Alexander Ranch

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

When I woke again, I smelled coffee brewing. I slipped out of bed and headed for the kitchen. My surprise grew at how normal I felt. I had a few aches and pains, but I didn't feel nearly as bad as I thought I would. I was tired and sore, but not too bad overall. I heard the soft tapping of someone typing on a keyboard as I walked down the short hallway towards the living room. I started to call out a greeting to Daisy, only to find Jordan sitting on the sofa hunched over the coffee table typing.

"Oh," I said in surprise. "Where's Daisy?"

"She needed to go home, shower, and change. She'll be back later," he replied neutrally without even bothering to glance in my direction.

"Oh, well, good morning," I said stiffly.

"Good morning."

Still, he never even glanced up. I continued on to the kitchen now, feeling self-conscious about my disheveled appearance. I probably had bed head and who knows what else. So much for my self-talk last night about not letting his ranker for me get to me. I poured my coffee and hurried back to my room to make myself more presentable. I didn't want to examine too closely why I hadn't needed to make myself more presentable when I thought it was Daisy in my living room. Besides, he hadn't even looked at me. Whatever this was, I was loathe to call it attraction. It was definitely one sided. He seemed to find me more distasteful with each passing hour. At the very least he was indifferent to me. I sighed and focused on getting dressed. I would put Jordan out of my mind and simply ignore whatever these unwelcome twinges were.

When I came out of the bathroom from brushing my teeth, I heard what sounded like a muffled conversation. Someone else was here. I opened my bedroom door a crack to try and hear what was going on.

"Logan is just trying to punish me," Jordan hissed. "Why else would he assign me to babysit this girl?"

"Oh, Jordan. Come on. You know that's not true. I'm here too. Am I being punished?"

"That's different and you know it."

"How is it different?"

"First and foremost, you want to be here. I don't!"

"She's really gotten under your skin, hasn't she? You find her that distasteful, huh?" Daisy asked with a teasing note in her voice. Why was she teasing him? Did she think it was funny that he found me distasteful? And, just what was it about me that he found so distasteful?

"It's not funny, Daze," he shot back.

I closed the door. I didn't want to hear anymore. I felt the coffee roil in my stomach. So, I had picked up on some underlying dislike he had for me. It didn't feel very good knowing the person who was charged with guarding me didn't like me very much. I sternly vowed that I would not explore his dislike for me any further. If he didn't like me, fine. I didn't like him much either. But, if I were being honest, I knew I worried there was another reason why I didn't just try and peek into his thoughts to see what exactly about me he found so distasteful. It was one thing to suspect someone you were attracted to loathed you in return. It was another to confirm it.

I generally made a point of not looking into peoples thoughts. I find that most of the time, I really did not want to know them. The vicious and nasty thoughts in the heads of most people were not someplace I wanted to spend much time. It had taken me so long to block off my mind from the thoughts of others, that I only broke my peace of mind when absolutely necessary. This time I hadn't peeked with my mental senses, but I'd still heard everything I needed to hear in his own words to know just how much Jordan didn't like me. Besides, when I'd touched Daisy's mind the first time, I could swear she felt my intrusion. She'd gasped. I certainly didn't want to get caught trying to sneak into Jordan's mind.