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Chapter 18
Today was the first day that Ace truly felt like himself again. This morning he’d seen the doctor who’d cleared him to return to work with no restrictions. When he left there he’d stopped by the Elite Security office and let Seth know he was ready for his next assignment. After that he’d dropped in at The Plate for a meeting with his business partners. Got to spend some time in his garage working on his bike this afternoon and tonight he was taking Stephanie to dinner, finally.
He shook out his wet hair as he crossed the room and sat on the edge of his bed. Bending over he was happy to feel only the slightest twinge of pain in his side as he bent down to put on his shoes. He wasn’t back to one hundred percent, but he could confidently say he was at ninety. And it was all thanks to Stephanie.
Would he have gotten better without her care? Sure. But it wouldn’t have happened as fast as it had. Even after he’d returned home and she’d gone back to work, she was still taking care of him. Just this morning he’d woken up to breakfast on his porch. She’d worked the last three nights in a row and had taken the time to think of him this morning.
He’d always bought into the philosophy that if something or someone seemed too good to be true then it was and they were. But she was the exception. She seemed too good to be true and the longer he knew her, the more time he spent with her, he found out she was actually better than she appeared.
It was still hard to believe that she existed much less that they were, whatever they were. He wanted them to be together officially, but since she wasn’t ready, he could wait. He knew that they belonged with each other. It was a fact. He had scientific proof. Well, maybe not scientific, but there was a system.
Growing up, when he and Grandma Lulu would watch her soap operas she liked to keep score of which couples had what it took to make it in the real world. The couples at the top of her leader board were, Luke and Laura from General Hospital, Tad and Dixie from All My Children and Bo and Hope from Days of our Lives.
She rated them on whether or not they had the four Ls and Cs. He could still picture her in her rocking chair, sipping her tea and hear her telling him, “If you want a good relationship you gotta have the four Ls: love, lust, laughter and loyalty. And if you’re lucky enough to find that, then you gotta have the four Cs to build on that foundation: communication, compromise, compatibility, and conflict.”
Grandma Lulu’s theory was that to have a successful relationship you had to start with being in love and lust, make each other laugh and be loyal. If you had checked off all of those boxes you could build a life if you could communicate, compromise, were compatible as friends and could resolve conflict. That was what she deemed everything you needed to last.
Up until he’d moved to Harper’s Crossing he’d honestly believed he’d never find that. That kind of relationship was as rare as a white peacock, which he had seen once in Australia. All his life the only real life people that he’d known that had possessed the four Ls and Cs were his grandparents. But from what he’d witnessed in this small town, there were quite a few couples that would have scored pretty high on her scale.
Ace had never held up any hope that he’d ever find what his grandparents shared. When he’d been with Kendall, he’d figured that two Ls and two Cs would be enough…he’d been wrong. They’d shared lust and love, and they could communicate and were compatible as friends. She wasn’t a big compromiser and as far as conflict went, Ace was pretty sure that she thrived on it. She’d never made him laugh and loyalty got tossed out the window when he’d answered the Facetime call and seen her having sex with his brother.
But, in the short time he and Stephanie had known each other, in his opinion they proved they had all of those things. He knew he was falling in love with her and was pretty sure she was with him. The lust was a no-brainer, their chemistry was off the charts. She made him laugh and smile so much he’d actually popped a stitch. And he trusted her more than he’d ever trusted anyone, including his brothers in the Corps. That took care of the Ls.
As far as the Cs went, they had communication on lock. They’d opened up to each other. Shared personal stories, dreams and fears. Compromise was a no-brainer. Four days ago he’d told her that he wanted more. Stephanie had made it clear that she wanted to take things day by day. They’d compromised. He’d agreed to go day by day and she’d agreed to dinner. They’d also ended up binge watching Netflix and running errands together, and it was clear they were compatible. There was no one else on earth he’d rather spend time with. Conflict hadn’t really come up, but he had faith that they would be able to put the other tools that they had at their disposal, namely communication and compromise, and handle anything that came their way. Which just left commitment…
There was no doubt in Ace’s mind that she was the one for him. Now all he had to do was convince Stephanie that he was the one for her.
His phone vibrated and he checked the time on his bedside clock. He was due to pick Stephanie up in twenty minutes. She’d worked the graveyard shift the night before and had been sleeping all day. Tonight was her night off, but he knew that she could be called in. He hoped that wasn’t the case, it had been almost twenty-four hours since he’d seen her beautiful face and he missed her.
When he grabbed his phone and saw the number he was hit with equal parts relief and anxiousness. Stephanie wasn’t calling which meant they were still on for dinner. But Grant was. He’d been intending to speak to his brother and just hadn’t gotten around to it.
Ace pressed the answer icon. “Hey.”
“Ace?” Grant answered, clearly shocked to hear his brother’s voice.
“Yeah, hey.” He may have had months to think about this conversation, but that didn’t mean he knew what to say. Since his brother was the one calling him, Ace hoped he would take the lead.
“Oh…yeah…uh…sorry, I wasn’t expecting you to pick up. I just thought, you know, I would leave another message.”
Two things struck Ace as he listened to his brother speak. One, he had never heard his brother sound this unsure of himself. Usually Grant was cocky and arrogant. Stumbling over his words and not knowing what to say wasn’t his style. And two, he missed him. Ace actually missed his older brother.
“Did you want me to hang up so you can leave a message?”
“No!” Grant exclaimed. “No. I just…I guess I’m not really sure what to say.”
Honesty wasn’t one of his brother’s strong suits. Grant was a habitual liar. But, Ace believed him now. He believed that he really didn’t know what to say.
After a few moments of silence that felt like an eternity, Ace figured if he didn’t speak up he’d be late to pick up Stephanie, and since she lived next door there really was no excuse for that.
Clearing his throat as he rolled his shoulders back, he tried to sound as neutral as possible, “I’m sorry might be a good place to start.”
“Oh yeah, I am!” Grant’s words rushed out. “I’m so sorry. I just didn’t think you’d want to hear that. I mean what I did…you know…it just… and how you found out. I can’t believe she did that. I was so mad at her. She wanted me to tell you and when I didn’t she just, I still can’t believe she did that.”
“Wait.” Ace wasn’t sure he understood what his brother was saying. “The call. The Facetime. Kendall did that on purpose?”
“I thought you…” Grant was silent for a minute. Then he let out a sigh. “Sorry, man. I thought you knew that. Yeah, she’d been threatening to tell you about us if I didn’t and I just didn’t know how so…she took matters into her own hands. You really didn’t know?”
“No.” Ace hadn’t spoken to Kendall or Grant since the call, and he’d just assumed that it was an accident. But now that he knew it wasn’t, it made sense. She did love drama, which was just another reason they’d never had the four Cs. If there was conflict she wanted to get out a tent and camp there whereas Ace wanted to navigate through it as quickly as possible.
