Page 143 of Match Me if You Can

Her eyes come to mine. “Don’t let that one go.”

“Not planning on it.” Before she can tell me to Go on and get, I press a kiss to her cheek and get, taking Vi’s hand, drawing us out of Ally’s office.

“Oh,” Violet says, pausing us on the threshold. “You said you received something in your inbox just before we walked in. What was it?”

“The contract from Maison Êtoile. You got it, Ace.”

I go stiff, surprise and dismay having a battle through my insides.

Vi sucks in a breath, her fingers tightening on mine.

Ally’s lips curve into a grim smile.

Then she speaks the God’s honest truth, “Now we just have to see if we can keep it.”

FORTY-ONE

Violet

“We need to talk, princess,” Ace says quietly.

We’re at the AirBnB.

The sun is barely up.

Neither of us slept last night and there’s a video of Ace and me having sex being shared who knows where.

And my family—who didn’t give one fuck about me when I lived there—wants me to go home.

And Ace’s brother—and seriously, how gross is that?—is the one who took the video. Almost as gross as my brothers and father watching it.

And…I freaked out and ran through Ace’s parents’ house, making a scene, probably making Beck think I’m a lunatic and worrying Joan and making Steve look at me like…

Well, not like I was the strong, badass woman who put him in his place.

Instead, I was…unhinged.

But even with all that, I know Ace is right.

We have to talk.

“I’m sorry,” I tell him.

His face tightens, and he moves over to where I’m unpacking the bag of groceries we picked up.

Because I need something to do.

So…pancakes.

“Baby, we talked about this on the plane.”

I nod then jerk my hand through my hair, the strands catching on my fingers, causing tiny bolts of pain to jolt through my scalp. “That wasn’t me,” I whisper.

“I know it wasn’t.” He touches my cheek. “But it also was.”

I shake my head. “I don’t even know what came over me. I acted hysterical. I wasn’t calm and rational. I didn’t stop to think things through. I⁠—”

A tug has me in his arms. “I know you spent your whole life having to do everything on your own, baby. I know you had to be strong and unaffected, calm and in control. But”—he pulls back enough to meet my eyes—“you don’t have to do that here.”