AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Living up to everyone’s expectations,” Ace said without realizing he was going to say it out loud. Might as well finish. “Perfect parents all the way around in our family.”
Justice laughed so hard he snorted beer up his nose, then he laughed some more.
Ace scowled. “What’s so damned funny?”
Justice managed to control his laughter before he set his beer down on the counter with a hard thump. “Are you kidding me?”
“No.” The word came out sharper than Ace had intended. “I can’t match up to the rest of you.”
“You must have blinders on if you can’t see the screw-ups we’veallmade.” Justice sloshed his beer in his mug. “Do you honestly think Dad was perfect? That Jack and Jayson are? Or that Bailey will be a perfect mom?” Justice snorted back another laugh. “And God knows I’m not perfect. Far the hell away from that. Teenage girls donotcome with instruction manuals.”
Ace’s scowl deepened. “I’ve lived in the McBride shadows all my life. It’s one more thing to be compared to.”
“Who’s comparing?” Justice watched Ace’s face. “And who really gives a crap about what anyone else does or is or has or wants? Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter.” Justice pointed at Ace’s chest. “What matters is how you live your life. You live it the way you want to and don’t worry a damn ’bout what anyone else thinks.”
Justice went on, “Hell, little brother,that’sthe McBride way. We all do our own damned thing. We’re family, we love each other, but we’re all different, and we don’t expect anything out of you but to be just as different.”
Ace stared at his beer as he considered what his brother had said. He sighed. “I hear you, big brother. But I feel I gotta make my own way, go my own direction.”
Justice punched him in the arm. “Now that’s what I’m talking about. You’re Ace McBride and you march to your own drum.”
“I’ve considered selling the ranch and just taking off.” He stared at the big ornate mirror behind the bar. “Remember how our cousin, Clint, left for all those years and traveled the world? I’ve thought of doing that.”
“You can leave, just don’t pull the crap he did.” Justice shook his head. “He took off without telling anyone where he was going or when he’d be back. Everyone thought he could be dead.”
“True.” Ace slowly nodded. “Ella was sure pissed at him.”
“Exactly.” Justice leaned back as their plates piled high with cheeseburgers and mountains of fries were delivered. “We’d all probably beat the shit out of you if you pulled that on us.”
Ace nodded his thanks to the bartender who moved on down the bar to take care of another customer.
“I have a lot to think about,” Ace said. “And now I’ve gone and put myself in a situation where whatever I decide affects another person.”
Justice held a fry in mid-air. “Charlee Burke?”
Ace frowned. “How’d you know?”
“Small town, big family.” Justice shoved the fry in his mouth, chewed and swallowed. “You keep forgetting that poker-face thing we’ve mentioned to you over the years. You don’t have one. So, of course everyone knows.”
Ace sighed. “I’ve wanted Charlee more than anything in my whole damned life. I dreamed of taking her around the world and visiting everything we can.”
“I don’t see the problem,” Justice said. “Unless that’s not what she wants. Then it’s a problem.”
“I don’t know what she’d really think about it,” Ace said. “But I do know that she wants children and I don’t.”
“That’s a deal-breaker for both of you, then.” Justice hit the bottom of a bottle of ketchup to get some to come out onto his plate, and a big portion splatted out. “If your mind is set, then you gotta discuss it and let her make up her mind. She already knows, right?”
Ace shook his head. “Haven’t told her yet.”
Justice was quiet a moment. “How far have you taken things with Charlee?”
“Too far.” Ace stared at his plate. “I let it go too far without telling her.”
“That’s a problem you’re going to have to fix, little brother.” Justice stabbed a fry into his ketchup. “Just check in with me so I know she didn’t kill you.”
CHAPTER16
After hanging their coats on the rack at the front door, Ace and Charlee walked into Jayson and Celine’s home that was crowded and alive with laughter and conversation. The ranch house had gone from being nice, but masculine, to being flat-out gorgeous after the two had married.
