Page 45 of Some Cowboys Fight for Love

Thankfully, Ash had been nothing if not a respectable boyfriend and now fiancée.

“Finally. I’ve lost track of how many messages I’ve sent you about this letter.” Her face was flushed and she had a light of excitement in her countenance she couldn’t seem to contain. Without another word, she hustled toward the kitchen, calling over her shoulder. “I didn’t even know you applied to Cornell.”

Cornell? What was she talking about? All thoughts of Aria and what he was dealing with when it came to her mood were shoved into the back of his mind as he followed his sister down the hallway.

She made it back to him before he entered the kitchen and shoved a large envelope with Cornell’s logo printed across the top. Charlie jumped on the balls of her feet. “Are you actually going to college? I’m so excited for you. Out of everyone here, I always thought that you shouldn’t have been stuck on the ranch. You’re too smart for that.”

He held the envelope like at any moment it would self-destruct and he’d have to fling it out of the way to avoid getting burned. There had to be a mistake. He had never sent anythingto this university in his entire life. And yet there it was in black and white. His name was printed on the front of it.

His stomach knotted as his mind attempted to make sense of what was happening right now. Without thinking, he slipped his finger beneath the lip of the envelope and tore across the top. The words seemed to jump off the page.

Congratulations…

Thrilled to invite you…

Based on your talent and impressive essay…

Essay?

Then everything came crashing to the forefront of his mind and he knew exactly what had happened.

Charlie squealed, leaning over his shoulder as she presumably read through the first couple of paragraphs before he had a chance to roll the whole thing up with fury. Aria had gone behind his back and sent in a submission for this scholarship.

“That’s so exciting! We never win anything.” Charlie nudged him, her eyes bright and her smile even bigger. “I can’t wait to tell Wade and?—”

“You’re not going to tell anyone,” he snapped.

Her eyes rounded and her smile faltered. “What? Why? Aren’t you excited?”

Betrayed.

That was how he felt.

This wasn’t something he wanted. He’d insisted on that fact when Aria brought it up again and again.

Then she went and submitted one of his pictures without his permission. The hot, sour, curdled fury only continued to fester in his chest. This was a breach of trust. She’d gone and done something without his permission. What if the council who had chosen the winner realized he hadn’t even written his ownessay? There could be consequences neither one of them even knew right now.

Without another word to his sister, he charged out of the house and to his truck. The door whined with protest as he yanked it a little too forcibly. The whole drive back to the Palmers’ residence was wrought with more wrath. By the time he got there, his hands were shaking. It was almost dinnertime. He wouldn’t be surprised if she was at the cabin getting food put on the table. He’d left the door unlocked when he’d finally headed over to his house to figure out what mail Charlie had been talking about.

Daniel grabbed the rolled-up scholarship offer into one of his fists and trudged toward the cabin. Lights were on. She was there. And he wasn’t going to let her talk her way out of this one. He burst into the cabin, noting that she startled when the door flung a little too hard. A slip of guilt glanced off the rage he’d built up on the ride over.

Her eyes grew wide when he marched up to her, but she stood her ground.

Daniel threw the packet on the table, and it smacked loudly. “What in heaven’s name is that?”

Aria glanced over at the rolled-up papers and reached for them, confused. Then her eyes widened even further and she gasped. “Daniel! This is so exciting! I knew you…” Her voice died the second she caught a look at his face.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” he snapped. His hand flew wildly in a gesture toward the documents in her hand. “I can’t believe you did this.”

Then she shrunk back.

All at once that guilt returned. She’d lived in an abusive family. While he had never laid a hand on her, his anger would be read as something entirely different than what he’d intended.He blinked several times, and his thoughts retraced how he’d behaved when he’d come in—the way she’d reacted to his fury.

He closed his eyes, and all that rage dissipated into nothingness. It wasn’t like he’d hurt her. He hadn’t even yelled at her. The temper that had risen to the surface was mild compared to the monster he’d been when he was younger. And yet, there it was. The guilt and the absolute knowledge that he wasn’t a good man—at least not good enough for her. The combination of the two made his stomach roil.

Daniel took a deep breath and stalked toward the kitchen table. He yanked out a chair and settled into it. This was just great. She wasn’t ever going to look at him the same. Placing his head in his hands, he took several more deep breaths, on edge as he waited for her to tell him she was leaving and to enjoy his dinner.

But she didn’t.

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