“Well, you're very rude.Not even a bark to say thank you?”Nick asked.
She was oblivious to him.
A complete turnabout from when they’d been back at Sam’s place.Daisy had been his shadow as he’d led the horses into the pasture.This Sam fellow had three horses.All old and gentle.
Being around the horses had brought back some memories of his freedom days when he’d worked on ranches out on the prairies.He’d been lucky that in his youth, ranchers had taken a chance on him, teaching him the ropes of how to handle horses.
Cyn had said that his ranching background was one of the reasons he’d been picked to help Jenna.He wondered how Cyn knew about his past.He wasn’t one who went about bragging about it.
She must have gotten information from the trial records.He had signed one of those disclosure papers which gave Cowboys Online permission to snoop.Several of his past bosses had, to Nick’s surprise, shown up at his trial and testified for him as character references.His defence attorney, some young guy doing pro bono work, had asked Nick to supply a list of his last few employers.
Nick had figured the people he’d once worked for might write letters, but some had come all the way from out west to testify in his defense as being a nice guy.
Nonetheless, the jury had found him guilty of murder, despite the circumstances.
He simply couldn't comprehend that he was actually out of prison.He hadn't told Axel, but he figured someone had made a mistake sending them here.There was no way this Cowboys Online program for prisoners would allow two prison convicts to live alone with a single woman.Especially way out here in the wilderness.
For all they knew Axel and he could be true cold-blooded murderers.They could kill her, ditch the ankle bracelets and find a way to Mexico and disappear.
Nick frowned.Or maybe they did know what they were doing putting Axel and himself here, because he would never hurt Jenna.
Escape?Maybe.If an opportunity arose.
But could he leave Axel?Could he desert Jenna?Could he trust any other inmate to come here and help her?
No to all those answers.
He wasn't the kind of guy who turned his back on someone who needed help and he wouldn’t trust anyone but Axel being here with her.
Daisy suddenly began to bark, and Nick caught sight of a dark green pickup truck parked on the left side of the fork in the road that led to Jenna’s ranch.Then he spotted some movement on the ridge that overlooked the valley to her ranch.
He would stop to see if someone might be having engine trouble.
A moment later as he pulled up beside the vehicle, and gazed toward where he thought he’d seen movement, there was no one there.
He got out of his vehicle and ordered Daisy to stay by the open window.
He’d just take a quick look around.
Chapter Seven
It had taken Axel a relatively short time to sift through Jenna’s cooking recipes.
Sure, he had cooked the pre-packaged food in the prison kitchen while on kitchen duty, however that hadn’t stopped him from watching cooking shows when some of the guys decided that's what they wanted to watch, especially if they liked the look of the cook, who was almost always a female.And drilling through the cookbooks in the prison library, drooling over menus that he wished he could cook up, had turned into a thing to pass many hours for Nick and himself.
It hadn't taken long to figure out Jenna didn't have much food in the house either.At least not for two hungry guys fresh out of prison.
He had a few eggs to work with, so he'd flipped through the recipe books, Jenna’s freezer, then rummaged in a cold storage area in the basement and settled on making a meatloaf casserole.
It was baking in the oven, almost finished.
As he was just about to start the mixer to mash the potatoes, he couldn't help but think once again that Nick should have been here by now.The thought nagged at him, distracting him from the task at hand as he once again gazed toward the screen door and beyond to the parking lot.
Still no truck.
Now it was nearly one o’clock in the afternoon.Nick had been away for more than three hours, even though he was only meant to be gone for two hours at the most.The delay weighed heavily on his mind, each minute making him more uneasy.
Yeah, he should have been back by now, shouldn't he?Or maybe because it was his first day and that’s why it was taking him longer than the couple of hours Jenna had said it would take.Maybe he was taking care of repairs over there.Probably trying to make a good first day impression for Jenna.
