Take All of Me

Ivy

I’ve always found solace in the pages of a good book.

At the women’s shelter where I volunteer, I prefer the quiet corners and the comfort of helping others heal.

My heart is guarded, carefully stitched together after years of feeling unseen and overlooked.

But then he walks in.

Tall, brooding, and impossibly quiet, Kaleb Harrington is nothing like anyone I’ve ever met.

He’s here for reasons I can’t begin to guess, and yet something about him pulls me in.

His steady presence unnerves me, but it also makes me want to stay.

And I’m not sure I know how to handle that.

Kaleb

I didn’t come to the shelter to meet someone like Ivy Sinclair.

I came here to make amends, to try to fix something—anything—after failing the one person who needed me most.

My sister has been in a coma for years, and the guilt of not being there for her that night eats me alive.

Ivy shouldn’t want anything to do with me.

She’s soft-spoken, thoughtful, and far too good for a man like me.

But the more I see her, the harder it is to walk away.

She has a way of making me feel things I thought I’d buried a long time ago.

And that scares the hell out of me.

In the quiet corners of the shelter, our worlds collide.

We’re both carrying wounds that run deep, but maybe together, we can find a way to heal.

If only I can find the courage to let her in.

And if she can see past the walls I’ve built to the man I’m trying to become.