Destined for Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens, Book 2) Contemporary Romance (6 page)

“IT’S BEEN TWO days and it feels like a year.” Jade took a bite out of her pepperoni pizza. She brushed the crumbs from her jean shorts and sighed. “No, you know what it feels like, Ri? It feels like when we were in high school and we had crushes on the Daniels twins, remember? Remember how we’d fantasize about phone calls that would never come? It’s exactly the same thing.”

Jade and Riley sat outside beneath an umbrella in the middle of Weston Town Park, sharing four slices of pizza. It was a beautiful Thursday afternoon, and the park was Riley’s attempt at pulling Jade from what Riley had coined as her friend’s
man depression
. Jade had too many worries lately. Between Rex and her father’s decision about the ranch, she felt a bit weighed down. She pushed away the thoughts about her family’s ranch and turned her thoughts to Riley instead.

Riley looked silly with her hair pulled up into two ponytails, which Jade knew she’d done just to make her laugh—and it had worked. Now Riley shook her finger at her. “How can you even compare the two? First of all, I don’t remember either of the twins ever saying you were
delicious
or that they’d waited years to
taste
you.”

Jade groaned. “I need to stop telling you things.”

“In your dreams. You’re about as good at keeping a secret as a push-up bra. And, by the way, next time we go out to get you laid, please tell me you don’t want the guy
before
I leave. I feel horrible for leaving.”

“I told you to go. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just, when he touched me, I…” She shuddered and scrunched her face. “He reminded me of an overgrown boy, not a man, and then he’d turned into a whole different person altogether—mean and aggressive, and not in a good way.”

“Oh, and we do prefer men, don’t we?” Riley finished her pizza and jumped off the chair, smoothing down her skirt.

“Why don’t you ever wear the clothes you design?” Jade asked.

“Around here? Right.” Riley laughed. “Where are you working this afternoon?”

“I’ve got a client across town, then a massage for a gelding over off of State Street,” Jade answered. “More important, what should I do about my cowboy?”

“Your orally fixated cowboy?” Riley said with a wink.

“Shh,” Jade said as an elderly couple walked past. “I never said he was orally fixated.”

“No, but given the…” She sucked her two fingers, causing Jade to cringe. “I’d say there’s a good chance you’ve got some good loving waiting for you.”

“You’re such a pig.” She shoved Riley as they headed toward their cars. “I need to know what to do. It’s not like I can call him, or stop by.”

“Not unless you want a dead man on your hands. Your father would whip out a shotgun to save his precious little girl from a wicked Braden boy.”

“Thanks.”

Riley put her arm around Jade. “What are friends for? Okay, so let’s see, you’re volunteering at the horse show. That’s one place you’ll see him.”

“True, but we’ll both be busy.”

Riley stopped walking. “Tell me what you want to happen. I mean, you knew what was gonna go down when you let yourself start fantasizing about his ginormous trouser snake. You knew about your dad’s hatred for them.”

Jade shrugged. “I thought…I don’t know. I guess I never thought we’d even get together, so I never really took it that far.”

They walked down the footpath toward the feed store.

“Well, Ms. Vet, time to stir up some medicine for your achy-breaky heart or convince the big lug to run off and marry you and live happily ever after in some other town.”

“You are absolutely no help at all,” Jade snapped.
What was I thinking? There is no solution to this mess.

“Oh, I think I am. Whose idea was it to come to the park?”

“Yours?” Jade arched a brow.

Riley put her finger on Jade’s cheek and drew it toward the feed store. Jade’s jaw dropped open as Rex climbed from his truck. He stretched his arms above his head as soon as his boots hit the pavement. She gasped a breath and ducked behind Riley.

“Riley! How did you know he’d be here?”

“I’ve listened to you whine like a starving baby for two days straight. It was either this or buy you a pacifier.” She rolled her eyes. “Live here long enough and you know what time your neighbors go to the bathroom. He picks up something for Hope here every Thursday. Like clockwork.” Riley pulled Jade out from behind her.

“Hope?”

“Yeah, geez, where did you grow up? The horse his father bought for his mother when she first got sick. I swear they treat that horse like it’s really their mother.”

“That’s so sad.” The ache in Jade’s heart wasn’t new. She’d known about Rex’s mother dying when he was just a boy, but now, with her new feelings for him, the ache was deeper.

 “I know. Now focus. Look at that fine specimen of a man.” She leaned on Jade’s shoulder and spoke into her ear. “Strong, wide back, ass made of stone, thick thighs, good for, well, you know.”

Jade swallowed hard. She knew just how thick his thighs were and how thick the thing between his thighs was, too. She shook her head to clear away the heated memory. “So you brought me here to…ogle him?”

“Ogling is nice, isn’t it? But no. I figured you could go down there and actually talk to him.”

Jade shook her head and tried to back up, but Riley was standing behind her like a blockade. “No, not a good idea. The whole town knows about the feud, and it’ll get back to my father somehow. Besides, I don’t know if he’ll even talk to me in public.”

“That’s not true. You said he talked to you at the volunteer meeting.”

“Like I said, I’ve got to stop telling you things.” Butterflies swirled in her stomach as she watched Rex walk into the feed store.

“Go talk to him. I have to go back to work anyway.” Riley bent down and kissed Jade’s cheek. As she hurried away, she held her pinky and thumb out and wiggled them by her face. “Call me!”

I could retreat, pretend I was never here
.
I don’t have to do what Riley tells me to do, although she’s always been right in the past. She told me to leave Kane before I ever opened my practice.
Jade was contemplating leaving when the feed store door swung open and Rex walked out carrying a feed bag over his shoulder and a brown bag in his arms. He held the door open for a woman and her daughter, and when he glanced up the hill, Jade turned her back, hoping he hadn’t seen her.

When she turned back around, Rex was heading up the hill toward her. She clutched her stomach as he closed the gap between them, the bag from the store in his arms.
Who gave the butterflies speed?

“Jade.” His face was a blank slate, his eyes just as silent.

“Hi,” she said, feeling her cheeks flush and privately wincing from the heat.

With his silence, Jade felt like a bubble had formed around them and nothing else existed. She wanted to reach out and touch him, anywhere, everywhere, just to know he was real. She wondered if he wanted the same thing.

The silence was deafening. Maybe she misread him.
Oh God, how embarrassing
. She had to remember that he’d said being together was a mistake, and unless she wanted to drive a wedge the size of Nebraska between her and Rex, she’d better go along with it. Being able to talk to him was better than being forced to ignore each other forever. She reminded herself that it was only one night. One make-out session, one blissful orgasm.
Oh God, stop thinking about that
.
Friends. I can do this. Focus on being friends
.
Right. Friends who aren’t allowed to really be friends at all.

JADE STOOD ON the hill in her sexy boots with the sun illuminating her from behind like an angel. Rex took it as a sign. He’d been existing on cold showers and coffee for two days, wrestling with how to handle the situation with Jade. Maybe some things were meant to be, like his mother and father and Treat and Max. Maybe he was supposed to be with Jade, even if only secretly…for now.

She wasn’t smiling when he approached. A lump formed in his throat over the way he’d ended things so abruptly when they were together. God, she looked cute in her tight scoop-neck T-shirt with
thoroughbred
across her chest. His body remembered the feel of her beneath him. He shifted the bag to cover the evidence.

He wanted to talk to her about what happened between them, clear the air, but after saying her name, he felt a rush of adrenaline, an overwhelming urge to take her in his arms and apologize, throw caution to the wind and stand up for whatever might be. He could take the heat. He would do just about anything for her.

“You were right,” Jade said. “What happened was a mistake, and it should never happen again.”

The air expelled from his lungs, like he’d been punched in the gut.
A mistake?
A mistake. Isn’t that what he’d told her, after all? Just being this close to her made his heart beat a little harder. He didn’t need to sleep with her. He just wanted to be with her, to get to know her better.
A mistake?
He couldn’t be with her anyway. It was a pipe dream, a fantasy. He had all the intimate time he’d ever get with the woman he’d pined for year after year, and if that was all he was going to get, then damn it, it was better than nothing, even if it wasn’t near enough.

“I’m glad you understand.” The lie tasted like acid, like it was burning a hole through him even as it came off his tongue.

“I do.” She nodded. “Our fathers…they’d never be okay with”—she ran her finger in a line between them—“this.”

He wanted to take her hand and pull her to him, just to feel her heart beat against his.

“Right.” He looked away to hide the sadness that he knew was written all over his face. He’d never been able to hide his feelings well, and the emotions he was riding were coming in powerful, evident gusts.

“What’d you get at the feed store?” she asked.

He looked down at the bag. He’d forgotten he even had it in his arms. “Molasses cookies.” His voice sounded like all the energy had been sucked from it, and he noticed Jade’s eyes shoot up at his. He cleared his throat, then said, “I come by and get sweet feed and molasses cookies for my mom’s horse.”

She nodded, still holding his gaze. “Horses love both those things.”

How could she be so calm and cool about this while his heart was being torn to shreds right in his chest?

“Is it an older horse?”

“Huh?”

“Your mom’s horse. Is it an older horse?”

“Oh yeah. Hope’s getting up there, slowing down a bit.” He watched the way her eyes danced when they talked about the horse, and it almost made him wish he were a horse, too.

“Hope, that’s a nice name. Is she eating enough? Have you noticed weight loss? Is she turning her heard toward her flank a lot? Getting regular exercise?”

“I almost forgot you were a vet,” he said in response to her pointed questions. “She slowed down a little this past year, but she’s a strong, healthy horse. Hope’s the horse I was riding that morning at the ravine.”
The ravine.
That’s when it all started. He smiled at the memory of her picking up that heavy rock and tossing it into the water. It seemed like they’d been on one hundred dates since then, though they hadn’t been on any. “My father’s entering her in the open event at the show.”

“That can be really stressful for a horse who isn’t doing well,” Jade said.

“I know. He knows that, but he said our mom would have wanted it. He doesn’t care if she wins or loses. He just…” How could he tell her that his father still talked to his dead mother? How could he not? “He said Mom would have wanted her to compete again.” He shrugged.

She smiled. “I guess he would know. I mean, he knew your mom best, after all.”

“True.” The small talk was killing him.

“Still, have you tried any massage? It can alleviate depression and also help with energy.”

“Depression?” She reminded him of his mother, the way she spoke of animals like humans. His pulse spiked, and he pushed away the desire to explore her thoughts further and see if she had more ideas that were similar to his mother’s. “It’s a horse, not a person.”

She sighed. “Funny, I didn’t take you as the kind of person who defined a line between which species had feelings and which ones didn’t.” She took a step backward.

“I didn’t mean that.”
Goddamn it. Now I’ve screwed up again
.

“I guess taking care of feelings isn’t your strong point.” The muscles in her thighs tensed, and she took another step backward. “I gotta go. Good luck with Hope.”

JADE LEFT A message on Riley’s voicemail just as she pulled up to her client’s barn. “It’s me. I just wanted you to know that you have officially been knocked out of Queen Gossip of Weston status. Remember what Jennifer Aniston said about Brad Pitt missing a sensitivity chip? Well, guess what? Now hot cowboy can keep Brad company in that department. Gotta run. I still love ya, but you owe me.”

Jade was still chewing on Rex’s disregard for Hope’s emotions when she stepped from her car. Before walking into the Schafers’ barn, she took a minute to calm herself down. She couldn’t very well help heal a horse’s emotional or mental imbalance if she was tied in knots. She leaned against the side of the truck, took a few slow, deep breaths and blew them out slowly. She had to put Rex Braden out of her mind. Completely. That was the only way to move forward. Sex is sex.
Anyone can make you feel good
.
Not that good
.

“Jade?” Patti Schafer waved as she came down from the house.

“Hi.”

“I heard that you’re volunteering at the show. That should be fun this year.” Patti was Jade’s height and round as a basketball. Her jeans rode up high above her waist, and the short-sleeve shirt she wore pulled across her ample bosom. Each button looked as though it might pop with her next deep breath.

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to it.”
If you call not being able to breathe for six hours while I avoid Rex fun
.

“My niece Hannah is showing Hal Braden’s horse in the open class. She’s so excited. You know how little girls are about getting all dolled up.”

Just the mention of a Braden sent her heart aflutter. This was not good. She needed to get her mind off of Rex Braden, not on him.
Or under him
.

“How’s Berle doing?” A quick diversion of subjects would help. Patti had named her horse after Milton Berle, and Jade knew better than to question a pet’s name. It was like questioning a child’s name. Something she just didn’t do.

“He’s doing well. He hasn’t had any more issues since you cleared up the colic, and I think the massages are helping. He’s eating well, but still just a little…off.” Patti had gone to school with Jade’s mother, and she was one of the most caring animal owners Jade knew. As soon as Jade had moved back to Colorado, Patti had called and asked her to take over Berle’s care. She had been using a veterinary practice outside of Weston that her family had used for generations, but when the vet she trusted retired, she hadn’t felt like the new vet connected with her horses. Jade had wondered why she didn’t ask Dr. Baker, the town veterinarian, to care for her horses, and her answer was just what she’d expected; he didn’t do any hands-on work with the horses. He’d been practicing veterinary medicine for forty years and he believed massage was “hooey,” though Dr. Baker and Jade got along just fine. She respected his practice, and he respected her efforts as well. Even if he didn’t believe in her holistic approach, he never disrespected her abilities.

“Well, let’s see if we can’t fix him right up.”

The barn was quiet and cool. Berle stood in the center aisle, secured to the stall by his lead. He was a sweet-natured, handsome, chestnut quarter horse gelding with a flaxen mane and tail. He lifted his nose as Jade approached. She stroked the side of his strong jaw.

“Hey, Berle. How’s my boy today?” When Jade was around horses, everything else fell away. All she thought about as she looked into Berle’s trusting eyes was making him feel better. Luckily, Patti was completely in tune with her animals, and she’d noticed a change in Berle’s behavior right away. They were able to diagnose and treat the early stages of colic before it became too difficult to manage, and now Jade was providing post-colic comfort. Jade believed that no pain—in human or animal—could occur without affecting their mental and emotional state in some way. She knew Berle’s being “off” could be caused by something as simple as needing a Chi adjustment. Jade was used to hearing snide comments, such as the one Rex made, about animals and their emotions, but that didn’t make those comments any easier to swallow. Luckily, Patti had not only been receptive, but excited about the idea of helping her horse to heal.

“I hear you’re feeling a little off.” She stroked his side gently. “We’re going to help you feel better today.” She put her hands on him, fingers stretched wide, and felt the rhythm of his breathing. She was most comfortable when she knew the natural rhythm of the horse she was working on, and by taking a few minutes to connect with them, she and the horse were more relaxed.

She used the fingers on each hand as she stroked and pressed along his meridian. Although she would concentrate on the area around his stifle, the complex joint in the horse’s hind leg, she massaged along the entire stomach meridian to encourage the elements of stomach and earth to balance. She began with the junction of the two prominent veins that ran just below his eye, which were dilated and pressing through the surface of the skin, indicating Berle’s relaxed state. From there, she moved up his jaw and down his neck, taking her time to stroke him gently, feeling for gritty or spongy muscles or changes in temperature beneath her fingers. She moved gently to the underside, behind his left front leg, then used the palm of her hand as she moved across the meridian line of his ribs and along the lower outside of his belly.

She took a deep inhalation as she moved toward his stifle joint. The smell of fresh hay filled her senses, centering her once again. She could find point thirty-six on the stomach meridian in her sleep. Some people called it the “probiotic point” due to its immediate soothing effect when a horse had digestive issues. As she faced Berle’s head, she closed her eyes and slid her palm on his stifle, cupped it, and her thumb fell naturally into a groove in the bone just below the head of his tibia.

After giving a massage treatment, Jade’s mind and body often remained in a place of peacefulness. Her body became just as relaxed as the animal’s, and though her muscles might be tired, she barely felt the discomfort. Instead, she focused on the ease of her breathing and the soothing calm that warmed her.

As she climbed into her car and headed toward home, she allowed her mind to drift to Rex. Once again, she wondered what he might be like if he was soothed by touch—not hormone-driven, sexual touch, but quelling, tranquil touch.

She slowed down as she passed the Braden ranch, wondering if losing his mother at such a young age meant that he was touched, held, and comforted less. She knew enough about the Bradens to know their father loved them all and would do anything for them. Anyone in Weston knew that. But had they been adequately touched? Had their father rubbed their backs when they were ill or lain with them and brushed their hair away from their foreheads when they were sad?

The sun dipped from the sky, and in the late-afternoon haze, the ranch had a serene feel. The fields of grass blew in the breeze, and she couldn’t help but slow almost to a crawl when Rex came into view, riding Hope. He was looking into the distance, his Stetson moving up and down against the gray-blue sky as they trotted along. Her heart whispered a longing, and when Hope turned toward the road, it took her a minute or two before she realized that she was staring. She drove away thinking about Rex’s muscles beneath her hands as she massaged the harsh exterior away, revealing whatever vulnerabilities lay beneath.

The minute she pulled into her driveway, all thoughts of Rex fell away, replaced with the reminder of her family possibly losing their farm. She felt a dip in the pit of her stomach. She owed too much in school loans to help them financially, but maybe there was another way. If she could mend that fence between Hal Braden and her father…just maybe…