CHAPTER TEN
(chapter title – A Day Filled With Adventure)

"Can you feel the love tonight?" Sara, Tiffany, Jennifer, Carolyn and Kristen sang at the top of their lungs. Roger laughed as he drove the five girls to Golden Hoof Beats Ranch where they were going to go horseback riding for two hours. Roger had even decided to join them.

"The peace that evening brings!" Roger joined in, equally as loud as the girls. They all laughed and stepped out of the car as soon as Roger parked it. Mark was with Maureen and Joanne today, still working on arrangements for Collins' memorial service.

"Thanks for coming with us Mr. C-D." Carolyn thanked him. Roger and Sara laughed.

"Please call me Roger, you know that, Carolyn." Roger told her, putting an arm around Sara's shoulders and smiled at her. Sara smiled back up at him as the six of them headed to the stables and awaited their horse assignments.

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"Whoa Queen!" Sara commanded her horse as the group picked up a trot. The chestnut mare tossed her head and only trotted faster.

"Pull back on her reins Sar!" Carolyn called from somewhere behind her.

"All halt!" the trail guide, Rachel, told the group of riders – Tiffany and her horse, Sunshine; Jennifer and her horse, Tango; Kristen and her horse, Chocolate; Roger and his horse, Mulan; Sara and her horse Queen and Carolyn and her horse, Blade. The six of them had managed to have a group made up of only them.

"Everyone doing okay?" Rachel asked as she nudged her horse, Pudgi, into a walk.

"I'm not, she won't stand still." Sara told the trail guide, slapping Queen with the end of her reins. Queen snorted and tossed her head.

"Here, trade horses with me." Rachel told Sara, motioning for her to dismount. Sara dismounted and smiled at Pudgi. He was a dark brown, almost black horse.

"Go ahead and mount him." Rachel said, mounting Queen and leading her to the front of the group. Sara put her foot in the stirrup and mounted Pudgi.

The group finished up their ride, said goodbye to their horses and headed back to the Cohen-Davis' house.

"Hey, Mr. C-D, are you writing any new songs?" Carolyn asked.

"Yes, I am Carolyn." Roger told her, smiling at Sara as she climbed in the front seat.

"What's the name of it?" Kristen piped up.

"It doesn't have a title yet, but I'll let you girls listen to it when we get home." Roger told them as he turned on the ignition and drove back to the brownstone house. The girls sang, talked and laughed all the way there, just as they did all the way down to the stable.

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"How do you measure, measure a year?" Roger, Sara, Tiffany, Kristen, Jennifer and Carolyn sang on the way back to the Cohen-Davis' house. Roger smiled as each of the girls took a turn singing the solos.

"We're here." Roger announced twenty minutes later. Jennifer, Tiffany, Kristen and Carolyn scrambled out of the backseat as Sara and Roger walked inside. Mark, Joanne and Maureen were there, waiting for the group.

"Hey everyone." Joanne greeted the girls and Roger.

"How was riding?" Mark asked.

"It was good." The girls went on to tell the three adults the names of their horses while Roger went to the room he shared with Mark and brought out his guitar. The girls were settled on the floor, on the couch and the chairs at the kitchen table. Mark, Maureen and Joanne were settled on the couch and in two chairs in the kitchen.

"This is one of the songs I'm going to be singing next week and all of you are invited." Roger smiled at the group and strummed a chord on his guitar.

"We all lead such elaborate lives
wild ambitions in our sights
How an affair of the heart survives
days apart and hurried nights
Seems quite unbelievable to me
I don't want to live like that
seems quite unbelievable to me
I don't want to love like that
I just want our time to be
slower and gentler, wiser, free

We all live in extravagant times
playing games we can't all win
Unintended emotional crimes
Take some out, take others in

I'm so tired of all were going through
I don't want to live like that
I'm so tired of all were going through
I don't want to love like that
I just want to be with you
Now and forever, peaceful, true
This may not be the moment
to tell you face to face
But I could wait forever
for the perfect time and place." He sang. Sara remembered him singing this song before and decided to join in.

"We all lead such elaborate lives
We don't know whose words are true
Strangers, lovers, husbands, wives
Hard to know who's loving who.
" Sara and Roger crooned.

"Too many choices tear us apart
I don't want to live like that.
" Sara sang.

"Too many choices tear us apart
I don't want to love like that
I just want to touch your heart
May this confession.
" Roger sang.

"Be the start." Sara and Roger sang, finishing the song. Everyone around them clapped and cheered.

"What's the name of that song, Rog?" Maureen asked.

"Elaborate Lives." Roger answered.

"I love that song, Mr. C-D." Carolyn spoke up. She was the only one of Sara's friends that refused to call Roger by his first name.

"Thanks Carolyn." Roger smiled at her.

"Where's Scott, Aunt Joanne?" Sara inquired.

"He's at a friend's house, why Sar?" Joanne asked.

"Just wondering." Sara told her. Just then, the phone rang.

"I'll get it." Sara announced, standing up and walking over to the phone.

"Hello?" she said into the receiver.

"Sara Cohen-Davis, prepare to die." The anonymous caller hung up. Sara dropped the phone and sunk down on the floor, feeling the bile rising up in her throat. She then began crying – loud and hard.

"Sara? What's wrong?" Joanne asked, walking over to Sara and holding her.

"It – was – him." Sara choked out. Joanne shot a confused look to the others.

"What do you mean it was him? Who was it, honey?" Joanne inquired, stroking Sara's hair and rubbing her back.

"It – was – him." Sara repeated.

"I know who she means." Tiffany spoke up. Everyone's eyes turned to her. "It was Scott."