My heart soared into outer space
Me:It’s homecoming week, so my schedule is slammed. But I would love to see you too. If you’re available, do you want to come to our homecoming game on Friday night? I feel I should introduce you to Coach even though you can’t help.
Jace:Would love to. Is Ethan playing?
Me:No. He’s on the JV team, so he plays on Thursday.
Jace:I’ll check in with you midweek.
Me:Talk soon.
The moment I hit Send, an engine resonated outside. I peeked out to find Lila pulling into the driveway. I’d called her earlier to chat, but she’d been hungover.
I had the front door open as she climbed the porch steps with her phone to her ear.
“Got to run, Dax. Yes, I will,” she said, taking off her sunglasses.
My brows lifted. “Dax, huh?”
She breezed in, tossed her purse on the foyer table, glasses next, then took off her fleece vest. “I want to hear everything.” She went into the kitchen and poured herself coffee.
I returned to the dining room. “You slept with Dax?”
She sipped from her cup. “No. I’ll tell you about him later. Right now, I’m here for you. Tell me everything.” She sat in a chair across from me. “You’re glowing, my friend.”
“It’s just one night,” I volleyed back. “But I haven’t felt this alive in years. I feel like Jace flipped a switch inside me, and this feeling”—I waved a hand around me—“is different from what Ryan made me feel.”
“There’s no comparison, Monroe. So stop pitting Jace against your ex.”
“I know. I know.” I sat back, sighing. “I’m realizing that I might’ve been trying to save a marriage that was already broken, trying to keep our family unit intact because of Ethan. Don’t get me wrong, I was in love with Ryan for years. Part of me will always love him, but I’m not in love with him anymore.”
“If you were,” she said, “you wouldn’t be able to move on.”
I fidgeted with the red marker. “It’s crazy, Lila. I feel like I’m standing on a cliff. One step, and I either fall or fly. What if he’s another Ryan? What if I’m wrong again?” Though nothing felt wrong about Jace.
She held her cup between her hands, dark circles marring the area beneath her hazel eyes. “Call it a vibe, but Jace is the real deal. The way he looks at you…” She whistled. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he hasn’t fallen for you already. But more importantly, you’re not the same woman you were back then. Don’t let fear write your story before it begins.”
I was bobbing my head with every word. Jace’s conviction when he’d said he would never cheat had settled my heart, and I believed him. If he was the one, then I wanted to do this right, learn from the past.
“Maybe it’s time I stop waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
“For sure, girl,” Lila said. “One step at a time.”
I slouched in the chair. “Enough about me. What’s going on with Dax? You like him?”
She swiped a hand over her hair. “I’m embarrassed to say I got drunk, and he had to drive me home. He even helped me into my house, made me coffee, and stayed with me until I fell asleep. When I woke up this morning, he was on the couch. He wanted to make sure I didn’t drown in my puke.”
“Gentleman,” I mumbled. “Just like Jace.”
“Two great guys, for sure.”
As sunlight spilled through the window, scattering across the half-graded tests, I was ready to let the cards fall where they might because my heart had Jace’s name written all over it.
11
JACE
Way too early on a Monday morning, I stood in a classroom tucked behind a hangar, flight manual opened on the desk. Diagrams of the F-15 Eagle were projected on the screen behind me as eleven young airmen and airwomen filled the seats, bright-eyed, eager, and reminding me too much of myself when I’d first sat in a classroom, eager to learn everything about fighter jets.
