Free Believe in Me: A Rosewood Novel by Laura Moore

neighbor. “Since you guys are too uptight to let me have any champagne, I’d like another slice of Jordan’s angel food cake. And a big spoonful of the whipped cream, too,” Jade held her plate out to Travis, who obligingly cut her a thick slice before passing her the bowl of whipped cream. “Cheers, Jordan,” she said, lifting a large forkful in the air. “Here’s to getting Mrs. Harrison, the Witch of Warburg, to hire you. She gives me the evil eye every time she sees me. The last time she did it, though, I stuck my tongue out at her.” Opening her mouth wide to accommodate the whipped-cream-topped slice, she chewed with a happy grin on her face.
    “That’s extremely mature, Jade,” Margot said. “Speaking of mature, I ran into Officer Cooper at the gas station. It seems somebody’s signed him up for a Doughnut of the Month club. You happen to know anything about that?”
    Jade turned a shade of pink that exactly matched her hair. Instead of answering, she forked up another enormous bite of cake and chewed busily.
    Margot pursed her lips. “Brilliant. It’s always a good idea to antagonize the local police.”
    “Maybe if he’s eating doughnuts, he’ll stop writing totally undeserved parking tickets,” she muttered thickly.
    “Totally undeserved parking tickets, did you say?”
    Jade speared another piece of cake. “Totally,” she insisted.
    “Well, I sincerely hope you aren’t blowing all the money you earn on designer doughnuts and god-awful dye jobs.” Jade received a salary for helping to train and exercise the green horses at Rosewood, and Jordan paid her a weekly fee for the riding lessons she gave Kate and Max. “Because if you don’t pay your parking fines, you can bet Officer Cooper will be very happy to stick a boot on your car.”
    “I paid them. Now if only Robocop would quit driving around town looking to ticket me.”
    “Oh, please! Warburg may be small, but I’m going to guess that
Officer
Cooper has a couple more pressing matters than targeting your mom’s Porsche.”
    “Yeah, like scarfing down doughnuts.”
    Margot rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Jade—”
    Travis cleared his throat, but when he spoke his voice carried more than a hint of laughter in it. “So, Jordan, when do you think you’ll start on the cottage at Overlea?” he asked in an obvious attempt to steer her sisters away from what had become a hot-button issue: Jade’s willingness to rile Rob Cooper, the officer who’d busted the underage drinking party last year and brought her home in the back of his police cruiser.
    Jordan followed Travis’s lead. “With summer coming I assume Nonie will want me to order fabrics and papers as quickly as possible and get the work crew assembled. I’m calling her tomorrow to set up our next appointment.”
    “We’re all thrilled for you,” Margot said, mercifully dropping the subject of Jade and Rob Cooper. “To celebrate, Jade and I will do the dishes, while you check on the kids.”
    “I don’t think I have to worry about them sleeping. Thanks to Miriam playing tag with them most of the afternoon and then Jade giving them a super-hard riding lesson, they were zonked by bath time. Olivia was asleep before her head hit the pillow.”
    “Then maybe you’d like to come down to the broodmares’ barn and check on the mares and foals?” Travis suggested.
    Jordan smiled. The night check on the broodmares was one of her favorite chores. “I’d love to.”
    Seated beside Travis, Margot leaned over and touched her lips to his. “I’ll do my Pilates mat while you’re doing the barn check.” As it was spring, the fashion magazines were gearing up for the coming fall fashions, and Margot was alreadygetting bookings for shoots. The discipline Margot demonstrated to keep her figure as lithe as a gazelle’s was amazing. But in Jordan’s opinion, even more than maintaining her lean physique, it was the glow of unalloyed happiness Margot radiated since she and