Because of you, I'm home

Chapter 4 - Rogue

The smell of dust and earth filled Jarrod's lungs as he loaded the bed of his pick-up with weighted bales of hay. He'd been looking forward to work that morning after the outburst with his mother, needing a distraction from the chocolate eyed girl who invaded his mind causing a constant battle between his more primitive thoughts and his rational self. The distraction never came, after about thirty minutes of running horses on the West property his boss – Luke – had assigned him to feed duty. Apparently Jarrod was too distracted and the animals could sense his unpleasant mood and thus refused to cooperate – traitors.

Taking the north track, the male began another leg of the feed run, thinking about his mother's words to him that morning. He couldn't seem to understand why she was so fond of the woman; she was just a young customer and yet both his parents and his daughter seemed to speak of her nonstop.

"Daddy, do you not like Claire?" Alice's large hazel eyes locked with his, as if to be trying to pull the truth right out of him. The males' muscles tightened as he put up his guard.

"Why do you ask, hun?" He dodged, not wanting to explain himself to his own daughter.

"Well... you seemed a little angry when you both came home tonight. I think you made her a little upset." Alice pouted her own expression hardening as she watched her father.

Jarrod began to feel mighty uncomfortable under the girls' strong gaze, reminding him so much of her mothers. "I don't really know her, so I wouldn't go so far as to say I like or dislike her." 'Nice save' he thought somewhat smug, when in actual fact, after the drive back from Billy's he didn't want to be in the same room as the girl. She just seemed to get his head in a tizzy.

"I like her." The youngsters' expression softened as she appeared to be thinking about something. "She's so kind and pretty..." Jarrod was silent, watching his girl intently as he felt a stirring in his heart strings. "I can talk about Mom with her."

Something inside in his mind snapped and he struggled to mask the fury that bubbled under the surface as his daughter lay in her bed, focused on something outside her bedroom window.

"Ally..." Jarrod spoke tightly, not wanting to frighten his baby girl. "If you need to talk to someone about that, there is me or grandma. You needn't bring that up with strangers."

Alice jerked her focus on her father, his face was expressionless but his eyes seemed to burn with something she couldn't quite pick. "But she's not a stranger, we're friends!" Her tone rising on the last word before she could control it.

Before Jarrod knew it he was in a hard place somewhere between heartache and anger; he knew his daughter sought that female companionship and seemed to find it in the new girl, but this new girl – like all other women – would soon enough leave here and cause his baby pain. He couldn't let that happen, it was his responsibility to look after his baby, to keep her from anymore hurt. He had to keep this 'Claire' woman as much out of his family's life as possible.

"Sleep baby girl..." With renewed resolve in his mind, he placed a kiss on his girls forehead. "... we'll talk about this later."

"Good night, daddy."

"Good night, hun."

Throwing the last bale of hay into the horse feeder with a huff, Jarrod wiped the sweat from his brow and watch as the Quarter horses buried their snouts in their troths. Some tension began to recede as he fixed his blues on the thoroughbreds; somehow the creatures just seemed to bring Jarrod back to a place that was less complicated. Before he'd began to feel consumed by money and responsibility.