“What? What is it?” I search his eyes intently. “I thought everyone was asleep.”
Ace shakes his head, joining our hands up by my head and making me smile. His lips are curled so high it’s bringing light to his eyes, and even in the dark of this quiet room, he manages to glow. I don’t know anyone else with this much natural charisma. Even his parents, whom everyone thinks he matches apple for apple, come from a crazier, more unhinged, unpredictable place than he does.His energy is chaotic at times, but it’s also centered in warmth and kindness and love in ways I don’t really know if I can explain.
He always makes me feel safe to be myself and makes me lean into the enjoyment of life in the best way. I don’t know what I’d do if we weren’t friends, which is probably why I had a private talk with my dad tonight before coming to bed. I didn’t beg him to find forgiveness for Thatch—and I definitely didn’t belittle his feelings over how often he’s gotten the short end of the stick over the years. But I did remind him of all the good, irreplaceable things the Kellys have brought to our lives—of all the things I’d miss if they weren’t a part of our world like they are now.
“Jules, you’re never going to believe this,” Ace whispers, his focus understandably on telling me the secret he has. “But I saw Blake getting up out of his bed in our room and pulling on a T-shirt before he snuck out the door.”
“Where did he go?”
Ace smiles, his hand squeezing mine with renewed excitement. “I got up and looked out the window just in time to see him and someone else climbing into a canoe and taking off out across the lake.”
“Who?” I ask, the gossip getting juicier by the second.
“Lexi.”
“What?” I breathe, trying to keep my voice quiet and failing spectacularly. Ace puts an excited finger against my lips, and I grab his wrist tightly and squeal. “Do you think… Are they fooling around?”
Ace shrugs. “I don’t know, but they looked pretty freaking friendly. Like, not Lexi-friendly.Reallyfriendly. I think they might be dating behind all our backs or something.”
“Oh, come on,” I breathe. “Lexi? She basically hates Blake. She’s always giving him shit and turning him down.”
“Yeah, well. I think that might just be part of the plot. Part of them throwing us off their scent.”
“Should we follow them?” I ask excitedly, sitting up and throwing the comforter off in one smooth motion.
“Definitely not,” Ace disagrees, catching me by the forearm before my toes can touch the floor.
“What?” I turn to face him, my waist twisting. “Definitely not? Are you kidding? I thought you’d be all for this.”
Ace shakes his head. “Both Blake and Lexi have abilities that scare me. He benches 250. She can almost undoubtedly kill me without a forensic trace. We sit this one out. But we know what we know, and that’s better than nothing.” I frown, but he pulls me back down into the bed and tosses the comforter over both of us. “Think about it, Lia. We know a secret that no one else knows aboutLexi. I didn’t think that was possible.”
“It’s amazing, actually,” I agree, my adrenaline calming enough to see the wisdom of his approach. Light sways through his eyes in a slow dance as he watches me talk. It cradles me gently, holding space for me to ramble on and on for as long as I’d like. “I feel like a spy. Or a—”
Ace’s lips crash into mine with surprising accuracy. My head goes back as I let out a gasp, and his tongue moves inside, touching just the tip of mine.
I pull back, shocked, an electric current running wildly through the entire top half of my body. Hands to his chest, I hold him at bay as though he’s going to launch toward me again. “What in thefuckwas that?”
“What?”
“Ace, you justkissedme.”
“We always kiss.”
“Not on the lips andnotwith tongue.”
“What’s the difference?” Ace argues, purposely dodging the point completely as though he can’t tell how thready my pulse is under his fingers.
“Ace,” I whisper. “Why did you kiss me?”
“Because this moment felt too perfect to pass up. Because I wanted to. Because…” He pauses, and I hold my breath against a deluge of coulds and shoulds and maybes. He searches my eyes, and I know they harbor a touch of wildness. “We’re best friends, Lia. Inseparable and unstoppable and…it was a best-friend kiss.”
“A best-friend kiss?” I repeat as my mind races with the reality that it didn’t feel like a kiss of friendship at all. It felt like…a kiss. “Ace, our dads are best friends, and they don’t kiss with tongue.”
“Well, they’re currently still in a fight, so that’s like comparing apples to oranges, babe.”
I sigh. “Fine. Our moms are best friends, and they don’t kiss with tongue.”
“That you know of.”
