I felt bad for him…
But he wasn’t my concern anymore. He and Aiden needed to figure this out between themselves.
The person I was concerned about was Ace.
He was already swimming to the side of the pool, clearly aiming to get out, when I caught up with him. He pushed himself up, glistening water pouring from his body as he stood in one fluid moment, reminding me once again of the metaphor that had struck me when we kissed.
Ace was all flowing water.
I just hoped he wasn’t going to freeze into ice with me again.
I was dimly aware of the others getting out on the other side of the pool, of Aiden storming away, but I wasn’t paying any attention. I was scrambling out after Ace – scraping my knee slightly on the concrete edging for my trouble – and running forward to catch up and move in front of him, blocking his path.
“Jesus, Ace!” I exclaimed, holding my arms out to stop him from brushing past me and then lifting my hands to his face. “Are you alright? Let me see your eye.”
“My eye is fine,” Ace huffed. I managed to capture his cheeks in my hands for a moment, looking closely at his eye for any damage – it looked like it might start to swell – before he shook me off. “I’mfine.”
“Are you sure? He hit you pretty hard – I…” I started. I wanted to tell him how worried I was – how sorry I was that this had happened because of me.
But Ace shoved my hand aside, harder than I expected, and shook his head. His wet, dark hair flew in all directions around him, like a physical field keeping me at bay. “Leave me alone, Brody,” he snapped. “This is all your fault.”
He brushed past me, leaving me shellshocked and stuck. He walked over to Keaton and sat on his lounger, where Cade, Keaton, and Taeho immediately began fussing over him.
My hands clenched into fists momentarily at my sides. He didn’t need me. He already had enough friends. If it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t have needed anyone.
I hung my head for a moment, then turned on my heel. I didn’t even think anyone noticed as I snatched up my towel and started walking away, drying off my hair as much as I could while I walked. They were probably going to yell at me for walking through the corridors of the hotel in wet swimming trunks.
I didn’t care.
I needed to get out of there.
I rushed back the quickest way I knew, finding an elevator by the exit to the pool so I could at least attract less attention than I would by walking through the lobby. I rushed down our hallway like a thief, desperate not to be seen by anyone, and only breathed fully again when I closed the door of our room behind me.
Our room.
Well, not for much longer.
I walked straight into the shower and rinsed off the chlorine in cold water, wiping it off my face and sluicing it from my hands right down the drain. This wasn’t a full shower – I didn’t want to waste too much time. The quicker I was out of here, the better.
My first instinct had been right all along. I should never have let Ace convince me to stay.
I dried off and wrapped the towel tightly around my waist to grab my clothes from the room – the ones I’d been wearing earlier this morning. Ace’s face flashed through my head as I dressed. Ace telling me to stay. Ace drinking with me at the bar, laughing with me. Ace leaning close and kissing me. Ace asleep in the bed next to me when I woke up this morning, looking completely peaceful.
Ace filled with anger on my behalf when Aiden slammed into me.
Not on my behalf; onanyone’sbehalf, I was willing to bet. Ace saw something that wasn’t fair or right and he had to speak out about it – that was all.
He wasn’t attracted to me like I was to him.
He wasn’t thinking about me every minute, seeking me out in any group, like I was with him.
Even after our kisses, he’d gone cold again…
My blood went cold instead as I reached for my suitcase. What if…
What if he wasn’t ace after all, and it was really that my kiss had been so disappointing he’d feigned sleep to get out of having to give me any more?
The thought settled deep into my gut like bad seafood, and I closed my eyes for a moment before I carried on packing.
