Page 31 of Ace

“Not priorities. That makes it sound like you aren’t important to me.”

Her eyebrows raised.

“And you are. But…” He held up his hands. “Notbut.Andwe have some big battles to fight and we might not always be fighting on the same side.”

“Correction.Weare fighting on the same side, from different sides of the political spectrum.”

“Oh just say it. They’re not even on different ends of the spectrum. They’re the same party for goodness sake. They just hate each other.”

“Well, at least Dad loves you.”

“He’s not overly pleased with me right now. He is one of the reasons we even have a Top Flight training program. He smoothed a bunch of disgruntled red tape for us, and I’m grateful.”

“But he’s learning that just because he helped you doesn’t mean you always do what he says.”

“Is that what he’s learning? Oh boy.”

“And your dad likes me.”

“He does.”

“But I’m mad at him for exploiting my picture to take a stab at my dad.”

“Yeah. I’m mad about that too, and I just don’t know if…”

“If?”

“If you and I can be together while we’re trying to help the people of Panau.”

Her eyes clouded. “Since when are you so concerned about the Pacific Islands?”

“What are you talking about? I’ve been concerned about them for years. I parachuted from my plane…” He shook his head. “We can’t do this.”

“Do what?”

“Rehash all of that old argument.”

“Rehash? I don’t remember talking about it even once. What I remember is you calling me from the air to tell me you had changed your plans.”

“It came together faster than I thought.”

“But you’d been talking. You could have told me.” She leaned closer, and the fire in her eyes touched him. She had deserved better, but he didn’t know what to do about it now.

“Gi, Top Flight is where I want to be. I had to make a tough decision.”

“And that’s it? You just left. I hardly even talked to you after that.”

“You were spitting mad. You told me never to call you again and threw your duffle at my head.”

“And why wouldn’t I? I had to scramble to put together a team. I almost had to cancel my trip.”

“You were fine, and you came out better for it.” But when her eyes narrowed, he held up a hand. “I’m sorry, Gi. I’m sorry.”

“But you’re doing it again. You’re just pushing me away, about to go do your thing, whatever that is. And I’m gonna do mine. And we might just meet up on a talk show? What is this?”

“It’s not that. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were both sitting opposite your father’s desk. But I just don’t think we can have a relationship right now. I mean, do you?”

“What? No. I don’t. Why start up something that will just have to end the minute all this blows over and you have another mission and I get a new team together.”

---