Page 20 of Some Cowboys Fight for Love

Aria sighed. “You’re really pushy when you want to be, you know that?”

“And you talk too much for your own good while at the same time not talking nearly enough about what’s important.”

Laughter almost escaped her. Did he actually say that? Based on the way the corners of his mouth quirked upward, he was far too amused by his comeback.

She gave him a look. “Well, I dropped out of college when my father was arrested. My mom needed me home—to deal with everything. You can imagine that afterward, my life basically fell off the tracks.”

“You never went back?”

Aria fidgeted, fighting hard to keep up her witty banter. “Nothing worth going back to. I didn’t have a degree lined up. I bounced around from job to job. I do some freelance writing here and there. Blog posts, articles—you know, that sort of thing. It’s nice that I don’t have to feel…” She mulled over her words. “Trapped in one place.”

She would never admit that she’d been escaping Georgia because being in that state where her father was incarcerated was too close. Then there was her escape from Cayden.

Daniel was wrong.

Aria wasn’t strong. She was a coward.

Still, she smiled through the painful thoughts.

Shortly after she’d come here, Cayden had demanded she return—that their broken relationship wasn’t actually over.

His attention had slipped away, but now that he was supporting her father, she wouldn’t be surprised if he started calling again.

At some point her smile must have slipped.

A soft touch landed on her knee and she jerked to her feet, a gasp tearing from her throat. She stared down at Daniel with wide eyes. Once again, that look of concern and pity filled his face.

And guilt.

Yikes! She didn’t want him to look at her like that.

What way do you want him to look at you?

The question slipped past her defenses unbidden. She didn’t have an answer for it. Her face flushed and she paced a few feet away. Hadn’t she just told him that she was okay with him touching her?

The first time had been more drastic, and this? Well, this reaction was embarrassing. What had the difference been?

“Aria?” he whispered as he stood.

The searing heat in her face intensified. She didn’t want to have this conversation. Not right now. Not when she had to figure out why she’d been fine one second and so jumpy the next.

She shook her head, her smile returning but feeling more foreign than ever. “I’m fine.” She darted around the back of the couch so she wouldn’t brush past him. “Really, I’m fine. Just a little anxious.” She stopped at the door, noting he hadn’t followed her. Turning, she gave him a sharp look. “And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

He hovered where he’d gotten up from the couch. He almost looked forlorn—like he wanted to come to her, hold her even—but he couldn’t.

That knowledge did something strange to her.

Warmth and nerves churned in her stomach. Her legs went numb and her skin prickled with a strange sort of tingling sensation. Daniel had to be the biggest, strongest man she’d ever met, and he looked more lost than she’d felt during her whole life. It was unsettling.

Aria gnawed on her lower lip, her hand wrapping around the doorknob.

Tonight, he hadn’t offered to take her back to the main house. He didn’t demand that she talk to him.

No demands whatsoever.

Why did it hurt so much?

She took in a deep breath, promising she’d reset herself the second she was out of his suffocating gaze. Flashing him a smile, she turned the knob. “Goodnight, Daniel. See you tomorrow.”

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