Bridle Path by Bonnie Bryant Page B

Saturday?”
    “Just like last Saturday,” the colonel confirmed. “In fact, he said that Dorothy and Nigel had gotten him five perfectly wonderful seats, and he felt you three deserved a treat. He didn’t tell you that?”
    “He did not,” Carole said.
    “Definitely did not,” Lisa added.
    “Grrrrrrr,” was all Stevie could say.
    “We would have done the work anyway,” Carolesaid. “Remember all the work we did when Mrs. Reg went away? We always like to pitch in.”
    “He didn’t have to trick us. He never has to trick us.”
    “Grrrrrrr.”
    Colonel Hanson abandoned his recliner and left the girls to their musings.
    “We like doing things for Max,” Carole reasoned. “We always say yes when he asks.”
    “We would have done just as good a job,” said Lisa.
    “Grrrrrr.”
    Then Stevie’s face brightened. “I’ve got it,” she said. “It was his April Fools’ joke on us.”
    “Why would he do that? He’s never played a trick on us before,” said Lisa. “Has he?”
    “No, but we’ve played lots on him. Maybe that was just turnabout. That’s fair, isn’t it?”
    Carole wasn’t so certain. “Now, let me get this straight,” she said. “For years you’ve been playing April Fools’ jokes on Max and getting away with it. Then this year he decides on revenge, only instead of just playing a trick on you, we worked like crazy all week because he was playing a trick on all three of us?”
    “Something like that,” Stevie said. “It has to be.”
    “That’s not fair! We didn’t play any tricks on him at all!” Lisa said.
    “Well, not quite,” said Stevie.
    Lisa and Carole didn’t like the sound of that and asked her what it meant.
    “It meant I couldn’t resist,” said Stevie.
    “Doing what?” Lisa asked.
    “Well, remember when you guys were in the tack room packing your bags and folding all our wedding clothes?”
    “Where were you?” Carole asked.
    “I was in the stable,” said Stevie. “I had to do some moving. I had to move all the horses. I moved every one of them over one stall to the left. The one on the far left end, I moved to the far right end.”
    “You what?”
    “I moved every one of them over one stall to the—”
    “We heard you,” Lisa said. “But why did you do that?”
    “I sort of couldn’t resist,” Stevie said. “You know how it is when the urge comes over me?”
    They did know, and they weren’t always sure they liked it, but this time, they might make an exception.
    “How’s Max going to know who did it?”
    “Who else would do something like that?” Carole asked.
    “Maybe,” said Stevie. “But I didn’t want to leave it to chance. So I did a little something with the hat wall.”
    “Yes?”
    “I moved the hats around so that they spell ‘April Fool!’ ”
    “That’ll do it,” Lisa said. “Max will definitely figure it out.”
    “And I’m glad I did.”
    “I am, too,” said Lisa. “I didn’t mind doing all that work, really. In fact, some of it, like the clothes part, was really fun. But it was a little sneaky to trick us into doing the work.”
    “You’re right,” said Carole. “He deserved it. Nice going, Stevie.”
    Then she checked the clock. It was just three minutes until eight. The girls poured themselves sodas, retreated to their chosen soft seats, and Carole clicked on the television so they could watch their second wedding of the day.
    “Third, if we count Dorothy and Nigel’s!” Stevie said. They all laughed.
    Skye’s wedding was really nice, but the girls agreed that it could have used a few special touches.
    “Like some horses,” Lisa said.
    The phone rang then. Carole stood up and went into the kitchen to answer it. Lisa and Stevie stayed in the living room, picking up little pieces of popcorn and wiping off the tables so everything would be clean.
    A few minutes later, Carole returned to the living room.
    “It was your mother, Stevie,” she said.
    Stevie stood up to get the phone.
    “No,