27. Chapter 27
Chapter 27
Maisie
I t wasn't until we woke up the next day that we realised something terrible had happened, nobody really seemed to know exactly what that terrible thing was, but we knew it was bad enough for Ace to go off on Lily. Which was incredibly out of character for Ace anyway, he's a sweet little puppy dog, he didn't get angry. Not only did he lose it with her but he'd stormed out and left the party and hadn't been seen again for the rest of the night.
Lily had been found in the kitchen, passing between sobbing hysterically, drinking herself into a stupor or just staring off into space. She wouldn't tell anybody what had happened, but it was bad. Really bad.
Everybody left soon after Mack and I came back inside, as usual we had been so wrapped up in each other we'd missed the entire thing. I felt incredibly guilty for that, Lily was of course one of the girls and would always have my support. But Ace was my brother, he meant the world to me.
We'd lived together all those years ago and grown incredibly close, there was a love and an understanding between us. He was sensitive, pure, although not in the sexual sense. That man was a deviant, we had all had to endure the sounds that left his bedroom. I was stood in the kitchen sipping on my fresh coffee, listening to Ace's voicemail message for the tenth time this morning. Nobody had heard from him and nobody could get through to him. He was just letting it ring out.
Jax was beside himself with worry, he was the only family he had in the world. Blood family that is, the rest of us were as close as we could get to each other's relatives.
I moved to stand in front of the window, looking out over our front garden and couldn't stop from smiling when I relived last nights escapades on that slide. But that wasn't what kept me there looking out that window, it was the two trainer clad feet that were poking out of the bottom of the door of our tiny shed that captured my attention.
I breathed a sigh of relief because I instantly knew who those feet belonged to and it warmed my heart that it was us that he'd come back to. Obviously he was attempting to hide but it was pretty impossible for a six foot something man to hide in that shed, he must be frozen too. The nosh wagon was nowhere in sight. I quickly made another fresh coffee, slipped on my sliders and tightened my dressing gown around my waist before letting myself out of the door in search of my friend.
There was silence all around, everybody most likely still sleeping after a heavy night on the booze. So as I walked across the grass, the only sound under foot was the soft crunch of morning frost. I pulled back the wooden door to find Ace lying flat on his back, a tiny blanket covering half of his body as he stared at the ceiling with wide swollen eyes.
He didn't make a move when I opened the door fully and stepped inside, he'd turned on a small battery operated lamp which rested in the corner, so we weren't plunged into complete darkness. I placed the cup of coffee down on a box before falling to my knees beside him and resting my head on his rock hard chest. I wrapped my arms around him the best I could as I moved up and down with every deep breath he took .
It took a few minutes but he eventually wrapped his big arms around me and held me tightly to his chest, a small sniffle left him as I looked up just in time to catch a slow tear streaking down his face. My heart broke for him and I didn't even know what had happened.
"Oh Acey, come here." I practically pulled him to sitting and flung myself into his lap, there was absolutely nothing sexual about this contact. This man was my family, the sibling I'd always longed for.
I held him as he sobbed into my shoulder, soaking my dressing gown as he clung to me like a small child would his mother.
When his sobs eventually quietened, I pulled back to hand him his coffee. His skin was cold to the touch, his lips slightly blue from being outside in the cold for however long.
"Thanks Cherry," he croaked. His throat clogged with emotion, his breath coming out in one long exhale as he took a sip of the strong caffeine goodness.
"Want to talk about it?" I didn't want to press him, I wouldn't force him but Ace had been there for me more times than I could count over the years.
"She broke my heart …" he told me as another tear fell from his eye, I rested a hand on his knee and gave him a soft squeeze to continue.
"She … she. Ah for fuck sake, just look." He pulled his phone out of his pocket, unlocked it and went to his messages before closing his eyes with a shudder and holding it out to me.
I took the phone from his trembling hand and lowered my eyes to look at the screen and was instantly blown away, no that couldn't be right could it. I brought the phone closer to my face in an attempt to make sense of what my eyes were seeing. My eyes lifted to check on Ace, who had put his coffee cup or the floor and was holding his head in his hands.
What I saw on this screen was unbelievable, like literally I didn't believe it. There was something else going on here, something that would come to light eventually.
Lily was sweet, innocent, loyal. She loved Ace, maybe not in the sense that Ace hoped for but she loved him like a loyal best friend should, she would never betray him. Not unless there was a damn good reason for it. Mind completely blown, I locked Ace's phone and placed it on the floor beside him.
"Want to talk?" I asked softly, I had no fucking clue what to say, I was totally speechless, but I'd attempt to string together coherent words if that's what he wanted.
"Not really," he choked out.
"Want some breakfast instead?" That made him lift his sad eyes to mine, he gave me a small nod.
"Mama Richard's pancakes?"
"Anything for you Acey, I'll get Mack right on it."
I helped him to his feet before he pulled me into his arms again and placed a kiss on the very top of my head.
"I love you Cherry."
"I love you too Ace, come on let's get you inside, I've got you."
Mack was waiting for us at the front door, clad in a t-shirt and grey joggers. If it was under any other circumstances I would have already dropped to my knees in front of him, but there was a time and a place. This was definitely not the time.
"Come on brother." Mack swept an arm around Ace's shoulder when we were close enough and pulled him inside the house.
We all knew that this day would come one day, the day when the sweetest man got his heart broken well beyond repair. That day was here and had been completely blown to smithereens. I still couldn't believe what I'd seen on his phone, it wasn't just the photo that blew my mind but it was the look of complete despair in Lily's eyes that made that entire situation much more complex than what it seemed at first glance .
One day we'd get to the bottom of it and I hoped that day was sooner rather than later.