Page 55 of The Best Man Wins

-C

I dash out of her room, down the stairs, and out the door. I ignore Roxanne calling my name. I leap off the porch and run. I kick up dirt as I race through the grass, up the hill. I run until I get to the top and, there, I check my phone.

The reception is bleak, but it’s there. I call Cora. Once. Twice. Nothing but her voicemail. You just missed Cora West, sorry about your luck. Leave a message—

My heart is pounding out of my chest. I try to catch my breath. I call the only other person I can think to call and put the phone to my ear.

The dial tone chirrs. And chirrs.

“Dammit, Susie, pick up!”

26

Susie

My phone buzzes on the table. I reach over to pick it up, but I’m too slow.

Ace swipes it first, and he pulls it to his side of the table. He checks the contact. “Braxton,” he recites. “A new boyfriend?”

“That’s none of your business.” I hold my palm open for him. “Phone.”

He tucks it into his slacks. “Whatever it is, it’ll be there when we’re done here.”

I let out a short breath. “And what exactly are we doing here again?”

After running into him on the sidewalk, Ace managed to—somehow—drag me into the small local café right next door. So we sit across from each other, sipping coffee, while Thom hosts my wedding brunch.

None of this feels right. I feel like a ghost in my own body as I stare across the table at Ace. Ace has always been easy on the eyes. He’s tall enough to be a basketball player, with sky-blue eyes and coiffed blond hair. He’s wearing a navy blue turtleneck and suede jacket. I don’t know how he pulls these things off—he just does. And that’s the beauty of being Ace Soren. Life just falls into his lap.

But there are things I notice now that I think, maybe, I didn’t notice before. There’s a fault in his smile, a crooked edge that tapers off into a frown. The edges of his eyes are glass sharp. There are no creases in his face, as though he’s never spent a night in his life worrying about the consequences of his actions.

Or maybe I’m just seeing what I want to see. It wouldn’t be the first time. I set my fingers around the ceramic coffee cup and twist it back and forth.

Ace sighs and reaches across the table. His fingertips linger on my wrist, stopping me from fidgeting. “Susie…I had to see you. I couldn’t let that be the last time we saw each other.”

“How did you even find me?” I ask.

“Thom told me.”

Of course he did. Apparently, he’s making it a habit now to stab me in the back.

“Don’t take it out on him, buttercup. I forced it out of him. Besides…I think he knew that you deserved closure.”

“Why now?” I pull back from his touch and set my hands in my lap instead. “I cried about you. For a year. You didn’t think to pick up the phone then?”

He sighs deeply and his eyes avert, hitting the table. At least it’s good to know he can feel even a little shame. “I’m not proud of it. Any of it.”

“Good. Because it was mean. You left me at the altar. It’s…very, very mean.”

I can’t think of a more perfect word than mean. I want to say it over and over until he gets it. Mean, mean, mean.

He broke my heart and ran. Who does that?

Ace tilts forward and shifts his chair over so he’s sitting beside me instead of across from me. This close, it’s hard to avoid eye contact, so I don’t. Not even when his hand reaches out and touches my shoulder. “It was a strange time for me. I admit that. They’d just cast me in Kiss of the Vampire II; there was a lot of fanfare around it, and I got caught up in it. The thought of getting married and locked into New York…well. I couldn’t do it.”

“So you should’ve said that,” I counter. “I could have handled it.”

Ace lets out a breathy laugh. “Right.”

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