Page 71 of Our Sweet Destiny
Chapter Thirty-Five
“I’M SORRY. I know I shouldn’t have opened my mouth, but when Hope reacted, I just flew into veterinarian mode. I’m so sorry. I don’t want to make things any worse with your father.” Jade had tears in her eyes, and her body shook.
Rex took her in his arms.
She felt his heart pounding against her ear, and she knew the depth of the trouble they’d started. Why had she opened her big mouth? There was no way he’d ever accept her into their lives. His brothers and sister made her feel welcome and she liked them—really liked them—but how could they ever get past Hal’s hatred of her family?
“This wasn’t how I had planned to tell him,” Rex said. “But the truth is, there’s no easy way, so this was as good as any. Are you okay? I’m so sorry about the way he treated you.”
“I’m fine. I kind of expected worse. He’s very focused on the necklace, so I felt bad for him, especially if it really did come from your mother.”
“It did. There’s no doubt in my mind that it did. I’m going to talk to him. Do you need me here with you and Hope?”
Hope had already calmed down.
“I’m fine.” Jade vacillated between telling him to just let it drop with his father and wanting to kiss him hard to give him the courage to fight harder. She didn’t know the right path to take. She’d never come between a father and son before. In the end, she did neither. She watched him walk out of the barn and put her faith in him.
REX WAS HEADED around the barn toward the others when Josh pulled him aside.
“I gave Riley my number at the concert, and she just texted me,” Josh said. “Apparently, word got back to the Johnsons about you and Jade dancing together, and Earl Johnson showed up at the concert madder than she’s ever seen him.”
Josh was the quietest of the Braden boys, and he tended to stay out of trouble and away from anywhere it might be brewing. For him to support Rex the way he had tonight meant a lot to him.
“Great. Thanks, buddy.” No sooner had the words left his mouth than Earl Johnson’s car came to a screeching halt in the driveway.
The burly man stepped from his car and called out, “Hal Braden.”
His wife hurried after him down the driveway. “Earl, please. Please, Earl, don’t do this.”
Rex, Treat, and Josh made a beeline for him, with their father and Savannah just behind them.
“I believe it’s me you want to talk to,” Rex said, crossing his arms and planting his feet in a wide, stable stance. Treat and Josh flanked his sides, with the same guarded posture and confident stare.
“Dad?” Jade yelled from down by the barn.
None of the men turned away from their competitors.
“I heard you were dancing with my daughter,” Earl said to Rex.
“Yes, sir, I was.” Rex spoke with strength and confidence. He was done messing around. If they had to move out of Weston, then so be it, but he was done being strangled by a feud that wasn’t his in the first place. “I love your daughter, sir, and I’ll dance with her again and again.” Rex nodded at Jane. “Mrs. Johnson.”
“Hi, Rex,” she said in a thin voice.
“Daddy, what are you doing here?” Jade asked in a curt voice as she approached. She didn’t go to her father’s side. She didn’t reach for Rex. She stood between the two families, her eyes bouncing between them.
“I got a call from Maggie Strong. She was concerned about how things looked between you and Rex Braden,” he said.
“How things looked?” Jade spat. “Really? Do you not remember that I’m thirty-one years old? What is wrong with you?”
“Jade.” It was astand-downcommand that every one of them understood, but Jade ignored it.
“Don’tJademe. This foolishness between you and Hal Braden is crazy. I’ve spent my entire life avoiding this family like the plague, and all that while, my heart was so wrapped up in the thought of Rex Braden that it’s a wonder I could function at all.” She crossed her arms like the angry men, then dropped them to her sides and went to her father.
Rex watched as she touched his bulbous arms, and her voice came out as a loving plea.
“Dad, I love him. If you want me to be happy, then be happy for me. Rex is a good man.”
“Rex is a Braden.”
