Alexander Ranch

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I made a point of clearing my throat as I opened the bedroom door. As I intended, all conversation stopped. I walked down the hallway and greeted Daisy. I was careful not to even look at Jordan, though I could see him looking at me in my peripheral vision. I could swear he was glaring daggers at me.

"Um, Daisy. I need to get my phone replaced. I'm feeling fine, really. You guys don't need to be here. I'm sure I'm quite safe." I tried to say this in a light calm voice. But, I noticed that she gave Jordan a glare before turning to me. She knew or suspected I'd overheard their conversation.

"We can go with you. It's no problem."

"No!" I practically shouted. I took a moment to gentle my voice and then continued, "Really, I will be fine."

"You aren't getting rid of me so easily." She placed her hands on her hips. "I was hoping you wanted to go have some ice cream. I am surrounded by men at home except for my sister. I finally get to have some girl time and you're trying to dump me?"

"You want to go have ice cream with me?" I asked in surprise.

"Yes, I would. Grump Butt over here has other duties to attend to, so we won't have to be bothered with him," she said jerking her head towards Jordan. He scowled at her. "However, my cousin, Ethan, would like to meet you. He's the one whose life you saved by distracting the men who shot him. Is that ok?"

"Uh, sure. I'd like to meet him too. Is he ok?"

"Good. He'll be here any minute," She beamed. "And, yes, he's fine. But, if you want to make this a totally girls only phone shopping and ice cream day, we can kick him out after you meet him and go have fun."

If he was anything like Jordan, I'd definitely want this to be an all-girls day. Before I could reply there was a knock on the door.

"He's not a grump butt like Jordan here," Daisy said while walking to open the door.

A tall, gorgeous man walked in the door. He had his arm in a sling and had some faint scars on his handsome face. He and Daisy hugged in greeting.

"Hey, Jordan," he said coming deeper into the room and seeing Jordan.

"Ethan. Glad to see you, man," Jordan replied unstiffening a bit. He rose and gave the man a manly hug. Then the newcomer looked at me.

"And you must be, Lela," he marveled, coming over to me and taking my hand. "You are more beautiful than I remember. Of course, I was trying to figure out how not to get shot when I first saw you. Thank you for saving my life."

He raised my hand to his lips and kissed the back of it. I blinked up at him. There was sincerity and amusement in those beautiful light brown eyes and I was held spellbound.

"We are going to get ice cream and replace her phone. Her phone didn't fare so well when she jumped in the water," Daisy interjected bringing me out of my stare. "You're welcome to come, Ethan, if Lela doesn't mind. Jordan doesn't want to go."

Ethan winked at me.

"I don't mind," I said, looking at Daisy and away from Ethan's flirting eyes. Ethan gave Jordan a quizzical look and then smirked. Jordan glared back.

"Then, let's go," Ethan smiled. And we were off.

Jordan had left as fast as humanly possible with a curt "enjoy your ice cream" to no one in particular.