engine screamed as we roared along in low gear.
âThey mostly teach jumping at school,â I yelled back. âI ride dressage. Same as Alex.â The noise from the engine was brutal.
âDo you think maybe you should shift?â I asked him.
Alex didnât react. The left-hand turn signal had been on for at least three blocks.
âDressage, dressage, dressage,â said one of the twins in an exaggerated French accent.
The other one joined in. âPassage, piaffe, renvers.â
I turned around, thinking they were laughing at me.
âSorry,â one of them apologized. âItâs just that when Alex was little he used to wander around muttering those words to himself.â
I glanced over at Alex. He was ignoring all of us.
âDressage, half pass, oui ?â said a twin.
âPiaffe et volte et dressage,â said the other one.
âYou speak French?â I asked, just to be polite. Itwas pretty obvious they didnât know French.
âWe like to think we speak dressage.â
Â
We drove from Yellow Point, where Stoneleigh is located, into downtown Cedar, which basically consists of a baseball field across from a mini-mall.
I looked around as we drove and it occurred to me that there was a good chance Alex was a have-not. I knew he wasnât rich or anything, but I thought heâd be at