Page 5 of Our Sweet Destiny
Chapter Three
JADE STOOD IN the road, watching Rex’s truck disappear around the corner. Everything she thought she’d known about Rex Braden when they were younger seemed to still be true. He was a grumpy, cocky, beautiful man.Darn him.She had to admit, though, the fact that he’d actually spoken to her—and helped her get her horse out of the ravine—was far more than she’d ever thought possible between a Johnson and a Braden.
She walked Flame down the long driveway and into the barn. The familiar smell of manure and hay wrapped around her like a warm hug. The smell was too pungent for most people, but to Jade it represented everything she’d ever known and loved. It represented home. The sounds of the other horses brought a smile to her face, as she’d soon be setting them free in the pasture. She stroked Rudy’s jaw as she passed his stall. Rudy was one of her favorite horses. He was a bright red sorrel with white stockings and a blaze, and he was not only magnificent to look at, but his spunky personality reminded Jade of herself. She wasn’t exactly a rebel, but she wasn’t a conformist either, often leaving her family and friends, and even herself, to wonder what she might do next.
She was relieved to find that Flame was no longer favoring his leg. She turned on soothing music and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down before moving to Flame’s side. She closed her eyes for just a moment to focus her mind on Flame instead of Rex. She concentrated on his breathing and found the rhythm of his breath and his heartbeat. She ran her hands along Flame’s back and sides, soothing his body with a series of slow, gentle strokes. She felt her body relaxing as the music and the feel of the horse calmed her as much as she did him. Jade had always believed that touch could heal, and although she put medicine first, she believed in a more holistic, compassionate approach to animal health care, and she included touch, which she also studied, in most of her healing protocols.
She wondered what Rex would be like if someone took the time to touch him in a soothing way. He reminded her of an injured animal. At first glance, they were cute and you just wanted to touch them, but get too close and they would bare their teeth. Jade knew the secret, though. Once she moved past those teeth and soothed their injuries, they were just as gentle as she first imagined they might be.
Yeah, right.
She really wasn’t sure what to make of Rex. One minute he was mean as a snake and the next he was going out of his way to help her. She’d thought there was a flash of something between them when she’d been practically knocked into his lap. She had the overwhelming urge to kiss him, but then she looked into those dark Braden eyes and she saw a flash of something dangerous there—the heat of which she might not be able to resist—and she bolted. Besides, he ran so hot and cold that he’d probably reel her in only to turn her away, and she wasnotgoing to be the girl Rex turned down. That would be all she needed. Especially in their small town.
She ran her hand down Flame’s healthy legs, gently squeezing all the way down before moving to the injured limb. She moved carefully along the areas behind his knee, no longer quite as worried about a ligament or tendon injury. He might have just had a bad step. She was relieved that there didn’t appear to be any swelling or tenderness to the touch.
After icing his leg, she went back into her father’s house to check her work schedule for the day. She wanted to make sure she had time to ice Flame’s leg a few more times.
“Hey there, darlin’,” her father called from his office.
She grabbed her calendar from the table by the door and walked into his modest office.
“Hi, Daddy.” She kissed him on the cheek. Earl Johnson was a big man, weighing in at almost three hundred pounds. Even with his six-foot stature, there was no way around that belly of his. Her father had retired from his job as an agricultural engineer just a few years earlier. All her life, he’d managed their ranch in addition to his career. It seemed as though he worked from the moment he returned home from his job until long after she had gone to bed. And even with all that hard work, she couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t heavy. He was a man who worked hard and loved to eat, and the combination caused Jade to worry about his health.
“Your brother called,” her father said. “He’s coming over next weekend. Your mother was thinking about lunch Sunday afternoon.”
“Sure,” she said, writing it in her calendar. Jade was a visual woman. She’d tried to use the electronic calendar on her phone, but it drove her crazy. She still relied on paper calendars and she assumed she always would.
“You heading out to the Marlows’ ranch today?” he asked.
“Yeah, I was planning on checking on their mare before going to see my other clients.” She flopped onto the upholstered chair beside his desk as she flipped through her calendar.
“You okay, sweetie?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I took Flame out, and he took a bad step. He seems fine, but I was stupid to do it.”
“I wondered where you’d gone so early.”
She read concern in her father’s blue eyes, which had recently begun to look more gray than blue. Rex’s words played in her mind.The kind that knows better than to walk on Johnson property.Maybe she’d just feel him out a little and see if the feud still ran as close to the surface as she remembered.
“I saw Rex Braden when I was out riding this morning.”
Her dad lifted his eyes from the spreadsheet on his desk and in a calm, even voice said, “You did, did you?” He pressed his lips into a firm line, and a deep vee formed between his thick brows.
Chills ran up Jade’s back. She recognized that shadowy look in his eye. She’d been reading her father’s moods since she was a little girl. She felt the cadence of his breathing, measured his body language, and tested the waves of his stare, just as she did with the animals she cared for. At that moment, she saw a storm brewing behind those eyes and realized that the bad feelings toward the Bradens hadn’t lessened one bit. Her father wasn’t an aggressive man. One look was usually enough to get her or Steve to walk away from whatever he might find offensive.
“I’d better go get started before the day gets away from me.” She rose to her feet.
As she passed his desk, her father reached for her hand with his warm, fleshy fingers. “Darlin’, now, you know better than to do anything to embarrass this family, right?”
There was that stare again.
“Dad, I’m a grown woman. Have I ever embarrassed you?” She flashed her best daddy’s-little-girl grin to hide her clenching stomach.
“No, I don’t guess you have. Just you stay away from those Bradens.” He dropped his eyes back to the desk with a dismissive nod.
Jade sighed.Hal Braden was your best friend for years. Isn’t it time to bury the hatchet?She walked out of his office knowing she’d never have the courage to say any of those things. Small towns bred small-town values: family loyalties and hard work. Who was she to break that bond? No matter how much she might want to.
