Michelle asked Kristen Ashley:

Kristen, I consider myself a super fan and have not been able to find the answer to this question anywhere. Why does Tate nickname Lauren "Ace" in a Sweet Dreams and why does Joe call Violet "Buddy" in At Peace? BTW, I listen to all of your available books on audio everyday. I fall asleep listening to your righteous words, and my 7-year-old son is nicknamed Tex thanks to you!

Kristen Ashley Oh my goodness! A seven-year-old Tex! That makes me smile HUGE! Love that!!! :-)

Okay, as for your questions...

You are not missing anything with either Tate or Joe's nicknames for their women. To be honest, Tate never even shared with ME why he calls Lauren "Ace." I think it just slipped out, say, instead of calling her "woman," or "babe," (or to shake it up from calling her "babe" all the time :-)). Or maybe he sees that in her somehow, his "Ace." Not a bad thing to be!

I gave my beloved Joe "buddy" because of THE best pickup line I ever received in my life. It's a long story but in short, I was waiting for a plane in my hotel lobby in Edinburgh. A squadron of Army guys were heading to Afghanistan and their plane was grounded for a day for repairs so they were hanging around in the lobby too. One of the officers kept throwing smiles at me. He was hot. He was confident. He was wearing fatigues. I think you can get me...

At one point during the time we shared the lobby, I had to walk by him. When I walked back, he was out of his seat and in my way.

As I squeezed by him, he murmured, "How you doin', buddy?"

That was it. I stopped and talked to him for ages.

Even the awesomeness that is Joe does not contain the awesomeness of that guy calling me "buddy." That was how great his "buddy" was. So I gave it to Joe.

PS: I was married so we just chatted...but it was still nice to know I caught his eye!

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