Pieces of Us (Confessions of the Heart 3)

“Dddddad. You’re awake. I was so wwwworried about yyyou.”

He fumbled to get closer, and emotion pulsed up my arm when I reached out and touched my fingertips to his cheek. “I’m sorry I scared you. It was the last thing I wanted to do.”

His grin widened. “That’s oookay. You saaaved us.”

“You got that bad guy good, Mack Daddy!” Dillon said, all too eager. “Grand Pop, too. Boom, bam, bang. Sneak attack. Told you that was the best kind, Grand Pop. Seven cop cars came to our house and a helicopter and two ambulances. Did you know that? I didn’t get to really see it, but Nana told me you were really brave and you saved our mom and us, and now we get to be a family, right?”

Kid rambled the way he did, and my heart overflowed, throbbed with affection.

It expanded in a stunning way when I met Izzy’s gaze.

Soft and sure and right.

Goodness bleeding out.

“Hi,” she whispered in her southern drawl as she climbed to standing.

Her mother and father pushed to their feet.

Resolute.

All of them at my side.

Izzy shuffled over, and Dillon leaned down from her arms and kissed my cheek.

“Love you,” I told him, my voice hoarse and raw.

“I love you the most!”

Izzy set him onto his feet, and she edged in, pressed her nose to my temple. Just . . . breathed me in the way I’d always done her.

And I finally got it—the fact that this road truly went both ways. That it didn’t matter where we came from, as long as we met in the middle.

All of them looked down at me.

This—this was what it meant to be a part of a family.

Izzy softly pressed her mouth to mine, and she whispered, “Endless.”

Epilogue

Mack

It’s funny when you find yourself barreling down a path you never expected. Headed straight for a collision course. No chance of a detour or an exit.

I guessed maybe I should have known I had always been speeding back toward her.

My chest fisted when I looked down at my new wife where I had my arm casually slung around her shoulders. I couldn’t do anything but push my nose into the strands of her hair, needing to get closer, never close enough.

Wild jasmine and the sun.

Groaning, I nuzzled deeper into that sweet, soft flesh.

She giggled and pulled back to shoot me one of those mesmerizing grins.

Around us, herds of excited children screamed and ran, the place so packed we could barely move through the crowds.

“You picked the wrong place for a honeymoon if you’re havin’ those kinds of thoughts,” she whispered, keeping her voice quieted from the rest of our crew.

I tugged her closer. “What do you think that big suite is for?”

“For later,” she taunted in her sweet way.

I leaned down and grabbed a kiss, taking it a little deeper than was probably prudent considering the company we were keeping. “I can’t wait,” I murmured at her lips.

“Ah, man,” Dillon said where he was doing circles around my legs. “Is this what it’s gonna be like now that you two got hitched? More and more kissin’. Sheesh. And here I thought we’d had enough of that.”

“Are you kiddin’ me? I get to officially call your mom my wife, and you think I’m gonna stop kissing on her? Not even.”

I swept the little guy into my arms, heart overflowing as I peppered a slew of kisses all over his face. “Eww, kisses are gross,” he said through his rumble of giggles, kid laughing, loving it every bit as much as me.

“You better get used to it, Lil’ Dill. There’s a whole lot more of those where that came from.”

“Fine, fine, Mack Daddy. If you say so.”

Still melted into a damn puddle every time he called me that.

I leaned back so I could take in my son. Dillon had to be the most excited I’d ever seen him, and that was really saying something.

We were celebrating our marriage. Our family.

At Disneyworld . . . with the entire crew.

Dillon had contributed his five bucks, wrapping it up like a present for our wedding.

Kid was so damned cute, he could get away with just about anything.

Nothing but a troublemaker.

Instead of matching shirts? Everyone had decided costumes were the way to go.

Guessed we’d gone a little overboard with the festivities.

Mal Pal was Elsa, and Sophie Marie was going as her sister Anna, of course, and their big brother Thomas was wearing a cool rendition of King Arthur. Collin, who was now walking, made a pretty badass Robin Hood.

No duct-taped diaper in sight.

Jace and Faith’s kids bobbed along beside their cousins, excited as ever, Bailey Anne going as Belle and her brother, Benton, dressed as The Beast. Their baby sister, Ava, who was curled up in her mother’s arms, was dressed as a rose.

Then we had our outlier.

My Lil’ Dill.