Trouble Me: A Rosewood Novel (22 page)

H
AYLEY HAD
a playdate at Jenny Ferris’s, and because it was a Friday, Rob had agreed to let her stay for dinner. Maryanne, Jenny’s mom, was making chicken fajitas. According to Hayley, they were the best. After dropping her off, with a reminder to help set and clear the table, Rob went back to the station to swap his patrol car for his Mustang and change into a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved polo shirt. Somehow he knew that being dressed in his police uniform when apologizing to Jade Radcliffe wouldn’t go over too well. The sight of his police car might get her back up too.

The mid-September afternoon had turned warm, almost summerlike. Rob drove with the windows down, and although he’d traveled only a few miles from the center of town, the air somehow smelled sweeter here, redolent of meadows and dense canopied trees. It was beautiful countryside and, as he turned into the winding drive that led to Rosewood, he tacked on the adjective
grand
to the description. The driveway to the Radcliffes’ historic home was longer than some of Warburg’s streets.

The Radcliffes had always been one of Warburg’s leading families. With the death of RJ Radcliffe, the patriarch, things had changed a bit—but not much, Rob reflected, as he drove along the long rows of wood fencing that protected the horses grazing in the pastures. Faced with bankruptcy due to the gargantuan debts their father had left behind, Jordan, Margot, and Jade
had managed to hang on to the family estate and their horse-breeding business, both of which had been in the family since the nineteenth century. Despite the emotional ties the property held for the daughters, a lot of people in town had expected them to sell. Rosewood would have brought a pretty penny. Instead, they’d defied those expectations, choosing to try and preserve their home and heritage.

While the sisters—even with Margot’s success as a fashion model—probably couldn’t boast the kind of fortune their father had once enjoyed, they’d managed to keep the horse farm going. Not just going but prospering, if the number of horses he passed in the fields were any indication. Even with Rob’s untrained eye, he could see they were beautiful animals, sleek-coated and muscular.

And now Jade had decided to expand Rosewood Farm’s business by offering children’s riding lessons. Rob figured a fair number of Warburg’s equestrian set would want their kids to ride at Rosewood simply because of its exclusivity. The snob factor would count for a lot among some here. But most would choose Jade because of her ability as a riding teacher. Considering her own extensive riding background and the fact that she’d taught her nieces and nephew to ride, that was pretty much a given.

He didn’t drive up to the stately house with its imposing columns and wide porches. Instead, he pulled up behind the largest of four barns—which, as barns went, were pretty grand too—and parked next to a late-model SUV he recognized as belonging to Travis Maher.

Rob liked Travis. Though he was a good ten years older than Rob, Travis had never given him a hard time when he was a rookie on the force—probably because Travis was the antithesis of his father, Red Maher, who’d been a mean-tempered drunk and a far-too-frequent
guest of the station’s jail cell. Rob didn’t think Travis had shed many tears when his father’s liver gave out. Nor had Red’s long-suffering wife, who’d moved away after his death. Rob suspected Travis would have left Warburg too, if not for the fact that he’d found his calling working as Rosewood’s trainer and manager. And then there was Margot Radcliffe.

They were married now, and Travis was the envy of most men in Warburg—the holdouts being those who would like to be in Owen Gage’s shoes and married to Jordan, the eldest sister. Now that Jade was back in Warburg, he really didn’t want to think about how many men would begin lining up for the chance to date her.

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.