All of Me (Confessions of the Heart 2)

“I have one goal, and that’s to become partner. To get one step closer to taking over the firm. That’s what it’s always been. I win this case, and I gain everything I’ve ever wanted.” Every word was goddamned sand. Lies I couldn’t tell myself fast enough to make myself believe what I was saying.

“That so?” he challenged.

“That’s so.”

He pushed away from the bar and walked toward the carved archway, pausing to look back at me. “Then I guess you’re a bigger fool than I thought.”

Disappointed, Jace walked out, thinking he knew me. That I deserved more.

Thinking I was being selfish.

What he didn’t get was I could never keep them.

Not when I didn’t deserve anything at all.

Thirty-Two

Ian

I stumbled down the sweeping staircase, roughing a hand through my bedhead and subduing a yawn as I followed the clatter of noise banging around from the bottom floor.

All the bedrooms had been empty.

At six o’clock in the damned morning.

I tried not to shake my head, tried to fight all the anxiety surrounding all of this. Tried to shove it down into that deep pit where I knew it would only fester.

I’d woken up—feeling different. Like maybe I was a heartbeat from changing a philosophy or two. Clinging to that ridiculous notion that everything would turn out the way it was supposed to.

Yeah fucking right.

It was the only thought in my head as I walked into the enormous kitchen and was slammed with the chaos going down inside.

I froze in the middle of it, mouth gaping open and eyes going wide.

Beyoncé was blasting through the room from the overhead speakers, giving all the single ladies instructions on how to wrap their men around their finger. Mallory was dancing around, waving her hand in the air, and Bailey was following her around like she’d found her long lost BFF, trying to keep up with the lyrics that she clearly didn’t know.

Oh, but Mallory did. She was singing them at the top of her lungs.

Sophie Marie was standing in place, bouncing low, her diapered butt nearly hitting the floor every time she dropped it like it was hot.

My eyes just got wider when my attention landed on my badass brother. He held Benton facing out, the baby kicking his arms and legs and letting loose the tiniest sounds of laughter, while my brother danced and bounced his son as he sang along.

Dude was waving his free hand in the air—his very ringed finger, mind you—right in the middle of the little girls.

Wasn’t even sure who was the instigator of this madness.

Thomas stood at the island singing just below his breath while he cracked some eggs into a bowl, listening intently while Faith gave him instructions.

As easy as could be.

Obviously, the entire world had lost its mind overnight.

Oh, wait, no, that was me.

Because my damned breath hitched, and my pulse went haywire when my gaze continued to glide across the country kitchen that was the heart of this historic home, and I found Grace standing at the stove, pouring round dollops of pancake batter onto a griddle.

Her tight ass rocking all over the place.

Rocking me.

Tossing me from solid ground.

I took a step forward into the alternate universe. Not a damned familiar stone beneath my feet.

Mallory was the first to notice that I’d entered.

She danced right over, throwing her hands in the air. “Ian-Zian, I thought you were going to sleep the whole day and you were going to miss our adventure and it’s the best adventure in the whole world. I got a new best friend. Her name is Bailey. She loves adventures, too.”

She waved an exuberant hand at my niece like she was introducing me to a stranger. The second Bailey saw me, she started jumping around, too.

“Uncle Ian, Uncle Ian, you spent the night! I’ve been missin’ you. Did you go huntin’?” She looked around the room, her voice turning serious. “My uncle is a dog. Just ask my dad.”

That was the exact time Faith lowered the volume. You know, just in time for Bailey to emphasize the fact.

All eyes locked on me.

I was pretty sure I needed to find some slippers and tap my heels three times or some shit because I’d been swept into a tornado.

Problem was that those would be the wrong damned kind of shoes. Because my battered Cinderella turned around.

The second those eyes landed on me, they set me on fire. But it was the softness playing around her lush mouth that had the dark spot in my chest doing crazy things.

She looked so damned happy, like she belonged right there in the middle of my family.

Like this was the place where she felt safest.

Like she was getting lost in the warmth. Adding to it. Shining all that light and understanding.

“A dog?” Mallory asked, twisting the word around and drawing it out like she was completely confused.