More of You (Confessions of the Heart 1)

She flashed me a row full of tiny teeth. “You promise.”

Pushing out a slow sigh, I rubbed a hand over my face to chase away the fatigue, laughing lightly.

And this was how a man was wrapped around a little girl’s finger.

I’d bet Bailey could write a book on it.

I rolled to the opposite side of the bed and quickly dragged on the jeans I’d left on the floor.

I buttoned them, raked both my hands through my tangled hair, and started around the end of the bed.

The wood groaned as I moved that way, and I craned my head to peer around the opposite side to where Bailey was still on her knees on the floor, just sitting there, waiting for me.

Carefully, I reached down and picked her up from under her arms.

She giggled the softest sound, her arms stretching out for me.

I held her out away from me. Unsure of exactly where to go from there. Like I was fearful of bringing her closer.

I was.

Fuck, I was.

Because when I pulled her against my chest, my heart started beating faster.

“Let’s get you something to eat.” I kept my voice low so Faith could sleep in, sure she hadn’t been afforded that luxury in too long a time.

I carried Bailey down the hall, angling a bit as I stepped over the baby gate, her eyes going wide in some kind of adorable guilt when I did.

“Yeah, you aren’t supposed to be crawling over that yourself, are you, you little stinker?”

She scrunched up her nose. “Stinker?”

Low, rumbly laughter rambled around in my chest. “What, you aren’t a stinker?”

Wide-eyed, she shook her head, her voice that sweet drawl. “I’s take a bath.”

That chuckle grew warm. “I guess you aren’t a stinker then. My mistake.”

“Aww of us make mistakes,” she told me, completely serious and resolute, like she held the secret of life and needed me to know.

“Some of us more than others,” I muttered under my breath.

It was the truth.

The realization hit me.

Because I could feel it.

Light. Blazing and blinding. It bounced through the room, ricocheting from the walls. Wasn’t entirely sure where it started and where it ended, though I knew both Bailey and Faith were its source.

It was like it was feeding from the two of them, amplifying with each pass.

I didn’t know if I was the lucky bastard who got caught in the middle of it, got to taste it for the barest second, or if it was going to leave me blinded and scarred in the end.

But it was that second that I knew it.

It didn’t matter that she was Joseph’s kid. That she represented every goddamned thing I’d ever wanted and was the fruition of what I could never have.

I’d protect her the same.

Just like I was going to protect her mother.

With all I had.

With whatever it took.

Nineteen

Jace

Seventeen Years Old

Jace didn’t look back as he slipped out of the tiny, rusted trailer and into the night.

It wasn’t like he wanted to see.

His mama’s door sitting half open, all that shit lying on her nightstand, her passed out beside some asshole Jace was itching to grab by the hair and drag outside.

Give him a good beatdown. Watch the blood drip from his mouth and his nose as he promised he’d never come around again.

This guy was different from most of the guys his mama suckered in. Wearing nice clothes and rolling up in a shiny car.

That kind of pissed Jace off, too.

He swallowed it, bit it back, because he had more important things to focus on.

Under the light of the moon, he jogged up the path from the trailer, hitting the dirt road, increasing his pace until he stood right in front of the tree-lined drive.

The night was quiet. Super still. The leaves barely rustling where they stretched across the road. Surely, the small whispers they hissed were the ghosts Faith loved to dream about.

Standing in the middle of the road, Jace shoved his hands into his pockets and just . . . waited.

He was early by twenty minutes, but he couldn’t lay around and pretend to sleep in that trailer for one more second when he knew he had something good to look forward to.

He rocked back on his heels, tipped his head back, and looked to the stars.

Anxious.

Excited.

And somehow feeling guilty that he’d convinced her to do this.

It really hadn’t taken all that much. It wasn’t like they hadn’t been sneaking off to meet here almost every day after school. It was just the first time they’d decided to do it in the middle of the night.

He felt it the second she stumbled out of the thicket of trees up the road, coming from where she was spending the night with her best friend.

His attention immediately jerked that way, his breath hitching at the base of his throat when he saw her.