Chapter Five
Daisy
Although I don’t haveto work, I wake up early anyway. I’ve always been an early riser. Daddy says I’ve always gotten up with the chickens, and I guess that’s true.
I’m sitting outside on our porch swing sipping my coffee when Jake’s truck pulls up into the driveway.
He hops out of his truck and pulls a couple of fishing poles out of the bed before sauntering over to where I sit on the front porch.
I’d forgotten all about us going fishing this morning.
“What? No coffee for me?” he asks as he leans the fishing poles against the picket fence and bounds up the porch step to where I’m sitting.
I laugh. “Yeah, let me just go get us a thermos to go.”
Jake takes a seat on the swing to wait for me as I creep into the house and pour the rest of the pot of coffee into a thermos before readying another pot for Mom and Dad for when they wake up. I grab a sticky note and write “Just push button on it” before slapping it onto the coffee pot where I know they’ll see it.
The sun is barely starting to peek through on the horizon when I walk back outside. I hold the thermos while Jake carries the fishing poles and a tiny tub of crawlers.
We make our way over to the barbed wire fence and pause when there’s a gate in the barbed wire. It actually looks rather ridiculous. There are two metal posts on other side of the gate. They connect to the barbed wire and serve as the structure for the shiny new black metal fence to hang on.
“Huh, what do you make of that?” Jake asks, walking up to it and swinging the gate open.
I know exactly what to make of it. Nick had a gate put up. Though I have my suspicions why, I don’t say anything to Jake about it. I certainly don’t tell Jake about the forced date I’d had with Nick just last night. I don’t know if he’d tease me or be overly concerned, and I don’t want to deal with either reaction right now when I’m still not entirely sure of what to make of all of it myself.
“I guess the new owner put it up,” I say evasively.
“McEwen finally sold the place?” Jake asks me, his brows raising as we walk over to the pond and set to baiting our hooks.
“Yep,” I say, adding nothing else, not letting on that I’ve met the man and that he’s the most handsome, pushy, devilish man I’ve ever met.
“You think he’ll mind us fishing here?” Jake frowns, just now realizing that we might have lost our favorite fishing hole.
“Yes, he will mind you trespassing on his property,” a dark voice speaks from behind us.
My heart leaps up into my throat, and I turn to find Nick towering over us. Jake is pretty tall himself, but Nick has got an extra inch on him. He’s sweaty, his black T-shirt clinging to his form. He’s wearing workout shorts, and even his hair is glistening with beads of moisture. It’s obvious he’s been out for a morning jog across his property.
I’ve never been the kind of girl to find sweat on a man sexy, but damn if Nick doesn’t look fine as hell with it glistening on his toned muscles.
“Hey, man,” Jake holds his hands up, making it clear we meant no offense, “we didn’t know. We’ve been fishing here since we were little kids. The previous owner never had a problem with it.”
Nick’s eyes are hard as they stare at Jake, sizing him up.
I tear my eyes from Nick’s bulging biceps as he fists his hands and cross my arms over my chest, glaring at him. “I thought you said you didn’t mind me coming here?”
I see Jake’s head swivel to me in surprise. “Wait, you know this dude?”
Nick’s eyes bore down into mine before they flick back to Jake. “Yes,” he tells Jake smugly, “I’d say she does since we’re dating.”
My mouth drops open in shock. “Nick…” I begin, but he comes and wraps an arm around my back, pulling me to his side and away from Jake.
“You have exactly three minutes to get off my property,” he tells Jake frankly.
Jake’s eyes widen and flash to me with a hint of hurt. “Yeah, man, sure. Sorry,” he tells Nick.
“Jake…” I begin, hating the hurt that I see in my best friend’s eyes.
“It’s okay, Daisy,” he tells me, gathering up the fishing poles we never even got to cast into the water. “We’ll talk later, okay?” His eyes flick back to Nick, and then he ducks his head and hurries off, no doubt wanting to avoid further angering Nick.