“You like having your hair brushed, don’t you?” she whispered into the horse’s ear. Chester was too busy swatting flies with his tail to answer. “Well, I like it,” Ava said, patting his strong neck. “Grooming you is fun.” “Yeah, when you get to do the brushing part,” Kylie McClaire said as she chipped the mud from Chester’s hooves with a hoof pick. “But you brush Chester every day.” Ava scratched Kylie’s horse behind his brown, velvety ear. “You’re so lucky that you get to groom all these horses.” Ava swept her arm in the direction of the six horses standing in stalls in the large barn. “But I also have to rake hay and shovel manure,” Kylie reminded her. Kylie had become Ava’s closest girl friend in Ashland. Kylie was so unlike Lindsey and Emily and the rest of the girls who hung out with Alex. She wasn’t into football or cheerleading. Kylie lived on a ranch on the outskirts of town, and every day after school she was expected to help, even though her family employed two ranch hands, Jorge and Luciana.
