All Chapters of All I Ask of You: Heron’s Landing Book 2: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be constructed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.All I Ask of You (Heron’s Landing Book 2)Published by Blue Violet Press LLCSeattle, WashingtonCopyright © 2016, 2020 by Iris MorlandCover design by Qamber DesignsAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.Published 2020.First edition published 2016 under the title Tempt Me Tenderly (Heron’s Landing Book 2). Second edition 2020.

When Grace Danvers saw Jaime Martínez for the first time since he’d rejected her advances, she almost fell out of a window.Before her near defenestration, Grace had been having a fairly good day. It was lovely and warm for November, as two days prior it had been in the thirties, while now it was edging into the upper sixties by mid-morning. Grace had forced herself to go to the vineyard, River’s Bend, that morning to drop off a cell phone charger for her brother Adam, who was the vineyard’s owner. River’s Bend had just hosted its first wedding and was currently working to expand into events after it was hit with three bad years of harvest.That wedding had also been the place Grace had thrown caution to the wind and had told Jaime about her feelings for him.She winced thinking about it, standing in the open waiting room at River’s Bend. After telling Kerry, the front desk woman and Adam’s assistant, that she was here, Grace waited for her brother to come see her, as she also neede

As Grace grabbed her paint supplies and stalked out of the house, she wished her hands weren’t so full that she couldn’t slam the front door as well.Why don’t you try to get a real job instead of wasting time down at Trudy’s?What are you going to do with your life?Her dad’s words echoed in her mind, making her stomp down the path that would lead to the river. It wasn’t that her dad was wrong, but Grace simply didn’t have an answer to his questions. She’d gone to school to paint, she’d earned her degree, she’d tried to find some kind of job that would allow her to continue painting…but she’d quickly realized she’d have to move back home if she didn’t want to starve. She’d applied for other kinds of work—office jobs, retail, even a dog walker—but no bites. Grace had a degree with no work experience, and the economy being what it still was, no one wanted to take a chance on a twenty-three-old when they could hire a forty-three-year-old with two decades of experience instead while pa

“I’ll get the dishes, Julia. Grace, do you want to help me?” Joy raised her eyebrows, and Grace had a feeling her brother’s fiancée wasn’t going to take no for an answer.“Sure, I would love to.” Grace began piling the dishes from dinner while Joy picked up glasses and serving plates. The Danvers tried to have family dinner a few times a week, although everyone’s schedule didn’t necessarily line up. Tonight, though, both Adam and Joy had attended, for which Grace had been infinitely thankful. Her parents could focus on someone else for a change, instead of grilling her with the same five questions.“Thanks, you two,” Julia said. “Let us know if you need any help.”“I think we got it.” Joy went into the kitchen, setting the glasses in the sink with Grace following. The Danvers’ house was old enough that it hadn’t been built with a dishwasher, and Carl hadn’t wanted to spend the money since then to install one. Thus, everything needed to be hand washed. Grace was used to it, and she f

Grace peeled the potatoes with such force that more than one poor spud was a mere nub of its former self. Quickly tossing the offending potatoes in the trash so her mother wouldn’t see, she forced herself to peel only the brown peels.I’m not freaking out. I’m not freaking out. I’m. Not. Freaking. Out.“Grace, do you know where the potholder is?” her mother Julia asked.Grace jumped, the peeler clattering into the sink.“Goodness, you’re so on edge today!” Julia plucked the potholder from around her daughter, giving Grace a concerned look. “Are you okay?”“I’m fine. Just have a lot on my mind.” Grace turned and began peeling, slowly and without destroying the potato in hand.Julia didn’t say anything, but Grace could feel her mother’s gaze on the back of her neck.“Well, let me know if you need any help.”Grace had been like this since Adam had so helpfully told her that they’d be having a guest for Thanksgiving: none other than Jaime himself. Of course he was coming for Thanks