Free Destined for Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens, Book 2) Contemporary Romance by Melissa Foster Page B

existing on cold showers and coffee for two days, wrestling with how to handle the situation with Jade. Maybe some things were meant to be, like his mother and father and Treat and Max. Maybe he was supposed to be with Jade, even if only secretly…for now.
    She wasn’t smiling when he approached. A lump formed in his throat over the way he’d ended things so abruptly when they were together. God, she looked cute in her tight scoop-neck T-shirt with thoroughbred across her chest. His body remembered the feel of her beneath him. He shifted the bag to cover the evidence.
    He wanted to talk to her about what happened between them, clear the air, but after saying her name, he felt a rush of adrenaline, an overwhelming urge to take her in his arms and apologize, throw caution to the wind and stand up for whatever might be. He could take the heat. He would do just about anything for her.
    “You were right,” Jade said. “What happened was a mistake, and it should never happen again.”
    The air expelled from his lungs, like he’d been punched in the gut. A mistake? A mistake. Isn’t that what he’d told her, after all? Just being this close to her made his heart beat a little harder. He didn’t need to sleep with her. He just wanted to be with her, to get to know her better. A mistake? He couldn’t be with her anyway. It was a pipe dream, a fantasy. He had all the intimate time he’d ever get with the woman he’d pined for year after year, and if that was all he was going to get, then damn it, it was better than nothing, even if it wasn’t near enough.
    “I’m glad you understand.” The lie tasted like acid, like it was burning a hole through him even as it came off his tongue.
    “I do.” She nodded. “Our fathers…they’d never be okay with”—she ran her finger in a line between them—“this.”
    He wanted to take her hand and pull her to him, just to feel her heart beat against his.
    “Right.” He looked away to hide the sadness that he knew was written all over his face. He’d never been able to hide his feelings well, and the emotions he was riding were coming in powerful, evident gusts.
    “What’d you get at the feed store?” she asked.
    He looked down at the bag. He’d forgotten he even had it in his arms. “Molasses cookies.” His voice sounded like all the energy had been sucked from it, and he noticed Jade’s eyes shoot up at his. He cleared his throat, then said, “I come by and get sweet feed and molasses cookies for my mom’s horse.”
    She nodded, still holding his gaze. “Horses love both those things.”
    How could she be so calm and cool about this while his heart was being torn to shreds right in his chest?
    “Is it an older horse?”
    “Huh?”
    “Your mom’s horse. Is it an older horse?”
    “Oh yeah. Hope’s getting up there, slowing down a bit.” He watched the way her eyes danced when they talked about the horse, and it almost made him wish he were a horse, too.
    “Hope, that’s a nice name. Is she eating enough? Have you noticed weight loss? Is she turning her heard toward her flank a lot? Getting regular exercise?”
    “I almost forgot you were a vet,” he said in response to her pointed questions. “She slowed down a little this past year, but she’s a strong, healthy horse. Hope’s the horse I was riding that morning at the ravine.” The ravine. That’s when it all started. He smiled at the memory of her picking up that heavy rock and tossing it into the water. It seemed like they’d been on one hundred dates since then, though they hadn’t been on any. “My father’s entering her in the open event at the show.”
    “That can be really stressful for a horse who isn’t doing well,” Jade said.
    “I know. He knows that, but he said our mom would have wanted it. He doesn’t care if she wins or loses. He just…” How could he tell her that his father still talked to his dead mother? How could he not? “He said Mom would have wanted her to