Walker: Secrets

Chapter 24

As Winter slowly gave way to Spring, trees and flowers came back to life. With the gentle Spring rain green grass had begun to grow after the last frost had passed and with it the promise of warmer weather and goodbye to the cold of winter for another year. Also with the arrival of Spring came August's fifteenth birthday, celebrated in the middle of March. A small family gathering it had been with a few extra family friends and some kids from his class but all in all it had been a nice and pleasant time for them all.

To the relief of everyone, Captain James had made a full recovery and had returned to active duty a couple weeks prior. Part of him being hard at work was attempting to find Cordell another partner to be paired with but that was proving to not be an easy task. A few remarks had been made around the house about Cordell not having someone to work with and it was easy to see that he still missed Micki greatly.

They had heard from Micki on the odd occasion, the former Ranger having rung a few times just to see how everyone was getting along. From what Maddie had heard it seemed like Micki was doing well back in San Antonio, making a new life for herself. Though it had been sad to see her go it had been for the best and it was apparent that the move had been the right decision for her to make, as hard as it had been.

Trey also was doing well, the school counselor having attended more than one family dinner over the course of the last month. Though Maddie hadn't asked for it, Trey seemed to have taken an interest in her and the two of them had begun to form a friendship. It was nice to be able to talk to someone other than just her family when she had something on her mind and Trey was one who gave good advice. Not only that but he had been giving her a hand with the harder stuff of her schoolwork when she didn't want to bother one of the Walkers with needing help.

Geri too she had started to have a connection with, especially since she was now working at the Side Step a few times a week so that she could earn extra money. She was still a bit shy and reserved around her as she didn't know her all that well but Geri had been kind and patient with her and slowly had begun to earn her trust. It was clear that Geri liked her father and that he liked her back and Maddie had started to wonder what it would be like if Cordell and her decided to do something about that attraction. What would it be like to have a Mom again? She'd given it some thought for awhile then decided that if her Dad ever decided to ask Geri out, she'd deal with it then.

With training two horses, her schoolwork, helping out at the ranch and also with her new job at the Side Step, Maddie didn't have time to be bored. The extra money she was making at the Side Step was going into her savings fund to be able to buy Dakota at the auction she'd be put up in at the end of the competition. She hoped that with the addition of some of her wages from working at the ranch and all of her salary from the Side Step she'd have enough to be able to purchase the mare. Though it was hard work having the extra job, if in the end she could buy Dakota, it would be worth it.

Her training with both Bel and Dakota had been progressing splendidly, both of them having been out on a couple trips to some small rodeos and trail course days. Bel and Dakota were paddocked together now, the two mustangs having gotten along wonderfully with each other when she'd first introduced them. With the end of the makeover a little over three months away Maddie was really putting as much time and experience onto Dakota as she could. The mare certainly had proven to be a lot easier to train then Bel and even though she had only had her for about a month and a half, Dakota was now to the same point in training as Bel was.

The only downside to the extra work that she had taken on was that her health was starting to suffer. Little by little she had begun to lose weight that went unnoticed by herself or anyone else. It didn't help that when she felt nauseous she went without eating. Her headaches too kept coming and going but putting them down to stress and the fact she was doing a lot, she didn't pay them much attention. A couple of painkillers and she managed them just fine.