“Ace,” Willa said finally.
“I know,” Ace said.
“It’s been a long day,” Willa babbled, grasping for words, wondering what to do next. “A long night. We’re both?—”
“Willa,” Ace said gently. His hands shot out and grabbed her shoulders.
She stopped and stared at him, her mind racing as fast as her heart.
“It’s been a long day,” Willa repeated stupidly.
“It hasn’t been a long day for me,” Ace said, and Willa was sure he was no longer speaking about their disastrous camping trip, although he kept his voice low so only she could hear. “It’s been a long, hard twenty years.”
Willa’s brows shot up at his words, and she blinked at him as realization started to seep through her confused brain. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words would come as Ace stood watching her intently.
Willa tried her vocal cords once again, croaking out, “Ace, I…”I what?Her mind screamed. What is going on here? She knew full well, but Willa just didn’t want to register it.
“I’m not asking you for anything,” Ace assured her. His eyes held hers steadily. “But I need you to know this because I’m just done pretending. Especially after today, when I nearly lost you for good.”
She opened her mouth. Again, her words failed her, so instead of standing gaping at him like a fish, Willa closed it.
“I’ve been in love with you from the moment I met you, Willa.” Ace’s voice was filled with emotion, and his eyes shone with love. “But so did my best friend, and the two of you were so good together. I never once doubted that you were meant to be.” He swallowed. “I’ve held back for so long. I…” He breathed, and Willa could see he was struggling as love wasn’t the only thing shining in his eyes. It was mixed with guilt. “But earlier…” A muscle ticked at the side of his jaw. “This is going to sound crazy.”
Before he could finish, a voice called from across the cave.
“Mom,” Andy called. “Is there water? My mouth and throat are so dry.”
A strange cowardly relief washed over her as she quickly stepped away from Ace. “I… I have to go see to Andy.”
“Yeah,” Ace nodded, stepping back and running a hand through his hair. “Of course.”
“Coming, Andy,” Willa called back and hurried away, forcing herself not to turn back and glance at Ace.
Her mind was in turmoil, just like her emotions were. Willa went to grab a bottle of water from the make-shift supply table, and that’s when she felt it. A cold that didn’t make her shiver but wrapped around her like a soft hug. A familiar waft of an aftershave she hadn’t smelt in ten years drifted past her nose. Willa stiffened and looked at the bottle in her hand, wondering if the water was too cold, but it wasn’t; it was at room temperature. She stood for a few seconds, frozen to the spot, not in fear but in fascination. Wondering if she was having a psychotic episode or if she was still in the water and this was all a dream. Then a soft voice so faint it was barely audible tickled her ear.You need to let go and move, my love. It’s time.
Something stroked her cheek, like a soft kiss or caress, and then the cold was gone, leaving her feeling strangely alone and wanting to grasp at the air, trying to pull it back. Willa gave herself a mental shake.Good grief. What had just happened? Was she having a mental breakdown?
“Mom?” Andy called, pulling her from her reverie.
Willa glanced around the cave and then walked to her son, feeling strangely…free?
8
ACE
Ace watched Willa go to her son.
She crossed the cave with her back straight, her voice already composed by the time she reached Andy. Ace watched her crouch beside her son and hand him the water bottle and say something low and practical that made Andy nod and settle back into his sleeping bag, and the whole thing was done in under a minute with the seamless, instinctive efficiency of a woman who had spent seventeen years knowing exactly how to be what her children needed the moment they needed it.
She didn’t look back.
He turned to the fire.
He fed it a piece of wood he didn’t strictly need to feed it yet, crouched on his heels with his forearms on his knees, looked at the flames, and let the past ten minutes sit in his chest without trying to move them on. Ace had said it. Twenty years of choosing every other available word instead of the true one, and he’d finally run out of alternatives in a cave on a storm-battered island.Great timing, Ace!
He almost laughed.
“Well,” said a voice behind him, quiet, dry, and entirely familiar. “It’s been a very bad time here on the island.”
