Page 56 of All I Feel

“Yes, Lark has been a huge help, but that’s not it.”

Except for Lark and Harper, the rest of the girls were thoroughly confused. Mia asked, “What do you mean?”

“Someone else has been helping Tessa see that she deserves better,” Lark revealed with a smile.

Chloe’s eyes rounded. “Who is it?”

“Is it a guy?” Olivia pressed.

Mia asked, “Do we know him?”

From where I was seated in the living room, I had a clear line of sight to the kitchen. My eyes went there, landing onthe devilishly handsome guy who’d rocked my world with that kiss yesterday.

“Wait a minute,” Savanna murmured. “Is he in the kitchen?”

“Who? What?” Chloe wondered.

“Is it…” Mia trailed off. “Well, it can’t be Taj, Hawk, Archer, or Phoenix.”

“So that means it’s either Ace or Kingston,” Olivia declared.

“My brother?” Chloe gasped.

“It’s my brother,” Lark shared. “Ace has been spending a lot of time with Tessa recently.”

Harper let out an audible sigh. “But don’t get your hopes up, ladies. Tessa has already insisted that they’re just friends.”

Savanna’s eyes met mine. “Is that true?”

“It was… until he kissed me yesterday.”

“What?!”Lark gasped. Her voice was loud enough that even the men looked in our direction.

“Don’t freak out,” I hissed. “It… Well, there was an incident.”

My sister leaned in. “What incident could’ve happened that led to Ace kissing you?”

Inhaling deeply, I braced for all that was going to come after I shared what happened at the café. “Ace and I made plans to meet at the café after I got finished with a bridal party yesterday…” I went on to tell them how I’d arrived a few minutes before Ace and Ryan happened to be there. Of course, I shared how Ryan was insistent on us getting together to talk and work things out because he believed he was a changed man. And finally, I revealed that Ace showed up, acted like we were seeing one another, and whispered in my ear to play along before he kissed me.

“So, he was trying to get Ryan to see that you moved on,” Harper said.

I nodded. “Yes. That was part of it.”

“Part of it?”

“After Ryan left, Ace and I discussed it.”

“And?” Chloe might’ve asked, but every single woman sitting around me was eager for more information.

I licked my lips, glanced at him in the kitchen again, and shared, “And he told me he cares deeply about me, wants more with me, and understands I’ve just gotten out of a bad relationship. He’s willing to wait until I’m ready, and if I don’t get there, he promised it wouldn’t change a thing about our friendship.”

“Oh, my heart,” Mia practically sang. “I never thought about any of us ending up with any of them, but this makes me so happy.”

I expected nothing less than that response from Mia, the hopeless romantic of the group.

“How do you feel about Ace?” Olivia asked.

It was such a loaded question, but I knew that if I stood any chance of sorting out all that I was feeling, these were the women I could rely on to help me work through it.