Page 55 of Our Sweet Destiny
Chapter Twenty-Nine
FRIDAY MORNING BEFORE the show, Rex headed into town to buy a cell phone. He’d made it thirty-four years without one, and he couldn’t imagine what he’d do with it besides talk with Jade, but if that’s what she needed, then he’d go along with it. Heck, he’d wear it around his neck if she needed him to.
The Sprint store was empty, as he’d expected. The horse show brought the entire community into town. The young guy behind the counter asked what he was looking for, and Rex was so technologically unaware that he told him that he had no clue.
“So, you’ve never had a cell phone before, I take it?” the short, lanky boy asked. He looked like he was in eighth grade, all pimples and uncomfortable in his own skin.
“Nope, sure haven’t.”
“Do you want an Android or an iPhone?”
“You’re speaking Greek to me, kid. I really have no clue. I want a phone so my girlfriend can call me.” He shrugged. How difficult could this be?
“Okay, do you have a budget?”
Rex laughed. “How much can a phone cost?”
The boy walked him over to a display of phones. “Let’s see. I take it you don’t have a phone plan yet, so you can get a good deal on a phone with a plan.”
Phone plan?Rex was beginning to feel like he’d been living in a cave. The boy explained how phone plans worked, and he attempted to show him the difference between an Android phone and an iPhone. Rex tried to be patient, but when he began talking about windows and social media, things that Rex didn’t give one hoot about, he gave up.
“Listen, all I want is a phone to make calls or send a message from. I’m a rancher. I can get onto a computer and order what I need to, but other than that, I have no interest. Can you find me the best phone for that?”
“O-kay.” The boy looked at him like hewasa caveman.
An hour and a half later, he walked out with a cell phone, a case to hook to his belt, Jade’s and his family members’ numbers programmed in, and a modicum of understanding about texting. He was a happy man. He strode to his truck and had just opened his door when he felt a tap on his shoulder and heard a woman’s voice behind him.
“Rex Braden?”
Jade’s mother, Jane Johnson, stood behind Rex with a serious, nervous look on her face.
Uh oh.He smiled and extended his hand. “Mrs. Johnson, it’s nice to see you.”
“I’m sure it’s nerve-racking to see me, Rex.”
“Yes, okay. That’s fair.” Rex’s pulse sped up.
For a minute she just looked at him. She was an attractive woman with the same dark hair as Jade. The fire in her brown eyes had his nerves twitching.
“I’d like to talk to you.”
He nodded, ready to take whatever she might want to give him. He wasn’t going to hide how he felt about Jade. “That’d be nice,” he said.
“Given our families’ history, I don’t think it’s a good idea to talk here in the parking lot. Perhaps we can cross the street to the park?”
The park. Of course. It was open, safe. No one would think they were having an unpleasant discussion. This was Weston after all. The last thing that either of them needed was to start the grapevine ringing.
“Yes, ma’am.” He closed his truck door. “Is Jade all right?”
“I think you’d know better than I,” she said.
He swallowed the shock of surprise that ran through him. If she knew, what did her husband know? And if her husband knew, what was Jade being put through right then?
They went into the park and sat on a bench that looked over a small pond. He noticed that she sat a good distance from him. To a bystander, they might look like they’d just happened to share the bench.
“What are your intentions with Jade?” she asked.
He needed to know what she knew before he gave away their entire relationship. Maybe she was just fishing for information. “Ma’am? I’m sorry, my intentions?”
