Chapter 16
I couldn’t find anything else we’d been looking for, so maybe helping to find this good luck charm would dust the cobwebs off and rev things up again. If nothing else, it would give this new crystal trinket around my neck a good workout.
We entered the barn, where more than the one horse was stabled; there were two. One I’d yet to see Amanda ride. This barn was nothing like the one Nathan and I had slept in. That one had several stalls and locked boxes and other things. This one had hay stacked against the back wall going up to the second-story loft area.
“What’s up there?” I asked.
“Oh, just a bed and blankets. Sometimes the oil roughnecks will bunk here, especially if they work into the night.”
“Which horse is yours?”
Amanda opened the stall door and rubbed the horse’s neck. “This is Obi-Wan.”
I grinned at the name as I rubbed the horse’s nose.
“You must likeStar Wars.”
“My brother named him. Obi was his horse before he gave him to me.”
“Where do you normally keep the pin?”
“On Obi’s saddle,” Amanda answered, closing the stall. She crossed the barn to where several saddles sat astride a bench. Just ready to be picked up and lain on the back of the horse. Amanda pointed to the one closest to us.
The leather was faded, cracked, and embellished with several swirls and etches carved into the leather around the seat. “How is it you connect it onto the saddle. I would think the leather would break the pin.”
“Oh, right,” Amanda said. “I attach it to Obi’s blanket.”
Amanda walked across the room to where several blankets were folded. She handed me the one on top. I picked it up and inhaled, trying to get a bead on what might have happened.
I didn’t even need to open my senses to figure it out. A simple sniff told me everything. “This was laundered recently.”
“Once a week if not more, but always before competitions,” Amanda said, her eyes widening as if just saying the words out loud activated her brain cells again.
“Go check. We’ll wait here in case we’re wrong.”
Amanda ran from the barn, yelling for Mildred on her way.
“Where is she going?” Clayton asked.
“To check the washer and dryer.” I handed him the blanket. “It smells fresh and clean.”
I picked up the one beneath it and instantly pictured an image of Amanda and Marty. They were lying atop of it and kissing by a lake I’d yet to explore.
Amanda came running back a few minutes later, holding up the pin. “You were right.”
“Case solved.” Clayton rubbed his hands together.
“Can you give us a minute?” I asked Clayton with a nod toward the door.
“Sure, I’ll be on the porch.”
I waited until he was gone and Amanda had gotten busy re-pinning the good luck charm to the blanket.
I held up the other blanket. “You know, when I was younger, there was this boy that I crushed on something fierce. I would have given him anything. I would have done anything, so imagine my surprise when he showed interest in me. I ate it up without question. One thing led to another, and well, I wish I could take back what I gave him and saved it for someone more special.”
Amanda’s brows dipped as she turned to look at me. I handed her the blanket. “The river has kept your secret, and I will, too, but if you ever need to talk, you can call me.”
Realization dawned on her face as she clutched that blanket to her chest. “I love Marty. He gets me.”
