All In by Molly Bryant Page A

you, at all,” Skip placed his hand on my shoulder. “Just go out there, act like nothing is going on and just stay busy like you have been and ignore Chase,”
    “He is going to ask me how I know him, Skip,” I felt the tears forming behind my eyes. “I’m happy damn it, he is going to ruin it!”
    “Shh, just like I said,” he looked me in the eyes. “relax, calm down, take a deep breath and go out there or Vice is going to become suspicious.”
    I took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly. “Okay, okay… I can do this,” Screw my brother.
    Skip stayed back in the hallway by the bathroom and I walked out to the reception desk with a smile on my face. I decided I would just organize and clean up a little bit. I could still hear the buzzing of the tattoo gun. My heart was still racing but I think I was doing a good job of hiding it.
    “Vice?” I hollered with a stack of papers in my hands.
    “Yeah?” he hollered back over the buzzing of the gun.
    “Where do you want me to put the receipts from today?” I awaited his answer for a moment and I heard nothing. The sound of the gun stopped and he came out of nowhere.
    “Hey,” he wrapped his arms around my waist. “Are you okay? You don’t look well,”
    “Yeah, I shouldn’t have walked to get the coffee. It just hit me as I got here. I don’t do well with the super high heat. I am so sorry about the coffee, though. I feel bad acting like that in front of your client. It was embarrassing,” I couldn’t look him in the eyes as I was bull-faced lying to him.
    “Don’t be embarrassed, he’s a cheese dick,” he kissed my lips softly.
    I nodded with a smile at his choice words for my brother. “Are you done?”
    “Almost, give me another twenty-thirty minutes, tops,” he smiled.
    “Kay,” I smiled back.
    “You can just put the receipts in the top drawer, babe,” he walked away.
    Vice started calling me 'babe' out of nowhere yesterday and I love that he does it. He is the first guy to ever call me by a pet name, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I like that it is a name that no one else uses for me. It makes it that much more real knowing that I belong to someone. That I actually belong. Ever since my mother died, I have been walking around with a black empty hole in my heart that Vice has been seeming to fill. It is a great feeling. I have been wanting to tell him for the last three days how he has been making me feel about myself, and how I feel about him. For some reason, I am usually rendered speechless when it comes to my feelings. I do a good job of suppressing them.
    I swept by the front door, then cleaned the windows. I took a sneak peek at my brother, and Vice. Vice was concentrating on Chase’s arm, but Chase was staring right at me… slowly shaking his head back and forth.
    “Please, no.” I mouthed quietly, and all my bastard brother did was smile not making me feel any better about this situation.
    I stared at Vice, his eyebrows creased together as he concentrated on his work. My heart was melting, staring at his pleasant, gorgeous face and I was more than likely going to crush him. Indefinitely, I will crush him. Therefore, I will enjoy the time I have with Vice, and I will try my hardest for him not to find out my secret. The only problem now is keeping my brother away from him, especially now that Chase knows I am dating Vice. This is going to become utterly complicated.
    “Okay, all done,” Vice came into the reception area with Chase in tow. A smile on my brothers face that I wanted to slap off of him the entire way.
    “About time, handsome,” I lightly clapped my hands, Vice placing a small kiss on my lips.
    “I suppose you can take the money for the tattoo out of the fifty six thousand you took from me on Saturday,” Chase added from behind us.
    I looked up at Vice, his jaw was clenching like crazy and I could see his muscles tense. Oh, God…
    Vice slowly turned around to face my brother. “Ah, I don’t think so.