“The grand prize for best horse goes to Janie with her Pegasus horse! That was a beautiful display,” she told the teenager, who beamed as Meg draped the flower collar over the white horse’s neck.
“Sorry you didn’t win,” Alfie said, grabbing my wrist.
“It’s fine,” I assured him. “I’ll win the polo match.”
* * *
“Hammer his balls off!”Ida yelled from the stands as I thundered by on a horse. It was a lighter breed than the Friesian I had ridden in the parade.
Hunter’s half-trained wild mustang almost careened into my horse as we went for the ball.
Whack!I sent it down the field.
“Score!” Hunter’s brother Remy said from the announcer’s booth. “And that’s time.”
My horse sneezed and stamped his feet then allowed me to nudge him back to the stands. I looked for Alfie. He usually liked to jump around me after a match, excitedly telling me about his favorite plays. But he wasn’t there.
I looked around, frowning. I didn’t see him in the stands, and he wasn’t milling next to the drink station. He wasn’t with the pack of blond Svensson brothers.
I jumped off the horse and handed the reins to a groomsman then pushed through the crowd. My single greatest fear in life was losing my brother. Disaster scenarios played in my head as I yelled for him.
“Sebastian!”
Several middle-aged women surrounded me.
“We just wanted to thank you for the generous donation to the regional hospital,” one of them said.
“Yes, of course,” I said, trying not to sound too impatient.
The retired women were on the board of the hospital and also professional busybodies.
“We’re having a charity dinner,” one woman said, “to thank all our donors.”
I would rather bash my head in a door than go to a charity dinner.
“I’ll have to check my calendar,” I said, hoping they would take the hint and leave.
Where is Alfie?
“Oh, but we would love for you to come.”
I desperately needed to find my brother.
“Sure, sure,” I said, “I’ll be there. Just send me the info.”
“Wonderful!” they said happily as I stalked off.
I sucked in a breath to yell for Alfie again just as someone tapped me on the back.
“There you are! We were looking for you,” Amy said brightly behind me.
I glowered at her and grabbed Alfie, pulling him to me.
“We were talking about plants,” my brother said. “Amy has a ton of Venus flytraps. She said she was going to give me one.”
“We will not be having a bunch of plants in the house,” I said.
“Plants are wonderful for you,” Amy insisted. “If you don’t have something green in your house, it’s like living in robot land.”
