Page 69 of The Fire We Make

Joy ignored that last part.

“If my memory serves, you get a few hits in yourself.Marcohough Joy was thicker, she and Mel were equally matched in height and Mel’s more lithe frame afforded her the speed to rival Joy’s power.

“Yeah yeah,” Mel waved her off. “So are you gonna tell me what’s up?”

Fuck it, Joy thought. She needed a sounding board and Mel had always been that for her.

“I kinda… met someone.”

Melody’s eyes ballooned. “What?” she exclaimed. Shock colored her face as she sat down, awaiting the rest.

“He’s… he’s nice.” Joy thought back to Ace’s cocky and combative demeanor. “Okay nice may not be the right word to describe him but I… like him. I’m starting to like him a lot actually.”

“He doesn’t like you back or something?” Mel asked around her own water bottle. Joy thought back to the heat in his eyes as Ace confessed how much he still wanted her. She had to blink a few times to avoid getting lost in the memory.

“He does…but… I’m just nervous. I came here to heal and I’m not there yet. I’m nervous about jumping into something before I do. I need to get myself together before I worry about a man.”

“Why can’t you get your life together while entertaining a little romance?”

“Because I don’t think I would survive it if I jump into something before I’m back to normal and he abandons me once he sees how fucked up I am.”

Mel’s eyes softened and she lowered her water bottle. “Oh honey. Don’t you think you deserve to be loved just as you are now?”

Joy thought seriously about the question for a moment. “My own family kicked me to the curb once they realized I couldn’t be fixed. Why would anyone else be any different?”

“Did I?”

“Well… no.”

“Did Glock?”

“No…”

“Exactly. Don’t close yourself off from love and romance just because of what you think might happen.”

Clink

Clink

Clink

Clink

Ace barely registered the sound of the lighter flicking open and closed. He barely heard the meeting happening around him.

His thoughts, as they always seemed to be, were consumed with Joy.

Her brilliant brain.

Her smart ass mouth and full lips.

The curves she poured into her all black outfits.

Those fucking eyes…

Ace felt like he was losing his mind. The curiosity he’d felt the night they met had grown past infatuation, past obsession. What he felt for her now could only be described as hunger.

He longed to be with her whenever she wasn’t near and when she was right beside him, he needed more of her.