Trouble Me: A Rosewood Novel

by Laura Moore

  Calculating that the largest barn would hold someone who could tell him where Jade was, he entered it, taking his sunglasses off to peer down its wide aisle. A few yards down, he saw a woman brushing a big dark-brown horse.

  It was Margot Radcliffe, who, even after two kids, was still landing modeling jobs. It was easy to see why. She might’ve been dressed in breeches; a plain, long-sleeved T-shirt; and riding boots and have her hair pulled into a careless knot at the back of her head, but, with her face and body, all a photographer would have to do was point his camera and click. The resulting image would be stunning enough to land on the cover of a glossy beauty magazine.

  The scrape of his shoes against the cement floor had Margot pausing in her grooming, her brush resting on her horse’s dark flank. Turning to see who was approaching, her face registered surprise and then a flash of something that was harder for him to identify.

  “Officer Cooper. This is unexpected.” Her smile, though polite, was definitely cool.

  “It’s Rob, Ms. Radcliffe. I’m off duty.”

  Her expression didn’t grow any warmer. “Can I help you?”

  Okay, Rob thought. He was fairly certain he could now ID the fleeting emotion he’d seen on her face: It was anger. Margot Radcliffe was pissed off at him, which meant she must know something about what happened last night. Well, she was Jade’s older sister and had been her guardian too. The sisters were close. She had a right to feel protective.

  “I was wondering whether Jade was around. I’d like to speak to her.”

  “And as you’re off duty, this visit won’t be in an official capacity?”

  “Thankfully, no.”

  She cocked her brow. “Are you here as a parent, then? Or as something else altogether?”

  The question put him on alert. Exactly how much did she know about Jade and him and their recent activities? Entirely too much for his liking, he decided.

  Rob wasn’t used to being looked at as if he had six legs and a really ugly pair of antennae.

  “As a parent,” he replied, pointedly ignoring the other role she’d hinted at. “I have a couple things I need to discuss with her.”

  “You can always try.” Her amused tone made it clear he had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting Jade to talk to him. Then Margot looked past him and her smile warmed and spread. “Travis, hon, look who’s dropped by. He’s here to see Jade. Want to take him down to the ring?”

  “Sure.” Travis came up to them and folded his arms across his chest. “Rob,” he said by way of greeting.

  Okay, the count was up to two in terms of frosty family members. “How are you, Travis?”

  “Good, thanks. I haven’t seen much of you lately. You been busy?”

  “Yes, I guess so.”

  “Traveling?”

  “Yeah, I did some traveling. I went down to Norfolk for a conference.”

  “A real educational experience, no doubt,” Travis said.

  Shit. Rob had a sudden nasty suspicion that Jade must have told them of their encounter in Norfolk too. If so, it was no wonder that Margot, who in all their previous encounters had been friendly, was generating the warmth of an iceberg. It also explained the steely glint in Travis’s eyes.

  But if they were aware of even a tenth of what Jade and he had done together, their reaction was fairly restrained. In their place he’d be tempted to wring the neck of any guy who’d spent a stormy night having wild sex with his little sister.

  The realization made Rob’s gut twist with guilt. Nevertheless, he managed to return Travis’s gaze levelly.

  Wrapping an arm about Margot’s waist, Travis dropped a light kiss on the corner of her mouth. “I’ll be back in a few,” he told her.

  With a nod of his head and a terse, “Come on, Rob,” Travis led the way out of the barn and into a courtyard between the horse barns, then down a gravel path that presumably led to wherever Jade was.

  They’d marched in silence for about a hundred yards when Travis spoke. “Just so you know, Jade’s very important to this family. None of us want to see her get hurt. You’d do well to remember that, Rob.”

  For Christ’s sake, he thought as his hackles rose. On the verge of asking Travis if he thought trying to intimidate an officer of the law was a smart move, he caught sight of her. She was standing in the middle of the exercise ring, her long, sun-streaked hair blowing in the breeze, and suddenly he no longer cared what Travis Maher thought. His only interest was in Jade.

  Her attention fixed on the three ponies circling her, she hadn’t noticed his and Travis’s approach. The kids riding the ponies were trotting, and Jade was them giving instructions in a clear voice.

  “Katiebug, I’d like you to do a circle here and bring Maggie up behind Hopscotch. I’m getting the impression that she likes to lead the show. I want her trotting as nicely for you wherever you are in the line. That’s right, just trot right between the in-and-out.” She pointed, indicating a path between two jumps.

  Rob watched Kate—that would be Jordan’s eldest child—guide a dark-reddish-brown pony with a black mane and tail in a circle so they ended up at the back of the line. The pony’s color was called bay; he remembered the term from one of Hayley’s efforts to educate him.

  “Nicely done. Just keep Maggie at that pace, and if she starts getting fidgety, circle again.”

  “Liv, you feel anything wrong?”

  There was a shake of a black riding helmet. “No.” But the answer ended on a note of uncertainty.

  “How about checking your diagonals?”

  “Oops. Sorry, Aunt Jade.”

  “No need to apologize. Sit a beat and tell me whether you can feel the difference.”

  “Yes,” she answered, nodding. “I can tell.”

  “All righty, then. Now, Max, I can tell you’re letting your outside heel come up, because you’re starting to tilt in the saddle. Drop it down, kiddo, or you’ll tilt right over. And keep your eyes up. There you go, that’s much better. You were looking like the Tower of Pisa before.”

  “That’s a building in Italy. Owen showed it to me. It leans but doesn’t fall over. It’s cool,” Max replied.

  “Indeed it is. But you don’t want to look like it when you’re riding, right?”

  “Right.”

  Listening to the exchange, Rob grinned. This must be what Hayley responded to: Jade’s ability to mix humor in with her instruction, engaging the kids without dumbing the discussion down.

  “Now that we’ve got you balanced in the saddle, Max, I’d like you to squeeze your lower leg a bit more. Dickens is starting to get a little poky. Can you feel how he’s falling behind the bit? See if you can wake him up. Otherwise, Hopscotch is going to trot right up his hindquarters, and Dickens won’t like that, will he, Georgie?” she asked the little girl who was standing next to her in the center of the ring, watching the lesson. By the girl’s size, Rob realized she couldn’t be more than four years old.

  The little girl shook her dark-brown hair vigorously. “No,” she said emphatically. “Daddy says never to ride too close to another horse’s rear end, ’cause you might end up getting hurt.”

  “That’s absolutely correct, and your dad should be bringing Doc down for your lesson in a few minutes.”

  “Daddy’s right over there, Aunt Jade. With that man. Hi, Daddy,” she called, waving.

  “Hey, there, Georgie. I’m going to get Doc saddled for you now, but how about I give you a riding lesson today? This man’s name is Rob Cooper, and he wants to talk to Aunt Jade.”

  Even from this distance, Rob could tell Jade had gone stock-still. He supposed he was the last person she was expecting to see. Rob raised his hand in a half wave, and at last he had a reaction: Her features tightened in a fierce scowl.

  “Fancy that. She doesn’t look too thrilled to see you,” Travis remarked with more than a hint of laughter. “You’re going to have your work cut out for you, Cooper, to even get the time of day from her.” Raising his voice, he called
, “I’ll be back in a minute with Doc, Georgie. Do you want me to ask Owen to bring down Archer and Ginny, Jade? He just arrived.”

  “Uh, yeah, that’d be great.”

  Her voice had sounded like a rusty squeak, but Jade was still recovering from her shock at seeing Rob Cooper standing next to Travis. Shock and dismay.

  And, blast it, why was her heart pounding like a jack-hammer simply because he was there, just twenty feet away? She didn’t even like the man.

  And what could he possibly have to talk to her about? Perhaps he wanted to list more reasons why she should be barred from teaching Hayley. He’d probably spent last night writing them down.

  Well, he was on her turf now, and, by golly, she wasn’t going to talk with him until she was good and ready.

  She continued with the lesson, telling the kids to pick up the canter, pleased when all three, even Olivia, picked up the correct lead. Still, there was room for fine-tuning.

  “Max, keep your inside leg still. It’s starting to swing like a metronome. Olivia, your leg is plenty still, but your heel is creeping up. That’s right. Good correction. Kate, I want to see you looking all the way around the corner. Remember, you always have to be looking at the next point. Okay, now, before you guys bring your ponies down to a walk, I want you to settle smoothly back into the saddle without losing the canter’s momentum. That means you’re going to be sitting deeper in the saddle and squeezing your leg while your hands remain quiet and steady on the reins. That’s it, very nice. All right, ask them to walk, and, Max, remember to keep your hands low as you tighten them; otherwise, Dickens will stick his nose in the air.”

  Her attention switched to her nieces again. “That was pretty good, Kate, though I think Maggie took a few more steps in slowing down in this direction than in the other. You’ll want to pay attention to that, Katiebug.”

  “Okay, Aunt Jade.”

  “Good girl. And, Olivia, I’m super-proud of you. That was excellent. Give your ponies pats, kids, and let them take a lap around the ring at an easy walk. We’ll finish up with around-the-world and Simon says.”

  As focused as she was on her nieces and nephew and on her new schooling ponies, Jade was uncomfortably aware of Rob, who’d now positioned himself by the rail and was apparently hanging on her every word.

  As if, she thought with a snort. He couldn’t possibly have been interested in hearing her tell Kate to transition smoothly from a canter to a walk and not allow any sloppiness from Maggie simply because she was a new pony, or remind Max to keep his leg steady and in alignment.

  She always tried to end the kids’ lessons with a couple of games; it was an easy way to make sure a horse was properly cooled down. Cooling off a heated horse was one of the horse-care concepts kids had difficulty grasping. Even kids who knew horses well, like Kate, Max, and Olivia, skimped unless reminded.

  Today, Jade extended the game period even longer, half-hoping that, after watching Olivia, Max, and Kate touch their right toes with their left hands and their ponies’ tails with their right hands, Rob would grow bored and go away. Never to be seen again.

  But when Max crowed with delight because he’d won the day’s round of Simon says, Jade glanced over at the rail. And there he was.

  He was such a cop, she sighed inwardly. Stubborn and determined. It was a shame she couldn’t stop remembering what he’d been like as a lover.

  But then Travis arrived, leading her old pony Doc. Owen and Tito followed with Archer and Sweet Virginia.

  Always super-generous with Jade, Tito volunteered to take the ponies back up to the barn with Olivia while Max and Kate hacked Archer and Ginny. Although she accepted the offer, she wished he hadn’t been so thoughtful.

  And when she factored in Owen and Travis’s presence, there were just a few too many helpful adults around, with everything moving a tad too efficiently. To compensate, she spent several minutes checking Archer and Ginny’s girths, fiddling with their throatlatches, and making sure Kate’s and Max’s stirrups were even.

  “I don’t think there’s anything left to check, Jade. You might as well give Rob a break and listen to what the guy has to say,” Travis said.

  “Now, here’s an instance where you and I disagree, Travis,” said Owen, who was busy helping Olivia run the stirrups up on Hopscotch’s saddle. “I think Jade should make Cooper wait a good long time.”

  “That’s because you’re still steamed over getting a fine from him,” Travis replied, lifting Georgiana into the saddle. She looked adorable sitting on Doc.

  Owen nodded his dark head. “Absolutely. I consider Jade’s giving him a hard time payback. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.”

  She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but having her brothers-in-law discuss Rob Cooper was actually more unsettling than the prospect of marching over to him and finding out what it was he wanted to say. Once he’d said his piece, she could start to forget his existence.

  “Travis is right,” she said in a resigned tone. “I better go see what he wants.” When they grinned at her, she shook her head in exasperation. “You know, sometimes you guys are such guys.”

  “Even so, we must have some endearing qualities.” Owen’s grin widened as he added, “I guess even Cooper does.”

  Just thinking about what endearing qualities Rob possessed caused a very unlike-Jade blush to steal over her cheeks. “Right. I’m outta here,” she said, and stomped off before their annoying grins turned to laughter.

  It was weird, Rob thought, watching Jade stride across the sandy ring toward him as if she were marching to do battle. On the one hand, he knew a great deal about her. He’d spent an entire night exploring that long-limbed body of hers, discovering what she liked and how she liked it. He knew the sound of her breathless moan when his mouth traveled along her inner thigh, the way her fingers clutched his head to hold him close as his tongue bathed the puckered aureole of her breast before drawing it deep into his mouth and sucking hard.

  On the other hand, he didn’t know how she took her coffee.

  Weird, indeed. At least he knew that she liked pumpkin cream-cheese muffins. Emma had told him about meeting Jade in Braverman’s earlier that morning, and, for some reason, knowing that he and Jade shared the same taste in baked goods had made the corners of his mouth curve upward.

  Women usually liked his smile. With Jade, it had the opposite effect. As she ducked between the wooden rails, her own mouth flattened in a grim line. Then he recalled what an ass he’d been last night and realized that he’d probably have to do a lot more than smile to get her to not want to spit in his eye. And though he’d told himself he was there at Rosewood primarily for Hayley’s sake, he knew he didn’t want to be enemies with Jade. Exactly what kind of relationship he was looking to have with her, he couldn’t presently define.

  Jade stood a good six feet away from him. But that was close enough for him to see the glitter in her leaf-green eyes, the red flags of anger staining her cheeks, and to take an appreciative inspection of her long legs encased in rust-colored breeches and tall brown leather riding boots. She looked as different as day from night in her riding gear rather than in the outfit she’d been wearing in Norfolk, but that didn’t make her any less alluring or prevent his pulse from jumping as desire pumped through his veins. Christ, why did she have this effect on him?

  She crossed her arms in front of her chest, all crackling defensiveness. “Travis said you wanted to talk. So?”

  “I’d like to apologize.” If his voice sounded terse, it was because he was more than a little annoyed that his body was reacting to her simply because she was standing there. Unbelievable.

  A single eyebrow rose mockingly. “You know, I can think of a whole boatload of things you might want to apologize for. But I’m afraid I don’t have that much time. Or interest.” She turned on her boot heel.

  “I’d like to apologize for what I said about taking Hayley out of your class. It was wrong and uncalled for.” Rob felt a surge of satisfaction tha
t his words had her glancing over her shoulder and that the angry glitter in her eyes had been replaced by astonishment.

  “The only excuse I can give you is that I wasn’t thinking too clearly last night.” His mouth lifted in a half smile. “Seeing you was a bit of a surprise.”

  “Apology accepted.”

  She’d turned back to face him, but she’d yet to smile, Rob noted. He remembered her smile as being pretty amazing, full of mischief and joy. “Hayley really likes being in your class, and it would be foolish to move her. I was stupid even to consider such a thing.”

  Jade wasn’t often at a loss for words, but her usual gift for snappy comebacks or even diversionary remarks had deserted her. Any clever retort was swept aside by a swell of happiness at hearing that Hayley would remain in her class. Worried that if she opened her mouth, all manner of gushy and effusive stuff might come out of it, she kept it shut. The last thing she wanted was to sound mushy, especially in front of Rob.

  That some of the happiness buzzing through her might be due to the fact that Rob had taken the step to apologize to her, she absolutely refused to consider.

  Affecting a casual nonchalance wasn’t easy, but she attempted it anyway. “I’m glad to hear she’ll be staying. Hayley has nice friends in the class. I’ll look forward to seeing her on Monday. Um, thanks for coming by to let me know.” She spoke through lips that felt simultaneously rubbery and stiff, as if she’d just been treated to massive novocaine injections from a not-so-friendly dentist.

  Rob hiked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the riding ring. “So, are those ponies you’re using for your riding school?”

  His question had her brows drawing together in a quick frown of confusion. Was he intentionally trying to throw her off balance with these remarks? She was not going to let this guy unnerve her simply because he’d busted her teenage self twice and made her adult self orgasm she couldn’t remember how many times. She wished he didn’t look so good in his faded jeans and polo shirt; it would have been easier to remain riled if he’d shown up in his police uniform.