Page 24 of Rough Ride with the Grumpy Cowboy
“Nothing happened. I’m fine—something got in my eye.”
She rolls her eyes at my poor attempt at lying to her. “Don’t bullshit me. It’s Zane, isn’t it?! You saw him? What did he say to you?”
I push her hands off my face and clean my tears with my sleeve. “Nothing, he didn’t say anything.”
Nothing he hadn’t already told her anyway.
“Then why are you crying?”
I try looking for an excuse, but my mind is blank. I’m too mentally exhausted to come up with a lie.
“Let it go, El, please.”
“No, tell me. I’m your host, and if anyone is giving you a hard time, I need to know so I can deal with them. Is it Zane?” she repeats.
I meet her eyes, and I know she can immediately tell that I’m lying to her.
Her pupils dilate in anger. “I knew it. I am going to kill him.”
She turns to march down the steps, but I grab her arm, stopping her. “Ella, stop, please—it was my fault.”
I cannot allow her to confront Zane because of me when I am the one at fault. It will only make things worse.
She cups my face, her eyes softening a bit. “Why do you keep saying that? This time I am not going to let him off.”
She pats my cheek affectionately before stomping down the stairs like a woman on a mission. “Zane Isaac Morgan, you better run because when I catch you, you’ll wish your mother swallowed you.”
If I weren’t the cause of all this drama, her words would make me laugh. Ella is the youngest, but I know this household is afraid of her. Zane will not get off easy, and it’s my fault. I’m too tired to go after her, so I proceed to my room.
The guilt for causing all this mess is weighing heavily on me. All I wanted was a chance to apologize to Zane for barging in on his space and what happened five years ago, but instead I’ve ended up making things so much worse.
Maybe coming here was a bad idea. It’s been less than forty-eight hours, and I keep messing up. Now Ella is mad at him, and once she confronts him, that will make him even angrier at me. Maybe I should just go back to LA and find another way to deal with my stalker problems. That has got to be better than this.
Now that I’ve had that thought, it’s stuck in my mind, and the more I think about it, the better it sounds. I hate to be leaving so soon after I arrived, but maybe it’s for the best.
Just to be sure I’m making the best decision, I decide to sit on it for an hour.
Sixty minutes later, my mind is made up. I am going to call Lou and have her arrange a flight back home.
I need to get out of Iron Stallion before I make things unhappier for myself and the Morgans, who have been nothing but kind to me, especially Ella. I don’t want her fighting with her big brother because of me.
Speaking of the devil, Lou calls me just as I’m pulling up her contact. I have to pinch the bridge of my nose and look up at the ceiling to keep my tears at bay. “Lou.”
“Hey, honey, how are you holding up?” she asks in her soft, motherly tone, making it even harder for me to control my tears.
I put her on speakerphone and place it beside me. “It’s horrible, Lou. I keep messing up—please get me out of here.”
Her tone turns serious immediately. “Is everything okay? What happened?”
My emotions clog my throat, and I’m unable to articulate just how badly I’ve ruined things.
“Is it Zane? Did he do something to you?” she insists when I fail to say anything.
Why is everyone so quick to judge Zane? He is well within his right to be acting as he is. The issues lie with me, my presence here, and my inability to listen.
“No, I’m the problem. I keep wrecking things. Just get me out of here,” I beg.
She sighs, and I realize it’s not going to be so easy. “Can you withstand it? I don’t think LA is any better.”
