Believe in Me: A Rosewood Novel

by Laura Moore

  Owen did well for his first time in the saddle. Not a big surprise since he was athletic and coordinated. Moreover, he’d picked up enough from observing them all to understand that good riding was composed of minute adjustments of one’s body. Abrupt, jerky movements that put stress on a horse’s back or hurt its delicate mouth were to be avoided. His concentration as he followed their instructions showed her that already he felt the wonder of a horse listening and accepting the pressure of his legs and hands. Even walking sedately on the rail astride a docile broodmare could impart that extraordinary magic.

  Ned kept him in the saddle just long enough to ensure that Owen’s appetite was whetted.

  “You did real well on her, Owen. Thanks for helping us out. Next time, we’ll get you trotting. Sava’s got one of the smoothest trots around. Kind of like sitting on a puffy cloud. You should think about getting some breeches and boots at Steadman’s. Tell Adam you’re a friend of ours. Now, you always want to walk your horse into the middle of the ring when you dismount …”

  When Kate and Max telephoned they bubbled over in excitement as she told them Owen had ridden Sava. “Sava’s a really big horse,” Max said.

  “Yes, and Owen did just fine on her.”

  “Maybe we can ride together. Tell Owen I want to go riding with him.”

  “I’ll do that,” she said, glancing at Owen. He was dividing the hay bales and dropping three sections into Miss Molly’s stall, but she was sure he could hear Max’s enthusiasm because he had a little smile on his face. “Have you been having a good time with Daddy and Cynthia?”

  “We went to the park and got ice cream afterward.”

  “That sounds like a great day.”

  “Yup, and tomorrow we’re going to see dinosaurs and then we’re coming home. And the day after that we’re going to Owen’s house.”

  “That’s exactly right, Max. I know Owen’s looking forward to it, too.” Maybe that was a bit of a stretch, but he was being an awfully good sport about having the children come and see Hawk Hill.

  She’d only just slipped her cell back into her breeches pocket when the unmistakable sound of the van pulling into courtyard reached them.

  Ned opened his hand on the hose’s nozzle, shutting off the water. “They’re back early,” he said, and a frown knit his brows.

  “We can finish up here, Ned. Why don’t you go see what’s up? Do you mind watering the remaining stalls, Owen?”

  “Not at all. Here, let me take the hose, Ned.”

  While they were watering and feeding, they heard the heavy thud of the van’s ramp being lowered, followed shortly by the stomp of hooves on the rubber footing, changing to a clatter as the horses were led across the gravel courtyard.

  Jordan had yet to dispense the grain and the supplements they gave to the broodmares, so it was another fifteen minutes before she and Owen left the broodmares’ barn.

  Felix was alone in the courtyard, in the midst of slamming the bolts home on the van’s ramp. “How’d it go today, Felix?” Jordan asked.

  “Travis and Margot did real good,” he said, dusting his hands off on his jeans. “Andy got reserve champion hunter on Saxon, and Mistral went well for him. And Travis was happy with how Gypsy Queen handled the jumper course.”

  “So Jade didn’t end up riding Gypsy Queen?”

  He gave a terse shake off his head.

  “Not a good day for her?”

  “Not a good day,” he repeated. The flatness of Felix’s tone let Jordan know that “not a good day” didn’t begin to describe it. “She’ll be okay in a day or two,” he added. “She just needs to shake it off.”

  Her heart sank. “Did she fall off?”

  Felix nodded. “She didn’t have Sweet William balanced going into the rail jump. He stumbled and then slammed on the brakes. She went straight over his head.”

  “I can’t believe Jade fell. Her reaction time is so quick.”

  “Yeah. But she was pretty rattled after her round with Aspen.”

  Jordan sighed. “You better give me all the bad news, Felix, so I don’t say something unbelievably clueless to Jade.”

  “She went off course with him.”

  “Off course? Does that mean Jade missed a fence?” Owen asked.

  “Yes,” Jordan said. “The rider is supposed to memorize the jump course and follow the path the course designer has devised to test the horse’s strength and balance on both leads. Jump courses can get fairly tricky, but not at the green hunter level. She must be so embarrassed.”

  “She cried.”

  “Oh, no.” This was not the Jade they knew. “I better go see what I can do to help.”

  “Good luck to you,” Felix said with a tired smile.

  As she turned to go into the main barn, she sent Owen an apologetic look. “If you prefer to go up to the house, I understand completely.”

  He shrugged. “Jade might tone it down if I’m around. It’s harder to be utterly obnoxious in front of non–family members.”

  Angry teens didn’t seem to faze him the way preverbal tots did. In that respect Owen and she were very different. “Thanks,” she said.

  “No problem. And afterward you can go take a hot shower, and we’ll go to your friend Marla’s so you can tell her all the great things you’re going to do to her house, and then we can go to Hawk Hill where you can tell me all the great things you want me to do to you.”

  She smiled at his generosity and also because he sounded so very much like Max had on the telephone. “That sounds like an excellent plan.”

  * * *

  The temperature in the main barn was a good twenty degrees cooler, and it wasn’t because they’d retreated from the late-afternoon heat. Jordan saw Travis, Margot, and then finally Jade in a line down the aisle. Each had a horse attached to the cross ties and was busy unwrapping the bandages in silence. Jade moved with an extra urgency, her hands flying around Aspen’s hind leg.

  When the loosened quilted wrap fell to the cement floor, she scooped it and the other bandages up and carried them over to the side of Aspen’s stall, unsnapped the cross ties, and walked her horse into the stall.

  “There. I’m done,” she announced, her voice carrying in the tense silence.

  “You’re done?” Margot asked, from where she was kneeling beside Saxon’s leg. “What about Aspen’s braids?”

  “I’ll deal with them in the morning. Sweet William’s, too,” she replied, not even looking at Margot as she marched past her. Spotting Jordan and Owen, she stuck out her chin pugnaciously.

  “Hi, Jade,” Jordan said.

  Echoing her, Owen also added, “I like your new hair.”

  “Thanks,” she muttered. To Jordan she merely gave a long look.

  “And how about your saddle bag? Your tackbox?” Margot asked, rising to her feet and coming up behind her.

  Jade didn’t turn around. “I don’t have time.”

  Margot came around to Jordan’s side and crossed her arms. “May I ask where you’re so fired up to go?”

  “The library.”

  As one, the adults looked at her.

  “The library closes at five on Saturdays, Jade,” Travis said, joining them.

  Jade scowled even as an embarrassed flush crawled over her cheeks. “So I’m not going to the library. Whatever. But I’m still out of here.”

  “Well, I’d really appreciate knowing where.”

  “I don’t see why I have to tell you. I’m almost eighteen.”

  “You won’t be eighteen for another six months, Jade,” Margot said, and from the evenness of her tone, Jordan knew how hard she was trying to be patient. “Until then I have to act as your guardian—”

  Jade gave a snort of disbelief. “More like my prison guard. I’m tired of being locked up here with you and Jordan watching everything I do. I don’t need your permission to go out.”

  Travis cleared his throat. “Jade, all Margot’s asking is where you’re going. Not an unreasonable request.”


  Perhaps it was because it was Travis speaking, his deep voice rumbling with authority for all the mildness of his observation. Jade pursed her lips as if tasting something bitter and then, with obvious reluctance, said, “I’m going to the movies with Blair and Courtney and some other friends.”

  “With Blair?” Margot blurted.

  “Oh, Jade, are you sure—” Jordan began.

  “I knew it. I just knew you’d be this way. Why do you think I didn’t want to tell you? Because you and Jordan would immediately go into tragic mode.”

  “Because we’ve already seen that Blair’s not a good person—”

  “Compared to whom? My mom, maybe?” Jade sneered. “Compared to me? For God’s sake you don’t even know Blair.”

  “Maybe I don’t know her well,” Margot said, “but I know you, and you are not a bad person. It is important that you stay out of trouble, though. Remember what Officer Cooper said.”

  Jade rolled her eyes. “You’re too much. What do you think he’s going to do, arrest me for going to the movies with my friends? This is really boring. Why don’t you just try leaving me alone for once? I can take care of myself.”

  “Jade—”

  “No. I’m done here.” Turning to Travis, she said, “I’ll be back later.”

  They listened to the scrape of her boots against the concrete floor. Then it changed as she hit the graveled courtyard and broke into a run, making her getaway.

  “If she really thinks I’m her prison guard, why can’t I put a microchip in her cellphone and track her,” Margot asked no one in particular. Moving to Saxon’s hind leg, she bent down and began unwrapping his dark blue bandage, her hands moving with furious speed.

  “Because Jade would somehow figure out what you’d done and toss the thing in the river. Or set it on fire. Or run over it with her car,” Jordan said.

  “Then how about one of those electronic ankle bracelets? Damn it, why can’t she see what she’s doing to herself?”

  “That might be asking a little too much, given her current frame of mind,” she replied quietly.

  “It kills me that she wants to screw up her life by hanging out with those bitchy girls. They’re not interested in being her friends.” Still kneeling beside Saxon, she slumped her shoulders in despair.

  “Come here, darling.”

  With a shaky breath Margot rose to her feet and walked into Travis’s open arms, burying her face against his chest. Watching them, Jordan knew she’d have given anything to know Owen loved her so deeply, that he’d be there for her, forever.

  OWEN WRAPPED HIS HANDS around the edges of the old stove. “Ready? On the count of three,” he said as with a strong push, he and Jesse tipped it backward so that Doug could slide the dolly beneath it. Setting it back down, he and Jesse stepped back.

  “So how was your weekend, Owen?” Jesse asked, wiping his forehead with the bottom of his T-shirt. As Ned had predicted, the temperature had skyrocketed, and the kitchen was as hot as the oven they were removing.

  “It was good,” Owen said. Damn good. Even with Jordan worried as hell about Jade, it had been near-perfect, but Owen didn’t want to go overboard in his response since Doug and Jesse had picked up on the fact that he and Jordan had a thing going on. “And yours?”

  “Excellent. I hit this bar on the edge of town Friday night. Different kind of scene from your typical Warburg watering hole.”

  “You mean you didn’t have to dig out your seersucker jacket to fit in?” Doug grinned.

  “Didn’t have to flash my Amex gold card, either. So what surprised me was that some of the women there were extra fine, way above average. It’s too bad this job will be finished soon. I wouldn’t mind getting to know a few of them better.”

  “Something tells me you’ll make the most of these last couple of weeks,” Owen said. He, too, felt a regret that he’d spent so many nights working like the devil on the house. The renovation was wrapping up sooner than he wished.

  “I’ll do my best.” Jesse grinned.

  “So what time’s Jordan coming over?” Doug asked as he began rolling the stove toward the back door.

  “In about an hour.” The jolt of anticipation that coursed through him was no less heady for being familiar. Owen had been with her practically all weekend, yet still couldn’t wait to see her.

  “Good,” Doug grunted as they maneuvered the stove over the threshold. “We should be almost finished getting everything out of the kitchen by then and be set to pull up the flooring. Jordan’ll get a kick out of seeing the old wood exposed. The kids coming, too?”

  “Yeah.” Owen didn’t even mind that. Being here this afternoon would provide a distraction for the kids, since Jade continued to refuse to give them riding lessons. Nothing bothered him about Jade’s acting out as much as this. Anything she dished out for Margot and Jordan, her primary targets, was okay. They could take it; they were grown-ups. But to drag the kids into her battle against the world was plain mean. Someone would have to give Jade a talking-to soon.

  They worked steadily, dismantling the kitchen and carting the appliances and cabinets to the truck. The noise of their efforts masked that of Jordan’s arrival, so it wasn’t until he heard the stampede of little feet, Olivia’s high-pitched squeal, and Max’s signature “Hiya, Owen!” and “Hey, can I do that, too?” that he knew their peaceful grunt work was at an end.

  Owen straightened and put his crowbar down. He gave Jordan a quick smile that didn’t come close to expressing how glad he was to see her before answering Max. “I think this cabinet might be a little heavy for you, Max.”

  “I’m really strong.” Max came over and wrapped his hand about Owen’s crowbar and lifted it about an inch, his body wobbling with the effort. “See?”

  “Yes, very impressive,” he said.

  “Hey, Owen.” Jesse grinned, nodding at Olivia. “We didn’t know you had such a fan club.” Olivia had wrapped her arms about his leg as if she, well, Owen couldn’t figure out why she often did what she did, but as sweaty and hot as he was, what he did know was that he wasn’t going to make himself twice as hot by lifting her into his arms. But deciding that freeing his leg of Olivia was an exercise in futility, he let her be, ignoring Jesse’s wide grin.

  “Olivia likes Owen a lot,” Jordan said. “We brought iced tea.”

  “And cookies. We baked them after lunch,” Kate offered shyly.

  Jordan was brilliant, Owen decided. After being in Jesse and Doug’s company these past weeks, she knew they liked sweets even more than Max did. And right now he could easily guzzle a half gallon of her iced tea. “That’s great. We’ll take a break once we’ve gotten this cabinet into the truck.”

  “Can I help carry it?” Max asked, renewing his attempt to lift the crowbar.

  “Wait until Owen and Jesse have gotten the cabinet onto the dolly, Max. Then maybe you can help push it outside. Olivia, you need to let go of Owen and come here. No, you’re too little to help. Kate, why don’t you hold the door open and then you can make sure Doug and Jesse are pushing the dolly up the truck ramp properly? Olivia and I will go get the cookies and the iced tea. And, Max, you have to listen and do what Owen says, or you won’t be able to help.”

  “Okay, Mommy.”

  Her little boy was in seventh heaven, Jordan thought, as she watched Max take a place between Owen and Doug, his little hands flat against the side of the wooden cabinet, making very manly grunts as he and the men pushed it along the floor to where Kate was holding the back door before rolling it over the plywood that had been laid over the ground.

  When Max reached the truck’s ramp, Jordan told him to come away, which he did with the greatest reluctance. Fortunately, seeing the contents of the truck’s interior was sufficiently distracting. “What’s all that stuff doing in there?”

  “Those are the appliances and countertops we removed from the kitchen and butler’s pantry to make room for what your mom ordered,” Owen said. “We don’t need these parts but other people m
ight, so after work Doug’s going to drive the truck to a place near Washington where people can come and get them and install them in their own kitchens. That way these things don’t go to waste.” He paused and, evidently seeing that Max hadn’t quite grasped his explanation, added, “It’s kind of like recycling.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Max said brightening. “We do that at school and at home. And I told my teacher, Miss Farber, that at the barn Tito puts the horse poop in a special place so that Patrick can use it for the flowers in our garden. She said that’s recycling, too. We have a lot of horse poop.”

  “Horse poop happens,” Owen replied, hiding his grin somewhat more successfully than Jesse or Doug.

  “Yeah,” said Max. When the cabinet was stowed in the truck’s belly, he asked, “So what do we now, Owen?”

  “Well, right now I think we should drink something cold and then it’ll be time to pull up the flooring.”

  “Neato.”

  Owen felt another grin spread across his face. He had to hand it to Max. He definitely attacked life with gusto. There were few things didn’t strike him as “neato.” Even during the break they took outside, in the shade of a large copper beech, Max was a bubbling fountain of enthusiasm.

  Circling its wide trunk with a cup of grape juice in one hand and a cookie in the other, he said, “That’s a really big tree,” thrusting his cookie at it for emphasis. “Have you climbed it, Owen?”

  Owen glanced up at the tree. Max was right. The tree was big, with an impressive canopy and long limbs, the lowest about five feet off the ground. “No, I haven’t.”

  “We could climb it.”

  “I think we need to deal with the kitchen floor first. That’s going to be fun for your mom.” And he let his gaze stray to Jordan, something he’d been trying to limit doing with the kids and Doug and Jesse around. She was sitting with Olivia plunked in the middle of her lap and was showing her daughter the purplish gold of the beech leaf. Her reddish head was bent close to Olivia’s light blond one, and the sight did something strange to his heart. What was it that made her more beautiful to him than any other woman, even when she had a toddler planted in her lap?