Page 27 of Ace

“Yes, Daddy. I was just gonna let you know that Jade and I were gonna move to a different table to talk. Unless it’s okay with you if we go to the chapel?”

Ace frowned and turned to look at Jade’s Daddy, Pastor Ryan, with raised eyebrows.

Pastor Ryan shrugged and nodded. “I don’t mind.”

“I don’t either. But are you sure everything is okay, little one?”

Ace peered at her intently, and her stomach turned to mush. If she said it was, did that count as lying?

“I just want to talk to Jade, and it’s pretty loud at our table,” she answered finally, dodging the question. Thankfully, Margo, Luna and Mariah chose that exact moment to explode in raucous peals of side-splitting laughter, proving her point.

Ace chuckled. “So it is. Finish your breakfast first, and I’ll come get you when I’m done eating.”

Jade appeared behind Pastor Ryan and he just nodded, looking up at her. “Go on. Just be good.”

She sat back down long enough to finish as much as she could eat, then dumped her tray and allowed Jade to lead her out of the dining hall and down a long hallway into the chapel. The chapel was a modest room, with wooden pews, padded with a pink brocade silk, a simple altar and podium and chandeliers that matched the ones throughout the hotel. But the coolest part, the pièce de résistance was the mural on the walls. Drawn in crayon and lacquered over to preserve it was the piece she’d so far only read about. She walked around the room slowly, taking in every detail and wondering if all of Luna’s plans had come to fruition. She giggled when she got to the part where a handsome Daddy spanked a girl in pigtails while a friendly whale watched from behind. “This is amazing,” she breathed.

“It is, isn’t it?” Jade agreed, coming to stand beside her. “This is where Baze and Luna met, but it was just a conference room then, not a chapel.”

“That’s so cool.” Lizzie could feel her grin spread across her whole face.

“Agreed. And it’s a lot to look at for sure. But we probably don’t have too much time. Did you need to talk about something?”

Lizzie suddenly felt ridiculous. The answer was probably so obvious that she hadn’t done anything wrong and didn’t need to do anything about it, and Jade would probably just tell her she was making a big deal about nothing. “It’s stupid.”

“Maybe. But sometimes we worry about stupid things and it helps to talk about them. Plus, if it’s making you all stressed out, I’m sure it’s not stupid. Let’s sit down.” Jade sat on a pew in the front row and motioned for Lizzie to sit down beside her.

Lizzie sat, and Jade took her hand, turning to face her. “Tell me even if it’s stupid.”

Lizzie exhaled, huffing out breath until she could make herself force out the words. “Daddy and I talked about rules last night.”

“That’s an important conversation to have, but not usually a fun one,” Jade said sympathetically.

“Yeah.”

“Is there a rule you don’t agree with? It’s hard but it’s really important to communicate those things. It makes the relationship stronger. Your Daddy might not like it initially, but Ace is a good man. I’m sure he’ll listen and be willing to compromise.”

“It’s not a bad rule, and I don’t disagree with it,” Lizzie mumbled, kicking her feet and staring down at her shiny Mary Janes.

“Okay, then what’s the problem?”

“I already broke it. The first day we were together. Before he was my Daddy or anything more than a guy I knew from work and had a crush on for years.”

Jade frowned and Lizzie spiraled. “See?” she whined. “I told you it was stupid!”

“Stop.” Jade squeezed her hand. “What was the rule?”

“No lying to Daddy.” Lizzie’s voice was a thick whisper, full of shame.

“Oh well, that’s a super important one. I can see why you are feeling a certain kinda way about it, for sure. But,” Jade continued, “it’s like you said, he wasn’t your Daddy then so it’s not fair to expect you to have followed a rule that didn’t exist.”

“I just feel so guilty.”

“I get that. You don’t have to tell me what the lie was, but since you’re so upset about it, I’m gonna assume it was a bit bigger than something like ‘I take vitamins every day or I don’t eat ice cream for breakfast’.”

Lizzie nodded.

“This is a tough one. All I can tell you is that if you’re already feeling this bad about it, you should probably tell him. Guilt doesn’t tend to just go away because someone tells us it’s okay, and if you guys are in a relationship now, honesty is super important. He might find out anyway some day and it would be better if you just told him.” Jade wrinkled her nose. “Sorry if that’s not what you wanted to hear.”