Page 64 of Until Ace

“Yeah.” A big smile appears on Mia’s face. “She’s all loved up now and living her very own version of heaven. So that’s all good. But it was rough there for a while. That’s why I moved here, to help her out,” she explains. “And I love her girls to death, but they are a handful.”

“As they should be,” I murmur softly, thinking about how kids should always have the freedom to just be who they are, to not walk on eggshells, hoping against hope they won’t take one wrong step and evoke displeasure in the people who should let them be them in the first place.

“Exactly.” Mia nods, oblivious to the rest of my thoughts. “And it all turned out great in the end. I just can’t stand people who think that being a mom, and a good wife, is pathetic. It’s the most important job anyone can have. And the hardest. And there’s not even any recognition in it. But when women are the ones passing that judgment, that’s when my blood starts to boil.”

While I wholeheartedly agree with everything she’s said, I can’t help but tease her a little. “Who would have thought that inside sweet Mia lies a roaring tigress?”

She looks back at me and squints. “Don’t think I forgot what we were about to talk about before we were interrupted. So, spill.”

Shaking my head in amusement, that’s exactly what I do.

I spill.

I tell her about our night. Well, not every detail, but enough for Mia to have both a dreamy expression—which I know has nothing to do with Ace and everything to do with Talon—and a happy one that’s all about me and how I finally got my own slice of joy.

That same feeling of happiness washes over me all over again.

And it lasts… until dinner.

I don’t know how it happened, but here we are.

Beverly and Ida, Mia and Mia’s sister, Cece, and me, all sitting in Ace’s living room.

The remains of Chinese takeout, half-empty bowls of chips, and almost empty plates of Beverly’s cookies are scattered on the coffee table, where there are also half-empty glasses of our wine and full glasses of margaritas.

Laughter is bursting out of us as we listen raptly to Beverly telling the tales of her younger days.

She was a man-eater, in the good sense. It all came to a halt once she took Ace in, but the woman sure knew how to have fun before that happened.

Still, it’s obvious that even though she didn’t have as much naughty fun as she did before, she doesn’t for a single second regret raising Ace.

The men are sitting on the back deck, Ace, Winston, and Talon all waiting patiently for the fun to end so they can go home.

It started earlier, with Mia asking about my evening plans, and when I told her I planned on asking Beverly to dinner, I decided on a whim to ask her to join us too.

She asked if it was okay to bring her sister, and when I almost jumped for joy, she took it rightly as an affirmative answer.

When I called Beverly, I learned she was with Ida, and once Ida heard my proposal, she said she was coming too. Beverly asked privately if that was all right with me, but Ida is a hoot and I love her, so it was settled.

The fact that we ended up at Ace’s house came from Ace. I phoned him during lunch.

And once he heard of my new and improved plan for the evening, he said he’d call the boys and see what they were up to.

So that’s how we all ended up here.

I can honestly say it’s the best time I’ve had in my life—not including my solo nights with Ace, of course.

Even though I’m scared of it, a tiny spark of hope started blinking in me that I can have this. Laughter, good time, friends, and Ace.

I can have it, and I can keep it.

Yet as she has a way of doing, and has since I can remember, my mother ruins it with one single sentence.

“Ain't this cozy?” I hear my mother ask. Shocked, I look up to see her standing in the foyer, at the entrance to the living room. Her lip curls as she looks around the room. “Here you are, eating and drinking without a care in your world, while your brother is God knows where, reduced to hiding out because you refuse to help him.”

I set my glass down on the table and scoot forward on the couch to stand up, never losing sight of the two women standing in Ace’s home, uninvited. My movements are slow. Deliberate.

How does she know where Ace lives? And how dare she come in uninvited!