Chapter 36 #2
“What about you?” I prodded with a smirk. “No secret girlfriend lurking in the shadows?”
He laughed, shaking his head. “Nope.”
My brows rose. “Boyfriend?”
Ace’s grin widened. “Smooth one, Eight. If you wanted to fish for information, you can just ask. But no…no one lurking in the shadows for me because when the fuck would I even have the time? I’d be the worst boyfriend on earth, always putting my work and my team first.”
He had a good point. Aside from being Team Olympus leader and having a heavy hand in the editing and content planning, he was still somewhat active as an actor.
It’d been a year or so since his last movie release, and as far as I’d seen, he wasn’t working on anything new right now, but that could change.
I couldn’t imagine how busy he’d be if he was also juggling an acting role.
“How about you, Eight? I feel like you don’t share much about your life, so none of us really know you all that well.
Do you have someone waiting for you when the Clik Games are over, or was that what you were talking to your manager about?
” He sat up, leaning closer with a curious glint in his eyes. “About teenage girls being stupid.”
Huh? Oh. Ah, he must have heard that and assumed… Good thing he didn’t realize I was referring to myself and my dumb teenage crush on Xavier.
I gave a short laugh, shaking my head. “No, that was…something else.” Then because I actually didn’t like that he felt like he didn’t know me, I answered his actual question.
“Also, no, I don’t have someone. I actually just ended an insanely toxic relationship before joining the team, and it’s pretty much scared me off m— uh, relationships in general.
” I almost slipped up and said men but caught it.
Not that it’d have been the end of the world; he’d have assumed I was gay before guessing I was a girl.
Ace nodded thoughtfully. “I remember management mentioned you were dealing with some personal legal issues which delayed you joining us. Was that connected?”
I grimaced, rubbing my forehead. “Yeah. My ex…” It was too hard to explain in general terms without airing the whole mess, and I never wanted Ace to know about Peaches. “It wasn’t pretty.”
“But you’re okay now? Legally, I mean. You sorted it out?” He seemed genuinely concerned, and I tried to lighten the mood with a laugh.
“Don’t worry. I won’t drag the team into the scorched earth of my bad decisions.” I really hoped I never would. If Rich respected the contracts he’d signed and kept his mouth shut, no one need ever know.
Ace frowned, giving a short sigh. “That wasn’t my worry, Eight. I was asking if you were okay now. If you need our lawyers to look over anything—”
“No, it’s done.” I cut him off quickly because the level of caring in his tone was starting to make my chest tight and my eyes hot. “Thank you, though.”
He held my gaze for a long, tense moment before nodding his acceptance of my answer. “So what are we doing out here tonight? I didn’t expect to find you beside the pool, of all places, considering your fear.”
I wet my lips, glancing at the serene water all lit up and glowing with soft blue light.
“Exposure therapy, I guess? I was on the phone to Jared, who is one of the only people I really trust, so I thought maybe I could look at the pool while talking to him…” I shrugged, feeling silly now that I said it out loud. “I’m fully aware I need therapy.”
Ace offered a warm, lopsided smile, standing up from his seat. “It makes sense. But I think you need to do more than just look at the water, Eight.” He put his hand out to me, palm up, and I stared at it like he was offering me a mouse trap.
“What?” I asked suspiciously.
He gave a huff of frustration. “Let me help.”
Biting my lip with nervousness, I cautiously took his hand and let him pull me up to my feet. His small, satisfied smile was almost worth the risk, but then he tugged me closer to the pool and released my hand to sit on the edge, pulling his shoes and socks off.
“Come on, Eight, just trust me.” Ace patted the tiles beside him as he dipped his legs into the water. “Sit with me. I promise I won’t let anything bad happen.”
Did I trust him? Like really trust him?
Chewing on my lip, I kicked off my own shoes and gingerly sat on the edge of the pool beside Ace, my heels on the lip and my arm wrapped around my knees. “Happy?”
He rolled his eyes, a soft smile playing across his lips. “No. Put your feet in the water. Just your feet, that’s all I’m asking.”
I released my pent-up breath in a drawn-out sigh, eyeing the water with a tangle of emotions inside me.
Logically I knew there was no harm in putting my feet in the water.
The terror only ever set in when I was fully submerged.
But there was always the possibility that I might fall in and then panic and—
“Hey, I’m right here.” Ace’s calm voice cut through my spiraling thoughts as he offered his hand, palm up, once more. “It’s just us. You’re safe with me, Noah.”
Truer words had never been spoken. Ace was everything I could have hoped for in a leader and a friend. Sucking in a breath, I placed my shaking hand in his, gripping tight as my feet descended into the pool water.
“Okay?” Ace asked in a low voice once both my feet were underwater. His fingers interlaced with mine, and he held on to me just as tightly as I was holding on to him. Maybe. My knuckles were definitely white, and I couldn’t let up even if I tried.
I forced a jerking nod. “Uh-huh. Now what?”
His lips curved up again, his ice-blue eyes catching mine in a hypnotic gaze. “Now nothing. We just hang out here. Tell me something I don’t know about you, Eight. Where did you go to school?”
Huh? He wanted to chat?
“Um, I was homeschooled,” I replied, confused and a little flustered as he continued holding eye contact while his thumb stroked reassuring circles on the back of my hand. “I wasn’t—”
All of a sudden, darkness smothered us as the power cut out, leaving the only light coming from the moon.
“Huh,” Ace muttered, turning his face toward the dark house. “That’s odd.”
Odd wasn’t good.
“Probably just a blown fuse,” he said with thoughtful confidence, standing up before offering his hand to pull me up out of the water. “I’ll go check the fuse box and check with security.”
Panic flashed through me, and I grabbed his arm as he started to head toward the house. “Wait, I’ll come with you.”
Ace gave a short laugh, looking over his shoulder at me despite the heavy shadows. “You scared of the dark, Eight?”
I swallowed hard. “Not usually…but remember how the power cut out right before Cat got her throat slit?”
“Good point,” he murmured, his tone grim as he grasped my hand in his once more. “Come on, then. Let’s stick together.”
Relief calmed my nerves slightly that he wasn’t insisting I sit there in the dark waiting for him to fix the power.
Ace wasn’t the kind of guy to make anyone feel silly or dumb for being scared, but under the current circumstances, I probably would have thought less of him if he wasn’t at least a little anxious.
“Holy crap, it’s dark in here,” he commented, pulling out his phone to use the flashlight and navigate through the living room, then grunting when he walked into something. “Watch your leg on the table, Eight.”
“Thanks,” I murmured, pulling out my own phone to light the way. “Where’s the fuse box?”
“Just inside the garage,” he replied, heading in that direction. “Can you see if there are any alerts from the power company? Maybe it’s a grid outage or something.”
I nodded my agreement—despite the fact he couldn’t see me—and unlocked my phone screen. “Yeah, good thinking. Except…no reception.”
Ace gave a short groan, letting go of my hand as we approached the internal door to the garage.
“Because without power, our Wi-Fi won’t work, and the mobile coverage here sucks.
” He opened the door as I refreshed my mobile settings, hoping it might pick up a bar of reception.
As he stepped into the pitch-black garage, he seemed to trip on something and drop his phone, the light skittering across the floor as he grunted and disappeared in the dark.
“You okay, Boss?” I asked with a forced laugh, trying not to let the stress get to me. “I hope that didn’t break your screen.”
His phone had ended up under the front of his BMW so I went to pick it up for him…but never made it that far.