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

by Melissa Foster

  HOPE WAS SLAMMING her body against the stall walls when they arrived. Her nostrils flared and her neck flailed forward and back. They heard their father’s voice before they saw him. He came in the back door shaking his head, his face a tense mask of worry and irritation.

  Treat and Rex stood by the stall. “What happened?” Rex asked.

  “It’s gotta be colic. She was fine for the past few hours, but then she began rolling and craning her neck. I brought her in, and she’s been doing this since. I tried Dr. Baker, but he was out on an emergency over in Preston.”

  “Dad, let Treat and Rex take over. Come with us, and we’ll look up other vets.” Savannah took her father’s arm and tried to walk with him, but he stood firm.

  “Dad.” Josh’s eyes opened wide. His eyes darted between Rex and his father, and before he could stop himself, “Jade Johnson is a vet,” fell from his lips.

  Treat and Rex burned stares in his direction. Their father did the same.

  “No Johnson is touching your mother’s horse,” he said in a firm tone.

  “She might be Hope’s only chance if this is really colic. Did you take her temperature?”

  “Since when did you become a horse expert?” his father asked. “She has no other signs. She was rolling, craning her neck, and snapping. I’m no vet, but I think we’re looking at some kind of stomach issue.”

  Rex shot a hot stare at Josh. “Dad, you’ve been at this all day. Go with Savannah and Josh. We’ll sit with her and see if we can calm her down.”

  “Go on. We’ve got this,” Treat said.

  With Savannah’s persistent yank on his arm, their father reluctantly went toward the house.

  Rex grabbed Josh’s arm. “What the hell was that all about?”

  “I thought maybe he’d make it easier for everyone and just let Jade help.” Josh shrugged.

  “Whatever. Just keep him in the house.” Rex heard Jade’s car pull up behind the trees along the road. He pulled out his cell phone and called her.

  “He’s inside,” he said when she answered.

  A few minutes later, she entered the back door of the barn, carrying her medical bag.

  JADE’S NERVES FELT like wires that had been pulled too tight. She kept looking at the barn doors, waiting for Hal Braden to storm in and throw her out.

  “What can we do?” Rex asked.

  “I’m fine with Hope, but I’m really nervous about your dad. Can you guys just give me space to work and watch for your dad?” she asked.

  Rex kissed her lightly. “Thank you. I know this is a lot to ask.”

  “Nothing is too much for an animal.” She watched them go to the barn doors, two strong sentries allowing her to do the thing she loved most next to being with Rex.

  Jade closed her eyes and breathed deeply for a few seconds. She inhaled the smell of moist hay, leather, and the unique scent of hot horses, and when she opened her eyes, Hope was looking right at her.

  “Hi, sweet girl.” She calmly stroked the side of her jaw. “You’re not feeling so well, huh?” Hope stopped throwing her body from side to side. She nudged Jade’s solar plexus over the gate of her stall. “That’s a girl,” she said.

  She unlatched the stall and opened the gate.

  “Jade, be—”

  She cut Rex off with a silent palm in the air. Hope walked out of the stall, and Jade tried to ignore Rex’s eyes watching over her. She focused on leading Hope toward the back of the barn, where she tied her lead to another stall. The center of the barn stretched about twelve feet wide between the stalls on the left and the ones on the right. Jade moved with slow and careful steps to Hope’s side, speaking in a soothing voice.

  “I’m just going to do a quick exam, Hope.” She rested her ear against Hope’s stomach, relieved to hear plenty of stomach noises. She took the horse’s temperature, her pulse, and when she moved to Hope’s head to check the mucus membrane in her mouth, she was drawn in by the sad look in Hope’s eyes. Jade pet her muzzle gently.

  “It’s okay, sweetie. I’m just going to open your mouth, okay?”

  Hope neighed and pushed her nose into Jade’s chest again. Most women would worry about their blouse or the wetness that brushed their skin, but to Jade, the feeling of the horse against her body was a blessing. It meant that Hope was comfortable with her, which was half the battle when examining a horse.

  She checked Hope’s gums and her capillary refill time.

  “I’m not seeing anything alarming here, Hope. What’s going on in that pretty head of yours?” She stroked Hope’s side and checked her eyes and skin for dehydration.

  Jade glanced at Rex, who was still watching every move she and Hope made. She wanted to tell Rex that she wasn’t concerned with her findings, but she didn’t want to break the bond she and Hope had established by hollering to Rex. Instead, she spoke to Hope.

  “Okay, sweetie, I’m just going to give you a bit of a massage. This will help ease whatever is going on in your belly.” She rested her palms on Hope’s body until she found her rhythm. Then she worked her way along her stomach meridian.

  She heard Treat and Rex approach before she saw them. They watched in silence as she inched her fingertips along Hope’s body, feeling for abnormalities beneath her fingers. Hope was no longer cranking her neck. She was still and calm as Jade took extra time around the same point where she’d massaged Berle, and so many other horses, to alleviate stomach discomfort.

  REX’S ADORATION FOR Jade multiplied just watching her put so much love and energy into Hope. He was mesmerized with the care she took, every ounce of her focus on the horse, and as she spoke to Hope, her voice was soothing and calm, as if she were talking to a child or a lover. Despite himself, he began to picture her with a child. With his child.

  “She’s doing fine,” Jade said a few minutes later. “I don’t think you’re looking at colic. She’s too stable for that. The exam showed no indication of colic other than what your father said about her behavior, and that could just be stomach discomfort. She might have become stressed over the show today, and that alone could have sent her tummy into distress.”

  “What the hell is she doing here?”

  They all spun around at the sound of Hal’s voice. He stood at the barn entrance, his wide shoulders and height accentuated by the moonlight.

  “Dad,” Rex said. He looked between the woman he loved and the man whom he also loved, feeling the pull of each in his chest.

  “Don’t you Dad me, Rex Braden,” he said as he neared. His father narrowed his dark eyes, which had gone almost black. “You step back from Hope,” he said to Jade.

  “Dad, Hope’s fine,” Rex said.

  His father wasn’t listening. He was staring at the necklace that hung around Jade’s neck, exposed for all to see. His chest rose and fell with each breath as he stepped closer to Jade.

  Rex stepped between them just as Treat came to his side.

  “Hope needed a vet. Jade’s a damn good vet,” he said.

  “Step out of my way, son,” Hal ordered in a deep, cold voice.

  Rex crossed his arms. “I’m not moving until I know you are gonna be civil to her.”

  His father put one strong arm out and pushed his son aside. Rex turned to retaliate, and Treat gripped his arm—hard—restraining him.

  “What the hell?” Rex said angrily.

  “Where did you get that?” his father asked Jade.

  She brought a nervous hand up to her necklace and fingered the cool silver.

  “I asked you a question, Jade Johnson.”

  Savannah and Josh flew into the barn.

  “Son of a bitch,” Josh said. “He said he was going to lie down. I didn’t think anything of it until I went to check on him and found his bed empty and the door cracked open.”

  “It’s okay,” Treat said.

  “Dad,” Savannah said, coming to his side, “Jade’s helping Hope.”

  One look from her father sent her two steps backward.

  Rex y
anked his arm free from Treat and approached his father. “Dad, you wanna give someone hell, you give it to me.”

  “I plan to,” he said, his eyes never moving from Jade’s. “Just as soon as she answers my question.”

  “I…We…” Jade began, then swallowed hard.

  Rex wasn’t going to let Jade flounder at the hands of his father, no matter what trouble it might cause. He loved her and he was done pretending he didn’t. She was his to protect. What kind of man let their girlfriend go up against his own father alone?

  He stepped between them again, and his father pulled himself up to his full height; the three inches that separated them allowed his father to look down upon him. The loyal man in Rex almost relented. He almost lowered his eyes and stepped aside, but Jade’s whisper of a touch, a quick brush of her fingertips on his back, was enough to give him the courage and strength he needed to confront his father.

  “You want to talk to Jade, you do it with respect.” He crossed his arms to keep them from shaking. “I gave her that necklace. You got a problem with it? You take it up with me, not her.”

  There was a direct line of tension from his father’s dark eyes to his. His siblings watched on, but Rex barely registered them. He had tunnel vision, and all of the recent tension and the hiding came rushing back to him, with the last fifteen years close on its heels. His father was at one end of the dark tunnel, and protecting Jade was the light at the other end. The space in between was thick with tension and matters of the heart that were too magnanimous to be defined.

  “Step aside, son,” his father said.

  “I’m not moving, Dad.” He reached into his shirt and pulled out his own necklace.

  His father drew in a sharp breath and blew it out his nose. “I asked once, and I’m not fixing to ask again. Where did you get that necklace?”

  “I’ll tell you anything you want to know. I’ve got nothing to hide, and I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve done—except hiding my relationship with Jade.” Rex took a step to the side and wrapped Jade’s trembling body within the safety of his arm.

  His father shot a look at Treat. “You know about this?”

  Treat looked dead center in his father’s eyes. “Yes, sir, I did.”

  “So did I,” Josh said as he stepped forward.

  “Me too,” Savannah added.

  His father stood surrounded by them, breathing hard, his face growing redder by the second, and for a beat, Rex felt sorry for him.

  “I never thought I’d see the day that a Johnson would turn my own children against me.”

  “Mr. Braden, I’m not turning—”

  He interrupted her with a gruff demand. “I wanna know one thing and one thing only.” He looked at Rex. “Where did you get those necklaces?”

  “I’ll tell you that just as soon as you apologize to Jade.” Rex knew he was playing with fire. No one challenged his father, especially not one of his own children.

  His father crossed his arms. Rex did the same.

  Suddenly, Hope whinnied and threw her body from side to side. Rex swooped Jade out of her reach.

  “You’re upsetting her!” Jade broke free from Rex’s grasp with a fire in her eyes and heat in her voice. “He got the damned necklace at Jewels of the Past. The woman there said she knew Adriana in high school and that it was meant for us.”

  His father clenched his jaw, and his biceps were right behind.

  Hope was becoming more agitated by the second. Her neck flew hard from side to side.

  “What else do you need to know?” Jade spat. “Because we can deal with this crap later or someplace else, but this horse is in distress, and the more you boys fluff your feathers, the more upset she’s going to get.”

  “She’s got colic,” his father said adamantly.

  “No, she doesn’t. She has no medical signs of colic other than behavioral, and she responded to a stomach meridian massage. She’s probably just upset over all the stress around here lately, and the show just threw her over the edge.”

  As his father approached, Rex stood between him and Hope. “Let her take care of Hope, Dad. She fixed her right up before.”

  “No Johnson is going to touch my horse.”

  “Too late,” Savannah said, and nodded to Jade, who had her forehead resting against the tender spot between Hope’s nostrils.

  Treat stepped between Rex and his father. “The important thing right now is to get Hope well. Let’s give her some space to do that, Dad. We can talk outside.” He took his father’s reluctant arm and left Rex guarding Jade and reluctantly building a wall between his father and himself.

  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 hell.”

  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 c
all 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 a stand-down command that every one of them understood, but Jade ignored it.

  “Don’t Jade me. 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.”

  Hal Braden pushed between his sons. He put his hand on Rex’s shoulder. Rex snapped his head toward his father. He didn’t know what to expect after the words they’d exchanged in the barn.

  “These boys are the finest in all of Weston. Your daughter can’t do any better and you know it.” He looked at Jane. “Jane here knows it. Don’t you, Jane?”

  Rex had had enough of the posturing and enough of the games. He wanted honesty and he needed clarity.

  “What the hell is going on?” Rex asked. “You just threatened me in there, and now you’re supporting me?”

  “I’m supporting your mother’s wish, son.” Hal walked up to Jade and nodded at her necklace. “Show that to your mother.”

  Jade’s eyebrows drew together as she nervously turned toward her mother and lifted her necklace.

  Her mother gasped a quick breath. She covered her mouth with her hand and reached a trembling hand toward the silver charm. “Wh-where did you get this?”

  “A woman in Allure said she got it from Rex’s mom when she was in high school,” Jade answered.