“I’m sorry for what I said to her that day. If I had it to do over again, I would—"
“You can’t do it over again. Isn’t that what you always taught us? No use in regretting anything since you can’t go back in time and change it?”
That was one of the mottos he taught us coming up. Live with no regrets.
“I have regrets, Ace. The way I treated Savannah is one of ’em.”
“Then why the hell didn’t you ever tell me?” I yelled, my anger boiling over. He’d apologized like that was somehow supposed to make it better. “You stole sixteen years from us with your bullshit words.”
If he had been anyone else, he would’ve been flat on his ass. I couldn’t stand there for another second, looking at him. My father had been my hero my entire life. There were many others I respected and even wanted to emulate when it came to my career.
But Joel?
I’d revered my father. The love he had for my mother was always evident. Even when he was a hard ass, the soft spot he had for her was apparent to anyone in their presence. When I met my wife at sixteen years old, all I knew was that Savannah was the one I wanted to pour all of my love into.
Because my father showed all three of us how to do it.
Up until the day my mother died.
To know he was the impetus that made her leave was something I couldn’t live with.
“You lost your wife,” I started. “And within a year, I lost my mother, my son, and thenmywife.” I paused, hating the way my throat clogged with emotion.
“You weren’t the only one who lost something. The death of my mother and my son, I couldn’t prevent those. But you,” I jabbed a finger into his chest again. “You caused that final loss, and it almost broke me.”
I shook my head and swallowed. He didn’t deserve to see me so emotional after what he’d done.
“Ace,” he called as I brushed past him.
I pulled away from him when he caught me by the arm.
“Can you forgive me?”
I gritted my teeth and stepped closer. “If someone had said to my mother what you said tomy wife,would you have forgiven them?”
It was his turn to step back. His eyebrows rose and then dropped. He remained silent.
“I didn’t think so.” I moved back a few steps. “Take your apology and shove it up your ass.”
With that, I walked out of Joel’s house, intending never to return.
CHAPTER24
Savannah
“Ace,” I called as Aiden and I walked through the front door. It was Saturday mid-morning, two weeks after Micah’s barbeque.
Aiden and I didn’t have any plans for the rest of the day, so I thought since Ace was finally off, he might want to do a lunch picnic at the river. The weather was great and still hovering around the eighties, even though we were approaching mid-November.
The weather is one thing I missed so much about living in the South. At times the summers could seem unbearable, but fall weather that hovered between mid-sixties and eighties was okay with me.
“Mr. Ace,” Aiden yelled as he toed off his sneakers and kicked them to the side of the door where we tended to keep our outside shoes.
“Hey,” Ace said as he came up through the basement door, dressed in only a pair of workout shorts. Sweat ran down his bronzed chest. Heat rushed through me at the unexpected sight of him sweaty and with his skin slightly red from exertion.
Ace had always kept in great shape. I had to keep my eyes from trailing down to the V-cut of his tapered waist.
“Were you working out?” Aiden asked, allowing me to remember he was still in the room.
