“That promise cost me everything.”
Ace didn’t soften the truth.
Didn’t lie.
“Yeah,” he said softly. “It did.”
The honesty of it cracked something open inside me all over again.
Because he wasn’t trying to fix the pain.
He was just sitting in it with me.
“I thought if I stopped fighting…” My voice trailed off. “Maybe it would hurt less.”
Ace leaned his forearms against his knees, staring out toward the front windows.
“Did it?”
A humorless breath slipped out of me.
“No.”
Silence settled again.
But this silence felt different.
Not empty.
Safe.
I turned my head slightly and looked at him.
Really looked at him.
At the exhaustion shadowing his face.
At the stubborn set of his jaw.
At the way he kept glancing toward me like he was making sure I was still breathing.
“Why didn’t you leave?” I asked quietly.
His brow furrowed. “What?”
“Back at the tavern.” My fingers traced the edge of the phone absently. “After everything.”
Ace looked almost confused by the question.
“Because you needed somebody.”
My chest tightened painfully.
“That’s not usually enough to make people stay.”
“It is for me.”
I searched his face carefully.
