him an ice-cold Lone Star beer before taking out a tub of potato salad and some forks. “I didn’t get any plates. I figured we could share.”
“That works for me,” he said, giving her a sandwich.
She opened the paper wrapping and closed her eyes, breathing in the scent of the barbecue beef sandwich. “I swear heaven must smell like this.”
He laughed and she blushed. “It’s been a while since I’ve done this.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t around when your dad died,” he said.
“It’s okay. Today in that meeting, I realized you are doing exactly what you should be.”
“I’ve always thought so, but now I’m questioning it,” he said, taking a big bite of his sandwich.
She watched him chew before shaking herself and turning away.
“That’s just because of your health.”
“And you,” he said.
She knew he meant the ranch and the attraction, nothing more. And she was fine with that. But a part of her wished it really was about her. Molly, the person, not his business partner, not his fling. Not Mick’s daughter.
* * *
HE’D NEVER THOUGHT about getting older or the years passing. He always lived his life one day at the time. But he had to face things now. It wasn’t just his health that weighed heavily on his mind. Mick had only been sixty-five. He’d probably imagined he had years ahead of him to spend with Molly, get the ranch in order, do everything that mattered. Ace was only thirty-one, but his job was dangerous and life was uncertain. He didn’t want to miss out on the important things—and for the first time he wondered if some of those things might be right here on Earth.
“I mean that,” he said to Molly. She’d shrugged slightly when he’d said she was part of what was changing him.
“Sure you do. We’re partners. We will be taking on a huge responsibility if NASA awards that bid to us,” she said. “You better be serious. I have no clue how to do any of it without you.”
“You’d figure it out pretty quick. Besides NASA will hire all the other personnel. The Cronus program has a few people in place but they will add more once the facility is built and staffed. Are you happy with this decision?” he asked. “I hope I didn’t force it on you.”
“I’m okay with it. The only thing that would have truly made me happy was finding a way to go back to how things were. You know?”
“I do know. It’s hard to see your home change and to realize that you have to embrace it or lose it.”
“It is. I didn’t know you thought of the Bar T like that,” she said.
He glanced over at her, removing his ball cap and putting his sunglasses inside of it. He took a deep breath.
“I was thinking about my childhood home.”
“Oh. What happened there? You never talked about it when we were younger,” she said, taking a sip of her beer and shifting on the blanket until she could rest her back against the wheel well, stretching her legs out in front of her. “Unless you don’t want to say.”
“I wouldn’t have brought it up,” he said, smiling at her. “I lived in a low-income apartment complex. My old man was gone before I was born. Mom got sick, pancreatic cancer. They moved her to hospice, and after she died no one seemed to remember me. So I just lived in our apartment by myself. The water and electricity worked for about two months and then they shut it off, but no one came to take over the apartment. I started shoplifting food, and then fell in with a bad crowd...”
She reached over and rubbed his leg. “I’m sorry.”
“Mick told me everyone knows heartache. Some of us just get more of it than others,” Ace said. Mick had been laconic with his words, but what he did say always seemed to be exactly what Ace had needed to hear.
“Sounds like Dad. Being here helped you, didn’t it?”
“Yes,” he said. “More than I can say.”
“When I was younger I never understood why Dad took you boys in. Jeb tried to explain it to me when I was being a bratty teenager and not talking to Dad, but I still didn’t get it until just now. We had so much and I’m really glad that Dad invited you and the other boys to share it.”
“Me, too,” Jason said. Mick had saved him. Not just from jail but also from the man he might have been. Someone who never thought to dream of the stars.
“I am going to have to talk to the bank tomorrow,” she said.
He shook his head.
“What?”
“We’re on a picnic—no talk of chores or business,” he said.
“What will we talk about?”
He leaned against the wheel well on his side and stretched his legs out next to hers. He crossed his arms over his chest. There was so much he wanted to know about her; he wasn’t sure where to start.
“What did you do after high school?” he asked.
“Went to community college in Houston for one semester. I got an apartment near campus with Annabelle, do you remember her?”
“Vaguely. You used to hang out with her in the summers, right?” he asked. He had an image of a redheaded girl in his mind, but he wasn’t sure if that was Annabelle.
“Yeah. Anyway, turns out she is very messy and not too disciplined, so we didn’t like living together and I didn’t much like college so I came back home and took some online classes in business management. Dad thought it would be good for me when I took over the ranch.”
“Was it?”
“Yes, so far. What did you do when you first left the ranch?” she asked.
He didn’t want to talk about himself. He wanted to know more about her. What she’d said about her friend intrigued him. “Are you a clean freak?”
“What?”
“You said Annabelle was messy,” he said.
“Oh. I just like things in their place. Orderly, you know. She left stuff everywhere.”
“I like things orderly, too,” he said.
“That makes sense. On the ISS you have very little room,” she said. “What’s it like living in such a small space for a year?” she asked. “I think I’d go crazy if I couldn’t go outside, breathe in the fresh air and walk through the fields.”
She gestured to the ranch and he noticed how slim her arms were, how gracefully she moved.
“You would.”
“I GUESS YOU have the whole universe spread out before you, though. The ranch must seem small compared to that,” she said.
He tipped his head back, staring up. As the sun set and the sky darkened, she saw stars and satellites twinkling in the sky.
“It does. But most of the time all I can do is look at the surrounding stars and the Earth through the space station’s windows,” he said at last. His voice was low, husky and relaxed. He seemed to be at peace, which she’d never noticed in him before.
“Most of the time?”
“Space walks,” he said. “I put on a space suit, tether myself to a line and go out for an extravehicular activity. I love the freedom of floating around up there.”
“Isn’t that scary?” she asked. She was scared just thinking about him up there, exposed and vulnerable.