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.
I grinned down at him, and he twitched his nose that clearly was getting tickled by his fake mustache.
“I don’t even know why you think that’s a Disney hero costume, Dilly-Dally,” Mal Pal told him, all sass and matter of fact where she skipped along at my opposite side. “There aren’t even any cops in Disney movies.”
Dillon frowned at her.
Two of them were always trying to outdo the other. Best of friends and competing at the same time.
“Um, hello . . . cops are the best heroes there are,” he argued right back. “And they’re the real kind. I’d rather be a real hero than a fake one, right, Mack Daddy? I look awesome, right? Just like my dad.”
His attention jumped between Mallory and me, and I did my best to keep up.
Little dude was dressed in a cop costume, a blue button-up and blue shorts, fake badge intact. Of course, he’d gone and paired it with a sergeant’s cap and that mustache and fake aviators.
Yeah.
People were staring.
We didn’t care.
“Whose idea was this, anyway?” Ian grumbled under his breath.
Jace laughed where he held an umbrella over Faith and their newborn to block the sun.
Grace swatted at Ian’s chest. “Oh, don’t be an old grump. This is fun.”
“Happiest place ever,” he muttered with a sly grin in my direction.
“Yeah, don’t be a grump, Uncle Ian. Grumping is only for old people . . . like Grand Pop! Isn’t that right, Grand Pop?”
Dillon grinned over my shoulder. I swiveled that way, meeting eyes with Izzy’s father who was strolling along with his hand wrapped up in Mrs. Lane’s.
My heart damn near overflowed with that, too.
He sent me a smile that was almost imperceptible. Just a twitch of his own mustache.
“What . . . you callin’ me grumpy?” he teased.
“You’re the grumpiest of the grumps, Grand Pop. Accept it.”
Mr. Lane grinned, and my chest was stretching tight. Pressing full with this joy that sometimes I didn’t fully know how to process.
“This is it! This is it! This was the one I wanted to go on!” Mallory shouted, racing for the line of the little roller coaster that had about five bumps and dips and probably took about fifteen seconds to go around.
Dillon scrambled out of my arms, right on her tail, Sophie clamoring after them. Bailey Anne and Benton bolted that way, too.
Izzy turned her sweet face to our oldest son, girl’s smile so perfect and right when she looked at him.
“Is this one too little for you?” she asked, teasing him a bit since he and Thomas were all about the big kid rides and were clearly itching to ditch their little siblings and cousins.
“Nah. I ddddon’t mind.”
He sent us one of his crooked grins.
It twisted around me with the force of a thousand suns.
“Thanks for keeping an eye on the little ones, Big Ben.” I ruffled my fingers through his hair, wanting to grab him and hold him tight.
Instead, I lifted a chin at him, treating him like the man he was becoming.
Kind and good.
The kid was my definition of a hero.
“Come on, Ben. Let’s go,” Thomas hollered, walking backward and gesturing for Benjamin to get into line.
He started that way. Slower than the rest of them, his right leg still lagging more than the left.
Bony and thin and angled and the most perfect thing I’d ever seen.
He was wearing a shirt that read ‘Princess Protection Patrol’ on the back.
We’d left his fore-arm crutches back at the hotel. Just in case. But he didn’t need them.
He ran to catch up.
Fucking ran.
Smiling.
Laughter rolled from him when Dillon took his hat and threw it to him like a frisbee. He caught it and put it on his head.
Izzy curled herself to my side.
That energy fl
ashed.
Shivered in this contentment.
“I’m so happy,” she whispered.
I kissed the top of her head. “They have it all wrong, Izzy Baby. Happiest place anywhere is with you.”
Her hands fisted in my shirt, and she pressed her cheek to my thundering heart.
I glanced around at my family who had gathered by the ride to watch the kids.
I met eyes with Jace and Ian who were both wrapped around their wives, holding on tight and refusing to let go.
Something knowing passed between us.
Each of us had been bred into hardship and poverty.
Our lots cast. No hope for our futures.
Set on a course of crime and wickedness because we didn’t know anything else.
But we’d found our strength in these amazing women who’d breathed their belief. Who’d shown us something better. Who’d shown us what it really meant to fight and what we should be fighting for.
Now we stood firm.
Found who we were inside.
Our purpose.
Our reason.
The love for our families the deepest confession of our hearts.
Thank you for reading Pieces of Us!!
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Also by A.L. Jackson
Confessions of the Heart
More of You
All of Me
Pieces of Us
Fight for Me Series
Show Me the Way
Follow Me Back
Lead Me Home
Bleeding Stars Series
A Stone in the Sea
Drowning to Breathe
Where Lightning Strikes
Wait
Stay
Stand
The Regret Series
Lost to You
Take This Regret
If Forever Comes
The Closer to You Series
Come to Me Quietly
Come to Me Softly
Come to Me Recklessly
Stand-Alone Novels
Pulled
When We Collide
Hollywood Chronicles
A collaboration with USA Today Bestselling Author, Rebecca Shea
One Wild Night
One Wild Ride
About the Author
A.L. Jackson is the New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance. She writes emotional, sexy, heart-filled stories about boys who usually like to be a little bit bad.
Her bestselling series include THE REGRET SERIES, CLOSER TO YOU, BLEEDING STARS, and FIGHT FOR ME.
Watch for the latest in her new series, CONFESSIONS OF THE HEART, coming Early 2019!
If she’s not writing, you can find her hanging out by the pool with her family, sipping cocktails with her friends, or of course with her nose buried in a book.
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Pieces of Us: A Confessions of the Heart Stand-Alone Novel Page 34