Page 44 of Some Cowboys Fight for Love

She flinched. He had no clue how right he was.

Shaking her head, Aria flashed him a smile before looking away. “It’s nothing. You’re right. I’m a little on edge with what’s going on back home. But right now, all I want to do is spend time with you. No more talk about any of that.”

This big, strong man of hers, showing how much he cared about her, was eating away at her defenses. What would he actually do if she told him about Cayden? There was nothing, right? It wasn’t like he’d fly down to Georgia and rough her exup until the guy got the hint. They were thousands of miles away from each other.

So she kept her mouth shut. When he didn’t look away, she whispered, “Please?”

Daniel thought for another long moment, and then he nodded. “Fine, on one condition.”

She tensed.

“When you’re ready to talk about it, I want you to come to me. If there’s anything I can do to help, I want you to trust that I will.”

She nodded, the lump in her throat ever growing. “I know,” she whispered once more. This was why she adored him so much. This was why she wanted to forget about her past with Cayden and everything that had happened between them.

Daniel had the potential to become her whole world, and he didn’t even know it yet.

19

Daniel

It had been a couple days since Daniel had tried to get Aria to open up to him. She was holding back again. She was hiding something.

Heck, she might have been hiding things from the very beginning.

How well did he really know her?

Sure, he could ask Mateo or Sophia about her past. Maybe she’d been covering for her father and the man had actually hurt her more than she let on.

That thought surged a fresh wave of fury through his body. The only saving grace for that scenario was the fact that the man was still technically detained. Not only that, but he was several states away.

But if that man so much as showed his face in Copper Creek? He might not even live to regret it.

Daniel’s hands clenched into fists, and the memories of how it felt to really pummel someone who thought they had the right to hurt others rushed through him.

No.

That part of his life was over. He wasn’t going down that rabbit hole. Aria wouldn’t approve of it, and neither did he. There were other ways to handle issues other than physical violence—even if the sorry excuse for a man deserved it.

His jaw clenched over and over as he strode toward the front door of the Keagan household. It had been about two and a half weeks since he’d agreed to stay on the Palmers’ property and help out with the horses. So many issues had come up with Mateo and Sophia returning.

Daniel didn’t mind. The more time he had with Aria one-on-one, the better. They’d made strides in their growing relationship. He couldn’t deny that one bit. While she still maintained her distance when it came to certain things, he’d grown to know her better than he could have thought.

She was a go-getter—something he hadn’t expected out of a girl who looked like she did. He was constantly impressed by her ability to find work as a freelancer while she didn’t actually advertise her services. Anything she attempted to do when it came to helping him with the horses, she was an instant expert.

Okay, expert was a strong word. But she could manage with the best of them. He’d noticed how she’d made an effort to help out her cousins with the work around the ranch, pulling her weight when no one expected her to.

One day she’d be working with the dogs, the next she’d be cleaning out the horses’ stalls. She went on rides with him but always found time to cook them supper.

Those were the moments he cherished most of all. When they were seated at the table or on the couch with their food, they could talk about anything.

Well,almostanything.

One conversation still hung over his head like a storm cloud and he needed to figure out a way to get rid of it.

He pulled open the door and stepped inside. The first person he nearly bumped into was Charlie.

His baby sister wasn’t quite a baby anymore. He had to remind himself of that every single day, especially when he saw her with his friend. Ash was six years older than Charlie and that difference still rubbed Daniel the wrong way. Couples with an age gap had a tendency for one person to manipulate the other. The power balance shouldn’t be skewed in any way, and he’d been worried that Charlie would fall into a bad place if that became the case between the two of them.

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