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He smiles and my stupid heart flips. I stare at him blankly. He’s a stranger. A customer like any other. "Welcome to The Alma," I recite automatically. "What can I get you?"
My heart beats so hard I worry it will leave my chest. So much has happened since that night. I’ve thought of him so often. Practiced what I would say to him when I saw him. Now that he’s standing in front of me, it feels unreal.
He cocks his head in a painfully familiar gesture. All his mannerisms are seared in my memory. He’s more than a stranger that I slept with. He’s my daughter’s father, even though he doesn’t know it.
"Are you going to pretend that you don’t remember me?" he says, and the corners of his lips lift as he smiles.
I stare into his eyes and I'm startled. There's no mistaking the look in his eyes. Sadness. Immense sadness that tugs at my heartstrings. I know it because I've seen the same look in my sister’s eyes and she in mine as we were growing up. I wonder what has put it there and despite everything I drop my plan.
I sigh deeply. "Hello, Ace. Nice to see you after two years."
His face lights up. "That's better and it's nice to see you too. You look even more beautiful than the last time I saw you."
I raise an eyebrow. "So you’ve regained the power of speech?"
"What do you mean?" he says. His eyes are doing the thing again. The thing that made me sleep with him on the first date. Raking my body. Fucking me with his eyes.
My body reacts. After all, I’m human but my mind remains crystal clear. I’m not the girl he took home, fucked all night, and then disappeared without a goodbye or an explanation. Bitterness swirls in my mouth. He gave me a crash course on thoughtless actions and consequences. The image of Luna floats to my mind but I shove it away. I cannot think of my sweet beautiful daughter right now. My defenses will shatter if I think about her.
"You hardly got two sentences out of your mouth that night," I tell him.
"I'm surprised you noticed," he says with a lazy grin. "You were busy bringing the house down with your sexy moans."
My face heats up as memories of that night come over me. The way he worked my body as if he was intimately familiar with it, knowing where to lick, how much pressure to apply, and when to ease off. No woman can forget the hottest night of her life even if the months that followed were pure hell.
I inhale deeply to dispel the feelings of resentment gathering in my chest. "Bourbon on the rocks?"
He shrugs as if it doesn’t matter either way. "Sure."
I'm relieved to have something to do. I turn away and take my time pouring his drink. I remember the days spent curled up on my couch after I found out that I was pregnant. In the weeks that followed where I scoured the internet to search for anyone called Ace Carter.
The rising desperation and panic at the realization that I could not afford a baby with my bartending job alone. I'd doubled my efforts to find Ace Carter. It was Vanessa who had been successful. She'd found a Carter all right but not Ace. She found his brother Declan. He had been a Godsend.
The ice in the glass clinks as I hand Ace his drink. Our fingers brush and I almost spill the drink as I snatch my hand away.
"Any chance of a drink after work?' he says, a twinkle in his eye.
I stare at him dumbfounded and then it hits me. Ace is here for another booty call. He wants a repeat of what happened two years ago. Who does that? What kind of cruel person fucks a woman, disappears for two years, and then returns for the same?
As I stare at him, my anger dissipates, and I see Luna. She’s a spitting image of her father. I'd vowed that Ace would never know his daughter. Never be part of her life.
She deserves to know her father.
The voice is as clear as it is mysterious. I want to rage at it. Where was he when I needed him? Luna is a year and two months old. We've survived without him and we will continue to survive.
"What do you say, beautiful?" Ace says.
I've been reading body language for as long as I’ve been a bartender. Something is off about the way Ace calls me beautiful. When we were together, he had called me Lexi. Then it hits me. Not only is he back for another fuck, but he doesn’t remember my name.
"What is my name?"
"What kind of question is that?" Ace says in mock indignance but not before I see the panic that flits across his eyes.
