So I thought it could be nice to give you a glimpse into the next Thoroughbred Breeders book! This one is still very much in the writings, with about 1/3 of it complete so far. It will be titled Focus. Below is the first chapter.
Savannah spent most of her drive back home thinking about Craig. She was delighted that they had actually organised a date night – it was wonderful to know that he had brought it up again. Wonderful and a little daunting.
She knew that if Craig was interested in dating her, then eventually they would get back to the topic of what she wanted from their relationship. It felt so long ago that he’d kissed her and said it was up to her where things went.
As she made her way down the familiar highway toward her parents’ place, her thoughts were mainly consumed with recollections of the South African farrier. Her studies made sporadic appearances.
She thought about the extra subject she was completing for summer school. Most of her subjects had residential schools. This required that she head up to the university for practical work and usually an assessment or two. She’d specifically chosen her current subject because it had an optional residential school. This meant she didn’t have to attend it to pass the subject.
When first enrolling and viewing the subject matter, she concluded she wouldn’t attend the residential. She had enough to focus on with work, yearling preparation and Craig, of course. The idea of being away from all of that was far from appealing. As she drove and found herself trying to revise what she’d already covered, there was an obvious shortfall.
“I’m not focused on this subject at all. I don’t know if it’s because the subject isn’t horse specific, or just that it’s so foreign to me that I’m in over my depth,” she mused out loud.
Residential school.
Savannah frowned, wondering where that thought came from.
“It’s optional and besides, I don’t have time to go. There’s work and Craig…” she argued to herself, her statement sounding hollow.
Distractions.
She grinned as she realised they were just excuses to not focus on her study.
“Ok, God. If I’m supposed to go to this residential school so that I can focus on my study, then Nev needs to be ok with me going away for a few days in the middle of yearling preparation. I can’t see him agreeing to that, but you can work out the details, right?”
Laughing to herself, Savannah turned up the music on her CD player and sung along to a song from a Reunion Island band she enjoyed.
—
Savannah enjoyed a meal with her family shortly after arriving home. Her parents asked about work at Nestleby and listened attentively as she described the daily routine of working with the yearlings. This of course was alongside feeding and checking over the rest of the farm and any maintenance work that needed doing.
Savannah found herself hiding yawns behind her hand.
I’m so ready for bed!
Her sister had other ideas and followed her to her room.
“So David bought an unregistered Mustang recently. It’s going to be a little while before he can drive it, but he’s super excited about having a car and has great plans to restore it. I’ve been over to their place a couple of times to spend time with him while he works on it. Did I tell you he’s doing an automotive course? He was doing it at his local TAFE and when they moved over here he was able to get credits for the course here. Neat, huh?”
Savannah nodded absentmindedly, unpacking her weekend bag. Her gaze fell on a book for uni and she grinned. It felt good to have decided to attend residential school if Nev agreed.
“So he told me he loves me,” Keira blurted out suddenly, gaining Savannah’s attention.
She sat down on her bed, watching her sister who was sitting cross legged at the end.
How long have they been going out? Has he kissed her? Did she tell me before and I wasn’t paying attention?
“Wow,” Savannah responded, “it seems like only yesterday you were telling me about David having arrived at church with his family.”
Keira nodded enthusiastically.
“It does! But we’ve been going out for nearly three months now,” she said, a hint of pride in her voice.
Savannah questioned if she’d not been so hesitant with Craig when he kissed her, if she would have been able to say the same thing. She thought about this, her mind quickly consumed with images of the dark haired man. She remembered their trip out to the falls and his description of the bones in the horse’s hoof and legs. His touch had sent tingles through her body. When his gaze had met hers, she’d looked down quickly, afraid he would realise how much his touch affected her. When she focused on Keira again, she frowned at the smirk on her sister’s face.
I hate being so easy to read! Why can I hide my gaze from others but I sometimes forget to do that around my sister?
“Who is he?” Keira asked.
Her tone was both smug and curious. Savannah sighed and looked elsewhere.
“Who?” she asked unconvincingly, knowing that at least this time her eyes wouldn’t give her away.
“The guy you’re thinking about. I hope he’s nothing like Jackson. I still want to punch that guy. Who honestly thinks things will go well with their girlfriend if they make up stories about them sleeping together and then spread it around town? Argh, I really would like to hurt him.”
Savannah smiled and reached across to squeeze her sister’s hand.
“Thanks, Keira. I’m not sure that the anger you harbour toward Jackson is healthy, but I appreciate the sentiment.”
Besides, it wasn’t the stories that were the hardest to deal with. It was the constant pressure to sleep with him.
Keira shrugged, returning the topic to David. Savannah refrained from looking at her sister too long. She didn’t want her to see how relieved she was that they’d moved on from the discussion of who Craig was. She also felt she should be paying a little more attention to her sister’s relationship.
I don’t think she’s too young to have a boyfriend… but I think her desire to be married and have kids is a little premature. I hope their relationship isn’t distracting her from her studies.
She smiled to herself, knowing that she was as guilty of that as her sister may be.
And I don’t even have a boyfriend.
“So how’s the study going?” Savannah asked, earning a roll of the eyes from Keira.
“It’s going; it’s just so irrelevant to what I want in life! Really, how is a novel about the Great Depression supposed to help?”
Savannah smiled, starting a rant on its relevance. She found that Keira was very quickly making excuses about needing to sleep. Her older sister was only too happy to let her go – she wanted to do exactly the same thing.
Leave a Reply