Page 129 of Match Me if You Can

“This is me,” he says. “Using my mouth to form words.”

I snort, but then go serious, holding his eyes. “Are you sure you’re ready?”

His big chest expands and contracts on a huge breath. “No,” he admits when he’s done. “I just know I can’t keep doing what I’m doing.”

“Okay, then,” I say as my phone starts buzzing. “So we’re doing this.”

He nods, repeats, “We’re doing this.”

And we’ll get there, will find the woman for him.

Eventually.

“Go ahead,” he says, nodding at my cell.

I squeeze his hand one more time then snag my phone and peek at the screen. I don’t immediately recognize the number, but that’s not all that unusual. Sometimes I forget to program in clients.

I swipe to answer the call.

Lift my phone to my ear⁠—

“Tsk. Tsk,” the voice says, and I frown, trying to place it.

It sounds familiar, but not.

“Who is this?” I ask carefully, feeling Beck go stiff next to me, his gaze whipping toward mine.

“Oh, little sis, you’ve been a bad, bad girl.”

“TJ?” I whisper.

Beck jerks.

But I don’t have time to process that.

Because my older brother—by only a few months—is talking…

And what he’s saying has the bottom dropping out of my world.

THIRTY-EIGHT

Ace

“Ace!”

Normally, someone yelling my name would hardly register in this household.

Normally, one of my brothers yelling it would register even less.

But the way Beck says it right at that instant has panic gripping my insides.

I drop the stick I’ve been fucking around with and rush over to Violet.

I’d been giving them space, hoping she’d continue to work her magic, find a way to lead Beck out of the shit swirling in his mind.

Considering she had my broodiest of brothers busting up just minutes before, I figured she was on the right track.

But now…