LOGINShare
Lonely Hearts
Last Updated:
2024-10-29 19:42:56Harry
I knew that I should have been replying to all my emails at that moment, but in truth, I was more caught up in making sure that I had everything covered for Winnie for the next few months.
I had no idea how my sister had managed to take care of her by herself for so long. Sure, I had seen the struggle when she had first had her, but I’d had no idea just how much it was going to take out of me on a day-to-day basis.
Jesus Christ, the stress of it all. The running around trying to make sure that everything fell into place, that all the bits and pieces came together at just the right moment and just the right time to be sure that everything worked out. She did band and played soccer after school, and that meant I had to make sure there was always someone there who could pick her up and take her home—whether it was Yara, me, or one of the sitters I practically had on twenty-four hour call right now.
My sister had worked her ass off to get Winnie this far in life, and it was the least I could do to pick up where she left off. I didn’t know how she had managed to keep her head above water all alone for those first seven years—before the accident.
Winnie’s father had tapped out a long time ago, and we hadn’t heard from him since, which was why I was next on the list to step up to the paternal role for her when the time came. I wondered if he ever thought about his daughter.
We knew that he was aware of the pregnancy, but that hadn’t been enough to stop him from hitting the road as soon as he got the chance to get out of there. I knew that, as a big brother, I should have tracked him down and beat him up, but my sister needed me by her side to help her look after her daughter more than she needed me to launch a cross-country campaign to get this asshole to step up and do his job.
My sister was everything to that little girl. I still didn’t know how I could possibly compare. I could see the grief in Winnie every once in a while, but she always did her best to cover it up. We had gotten her in therapy sessions as soon as we could, but that was the best we could do. I couldn’t force her to open up, couldn’t force her to engage with anyone about this.
It would all happen on her own time, I was told, and I would just have to be there for her when it happened. Which I would be. I was going to be with her any way that I could.
The door to my office sprang open, and I quickly clicked away from the calendar I had been looking at and back to the reports I was meant to be going over. I fucking ran the company. I knew that there was nobody who could tell me off for not working, but still, old habits died hard.
Yara was standing in the doorway, and she clapped her hands together.
“So,” she announced, kicking the door shut so hard it practically clattered in the doorframe. “You remember when I said I was going to sign you up for that lonely-hearts thing?”
I cocked my head at her. “No.”
“Well, the good news is that you’ve got a date from it,” she replied cheerfully.
I laughed and shook my head. “You’re joking, right?” I asked her
She shrugged. “Does it seem like I’m joking?”
I gazed at her for a long moment, scanning her eyes for any hint that she was just joking around, and I sighed heavily when I realized that she was telling the truth.
“Yara, I don’t have time to date right now,” I told her. “You know that. With Winnie and the business—”
“You’ve got a lot of excuses to keep pretending you don’t want to get back out there,” she said, finishing my sentence for me. “But I’m not going to let you keep hiding anymore, all right? You’re a damn catch. I want you to get out there and meet the woman of your dreams already. Then at least we can have something to gossip about.”
“I’m not going out with someone just because you want something to gossip about,” I told her. I couldn’t help but smile at how certain she was that this was the right way to go about it. She was always pushing me out of my comfort zone. It was one of the things that made her such a good PR woman, I guessed.
“Okay, hear me out,” she replied, hopping into the seat opposite my desk. “You were on that hot bachelors list recently, yeah?”
“I really have no idea—”
“Well, it’s my job to have an idea, so trust me when I say that you were,” she said. “And I think it would be good publicity for the company if you were to lean into that a little, get out there, and start dating, you know?”
“So you’re saying I need to do this for the sake of the company?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Look, I’m just saying, I think that you need to step out of your comfort zone a little bit. You can’t just keep holding back, right? I know that you’ve been occupied with Winnie, but she wouldn’t want you putting your life on hold for her, not forever.”
“It’s still so soon—”
“And it’s just one date,” Yara pointed out, holding up a single finger to emphasize the point. “One date! What’s the worst that could happen?”
“She could fall in love with me and never leave me alone again.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” she replied, flashing me a smile. “Come on. I know the old bachelor version of you is in there somewhere! What do you say?”
Related chapters
Accidentally All of Me Begging and Pleading
HarryI hesitated. I didn’t want to just come out and agree so quickly because that would be tantamount to agreeing that what she had done was a good idea. But she had a point. I had been off the market for such a long time, and it wasn’t doing me any good to be cooped up in the house alone all the time. I would have to get back out there eventually, one way or another. Maybe this was a blessing. I was never going to do it myself, so perhaps Yara putting in the effort was how I could get back into it.I had dated before what had happened, of course. Quite a bit actually. But I had never found anyone who had actually made me want to settle down. Most of the women I met had this edge to them, like there was something on their mind other than just spending time with me. I soon came to figure out that it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the family name that I was attached to.They took one look at that, and dollar signs started pulsing in their eyes. They couldn’t see a
Accidentally All of Me Only For You
RainaI rubbed a smear of blood off my wrist and sighed. Ugh.This had been a whole lot harder than I had thought it would be. Work had been pretty mellow right up until the last half hour. Then someone had brought in their dog, who’d been hit by a car and broken his leg.I’d had to set the fracture and get this poor thing all calmed down and dosed up so that he wasn’t freaking out too badly. I was covered in blood, and all I wanted in the world was to go home, have a hot shower, and clean myself up.But instead, of course, I had to go and get myself ready for my darn date. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t found some way to wriggle out of this since Reed had announced that he had set it up in the first place. I had credited myself with more in the way of guts than that, but I figured this was the only way that I was going to get my brother off my back so I could get back to work again.“You’ve deleted the dating profile thing, haven’t you?” I asked over our coffees the day after he’d
Accidentally All of Me Surprise, Surprise
RainaI put a pair of heels in my bag, put on some sneakers so I could actually be comfortable, and went to my truck to start the trek across town to this date that I had no choice but to go on. As soon as this was done, I was going to go to Reed and watch him delete that dating profile myself.No way I was letting this slide again. I couldn’t believe he’d let it go this far, and I was already mad as hell at him for thinking he could just interfere like this. I didn’t get myself involved in his dating life.But then, I knew that he didn’t need my help. He was a great guy, and he was always attracting women, whether or not he was making the effort to do it. His job meant he was in contact with a whole host of different people, and he had the easy, charming confidence to get anyone he wanted to fall for him.It was what made him such a great guy to have on your side in the courtroom, and it was what made all the girls in town tumble over themselves to get their hands on him. He didn’t n
Accidentally All of Me What Are the Chances?
HarryYara is getting a raise.That was the first thing that crossed my mind as soon as I saw the woman who was waiting for me at the table at the restaurant I had been sent to for this date. I couldn’t believe it. It was the very same vet who had treated that dog that we had brought in a few days ago. And damn, if she didn’t look even more outrageously gorgeous than she had then.Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and her gorgeous green eyes seemed to shine in the light of the candle flickering on the table between us. Once we had gotten over the initial shock and ordered our wine, Raina looked at me across the table and shook her head.“Okay, I have a confession,” she admitted. “This wasn’t actually my idea.”“No?”“No, my brother set me up on this date,” she confessed. “I was going to cancel it, but I knew the only way he was going to get off my back was if I just went along and played through the evening for him. I had no idea it was going to be you.”“In that case, I guess
Accidentally All of Me Not Ready to Say Goodbye
Harry“Yeah, it was my best friend who set me up on this date, and trust me, I wasn’t exactly pleased when I found out what she had done,” I replied with a shake of my head. “I would have canceled it, but I knew that she wasn’t going to let it drop until I had actually been out on a date.”“Oh my God, that’s the same with my brother,” she exclaimed. “We should set them up together.”I laughed. “Yeah, that would show them. Prove that they’re not the only ones who can pull this shit, huh?”“Don’t tempt me,” she replied, lifting her finger as though she was on the brink of setting it up at that very moment. “I’m still so mad at him for this. Trust me.”“Still?” I asked.She smiled at me. “Well, maybe not quite so much anymore,” she conceded, and a little flush ran up her cheeks.The flicker of the candle on her skin made her look even more beautiful than ever, and I glanced down to her mouth, her soft plump lips all but begging me to lean down and taste them for the first time. The stir
Accidentally All of Me Talking to a Dog
RainaI threw on the grungiest clothes I could find, climbed into my truck, and headed out to the shelter. I was dressed so badly, it felt like I was trying to put as much distance between the version of me that existed now and the version of me that had existed last night as possible.And in some ways, I supposed I was.I’d had a great time the night before. A better time than I had ever imagined I would.When I had seen it was him, I had instantly found myself way more interested in what this night had in store—though I was never going to admit to Reed that it had gone well, in case he got it in his head that I was asking him for further help to find a man. Last night had been fun, but that was all it had been, and it was better to keep it as a fun one-off than an awkward set of encounters.I arrived at the shelter just before nine, as I always did. I came down here as many weekends as I could to do some of the treatment on the incoming dogs. Jackie insisted on paying me a little mo
Accidentally All of Me It Was That Bad
RainaI wished I could rewind time back to that exact moment before he asked me out again and tell myself that this was what I wanted. Yes, I knew it would be hard, and yes, I knew that my life was crazy hectic most of the time, but maybe that was just how it was meant to be.I couldn’t keep putting off the thought of being with someone with excuses about how busy my life was. Maybe I just needed to accept that a good guy had come into my life and that the universe was telling me loudly that I should drop the pretense and go after him.“Something on your mind, hun?” Jackie asked as I helped her set the board up outside.I shook my head. I didn’t want to talk to her about all of this. Even though I knew it was kind of pathetic, I didn’t like the notion of her finding out that I wasn’t well put together in my personal life. I knew it was silly, but I liked the thought of everyone around me thinking that I actually had my shit together, even when it wasn’t true. Even when it was so blind
Accidentally All of Me Same Old Question
HarryAs I sat there in the park, looking out at all the dogs scuttling around in front of us, I knew what she was going to say before the words had so much formed on her lips.“Harry,” Winnie asked, and I looked over at her with my eyebrows raised. It was a Saturday, the kind of warm, bright day that felt like it could go on forever, and she had asked to take a walk in the local park. And not just because there were a bunch of dogs running around there.Of course not.“Yes?” I asked.“Can we get a dog?”“Now, I don’t know if you forgot about it already, but I’m pretty sure I already answered this question,” I reminded her.She grinned and clasped her hands together beneath her chin in a playful pleading motion. “Please, please, please?” she begged. “You didn’t even think about it. It would be so nice to come down here with a dog on the weekends.”“And the rest of the week, I guess I’d be the one taking care of it?” I asked.“You’d get to take care of it,” she replied. I had to laugh.
Latest chapter
Accidentally All of Me Everything is Better with Her
HarryI hadn’t known until I’d met Raina how much I was hiding from, but now that I could see it, it made my heart ache to think about everything that I had been missing. I thought I had been protecting myself, but in reality, it had just been isolation.Yara had seen that. I was pretty sure, in fact, that she had seen that before I had. I had been ducking and diving from the truth, and she had seen through me, seen me for what I was, seen all the pain I had been carrying with me all this time. And that was why she had set me up on a date.It was crazy, really, thinking that all of this had started with something that I had been so averse to in the first place. I had pushed back against the very idea of going on that date, sure that it was just going to end with me making a fool of myself and looking like an idiot in the process.Of course, if I had known where all of this was going to lead me, I would have gone back in time and told myself to go with it, that it was going to be bette
Accidentally All of Me Party Time
Harry“All right, all right, if I could borrow your attention for a moment.” I stood up from the chair I had been sitting on and waved a hand in the air so that I could draw the attention of my staff and friends around me.Yara had done a hell of a job putting all of this together. It had only been a couple of weeks ago that I had brought up the idea of the party to her, and she had sprung into full-force action at once, running off this way and that to make sure everything got dealt with as best she could manage it.She told me she was just happy to finally have some kind of party she could organize—and said I could do with throwing a few more like it, actually, though I decided it was for the best that I ignored that little comment. I had been so busy these last few months, I couldn’t imagine finding any more time in my packed-out schedule for fun little gatherings like this.It had helped, of course, that George had been willing to put up his house and grounds to hold the party. We
Accidentally All of Me Deep Love
RainaHe wrapped his arms around me and pushed into me deep, filling me all the way up to the hilt, taking me like there was nothing in the world he would rather have been doing in that moment. I sank my nails into his back and let my body sink into the sheets below me, the softness absorbing me, at odds with his hardness.He didn’t hold back. He didn’t seem to see a need to, and I was grateful for it. After everything that had been happening lately, I felt like I needed this connection with him to remind myself where this all came from.Not that he was so good in bed that I would have gone through anything for him—though, that was a part of it—but it was a raw thing that existed between just us. Nobody could take it away from us, no matter how much they might have wanted to. This was ours and only ours, and we had made it together, and that meant nothing could change it.I could already feel myself getting close. It was the feel of his breath on my neck that did it for me, his essent
Accidentally All of Me Celebrating in Bed
RainaI had no idea why he was so eager for me to cancel on Reed that morning, but as soon as I had heard the tone in his voice, I’d known that it wasn’t up for debate. Harry had a damn good reason to want to see me, and I certainly wasn’t going to argue with it.As soon as he opened the door to his place, I knew what was running through his head. I grinned as he pulled me into his arms and kissed me deeply, like he was making the very most of the fact that I was here.“Thanks for coming,” he murmured, and he pushed the door shut behind me.“You going to make it worth my while?” I replied playfully.He scooped me off the ground and into his arms. I burst out laughing and hung on to him as he carried me up the stairs and toward the bedroom.He tossed me down on the bed, and it didn’t take long before our clothes went flying. I was wearing the scrubs that I would have to take into the office soon enough, so hardly my sexiest look, but he didn’t seem to care much.He stripped me off like
Accidentally All of Me More Shocking News
Harry“I was thinking more along the lines of a party than a bonus,” I replied to Yara. “Dogs allowed, of course.”“Well, when you put it like that…” She laughed. “Where were you thinking?”I scanned my brain for a moment and then landed on the perfect place.“Let me get in touch with George,” I replied. “I bet he’d love to have an excuse to do up his mansion.”“You really think he’d be willing to hand all that over for a company party?” she asked.I nodded. “You’d be surprised at how mellow he can be,” I replied. “Besides, think of all the women he’ll get to flirt with. It’ll be a dream come true for him.”“I guess so,” she agreed, shaking her head fondly at the thought. “You give him a call, and I’ll see what else I can pull in, all right? But I’m sure everyone would appreciate the chance to have some fun. Especially if our dogs are allowed to be there too.”I texted George as soon as she was gone, and he replied with an almost instant affirmation that promised me use of the house w
Accidentally All of Me A Gift
HarryI reached under the table and patted Tink where he was asleep at my feet. He might not have known it, but he was the reason that all of this weekend had been such a huge success.Without him, I would never have come across the shelter, and without that, I wouldn’t have been able to put together the awesome event that we had thrown the day before. It had been hectic as hell, but totally worth it, and I was proud to say that we had helped find homes for more than seventy animals over the course of the day.By the time it was over, Winnie was dead asleep in the back of the car with Tink, and George had to be dragged away from Nico, who he just couldn’t get enough of. But the day had been a wild success, and I knew that it wouldn’t be the only one that we had with the shelter.But for now, I was back at work, and I had to focus on catching up on everything that I had missed the last few weeks. Fuck, it had been so busy, I had hardly had time to remember that I so much as had a job.
Accidentally All of Me Happy Tears
Raina“Thank you for getting all of this set up,” I told Harry. “You have no idea how much this is going to help get people to start taking notice of the shelter.”“Well, it’s what you deserve,” he replied. “You’ve worked so hard here for so long. I wanted to do what I could to make it easier on you.”I kissed him again. “You know, you’re way sweeter than you have any right to be,” I murmured.He grinned. “Is that an insult or a compliment? I can’t tell.”“You decide,” I replied, and it was right then that I saw Rita and her son coming through the door. She had promised to put in an appearance, and she beamed as soon as she saw me.“Oh, how’s my favorite baby?” I greeted him with a coo, and I came over to hold him in my arms for just a moment.Rita handed him over to me at once, apparently glad to have a chance to put him down, if only for a moment. “Oh my goodness, I think I’m in a lot of danger being here,” she remarked as Marjorie emerged from the back room with a couple of lively
Accidentally All of Me Clear the Shelter
Raina“All right, do you have all the forms ready?” I asked Marjorie as the two of us practically sprinted around the shelter, trying to get everything ready for the adopt-a-thon that was meant to be happening today.She nodded. “I think so,” she replied, but she was clearly nervous.I put my hand on her shoulder. “Hey,” I soothed her. “Everything’s going to be fine. Everyone who’s coming today has already been vetted, you remember? So anyone who goes home with a pet, they’re going to be a good home for them.”“I know that,” Marjorie said. “I’m just... I don’t know if I’m ready to say goodbye to all these little guys after all this time.”“Don’t get all misty on me now,” I warned her. “We have to make space for other animals, remember? I want to make sure that we get as many of these guys off to new homes as we can. Think how good it’ll be to have the space so that you don’t have to worry about turning down anyone who needs a home, right?”“Right,” she agreed, and she nodded and tappe
Accidentally All of Me Sharing the Great News
Harry“I had my lawyer draw up these agreements,” she explained.Michael lifted his head from the papers that he had been going over. He nodded, looking satisfied with what he had seen.“Everything seems like it’s in order to me,” he remarked. “Harry, if you want to take a little more time to go over these and think about the decision, we can hang on to them for you—”“No, I’m ready,” I replied. I was dead certain. Nothing was going to change my mind. Nothing at all. I was happier than I’d been in such a long time. We had the house, I had Raina, and now, it looked like I was going to have my precious, perfect son on top of all of it. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Not one little thing.“Thank you for this, Allison,” I said. “Thank you for trusting me with him.”“Thank you for letting us into your life after all this time,” she replied. “I know it’s more than I deserve. I know you’re being kinder than you should ever be with me—”“You never have to think like that,” I told he
