Page 79 of Fierce-Zander

“Yep,” Chloe said. “I know. They’ve been trying to do it for a long time. But lately they are more focused on Dane. I think they are going to come to me next week since you’re here and start asking questions again.”

He grinned. “Well,” he said. “What they are trying to do and with whom is happening, but they don’t know.”

“Yes,” Chloe said, doing a small fist pump in front of her. “I don’t know why this is so exciting to everyone, but I love when people hide it from them. Let me see if I can guess who it is, give me a second. Has to be someone in the building that they’d know you’d come in contact with because they don’t see you much.”

“It is,” he said.

“On your floor,” Chloe said, tapping her chin. “The space next to you is a new tenant. Woman doctor. I can’t remember her name. Young and single most likely?”

“That’s her,” he said. “Regan Philes.”

“God,” Chloe said. “They are good. Did you know it was her they had in mind before or after?”

“After. I filled Regan in. I mean I knew they were trying to set me up since long before your wedding and they used me to get Elise and Gabe to come out and say they’d been dating.”

“They are sneaky that way,” Royce said.

“They aren’t doing much work now,” he said. “I think they’ve got Betsy and Miles, Regan’s assistant, doing it all.”

“So not a lot of places to hide,” Chloe said. “Which makes it harder.”

“It probably won’t be much longer at this point. Just need to figure out the timing of it all. Our families don’t even know, but with Thanksgiving in a few weeks, it will probably be time.”

“This is serious then,” Royce said, looking at him closely.

“Yeah,” he said. “It is. We both feel the same way. It was fast.”

“We know that feeling,” Chloe said.

“Please,” Royce said. “I think I knew I loved you before you did me.”

Chloe laughed. “I’m just better at hiding it.”

“I know you’ve got a party to go host, but I thought maybe we could get dinner sometime and you can meet her.”

“I’d love to,” Royce said.

“Me too,” Chloe said. “Next weekend? I think we are free if you are.”

“I’ll check with her and let you know.”

Chloe went to the kitchen with Royce to get some snacks and Zander went outside preparing to face the Fierces.

He stopped off to the side and saw Dane Grey was cornered and decided to listen in.

“Dane,” Carolyn said.

“Carolyn,” Dane said. “Diane. Nice to see you both.”

“You look like a nice blended family,” Carolyn said. “It was sweet to see the two little girls come running in together.”

“They get along well,” Dane said. “I couldn’t ask for much more than that.”

Zander turned his head and saw Dane’s daughter, Tiffani, and who he assumed was Shiloh, Sloane’s half sister, playing together. It was frustrating he hadn’t gotten as much information on who Shiloh’s father was just yet and he was going to try to pull Sloane aside to chat for a minute today if he got a chance.

“No,” Carolyn said. “You really can’t.”

“If you’ll excuse me,” Dane said. “My mother is waving me over. I need to make sure she gets a proper introduction to Sloane. My father hasn’t met her yet either.” Dane was swiveling his head around. “I’ve got to round up Shiloh too.”

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