Sweet Talk Boxed Set (Ten NEW Contemporary Romances by Bestselling Authors to Benefit Diabetes Research plus BONUS Novel) (33 page)

“If something had gone really wrong, or if she took a turn for the worse, Dane would have called us. You know that. I know they had an appointment with a doctor. He probably turned the phones off so Lacy could rest or something.”

Josh and Riley had arrived as dinner was getting started, and Josh had come directly down to the barbecue. Rex eyed his brother’s suit coat and tie. “Why are you still all dolled up?”

Unlike Rex, whose body was homegrown from years of hard physical labor, of which his bulging muscles gave proof, Josh was two hundred pounds of sleek, well-defined muscles from long runs in New York City. As a world-renowned fashion designer, Josh wore clothing tailored to his tall, lean body to perfection. Luckily, while his clothing and career might have taken a highfalutin turn, Josh hadn’t forgotten his roots. He still had a down-to-earth, country-boy personality that kept him grounded.

“No freaking idea.” Josh took off his suit coat and tie and laid them over the back of a chair. “You know, now that you’re tying the knot, Riley and I can’t put our wedding off any longer.”

“No shit. You guys keep waiting for your schedules to ease up. Waiting for the perfect time.” Rex glanced at Earl. “If I’ve learned one thing from this, it’s that perfect doesn’t exist. Marry her, Josh. Stop waiting and start your life.”

Josh’s gaze shifted to Riley. “We’re ready to start a family, so we’ve got to check off the marriage box.”

“Me too, man. Me too.”

Josh put the last of the meat and potatoes on plates, and they carried them to the table. Josh sat beside Riley, who immediately reached for his hand, and Rex sat beside Jade.

Jade leaned in close and whispered, “You’re the most handsome man here.”

“You’re a little biased.” He kissed her softly. “But I like your bias.”

Treat tapped his spoon on his glass and rose to his feet. “I’d like to say a few words.”

“Of course you would,” Hugh teased.

“I was going to start by saying something about you winning your most recent race, you wiseass,” Treat said.

Josh and Rex picked up their glasses and said, “To
Huge
.”

The men laughed at the nickname.

Savannah rolled her eyes. “You guys! You’re not teenagers anymore.”

The men passed serious looks between one another, then burst out laughing again.

“Vanny, since when does that matter?” Treat asked.

“I don’t know,” Savannah said. “Shouldn’t you act your age? We’ve got kids at the table now. You’re role models.”

That caused even more laughter.

“Settle down now, boys.” Hal rose to his feet. “Savannah has a point. We wouldn’t want to be a bad influence on the next generation of Bradens.” He looked at Jack and Savannah. “Or Remingtons. They might just turn out like y’all did.” He set a hand on Earl’s shoulder. “Or worse, like me and Earl.”

Earl smiled up at him.

Hal nodded toward Layla and Adriana playing in the grass. “That’s what growing up is all about. Enjoying the moments. Those girls aren’t worried about Uncle Hugh’s ridiculous nickname—”

“Hey, I live up to that nickname.” Huge pulled Brianna in close and kissed her temple. “Don’t I, babe?”

Brianna smiled as he pressed his lips to hers.

“As I was saying,” Hal continued.  “They’re not worried about nicknames. I would worry if we
didn’t
have them. What we have around this table is flat-out love, and plenty of it.” Hal sat back down and nodded to Treat.

“Well, there you have it. I think I’ll skip my speech and go straight to the only thing that matters.” Treat raised his glass. “To family.”

Rex touched his forehead to Jade’s. “To family,” he whispered. “Yours, mine, and—one day—ours.”

Chapter Nine

SUNDAY MORNING REX awoke to a whisper across his skin and his mother’s voice in his ear.

Dress
. 

One word, a word he couldn’t make heads or tails of.
Dress?
He went through a litany of words that sounded the same as
dress
, but still came up blank.

He lay awake in the predawn hours thinking about how he felt like they were finally out of the woods. Having his family together again, save for Dane and Lacy, with Earl getting healthier by the hour, and about to marry the woman of his dreams, Rex felt rejuvenated. He dressed and headed to his father’s ranch, excited to take Hope out for a ride.

His boots were damp with dew by the time he trekked through the last of the thick grass to the barn. He opened the heavy barn doors, and as if she’d been waiting for him, Hope neighed.  He saddled her up, thinking about the first of his Sunday-morning rides with Hope. He’d been just eight years old, the Sunday after his mother had passed away. Even after all these years, he wasn’t positive what had startled him awake on that very first Sunday after she’d passed, but he swore it was his mother’s whispering voice that had led him down to the barn and had him mounting Hope. He assumed it was, as he’d heard her whisper several times in the years since, just as he had earlier that morning.

Dress.

He didn’t know what it meant, but like all other things that seemed to come from his mother, he accepted that one day he would.

He rode Hope along the familiar trail that bordered his property on one side and his father’s on the other. Hope knew just where to turn. They’d been riding these trails for thirty years, and Hope guided Rex more than Rex needed to guide Hope. She followed the windy trail toward the ravine where Rex and Jade had first seen each other after Jade had moved back into town to start her veterinary practice. Rex remembered the brisk morning when fate had brought them together. When he’d first seen her four years ago, standing by the water, her stallion, Flame, standing off to the side with a bum leg, fifteen years of unrequited desire reared up, and he’d debated turning around and leaving before she’d spotted him, but he’d been drawn to her like a moth to flame.

He still was.

Hope walked south on the hill above Devil’s Bend, where the ravine curved at a sharp angle and the water pooled before dropping twenty feet into a bed of rocks. It had been there where he’d seen Jade. He remembered the cream-colored T-shirt she’d worn, the way it had hugged her curves and contrasted sharply against her jet-black, waist-length hair. She’d been stunning then, and she’d only grown more beautiful over recent years. Rex petted Hope’s mane.

“You guided me here then, too, Hope.”

Hope neighed and nodded her big head up and down. Not for the first time—and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last—Rex thought about how connected Hope was to their family, and more specifically, to him. Their rides had pulled him through the awful weeks after his mother’s death and the frustrated years when he was in love with Jade and unable to let it be known because of his loyalty to his father and his father’s asinine feud with the Johnsons. He’d ridden Hope over to Jade’s house when they’d first started dating, and she’d guided him, unbidden, back to Jade too many times since to count. He didn’t know what the bottom line was with Hope or her connection to his mother. Maybe it was in all of their heads and they saw and heard what they wanted to or needed to. But he did believe that it was fate that had led him and Jade into Jewels of the Past. What he’d felt the day they’d walked in and the moment he’d seen that necklace and the way his father had reacted to the necklace afterward told him that he and Jade were meant to love each other—and somehow his mother had known that before he’d even been born.

He rode Hope back to the barn. His brothers were outside setting up the yard for the wedding. He’d spent the last few days worrying for nothing. Jade would have her wedding. Her father would give her away, and they’d be united on the ground where he was raised. He was a lucky man. Not only did he have the most caring family he could ever wish for, but today he was marrying the woman he’d loved his whole life. Rex knew that if Dane didn’t make it to the wedding, he was thinking of them, just like he believed his mother was. Wherever she may be.

JADE SAT ON her bed with the phone pressed to her ear. She’d called to check on her father and was relieved to hear he was doing well. He had even taken a walk after lunch, and now, hours later, was relaxing on the porch with Steve.

“Thanks, Mom. Steve said he was bringing you and Dad over. I love you, and I’ll see you when you get here.” Jade ended the call and tried to ignore the bees nesting in her stomach.

In an hour she was going to marry Rex. One hour. Sixty—
oops
—fifty minutes.
Less than an hour
. How did brides make it through the final hour? She wanted to put her dress on and drag Rex to the altar right now, but her old-fashioned husband-to-be had gone out with Hope at the break of dawn, and she wouldn’t see him again until they were walking down the aisle. Never mind that he’d made sweet love to her that morning. Her hunky alpha cowboy lived by his own pick-and-choose old-fashioned values, and she loved him even more for it.

“Knock, knock.” Riley’s voice came from downstairs.

Jade jumped off her bed just in time for her best girlfriends to come to her rescue. She ran down the stairs and into the arms of Riley, Max, Savannah, and Brianna, all dressed in above-the-knee bridesmaid dresses. Riley had not only designed Jade’s wedding gown, but she’d also designed simple strapless dresses with crisscross bodices that the girls could wear on any number of occasions.

“You’re here!” she squealed. “You all look gorgeous.”

“Of course we’re here,” Riley said. “Shannon said to tell you she hoped you would be okay with her helping with the babies while we helped you get ready. She said she never gets any baby time.”

“She’s such a doll. Of course I don’t mind.”

“So…” Riley raised her brows in quick succession. “Did you guys have a
nice
night?”

“We had a hot, sexy night.” Jade bumped her hip against Riley’s.

“Ew! That’s my brother, remember?” Savannah dragged Jade over to the couch. “Sit down. We’re going to make you beautiful.”

“What?” Jade said. “No. Thank you, but you guys know that kind of stuff drives me nutty. I’m going to wear my hair down, the way Rex likes it. I can’t wait to see him all dressed up. He’s going to look so hot in his black vest, with all those beautiful muscles packed into that white dress shirt, and topped off with his Stetson. I swear he’s the hottest cowboy that ever lived.”

“Yeah, yeah, he’s pretty handsome.” Savannah sighed. “Fine, no hair stuff. Let’s at least do a few shots to get rid of the jitters, because you are incredibly uptight.”

“Am I? Oh God. Can you really tell?” She followed the girls into the kitchen.

“Are you worried about your dad?” Max asked as she took glasses out of the cabinet.

“Not really. I just talked to Mom and he feels good. I think we’re okay. I just wish I could have found the Dance of Two Lovers necklace. I’ll never get over losing that.”

Savannah folded her in her arms. “Well, get over it, because that was a thing, not a person. And things aren’t ever as important as the people they came from or the people they were meant for.”

“Thanks, Savannah.”

“So, when are you going to start a family?” Brianna asked. Jade knew she was trying to distract her from the necklace. “If you start right away there won’t be a big age difference between yours and Savannah’s babies.” Brianna filled four shot glasses.

Jade waved her hand. “My cycle is so messed up. I think it’ll take months to get it regular again after all this stress.”

“
Tsk
.” Riley shook her head. “I’ve known you since we both got our first periods, and you’ve never been irregular in your life.”

“Yeah, well, I think it’s pretty normal to miss your period when you’re under as much stress as I have been. I didn’t even realize I had missed it until this morning.”

The girls exchanged a knowing glance.

“Don’t even go there, you guys. I am sure this is just stress.” Jade’s pulse quickened at the thought of being pregnant. It would be just her luck to get pregnant right before her wedding. She pushed the shot a few inches away.

“You told me that you stopped taking the pill a few months ago so you would be ready to start your family after the wedding,” Riley reminded her.

“Yes, but we’re supercareful,” Jade insisted. “We use the rhythm method.”

“Dylan’s a rhythm baby,” Max said with a wide smile.

“Oh my gosh, you guys. Stop it. I am
not
pregnant.” She stalked out of the kitchen, feeling less sure with every step.

“You know what they call people who use the rhythm method?” Savannah asked.

“Parents,” Brianna answered with a laugh. “Rex will be over the moon!”

“No, he won’t. Marriage before babies, remember?” Jade sank down onto the couch. “And don’t you dare say anything. We don’t even know if I’m pregnant. Savannah, you know how your brother believes in weddings first, babies second.”

Savannah sipped a glass of water. “That he does, but he also believes in fate.”

“And this is totally fate,” Riley added.

“Great. Thanks, you guys. Now I need to find out for sure. I can’t get married not knowing.” Jade headed for the front door. “Where are my keys?”

“Wait. I have a pregnancy test at home,” Max said.

“You do?” Jade asked.

“Of course. When I thought I was pregnant, I bought a few just in case.” Max grabbed her purse. “I’ll go get it. Stay here.” Her dark hair flew behind her as she ran out the front door.

“This is so exciting!” Brianna said. “I have to call Lacy if you
are
pregnant. She’ll want to know.”

“And then we get to plan a baby shower,” Savannah added.

“I can’t be pregnant.” Jade paced the living room. “I’m not pregnant. This is just stress. It has to be.”

Riley draped an arm over her shoulder and lowered her voice. “Relax, Jade. If you are, you are. And if you’re not, then your plans will stay on track. Rex loves you either way.”

“But I’m not prepared. If I’m pregnant, shouldn’t I have been taking prenatal vitamins? What if I am pregnant and I’ve already hurt the baby somehow?” She racked her brain thinking about what she’d done over the last few weeks. “Rex and I shared a bottle of wine last week.”