Page 30 of Ace

“You wrote you wanted to sit on a pier in Tandora and watch the sunset?”

Did he admit what more he’d written? “Sort of.” Nope. Not yet. He shrugged. “I think we need to go home.”

She was quiet for too long. So long he almost repeated himself.

“Let’s…”

“Not talk about it?”

“Right.”

But no matter how much they both wanted to linger as if on vacation, they were on a jet heading for Virginia by morning.

Gianna tipped her cup back. “Now this I’ve missed.”

“Diet Coke?” He laughed.

“They have Coke on Panau, but it’s warm, and it just doesn’t taste the same.”

“I think we have an endless supply. If we ask nice, the flight attendant will bring you another.”

“I just might.”

“Gi.”

She glanced his direction and then looked twice. “What’s this look?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You look like you did right before we skipped school.”

“Oh, don’t even talk about that.”

She shook her head. “You couldn’t do it. You couldn’t even skip one day.”

“It’s not right.”

She laughed.

“It’s against the rules.”

“I respect that. But…”

“But you wish I hadn’t brought us back to school halfway through the day and confessed?”

“Exactly. I got detention for that.”

“Yeah.” He shook his head. “Some might say I was made for the military life.”

“Some might say that, if you hadn’t totally corrupted yourself hanging out with those frat boys at Yale.”

“Just because you chose Harvard, doesn’t mean my frat boys were any worse than that loser who took you to all the dances.”

“Hey now, he wasn’t as much a loser as…” She grinned. “Yeah, he’s a loser. Spends half his time fighting everyone and everything on Capitol Hill, but does he do anything else? Does he actually create anything? Have an original thought? Or do an ounce of good?” She shook her head. Then she bumped shoulders with Dex. “I’m proud of you.”

“Thank you. Since we’re being nice. It might be a good time to bring up how things are about to get…interesting.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Is this the point in our conversation where you start telling me about your priorities?”

---