His gaze went somewhere over my shoulder. Another one of those far off looks that said he was miles away.
His lips pinched before his jawline tightened. He pushed away from me. “Value what you have found.”
“You’re not staying?” I asked when he twirled his finger in the air, and all of the men he’d brought with him began filing in the direction of the door.
He glanced back over his shoulder. “My work here is done.” He dipped his head. “I’ll see you all soon.”
I wrinkled my forehead, wondering what that cryptic message meant. He was probably talking about Gabriel’s wedding, even though they hadn’t set a date yet.
I watched as Chael and his crew exited the bar, leaving only a handful of patrons.
“You have one strange family,” Maple said as I approached him at the bar.
“Fucking tell me about it.”
“We need to head out too,” Maple commented.
I nodded and followed as Will called an Uber to take us back to the base. On the ride back, I thought about what Chael implied.
My cousin was smart, but he wasn’t perfect. Thus, he was fallible.
Savannah and my story ended a long time ago. All that was left was to put the final seal on it. In a few months, when I signed those divorce papers, all would be said and done.
But as I solidified that thought in my mind, something felt like it knocked against my stomach in protest.
CHAPTER16
Savannah
“Mama, can’t I stay up until Mr. Ace gets back?” Aiden begged as I followed him up the stairs to his bedroom.
It was almost nine thirty, well after his usual nine o’clock bedtime. I was tired and ready for him to go to sleep for the night–if for no other reason than for him to stop asking about Ace.
Every time he did, guilt bubbled up from my stomach and clogged my throat. I still hated the words I hurled at Ace before he left for his training. I should’ve never brought up AJ.
But when I’d gotten that call from Aiden’s school, I blanked out with fear. My only thought was locating my son. When I realized that Ace and Aiden had been home, playing the entire time, I wanted someone to blame. Even though Ace apologized.
“No,” I finally said to Aiden. We entered his bedroom. “We don’t know when Ace will get home, and you have school in the morning.”
Aiden hopped onto the bed and gave me a look with his bottom lip poked out. “Do you think Mr. Ace is mad at me?”
“What?” I asked, kneeling beside the bed after I pulled back the top covers.
Aiden wore his new navy blue and grey Air Force pajamas he’d begged me to buy when he saw them at the store the other week. We’d gone grocery shopping at the commissary when he’d spotted the PJs. More and more, he talked about becoming a pilot.
I hated to think of the moment when I would move out of Ace’s house, and he moved to Germany. I feared it would crush Aiden.
“Why would you think Ace is mad at you?”
He shrugged. “He hasn’t called the entire time he was gone. What if he didn’t miss us?”
I cupped my stomach with my free hand while the other tightened on the sheets I still held. The thought of Ace not caring about us was a tough pill to swallow, though it shouldn’t have been.
“Sweetie, I think Mr. Ace was preoccupied with pilot stuff,” I lied. “He probably just got too busy to call.”
“Do you think he’s okay? What if he got into an accident?”
“H-he’s okay,” I said, my voice trembling. “The Air Force would’ve called us if something happened to him.” I swallowed, not knowing if that was the truth or not.
