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fair? You
have friends helping you.”
    “I know, but I need to do something,” I said.
“Autumn got my grandfather to take her back to the dollar store so
they could find more decorations for Dream.”
    “No more fake apples?”
    I laughed. “No, but she told Grandpa that you
were nearly as nice as he was, so be careful tonight.”
    “Thanks for the warning.” Dave looked at his
watch. “I’ll head up to the house. I brought that bag of real
apples I promised your sister for her pony and those two large
combination pizzas your mom told me she needed for you girls.”
    “Great,” I said. “Thanks a lot. We’ll chop up
the apples for Autumn to feed Dream.”
    Robin waited until Dave left the barn before
she asked, “What’s happening? Is he actually dating your mom? He’s
old and he doesn’t look at all like the hot rodeo cowboys she
usually sees.”
    “I know,” I said. “He’s a nice change. He
helps with chores, orders in pizza, or brings Chinese take-out for
supper. He didn’t let Meredith bully my sister. He even loaded the
dishwasher last Sunday when Mom was putting Autumn to bed, so I
could get a head-start on my homework.”
    The three of them stared at me as if I’d
arrived from outer space. Vicky poked me in the ribs. “Who are you
and what have you done with our friend, Sierra?”
    “I’m me and I’m standing right here.”
    “She’s in denial,” Dani said. “We have to
find the pod and free the real Sierra.”
    “Unless it’s like that old-time, creepy movie
Bill and I watched last night. She could have one of those awful
slug things on her back that arrived in The Puppet
Maste r s ,” Robin said. “Then we have to burn it off and
chuck the leftovers into the woodstove.”
    “ I haven’t changed. It’s just that
Dave’s way more decent than the other guys my mom chooses,” I said.
“He even has a job.”
    “I know,” Robin said. “He arrested Caine, the
guy who threw Lassie’s puppies in the river. Sierra’s right. We do
like Dave. Let’s finish this door and go have pizza. None of
Rocky’s other guys ever brought us dinner or even talked nice to
us.”
    “He could be a keeper. We need to investigate
him some more,” Vicky said. “We’re on break so we have time.”
    “And you can stop picking on me,” I said. “If
he turns into a jerk, I’ll be the first one to say he has to
go.”
     

 
    Chapter
Four
     
    Mom, Dave and my grandparents left shortly
after we arrived at the house. Mom told me to make sure I kept my
cell with me in case I had an emergency. Hello, I was a teenager.
Did she honestly think I ever let it out of my sight or reach?
Autumn loved it when I had friends spend the night because she got
to hang out with us. We ate pizza, played board games and set up
the living room with our sleeping bags. If I only had one friend
over, she slept in my bed with me, but more than one meant a
camp-out.
    The farmhouse really wasn’t that big. The
downstairs had a small living-room in the front and the kitchen was
directly behind it. The hall off it held three bedrooms and a bath.
Mom had told me it was a major deal when my great-great-grandfather
installed indoor plumbing. My great-great-grandmother was a city
girl who refused to go to the outhouse first thing in the morning
or any other time of the day. Grandpa told me that when her
soon-to-be father-in-law offered to buy her a new chamber-pot, she
threatened to call off the wedding.
    It didn’t happen. She got her bathroom or
none of us would be here and Shamrock Stable would be a housing
development by this time. Okay, so my grandpa had turned the family
homestead into a riding stable, but at least it wasn’t wall to wall
split-level houses. That was another thing that totally ticked off
the various guys my mom married. They always thought they’d be the
ones to convince her to sell off the hundred-plus acres to the
developers. It was so not happening.
    Back to the present and my sleepover. When we
got