Page 135 of Fierce-Zander

“I wasn’t afraid to push. I’ve been asking them directly for years,” she argued.

“Not the right questions. You finally did and got your answers. I’m not saying it solved anything, but now you know.”

“You’re right, it didn’t change anything and I’m not sure why we are talking about this.”

“Sorry,” Miles said. “You can let me know if you’re nervous. I am. I’ll admit it. I’m a chicken shit. Sometimes I think you don’t want me to know you’re afraid or scared or nervous because you think it’s going to feed mine and I’ll be a basket case you’ll have to talk off the ledge. You might have to, but not in a therapy session. It’s more like a friend caring for another.”

She laughed. She needed to hear that and realized she wasn’t as good at hiding things as she thought. “Maybe I’m a bit nervous.” She held her thumb and finger up in a pinch.

“Doesn’t that feel better to say it? You know if you said it to Zander he’d stand guard outside the bathroom door when you tinkled.”

“You’re probably right. You’re not going to tell him, are you?”

“No,” Miles said. “Never. But my guess is he knows or you’ve opened up and told him and that’s why you’re fighting.”

“You’re too smart for your own good.”

But that didn’t meanhe wasn’t going to text Betsy SOS an hour later to meet in the hall.

“What is going on with them?” Betsy asked. “Zander is all but throwing things around in his office and then went into Dave’s office and shut the door. Rocco almost dropped a pile under my desk. Zander was in there for five minutes and then left. Something is going on. Rocco finally came out when he knew the coast was clear.”

“They are fighting,” Miles said. He filled Betsy in on the letter.

“Oh,” Betsy said. “Zander is all in protection mode. I think that is why he’s been single for so long.”

“Because he’s controlling?” Miles asked. “Regan doesn’t like to be controlled.”

“Not controlling at all,” Betsy said. “He’s scared. It’s hard for him to focus when he’s worried. When he was on the force, he had a partner and he always worried about letting someone down. One of his colleagues got shot because his partner had turned his back for a second. One day the two of us were having a drink after a big case and he said that is why he was better off working alone.”

“You think he’s afraid to let Regan down?” Miles asked.

“That is my guess. Now he’s doing everything he can to protect her. He can’t be everywhere at once, but he’s going to try.”

“And push her away in the process,” Miles said, frowning. “I’m not sure how to fix something like that.”

“What are you two doing out here?”

They turned to see Diane and Carolyn Fierce come off the elevator. Talk about horrible timing.

Betsy had no problem filling them in though.

“Zander and Regan are going through a rough patch.”

“How rough?” Diane asked. “We are good at fixing things.”

“I think Regan would be upset if anyone interfered.”

“You just said that you were trying to figure out how to fix it,” Betsy accused him.

“I can do that,” he said indignantly. “She’d expect that of me as much as Zander would of you.”

“From our experience,” Carolyn said, “the best thing to do is get them in the same place together as much as you can. That will help move it along.”

“But you don’t know what is going on,” Betsy said. “Zander is being a man.”

“Regan is being stubborn,” he said.

“That’s an easy fix,” Diane said. “We’ve had to work our magic on worse. Keep us posted.”

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