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Ace stared into her eyes. “I’m not. I’m glad I was in that museum when I was and that I recognized you.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes while Jasmine mustered the courage to ask him what was burning in her mind. “Did you ever think about that crazy week we spent here in Athens?”
He’d taken his last bite of his sandwich when she asked the question. He spent a moment or two chewing, then swallowed and met her gaze. “I thought about it all the time. I tried to look you up.”
She frowned. “You did?”
He nodded. “I did.”
“When?”
“I was deployed as soon as I returned to my duty station. I couldn’t call for a couple of months because we were on a mission, incommunicado. When I finally was able to call, the phone number you gave me didn’t work.”
“That would explain why I couldn’t get in touch with you,” she said. “I tried calling, but I got no answer.”
He shook his head. “We had to leave our phones behind.”
Jasmine’s chest tightened. “I thought you didn’t want to answer,” she said. “That week went by so fast, and we never talked about the future.”
“When we got back from our mission and your number was disconnected, I wondered if what we had was only a dream.”
She smiled sadly. “When I left the military, I had to turn in my cell phone and get a new one.”
“Maybe it was a dream. Now, you have another life. A son.”
Jasmine opened her mouth to tell him that Eli was his son, but before she could, Ace set his glass on the table and stood.
“I’m going to get a shower,” he said and carried his plate to the sink. “Leave your dishes in the sink. I’ll take care of them after I shower.”
Jasmine stood and carried her plate with the half-eaten sandwich to the sink, bumping shoulders with Ace as he turned.
“Sorry,” he said and stepped back to allow her to place her plate in the sink.
Before he could walk away, she blurted, “I hate leaving dishes in the sink. It won’t take long to clean up. I’ll wash if you’ll dry.”
He hesitated, then grabbed the dish towel hanging on a hook.
Glad she’d keep close to him for a little longer, Jasmine scraped the sandwich into the garbage can at the end of the counter and filled the sink with warm, soapy water. She washed the two plates and glasses, rinsed them and then handed them to Ace one by one. They finished all too soon.
“You can have Fearghas’s shower. I’ll shower in the guest bedroom,” Ace said, his voice gruff.
She took the towel from his hands and reached around him to hang it on the hook, her arm circling him in the process.
Ace turned to face her and pulled her into his arms.
Jasmine couldn’t resist what her body and soul craved...his touch...his arms around her. She leaned into him. “I missed you.”
His arms tightened around her, pressing her body closer. “I missed you, too.”
She leaned her head back and stared up into his eyes. “Do we miss what we had, or did we build it up in our minds to be greater than it was?”
Ace shook his head. “All I know is that it was the best week of my life, and I didn’t want it to end.”
“When you didn’t return my phone calls, I thought it meant nothing to you,” she said.
“I couldn’t,” he said. “I was deployed.”
“I know that now.”
