Page 147 of Ace My Heart

We’d all been shocked to discover that Sandra had taken the revelation about Julie and her illegitimate child in her stride with no surprise whatsoever.

“I should have known that Steve would have told her. He loved her. He really did – more than anything else. More than me.” I heard Julie’s voice break, and I put a tentative arm around her shoulders.

I actually really liked Julie, now that there was no need for me to be ten different shades of green thinking about her and Joel together.

“I’ll never regret it though. How could I when I got Shaun out of it?”

I smiled. “He’s a cool little kid, I’ll give you that much. And he’s going to be a stunner when he’s older.”

Julie sniffed and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, like you’re not biased! He’s definitely going to take after his brother.”

“My ears are burning!” Joel announced behind us and we both jumped.

“How do you do that?” I asked, feigning annoyance.

Julie smiled and slipped out from under my arm. “I’d better go and see what my wayward son is up to – probably terrorising Sandra.” Julie made her escape.

I looked up at my man. His eyes sparkled, bluer than the harbour. He moved closer and slipped his arms around my waist.

“How’d you go today?” he asked.

I grinned. “Great! I’m definitely getting better. I think I’ll be able to get back into competition soon.”

Joel’s eyes narrowed. “How about you just take it easy, Stinky? There’s no rush.”

I pouted and Joel smirked.

“I want to go to Tokyo,” I muttered without any real conviction. I was pretty sure what his answer would be. I was right.

Joel shook his head. “Okay, here’s the deal. You skip Tokyo, keep working hard, and we’ll aim to have you ready for San Diego.”

I rolled my eyes. “Is that a directive from my coach, or my boyfriend?” I couldn’t help the little smile that lit up my face as I said the word ‘boyfriend’.

Joel noticed it and grinned. “From both.”

I sighed, but I nodded. I could see that what he was saying made sense. There was no point in rushing back into it and ending up injuring myself further.

Joel drew me off the court and into the rumpus room. I broke free of him and went towards the stairs, but he caught my hand and pulled me back. I looked at him curiously.

“The sentencing hearing was this morning,” he reminded me.

I nodded, the smile slipping from my face. We’d been told that we could attend if we wanted. I couldn’t think of anything worse, and Joel and Sandra had agreed with me. I didn’t want to be in the same room as that psychopath ever again. Not after what we’d learned during the hearing.

Thomas Blackthorn, who’d seemed like such a lovely, doting boyfriend to Amanda, had ‘kindly’ offered to feed Connor of an evening while I was away, so Amanda wouldn’t have to rush before her shifts at the hospital. And while he was there, he’d installed hidden webcams, covering every corner of my apartment. The police had found footage on Thomas’s computer of me in the shower, sleeping, changing … and one video of Joel and me on my lounge, and on my living room floor. That was how Joel had managed to get into his crosshairs.

Thomas had also been responsible for leaking the Pete Levinevideo – the anonymous tennisfanboi Twitter account that had always posted about me belonged to Thomas.

“I just checked,” Joel muttered, “life in prison.”

A huge sighed gusted out of me and I collapsed onto the lounge.

“Well,” I managed after I took a few deep breaths. “That’s … good.” It seemed totally inadequate, to say it was good that the person who had ended two people’s lives was stuck in prison for the rest of his. But what else was I supposed to say?

Joel inhaled deeply and let the air hiss slowly out of his lungs. “It’s over.”

He pushed me down on the lounge, covering my body with his, kissing me with wild abandon. If there hadn’t been a preschooler upstairs playing in the living room with his trucks I would have let nature take its course.

I broke away from him. “I’m glad you feel relieved, but maybe we should find a more appropriate venue for this,” I murmured. He sat up, pulling me against his side. I snuggled as close as I could.

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