Page 21 of Our Sweet Destiny
Chapter Twelve
JADE LEFT A message on Riley’s voicemail just as she pulled up to her client’s barn. “It’s me. I just wanted you to know that you have officially been knocked out of Queen Gossip of Weston status. Remember what Jennifer Aniston said about Brad Pitt missing a sensitivity chip? Well, guess what? Now hot cowboy can keep Brad company in that department. Gotta run. I still love ya, but you owe me.”
Jade was still chewing on Rex’s disregard for Hope’s emotions when she stepped from her car. Before walking into the Schafers’ barn, she took a minute to calm herself down. She couldn’t very well help heal a horse’s emotional or mental imbalance if she was tied in knots. She leaned against the side of the truck, took a few slow, deep breaths and blew them out slowly. She had to put Rex Braden out of her mind. Completely. That was the only way to move forward. Sex is sex.Anyone can make you feel good. Not that good.
“Jade?” Patti Schafer waved as she came down from the house.
“Hi.”
“I heard that you’re volunteering at the show. That should be fun this year.” Patti was Jade’s height and round as a basketball. Her jeans rode up high above her waist, and the short-sleeve shirt she wore pulled across her ample bosom. Each button looked as though it might pop with her next deep breath.
“Yeah, I’m looking forward to it.”If you call not being able to breathe for six hours while I avoid Rex fun.
“My niece Hannah is showing Hal Braden’s horse in the open class. She’s so excited. You know how little girls are about getting all dolled up.”
Just the mention of a Braden sent her heart aflutter. This was not good. She needed to get her mind off of Rex Braden, not on him.Or under him.
“How’s Berle doing?” A quick diversion of subjects would help. Patti had named her horse after Milton Berle, and Jade knew better than to question a pet’s name. It was like questioning a child’s name. Something she just didn’t do.
“He’s doing well. He hasn’t had any more issues since you cleared up the colic, and I think the massages are helping. He’s eating well, but still just a little…off.” Patti had gone to school with Jade’s mother, and she was one of the most caring animal owners Jade knew. As soon as Jade had moved back to Colorado, Patti had called and asked her to take over Berle’s care. She had been using a veterinary practice outside of Weston that her family had used for generations, but when the vet she trusted retired, she hadn’t felt like the new vet connected with her horses. Jade had wondered why she didn’t ask Dr. Baker, the town veterinarian, to care for her horses, and her answer was just what she’d expected; he didn’t do any hands-on work with the horses. He’d been practicing veterinary medicine for forty years and he believed massage was “hooey,” though Dr. Baker and Jade got along just fine. She respected his practice, and he respected her efforts as well. Even if he didn’t believe in her holistic approach, he never disrespected her abilities.
“Well, let’s see if we can’t fix him right up.”
The barn was quiet and cool. Berle stood in the center aisle, secured to the stall by his lead. He was a sweet-natured, handsome, chestnut quarter horse gelding with a flaxen mane and tail. He lifted his nose as Jade approached. She stroked the side of his strong jaw.
“Hey, Berle. How’s my boy today?” When Jade was around horses, everything else fell away. All she thought about as she looked into Berle’s trusting eyes was making him feel better. Luckily, Patti was completely in tune with her animals, and she’d noticed a change in Berle’s behavior right away. They were able to diagnose and treat the early stages of colic before it became too difficult to manage, and now Jade was providing post-colic comfort. Jade believed that no pain—in human or animal—could occur without affecting their mental and emotional state in some way. She knew Berle’s being “off” could be caused by something as simple as needing a Chi adjustment. Jade was used to hearing snide comments, such as the one Rex made, about animals and their emotions, but that didn’t make those comments any easier to swallow. Luckily, Patti had not only been receptive, but excited about the idea of helping her horse to heal.
“I hear you’re feeling a little off.” She stroked his side gently. “We’re going to help you feel better today.” She put her hands on him, fingers stretched wide, and felt the rhythm of his breathing. She was most comfortable when she knew the natural rhythm of the horse she was working on, and by taking a few minutes to connect with them, she and the horse were more relaxed.
She used the fingers on each hand as she stroked and pressed along his meridian. Although she would concentrate on the area around his stifle, the complex joint in the horse’s hind leg, she massaged along the entire stomach meridian to encourage the elements of stomach and earth to balance. She began with the junction of the two prominent veins that ran just below his eye, which were dilated and pressing through the surface of the skin, indicating Berle’s relaxed state. From there, she moved up his jaw and down his neck, taking her time to stroke him gently, feeling for gritty or spongy muscles or changes in temperature beneath her fingers. She moved gently to the underside, behind his left front leg, then used the palm of her hand as she moved across the meridian line of his ribs and along the lower outside of his belly.
She took a deep inhalation as she moved toward his stifle joint. The smell of fresh hay filled her senses, centering her once again. She could find point thirty-six on the stomach meridian in her sleep. Some people called it the “probiotic point” due to its immediate soothing effect when a horse had digestive issues. As she faced Berle’s head, she closed her eyes and slid her palm on his stifle, cupped it, and her thumb fell naturally into a groove in the bone just below the head of his tibia.
After giving a massage treatment, Jade’s mind and body often remained in a place of peacefulness. Her body became just as relaxed as the animal’s, and though her muscles might be tired, she barely felt the discomfort. Instead, she focused on the ease of her breathing and the soothing calm that warmed her.
As she climbed into her car and headed toward home, she allowed her mind to drift to Rex. Once again, she wondered what he might be like if he was soothed by touch—not hormone-driven, sexual touch, but quelling, tranquil touch.
She slowed down as she passed the Braden ranch, wondering if losing his mother at such a young age meant that he was touched, held, and comforted less. She knew enough about the Bradens to know their father loved them all and would do anything for them. Anyone in Weston knew that. But had they been adequately touched? Had their father rubbed their backs when they were ill or lain with them and brushed their hair away from their foreheads when they were sad?
The sun dipped from the sky, and in the late-afternoon haze, the ranch had a serene feel. The fields of grass blew in the breeze, and she couldn’t help but slow almost to a crawl when Rex came into view, riding Hope. He was looking into the distance, his Stetson moving up and down against the gray-blue sky as they trotted along. Her heart whispered a longing, and when Hope turned toward the road, it took her a minute or two before she realized that she was staring. She drove away thinking about Rex’s muscles beneath her hands as she massaged the harsh exterior away, revealing whatever vulnerabilities lay beneath.
The minute she pulled into her driveway, all thoughts of Rex fell away, replaced with the reminder of her family possibly losing their farm. She felt a dip in the pit of her stomach. She owed too much in school loans to help them financially, but maybe there was another way. If she could mend that fence between Hal Braden and her father…just maybe…
