Alexander Ranch (10 page)

Chapter 14

The next day, Daisy drove to the ranch. I closed my eyes and lay my head back during the short drive. Ethan must be off on assignment as Jordan had said. I didn’t question Jordan’s absence. In truth, I was rather tired and told myself I was too exhausted to care. He was the reason I hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. I hadn’t slept for a long time once Jordan left my room. He’d said they’d been taking turns rotating the outside and inside guard duties. However, each evening Daisy and Ethan were the only ones who had been in my home. Or, at least, the only ones I was aware of. Yet, his last words to me last night were that he didn’t have a problem being assigned to protect me. He seemed sincere, but I couldn’t make myself believe him. How could I believe his words? If nothing about my presence or his assignment to protect me bothered him then why was I never aware of his presence? Why had he been avoiding me like a contagious bad rash?

I decided that my previous conclusion, the only one I kept coming up with all night, was correct. He simply didn’t want me to feel bad or didn’t want Logan to find out how I felt. After all, what was he supposed to say when I pointed out that he seemed to not want anything to do with me or want me around? He didn’t seem like a rude person in general. My mind had gone round and round last night comparing how he was with me and everyone else
, and his words simply didn’t fit. I had finally drifted off to sleep for the last couple of hours before dawn.

We arrived at the Ranch and
, after grabbing a muffin and some milk, Daisy and I headed to the horse stalls. I put Jordan out of my mind and anticipated a nice long ride.

The Alexander Ranch had the most beautiful horses. I’d been working with two mares and one stallion named Cervantes. Cervantes was the most docile stallion I had ever seen. Gringa, one of the mares, was much more headstrong than he was. She balked at her saddle and bridle and would nip at you if you let her. Ethan had told me that Daisy usually just rode bareback with a blanket because Gringa
fought the saddle so much. I gave it a try and found that she was much happier and more cooperative without the saddle. I hadn’t ridden so much since I was a girl. Admittedly, my saddling and bridling skills were rather rusty, but I could ride and work with the horses all day and never get tired of it.

I would start with Gringa today and then Ginger, the other mare. Ginger was sweet but spirited. She was a young girl and loved to run. I would save Cervantes for last. He would rather just plod along. Ethan told me that they actually rescued Cervantes and he was malnourished and ill when they did. It was as though his spirit had been broken. However, he was very affectionate once you got to know him.

Ricky was outside the barn when we arrived. I gave him a cheery, “Good morning,” grabbed Gringa’s bridle and headed for the stall.  But, when I walked in Jordan was there talking to Ginger.

“Oh. Good morning,” I said, halting in surprise.

“Good morning, Lela,” he replied brightly and gave me a smile. I frowned.

“Where’s Ethan?” I asked cautiously.

Jordan’s smiled slipped a little, “He’s on assignment today. You’ll be working with me, unless, you have any objection.”

He’d told me that already. I wasn’t sure why the words had come out. He probably thought me daft. But, I’d been so startled to see him that the words just burst out.
Daisy came in then, saving me from having to respond.

“Oh, hey Jordan. Good. You’re here,” Daisy said stepping in the doorway. “I’ve got to head back up to the house. I’ll see you at lunch, Lela.”

“Sure,” I said turning to Daisy. And she was off.

“Well,” Jordan said reclaiming my attention with a knowing smile tugging at his mouth. “Do you have any objections?”

What was he up to? Was this some kind of joke?

“Uh, no,” I said continuing on to Gringa’s stall.

“I already worked Gringa,” he said casually.

I stopped and turned to him. He looked sheepish.

“I thought you might be tired today after the interruption to your sleep last night. And, I needed help today with Fillie.”

Fillie was another horse that Jordan usually worked with. I’d never worked with Fillie before. Why was he being so nice to me? I needed to understand. I dared to open my senses just a tiny bit to taste the feelings in the air. The only feeling I detected was humor. There was still some underlying frustration or indecision, but the most prevalent was definitely humor. He smiled gently at me as if he could read
my
mind.

“Look, Lela, I
really am sorry if I’ve made you feel disliked or unwelcome. I assure you that is not the case. The situation, this case you are involved in, or rather are in the middle of, is a very dangerous one. My issues revolve around the case not you.”

I said nothing just nodded. I mean, what was I supposed to say? He seemed to be telling the truth yet, there was still something he wasn’t saying.

“I don’t dislike you. In fact, I find you to be a very likable person,” he said with a chagrined smile I was sure wasn’t meant to be dazzling but was dazzling all the same. I looked down and kicked the toe of my shoe softly into the dirt floor of the barn trying to hide the silly grin threatening to break out on my face. I wanted to stay mad or hold back whatever it was inside me that his words began to unfurl. I couldn’t let his words just disarm me. Something was up. I needed to stay on my guard. But, there was no doubt that some of my defenses had just crumbled.

“Ok, Jordan. Thanks
,” I said giving him my best professional smile.

The rest of the day he talked with me easily and acted as if he hadn’t treated me like I had the plague for the last week. We mucked out stalls and whatever other tasks were necessary
, and he even ate lunch with me. He seemed not to notice my bewilderment at his easy conversation or my lack of response. I spoke when spoken to, but I couldn’t help but wonder with suspicion what brought about this change.

“You’re really good with the horses,” he commented at the end of the day as we were finishing up.

“Thanks,” I said stiffly. I just could not relax around him. He was a completely different person and that kept me perpetually off balanced. We walked back to the house in silence where Daisy was waiting to drive me home.

“See you tomorrow,” Jordan waved as Daisy and I climbed into her car. I waved and gave what I hoped was a smile. It felt more like a grimace.

“So, how did you and Jordan get along today?” Daisy asked as she maneuvered the car down the long drive.

“Fine, I guess?” It sounded like a question.

Daisy laughed, “You don’t sound sure.”

“I’m not sure. He’s like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide. He was perfectly nice and friendly today as if he hadn’t been ignoring me for the last week. I think you and Grace should check him over. There’s clearly something wrong with him.”

“I told you he didn’t dislike or hate you,” she chirped.

“Yea, today. So, what did you do? Tell him how I fe
lt or what I said? Is this week be friendly to Lela week for him? If so, I hate to see next week. Maybe it will be spit on Lela week.”

“Ewe, gross!” Lela exclaimed
crinkling up her little nose, “Jordan would never spit on you!”

“Yea, right. Maybe if I were on fire he wouldn’t,” I drawled cynically. I didn’t want her to think for a minute I believed that suddenly all of Jordan’s hostility towards me had vanished. I was starting to really see that Daisy must have told Jordan about our conversation and he was trying to change the way I saw him for whatever reason. “He’d not want to waste the spit on putting the fire out.”

Daisy gasped and stared at me for a moment before turning back to the road. All humor gone from her eyes now. She opened her mouth and closed it a couple of times then just drove looking straight ahead, eyes wide.

“I’m sorry,” I said hastily feeling like maybe my acerbic humor had crossed the line
, and I’d offended her. “I didn’t really mean that. I was just being sarcastic.”

“No, it’s ok
,” Daisy said quietly, shock still plain in her voice.

“No, it’s not ok. I’m sorry Daisy. I didn’t mean that,” I said, hoping she could forgive me. After all he was part of her family and what I’d said was pretty nasty, even if not far from
the truth. “It’s just not necessary for Jordan to pretend he likes me or whatever, really. I’d much rather him just ignore me if that’s how he really feels. I can take it.”

“I know you didn’t mean it,” Daisy said, some of her natural easiness coming back. “I just didn’t realize how much you felt he disliked you.”

It probably wasn’t wise to tell her that, despite his performance today, I didn’t believe for one moment that he somehow liked me. I was more sure than ever that he, for whatever reason, decided that he’d better play nice or Logan might find out about this and give him a hard time. Everyone else went out of their way to make me feel welcome. And, I believed they did like me. But, I didn’t want Jordan to feel like he needed to pretend in order to avoid conflict with his brother or anyone else. I am a realist after all. No one is liked by everyone.

“So, what’s for dinner tonight?” Daisy asked, in an obvious attempt to break the awkward silence in the car.

“Why don’t we work out and then order some take-out?” I suggested, jumping at the chance to change the mood.

“Sounds good,” She agreed.

Blake had let me convert one of the spare rooms he had a few pieces of workout equipment in into a home gym. He had a bar, bench, and free weights. I’d put in a flat screen for video workouts, a treadmill and an elliptical. We’d accumulated various other workout paraphernalia and equipment like resistance bands, yoga mats and balls, step climbers and jump ropes. The room was a large room and I was able to do a variety of workouts.

We’d decided on some weights followed by a Latin fusion dance workout on the flat screen. I normally worked out alone and had to admit working out with a partner was much more fun. Still, after about two hours, I called it quits. Daisy looked as if she could have gone on forever, but she declined continuing the workout alone and we ordered Italian take-out. All in all, girl time with Daisy was fun and Jordan was not mentioned again.

On Tuesday morning Daisy escorted me back to the ranch
. I worked with Jordan again on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday I’d stared at him in shock as he told a joke and let out a whoop of laughter. I’d never seen or heard him laugh. He had a nice hearty laugh.

“Oh, come on, Lela,” he teased
, “Where’s your sense of humor.”

I frowned. Since when did he joke with me? I was just getting used to him not scowling or ignoring me all the time.

He let out a long sigh, “So, you still believe I wouldn’t bother to even spit on you to put you out if you were on fire?”

I gaped, “She told you what I said?”

He’d just confirmed my suspicions. Daisy had put him up to this whole things.

“Well, I don’t think she saw it as telling,” he frowned as if remembering. “It was more like she read me the riot act for making you feel so ‘disliked and unwelcome’ as she put it.”

“So, is this what all this new friendliness and talking to me is about?” I asked, now feeling stung that I had been right all along. He just didn’t want to catch any heat. “Jordan, you don’t have to like me or pretend to like me. I’m sorry for saying that and sorry Daisy confronted you with it. Really, I appreciate whatever you have to do to protect me but liking me isn’t a requirement.”

He stared at me for a moment, a look of surprise on his face.

“What?”

“So, she was right?” he asked, horror flittering across his face. “You really do believe I dislike you that much?”

I threw my hands in the air.

“It was quite obvious you don’t like me, Jordan. It wasn’t like you were trying to hide it. I don’t care. It’s fine. Whatever. I’d rather you act normal instead of pretending. This is – is crazy!”

I was shouting now and turned to stomp off to the back of the barn. I opened the latch on Cervantes’ stall and disappeared inside. Cervantes clomped over to me and snorted. I put my arms around his neck and stroked is mane releasing my tension. I crooned to him. The horse was clearly feeling my frustrated emotions. I willed myself to calm so that I could reassure my equine friend. Thankfully, Jordan stayed away. He went back to putting things away. It was the end of the day and time to go home.

“Ready?” he asked quietly after he had finished his tasks.

“Yea,” I said with a forced but amiable smile.

Chapter 15

On Thursday morning he informed me that Daisy would be working with me after lunch. He’d still been friendly but more subdued today. And, for some reason I’d felt guilty. Had I misjudged him? I got the sense that he was upset about my view of him or rather how he felt about me. He seemed a little lost. I’d even gone so far as to open my senses and reach out to see how he felt. It was only for the briefest moment, but he was definitely feeling a lot of inner turmoil, regret and frustration coming through the clearest.

I felt guilty for prying into his personal feelings and decided to focus on hanging out with Daisy. I guessed whatever assignment she was working was coming to an end or didn’t require her attention after lunch today.