Page 6 of Our Sweet Destiny
Chapter Four
BY THE TIME Rex and Treat got through the morning chores on the ranch, Rex needed another shower—a cold one. He couldn’t stop thinking about Jade and how she looked in those tight denim shorts that barely covered the curve of her butt and the way her lean legs disappeared into those fancy leather boots. She was nothing like the women Rex usually dated. He gravitated toward tall blondes and preferred more demure, feminine women who wouldn’t mouth off at every little thing. Finding those women had always been easy for him. There were enough nearby towns that he could steal away to when he was in need of a quick release. He’d maintained those drop-in relationships with women who didn’t seem to want any more than he was willing to give—a quick roll in the hay a few times each month, without phone calls or further attachments. He had yet to meet a woman who stirred the protective urges that he had for his sister, and when he did, then maybe…just maybe, he’d want something more. Lately, watching Treat with his fiancée, Max, had stirred a desire in him for more. But what they had was so pure and natural that Rex wondered if it would ever be in the cards for him—and if he was even capable of such love.
He was brushing Hope and thinking about Jade’s blue eyes when he felt his father’s large hand on his shoulder. He had a momentary worry that his father somehow knew he’d helped Jade, but when he turned and saw his father’s eyes, he recognized the familiar longing. He was thinking about their mother. Hope did that to them all. She’d been their mother’s horse, after all.
“Son. How’s she doing?” The men in the family got their height from their father, who stood eye to eye with Treat at six-foot-six, and their coloring as well, while Savannah took after their mother, with thick auburn hair and green eyes.
“She’s good. I rode her this morning. She did well.” Rex finished grooming her and brought her back into her stall. “Hannah’s coming by later to practice showing Hope for the horse show next Friday.” Hannah Price’s father had bought several horses from Hal Braden over the years, and the fourteen-year-old’s enthusiasm toward horses—especially Hope—had lit up his father’s eyes. When Hannah asked if she could show Hope in the youth halter class, they’d all but jumped for joy. She’d been practicing for weeks, and Rex knew she’d do a darn good job.
“Good. I’ll help her out. You got that meeting tonight?”
Shoot.He’d forgotten about the volunteer meeting for the Weston Horse Show, which was taking place the following Friday and Saturday. He’d been volunteering for the last few years, but after the morning he’d had, it was the last thing on his mind. Still, he’d committed, and Rex took his commitments seriously.
“Yup, I’ll be there,” Rex said with a nod.
“Good, and don’t you let them make you do any of that hokey crap they’ve been trying to do for years.”
Rex laughed. “No hokey crap. Got it, Dad.” As he went to check on the other horses, he listened to his father talking to Hope.
Rex and his brothers had been raised in a very loving, demonstrative family, and although hugs, pats on the back, andI love youswere common, whether they were in public or in the privacy of their own home, Rex had noticed through the years that he hadn’t ever felt the same commitment, or deep emotional tug, toward any of the various women he’d dated. He’d begun to question if he ever would. The thought brought him back to Jade. He definitely had the urge to touch her, but with his testosterone raging at the sight of her, he wouldn’t exactly call that anything more than a primal urge. Yet still, it made him wonder…
“How’s Brownie doing?” Hal had grown up helping breed Dutch Warmblood show jumpers, and he’d carried the tradition onto his own ranch. Brownie was a generic name that Rex used for the bay foals. This particular foal was almost eight months old and had already shed the pale hairs on his legs, which were now off-black up to his hocks. He was a beauty, and as much as Rex enjoyed seeing a new family enthusiastically take on a new family member, he always felt a pang of sadness to let them go.
“Brownie’s strong and handsome,” his father said as he petted Hope. “You’re doing great, old girl. Adriana would be proud.”
His father swore on the ground he walked on that their mother, Adriana, still spoke to him even after all these years. Rex didn’t know what to make of his father’s declarations, but he knew that not so long ago, when Hal had suffered a bout of stress cardiomyopathy, otherwise known as Broken Heart Syndrome, Hal had been having a full-on, heated conversation about Treat and Max—and he’d been alone in the barn at the time. He’d gotten so worked up that he had all of the symptoms of a heart attack, scaring the daylights out of the entire family. Hal was as strong as an ox, and in the months since, he’d fully recovered. Rex couldn’t imagine a life without his father around, and as he watched him now, he was glad that it was only a broken heart he’d suffered, and not something much worse.
JADE HAD NEVER been nervous in meetings, and practicing veterinary medicine, she’d come into contact with just about every personality under the sun. But when Rex Braden walked into the horse show meeting in Harvey and Ester Gesalt’s yard, wearing black Ariat boots and tight-fitting Levi’s, her pulse sped up and every nerve in her body began to do a fiery little dance. She found herself looking away, as if the black button-down shirt he was wearing was blinding like the sun.
This is ridiculous.
He’s just a man, and a mean one at that.
Jade had badgered her best friend, Riley Banks, all afternoon for information on Rex. She couldn’t get him out of her head. Riley was the eyes and ears of Weston. If there was dirt to be slung, she had her shovel ready before anyone else was even awake. Surprisingly, she’d learned only two things about Rex: He hadn’t dated anyone from Weston since high school, and he was always working. How could a man live for thirty-four years in one town—except for when he’d attended college—and have only two things on the must-know-about-him list? Two! Everyone had secrets and skeletons. Heaven knew she did. She wondered what his were.
She surveyed him as he moved through the small gathering of community members that would be volunteering at the horse show, shaking hands with the men and nodding at the women. She made a mental list of her own: He wasn’t wearing his Stetson, and his thick dark hair brushed his collar. It was longer than was in style, which told her that he didn’t really care what anyone else thought about him. That didn’t surprise her, given the way he’d treated her earlier that afternoon. As he shook the hands of a few of the other volunteers, she noticed—and added to her mental list—that he had a nice, slightly crooked smile.
“Will!” He patted Will Prather on the back.
She addedsexiest voice aroundto her list with a reluctant groan, andmore muscles per square inch of his body than any man she’d ever met.
He laughed at something Will said and took a step in her direction.
Jade held her breath as their eyes locked, stopping him in his tracks. His smile faded, replaced with a scowl. He turned his back to her and lifted his chin.
She addedjackassto her list and decided it was time to stop her mental musings, because along with that last declaration, she felt a twang of hurt at how he’d looked at her.
“Well, let’s get down to business. We need to decide who will be volunteering for which event, concessions, etc.” Harvey Gesalt and his wife, Ester, owned the Weston Riding Ring, and they’d hosted the annual horse show for the last seven years. Harvey and Ester were one of those couples that looked alarmingly alike; both stood about five-foot-three inches tall and had short gray hair and leathery skin. They were in their seventies, and inasmuch as they looked alike, they were also very different. In all the ways Harvey was hard—inflexible, demanding—his wife was malleable and amenable.
Jade tried to concentrate on what Harvey was saying, but with Rex just feet away, she could hardly think at all. She wished she’d had a chance to change before the meeting, but she’d been so busy with clients’ animals and then she’d wanted to massage Flame’s leg. As it was, she’d barely made it to the meeting on time.
A couple walked behind her, and she had to move to allow them to pass. Rex turned as the couple noisily thanked her for moving, and he shook his head, giving her a disapproving look for causing a disruption. When he remained standing at an angle instead of turning back toward Harvey, she silently tried to will him to turn around.
Turn around. Please, look away.
The air around her warmed, and she began to fidget like a child who had been in church too long—and heck if it wasn’t because of Rex. She tried not to look at his biceps straining beneath his sleeves, and she tried to ignore the way his hair fell in thick, lustrous waves, but every pore emitted sexuality, and having not been with a man in months, Jade was having a hard time ignoring his potent masculinity.
Focus!Darn it, she’d missed the information about the volunteers, which was the reason she was there.
