Page 26 of Our Sweet Destiny
Chapter Sixteen
MONDAY AFTERNOON BROUGHT scorching heat. Bare-chested, Rex stood with Hope at the side of the barn. He’d just finished shampooing her tail in preparation for the show. His chest muscles jumped as he rinsed the remaining lather from her tail, and he was in the process of conditioning when his father stormed into the barn with a scowl on his face.
“Something happen in town?” Rex asked.
“You could say that,” Hal grumbled.
Rex lathered up the conditioner. When his father didn’t continue, he asked, “Anything I need to worry about?”
His father came to Hope’s side and ran his hand along her shoulder. “How’s our girl?”
“Perfect.”
“Good.”
“You gonna tell me, or avoid the topic altogether? I can go either way.” Rex arched a brow and smiled.
“Eh, it’s the Johnsons. Looks like they’re downsizing.”
Rex stopped working on Hope’s tail. Ranchers didn’t just downsize. Selling off pieces of a ranch wasn’t done without first taking extreme measures to keep it intact. While the Bradens had been blessed with family money that came down for generations, the Johnsons hadn’t. If Earl Johnson was chopping up his property, it meant he’d come upon hard economic times. It also left a world of possibilities for where they’d end up.
“Hard times?”Where will that leave Jade?
“Looks like it.” His father crossed his arms and leaned against the barn wall. He rubbed the stubble on his chin. His biceps jumped in a familiar nervous pattern. Sadness percolated beneath his father’s tanned skin, emanating from his dark eyes, the creases in his forehead, and the third sigh to leave his lips in less than five minutes.
“Wanna talk about it?” Rex asked, in the same have-it-your-way fashion his father might have used to address him. He’d be happy to listen, or to give his father his privacy.
His father looked up, his mouth clenched in a tight line. He nodded a slow, silent nod.
Rex went back to work on Hope’s tail while waiting for his father to answer. He didn’t believe Hope would place at the show, but he’d darn well make sure his father had every reason to be proud of her.
“There was a time that Earl Johnson was my best friend,” his father said.
Rex nodded, knowing that telling his father he’d already known that wouldn’t help one bit and would likely stop him from sharing more.
“For years, he was my go-to guy, you know? We had plans, all sorts of plans, when we bought the properties. We were going to sell that land and make a fortune. He’d run cattle. I’d sell breed horses. Our kids would marry, and we’d be linked for life.”
Rex raised his head.Our kids would marry, and we’d be linked for lifehad his attention. He moved to Hope’s face and petted her jaw. She nuzzled him between his ribs.How could you have known, old girl?He kissed the crest of her head.
His father had said Earl’s name only a handful of times, and it was always followed by a grunt and a snarl. Hearing his father say his name without that hostility surprised him. The fact that they’d been best friends wasn’t news; it was widely known in Weston. They’d grown up together, dated alongside each other, caused a ruckus together as teens. It had all fallen apart in the years following their joint purchase of the land between their properties.
“I just hate to think of him falling upon hard times,” his father said.
Rex saw himself in his father: the gruff exterior, the harsh words said without regret, and the pliable heart that could be twisted and turned and fooled; but inside that heart was a memory, and certain loves that went in never came back out. Rex hadn’t realized those connections could reach farther than his family until his own heart had taken a roller coaster ride with him as the unwilling passenger. The hills and valleys of the last few days made his heart’s ability to reach beyond his family palpable.
“You thinking about that land?” Rex asked as he rounded Hope with the hose and began rinsing her tail.
“Not for that bastard,” his father said as he pushed from the wall and stalked off.
He smiled at the familiar arrogance, but his mind was already running down a different path. He had been loathing the idea of attending the volunteer meeting for the horse show that evening after what happened at Jade’s barn. He’d agreed to what she wanted—friendship. The way she stalked off left him floundering and angry all over again.
Now that anger subsided, replaced with concern. Was she sad about the ranch? Angry? He wanted to see her, to know she was okay. He wanted to talk to her and ease any sadness she had. Maybe she’d known they were going to downsize. Losing a ranch, even part of a ranch, was devastating. He’d hate to think about his father giving up a single acre. Rex was paid handsomely for his work on the ranch. He had simple needs, and he’d pocketed nearly every penny of his income for just that reason. If ever there came a time—which in his heart he knew there never would—that his father needed anything, he wanted to be able to step in. He wondered if Jade had known of her father’s plans before she’d returned to Weston.
If his father was softening toward Earl Johnson, what might that mean forthem—if there even was athemto consider anymore.
