Our Sweet Destiny

by Addison Cole

  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 nonsense 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 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 she’s ever seen him.”

  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 call 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 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.

  Jane’s eyes welled with tears. “That’s hers,” she whispered. “She used to talk about this dance of two lovers.” She looked at Hal. “Remember?”

  Hal nodded; his eyes were also damp.

  Jane continued. “Everything in their lives was meant to keep them apart, and against all odds, they found their way to each other.” She looked up at Rex. “Your father had that necklace made for your mother for her fifteenth birthday. She treasured it, wore it every day. One day she didn’t have it on, and when I asked her why, she said she’d put it in a safe place for someone who would need it more than she and your father.”

  Hal lowered his eyes.

  “Dad?” Rex watched his father close his eyes and rub them with his thumb and forefinger. He saw so much of himself in his father’s mannerisms that his heart clamped down, dislodging the simmering anger that had settled there only moments before.

  “Her father didn’t want us together either,” his father admitted.

  “I don’t understand any of this, but, Dad, Mr. Braden, what do we have to do to get past this family feud?” Jade asked.

  Rex stepped forward and took Jade’s hand. “If we can’t resolve this, Jade and I will be forced to build our lives without you. The choice is yours.” She squeezed his hand and leaned in to him. Rex put his arm around her. “I love your daughter. Let me love your d
aughter.”

  Earl Johnson stepped forward, eye to eye with Hal. “You know that I’m not buying any of this necklace hogwash, so if this is your way of having our children mend the miles of broken fence between us, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

  Hal shifted his eyes to Rex and Jade, clinging together in a bubble of love so thick, Rex knew they all could see it. He brought his eyes back to Earl.

  “You screwed Adriana over. All those years ago, you threw loyalty out the window and threw us both under the bus at the same time,” Hal said.

  “I had no choice. I know we agreed not to do business with the worthless lowlife, but I had no choice. I’d have lost everything.” Earl’s harsh tone carried angrily into the night.

  “Bull hockey. I could have given you enough money to carry you over a few months; instead you went and dealt with the devil,” Hal accused.

  “Hal, you’re the most stubborn, bullheaded man I know,” Earl snapped.

  Treat and Josh stepped up and flanked their father, chins held high.

  “No, he’s not, Earl. Have you looked in the mirror? You’re every bit as stubborn. Yes, you needed the money, but you knew that selling horses to that man was wrong. You admitted as much then, and you did it anyway,” Jane said.

  “I was building a life with you. Without that money, we’d have had to sell the ranch altogether.” Earl looked from Hal to Jane and then to Jade.

  Jade and her mother were looking at Earl with serious eyes, almost cold. Rex felt badly for him. “I can’t even pretend to understand what this is all about, but my best guess is that you broke some time-honored loyalty to my father, and my father, being the honor-driven man he is, tossed you aside for it.” He shot a heated stare at his father. “I can think of only one solution to your mess. Forgive and forget, or kick us out of town. The ball’s in your court.”

  He took Jade’s hand and pulled her toward the driveway, then turned back to the stunned faces of his siblings. “I’ll do that one better. If you two can grow up, I’ll buy that patch of land between your two ranches and build a house there for me and Jade. Cash deal, but only…only if you two make up, because I’m not going to have my children feeling the stress of grandparents who can’t communicate.”

  “Children?” Jade asked as they headed up the driveway toward her car.

  “Son!” His father’s voice stopped him in his tracks. Every muscle clenched. This was it. No one challenged Hal Braden. He dropped Jade’s hand and faced his father.

  “Yes, sir?”

  “You know what you’re asking me to do. This family lives by three steadfast beliefs: a strong work ethic, family loyalty, and honesty. If you don’t believe in family honor, then you’re not the man I thought you were.” Hal held Rex’s stare.

  Treat walked up behind his father and said, “What happened to family knows no boundaries?”

  Hal spun around and looked Treat dead in the eyes. “You stay out of this, son.”

  “It’s okay, Treat. I understand his feelings.” Rex wasn’t about to beg for his father’s forgiveness for falling in love with a wonderful, intelligent, beautiful woman. He turned to leave. Each painful step as he moved away from his father felt like a knife in his heart.

  “Son, I’m talking to you, and when I’m talking to you, eyes remain on me.” His father’s commanding voice boomed through the night.

  Rex took a deep breath and turned around. He crossed his arms. He’d known it would be hard to stand up to his father, but he hadn’t anticipated the gut-wrenching agony of a slow departure. He wanted to flee, get as far away as quickly as possible and pretend the man he’d built his life around hadn’t tossed him aside like he didn’t matter. He wanted to wrap Jade in his arms and feel her love so he would know he’d done the right thing. He didn’t want to look into his father’s dark eyes and say goodbye, but for Jade, he would do just that.

  His father walked closer, until they were less than a foot apart and he could see every whisker, every wrinkle, on his father’s face.

  “I hate the way you handled this,” his father said.

  No doubt. I should have told you fifteen years ago. “Yes, sir. So do I.”

  “But I hate how I handled it even more. This crazy feud took over, and when your mama died, I let that feud run all kinds of crazy into my head. I had so much anger inside me, son. I needed an outlet.”

  A lump lodged itself in Rex’s throat. He felt Jade slide her hand into his, and he drew strength from her touch.

  “I had six kids to raise, and I couldn’t take it out on each of you, but I did need a place for it. And that feud was a solid outlet. I didn’t think it would hurt anyone, and what he did was wrong. He sold horses to a man who caused all sorts of problems for your mother when she was younger.” Hal lowered his gaze, then looked back up at Jade and shook his head. “Rex, you’re more of a man than I could ever be. You were loyal to me for far longer than I probably deserved. I knew how you felt about Jade when you were younger, and I should have released you from my grip back then, but I couldn’t. Every time I thought about your mother and the way that old neighbor, Joe Richter, treated her, how he tried to stand between us, how low he made her feel, I saw red. Your loyalty lasted thirty-four years, son, and now it’s doing what it should. It’s shifting to the woman you love. It’s shifting to your family.”

  Rex looked at Jade and wiped the tear that slid slowly down her cheek with the pad of his thumb. Then he turned to his father, but words eluded him. He stepped forward and embraced the man who’d taught him how to be a man.

  “I’m sorry, son. We do the best we can in this world, and sometimes that’s not quite good enough.”

  “You did fine, Dad. Thank you for your support.” When they pulled apart, Rex bit back the tears that threatened to fall as his father approached Jade.

  “Jade, you’re a feisty, beautiful woman, and you did not deserve our family’s back turned on you for so long. I hope you’ll accept my apology. I’m truly sorry.”

  “Of course,” she said as he scooped her into his big arms and held her close.

  Rex barely heard his father whispering in her ear.

  “That boy of mine has never had eyes for any other woman, and I swear his mother knew that you two were meant for each other. Even Hope knew it.” He looked at Rex and shook his head. “Son, one thing you need to know. As much as we hate to admit it, women are right most of the time.” He turned back to Jade. “Now, don’t you let that go to your head, because I’ll deny ever saying it.” He winked. “And another thing, don’t you hurt him, ya hear?”

  Jade cracked a wide smile. “Not on your life.”

  His father pulled away from Jade and said, “Now we gotta talk to that stubborn mule of a father of yours.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  THERE WAS SOMETHING different in Jade’s mother’s eyes. In the space of ten heated minutes, the subservient softness had been replaced with confidence and an underlying beat of disturbance. Jade stood before her now and wondered if her mother was going to stand up and fight for her and Rex, or if she was going to be up against them both.

  Under the light of the moon, the Bradens stood on one side of the driveway and the Johnsons on the other, with the exception of Rex and Jade, who stood in the space between.

  Savannah and Josh came to Jade’s side. Savannah set her hand on her shoulder. All the wonder that Jade had felt about being accepted into Rex’s family was replaced with gratefulness, and as she watched her father’s clenched jaw and furrowed brow, she still had no idea how to soften his resolve.

  “Jade Johnson, this is the position you put me in, after all the years of love I’ve given you?” Her father’s desultory tone told of his own wavering surety of the accusation.

  Jade drew her shoulders back and opened her mouth to speak, but her mother stepped in, cutting her off.

  “How dare you thrust this on Jade! Jade isn’t putting you in any position. She’s fallen in love, Earl. Do you even remember what that feels
like? Remember how you used to call me at night and never want to hang up? Or all the walks we took in the moonlight? Don’t you have any memory of holding my hand those first few dates and telling me how it was all so new to you? Remember how much you ached when we had to say goodnight and go our separate ways?”

  Jade couldn’t even imagine her father doing those things. She watched her mother searching her father’s eyes. Savannah squeezed her shoulder, and without thinking, Jade covered her hand with her own. She saw Treat walk up behind them, and she felt his hand on top of hers. Rex’s family was every bit as loving as he was. She felt safe with them as she watched her mother drawing emotion from her father’s stoic gaze.

  “Earl, Jade can’t have that. She can’t have any of it. They have to go to another town just to spend time with each other. She has to lie to her own father to see the man she loves.”

  How did she find out? Rex squeezed her hand and Jade held on tight, bracing herself for her father’s harsh reaction and for possibly losing him altogether.

  “Earl.” Jane softened her tone. “Your daughter can’t love the man she should because you are too scared to say you made a mistake. I lost my best friend and never got to mourn her or hold her children while they grieved for her. I never got to tell them how much she loved them. I was never able to help Hal with all those hurting babies because of your childish behavior. I can’t get those years back, and neither can they. When I think of all the promises I made to Adriana, all those previous years that I swore to Adriana I would share with them. They’re lost, Earl. Lost!”

  “Mom.” Jade reached out to her.

  Her mother kept her eyes trained on her father. “No, Jade. This is between your father and me. Damn it, Earl. I love Adriana’s family as much as I love our own family. I’m with Jade on this. If you want to keep us together, you need to apologize to them—all of them—and move forward. Hal has done his part. He’s accepted Jade into his family. Please. Rex is a good man.” She turned tear-filled eyes toward Rex. “He’s a wonderful man, and he loves our daughter very much.”