Chapter 19
19
Daniel
I t 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, almost anything.
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.
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 anything to 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 own essay? 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.
Her quiet footsteps approached, and she picked up the packet of papers. He lifted his head, watching her with curiosity more than anything. Maybe he was seeing things, but he could tell there was a degree of wariness still in her countenance. Aria didn’t meet his gaze at all when she murmured, “I’m sorry?—”
“Don’t,” he murmured, defeated.
She gave him a startled look.
“Don’t apologize. It’s not a big deal—at least not as big as I was making it out to be. I got worked up and all I could think about was how things could go wrong.”
“Meaning…”
He met her eyes and grimaced. “The biggest one was if they found out I didn’t write that essay.”
Her expression mirrored his own. “Right. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“No, you shouldn’t have.”
Aria’s face heated and she looked away. “I guess I wanted you to see how good you were—that you could be something other than a cowboy if you really wanted to.” Her words hung in the tension-filled air. He’d never thought about being anything but a cowboy with his brothers. To use his interests and do something else with his life? It was unfathomable.
He wasn’t sure he liked it.
Daniel couldn’t see himself anywhere but here—working the land—with her. His hand reached out, and he took one of hers within it. She gasped, but she didn’t pull away. Slowly, she met his eyes, and her blush deepened. Daniel rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand and let out a sigh. “I don’t know if I’ll take it. I can’t afford to leave this place. Copper Creek is as much a part of me as my interest in architecture.”
She nodded, then lifted the paperwork. “Did you read all of it?”
He shrugged. “Don’t need to. I’m not going all the way to New York so I can live out some dream that might not even work for me.”
Aria moved closer so her legs brushed up against his where he sat. Then she placed the packet in front of him before flipping over a few pages. Pointing, she offered him a shy smile. “Online courses are an option—at least for most of the degree. You might have to take a handful of them in person… but…” Her words trailed off, and his eyes darted down to what she was pointing at.
She was right.
And he’d made a fool of himself by getting so upset.
Daniel’s hand tightened around hers, and he squeezed. “I’m sorry I lost my temper.”
Aria snorted, but he didn’t give her a chance to brush him off.
“I’ll never lose my temper with you like that again.” It could have been worse. He knew that deep down. She wasn’t aware of how bad it could have gotten. Daniel shut his eyes tight and brought her hand to his lips, kissing her fingertips as he did. “What you did… it was sweet—more than anyone has ever done for me.”
“Does this mean you’re going to accept it?” she asked in a small voice.
He shook his head. “I’ll consider it. Let me think it over. I need to make sure it’s the right path to take.”