Page 9 of Rough Ride with the Grumpy Cowboy
“We’re not a vacation destination. Wouldn’t a place like the Maldives be better suited for her?” Jace counters.
“No, this is exactly what she needs,” Ella insists.
Jace looks at me, waiting for me to say something, but what can I say? No? I can’t do that. Ella seems excited, and this is her house as much as it is mine, so she’s allowed to invite whoevershe wants. I’m surprised this didn’t happen sooner. I just have to avoid the main house like the plague for the next three months.
“Okay, she’s your friend,” Jace relents when I fail to say anything.
“That she is, which is why I’d like to ask one of you for a favor,” Ella continues.
“Which is?”
“Daddy already agreed to send one of the jets to pick her up, and she’ll be landing tomorrow, so I need one of you to drive me to pick her up.”
“Count me out,” Jace quickly declines.
“Why?”
“I have a parent-teacher meeting with one of Daisy’s teachers tomorrow and physical therapy after.”
“Okay, so Jace is out. Zane,” she asks, turning to me.
I didn’t even know she was considering me. “No.”
“Please, Zane.”
“No.”
“Please.”
“No.”
Ella sighs and turns her puppy eyes on our father, and that’s when I realize I’m fucked. He can never say no to her—his little princess. “Daddy, make him.”
Ella is the only girl in our family of four boys, which means she grew up spoiled. As the firstborn, I admit I was the first to do so, and now it seems that has come to bite me in the ass.
All Dad needs to say is one word, and I realize that I don’t have a choice.
“Zane,” he rumbles authoritatively, giving me a pointed look.
How am I being bossed around by my father even at thirty-five years old?
“Fine,” I grunt begrudgingly.
Jace gives me an apologetic look while Ella is grinning from ear to ear.
All I wanted was ice. Now I’ve ended up being roped into picking Ava up from the airfield tomorrow? I should have just skipped that ice bath and coming into this house altogether.
3
AVA
Ella took no time in arranging my flight from LA to Wrangler Creek, Texas. I’m still unsure if this is the right move for me, but I’m already in the car headed to the airfield, Ella is waiting for me on the other end, and I basically have nowhere else to go.
“Are you sure about this? There’s a reason you don’t even perform in Texas,” Lou, who insisted on accompanying me to the airport, asks.
I turn to her with a sad smile. “No, I’m not, but it’s been long enough, don’t you think?”
“That’s true, but he won’t be the only thing waiting for you. Your mother moved back there after the mansion was repossessed,” she informs me.
