Free OLIVER: WESTERN CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE (Blackwater Canyon Ranch Book 2) by Cindy Stark Page B

his porch, watching her with an unreadable look in his eye. She released a heavy sigh full of turmoil and shifted her car into gear, driving away as though she’d escaped something alarming.

Chapter Eleven
     
    Daisy propped Rachel’s recipe for fajitas in front of her on the counter. Fairly-easy and straight forth. Something she should be able to make on her own once she and her mom were in New York.
    Caleb and Rachel had ridden out to check on strays much earlier in the day and wouldn’t be back until dinnertime. Apparently, Oliver had spotted a wolf on the ridge the day before, and Rachel wanted to ensure her cattle were as safe as possible. Daisy had volunteered to cook so they didn’t have to eat canned soup and because she’d secretly sequestered herself in the house. Coming face-to-face with a wolf would terrify her.
    Not that Daisy had received Oliver’s information firsthand. She hadn’t seen him up close or spoken to him since their so-called date three days ago.
    Obviously, their kiss had bothered him as much as her, enough that he felt he needed to avoid her. She desperately wished she could take it back. Things had been awkward before. Now, she feared running into him and forcing him to speak to her. Another reason to stay inside.
    She found a green pepper in the fridge and an onion in a bowl with several others on the counter. Once she unearthed the cutting board and a knife, she started peeling and chopping. The appetizing scent of onions teased her stomach, making it growl.
    When she had a nice pile of sliced onions, she moved to the peppers.
    It wasn’t as if she and Oliver couldn’t speak to each other. They’d shared a kiss. Not a damn marriage proposal. She’d kissed plenty of guys before with no strings attached, and none of them had made things this awkward.
    Maybe it was a country-folk kind of thing. Maybe a kiss had more meaning in a small town. They seemed to take other social customs more seriously.
    She huffed a breath of frustration. She hadn’t liked him from the get go for a reason. She should have trusted her instincts.
    After she retrieved a bowl for the cheese, she found an unopened block of cheddar in the fridge. Guys were so stupid. Oliver should know she wasn’t out for anything serious. She’d talked numerous times about moving to New York to start her career. Why did one kiss scare him so much? Seriously.
    When she couldn’t open the cheese with her hands, she slipped the edge of the knife through the packaging. The blade slid easily until she reached the seam of the plastic. As she gave the knife a jerk to cut through it, the sight of Oliver walking across the yard to the paddock where he trained his yearling stole her attention.
    A millisecond later, searing pain shot across the pad of her left forefinger, and she dropped the knife. She gasped as blood gushed from the cut.
    “ Son of a bitch .” She hurried toward the sink with her right hand cupping her left to catch any blood droplets. With shaking fingers, she grabbed a wad of paper towels and pressed on her wound to soak up the blood. As she lifted the towel to check her cut, a large red circle stained the paper towel, and more blood overflowed the cut and splattered into the sink.
    “Dammit.” She tried to examine the depth of the slice, but she couldn’t get a good look with all the blood. Not good.
    Though it hurt, she wrapped another paper towel around her wound and held it against her stomach to keep pressure on it as she fished her phone from her pocket.
    With a shaking finger, she dialed Rachel’s number. As she waited for the phone to connect, she glanced down. Blood had soaked through the side of the towel and onto her white t-shirt. “Oh, hell.”
    The phone rang several times before it switched to voicemail. “Answer,” she whispered frantically as she tried again. With no success, she dialed Caleb’s number next.
    Same outcome. No answer. No one to come to her rescue.
    She inhaled a calming