Page 80 of Fierce-Zander

“Don’t worry,” Diane said. “When the girls came running in, Tiffani pulled Shiloh to your parents and introduced her new friend. Then they took off for the new swing set Royce built.”

“I guess I can let them go for now. I’m sure I’ll be talking to you some more,” Dane said.

When Dane walked away, Diane said to Carolyn, “I told you that we should have given him time to get settled first.”

These women rushed too much and they made mistakes. Like they didn’t know he was watching them now.

“Nope,” Carolyn said. “We can gauge things at the end of the party too. Besides, you and I were going to talk to Doreen today. Keep your eye on things. I’m pretty sure our suspicions are true, but it’d be nice to see everyone in action in the same place.”

“What are you two women doing?” Garrett asked.

“Just talking,” Carolyn said to her husband.

“More like scheming,” Grant said. “Give it up. This one happened on its own.”

“Nope,” Diane said. “We’ve been name dropping for months. Months prior to them getting together. We can take some credit.”

“Though I don’t think we are the ones that deserve the credit,” Carolyn said.

“What does that mean?” Garrett asked.

“We’ll know more at the end of the day. Maybe,” Diane said, laughing. “Now if you two men will excuse us, we’ve got some mingling to do.”

The minute Diane and Carolyn took three steps, they saw him watching them and moved over without skipping a beat.

“Zander,” Carolyn said. “We were hoping you’d be here today.”

“I’m sure you were,” he said, smirking. “Did you just get caught scheming? You might be losing your touch.”

“Nothing to get caught with,” Diane said. “Dane and Sloane are dating and they said they figured it out on their own.”

“But you think someone else is involved,” he said.

He watched the two women looking at each other and then Carolyn’s eyes landed on Chloe’s mother. “Maybe.”

He shook his head. “I’m not sure what the obsession with this is. I know for a fact my mother isn’t working with either of you and neither is my father. They don’t know you.”

Both women frowned. “They don’t, but if we reached out and said what we were trying to do and if they could give us pointers, would they help?”

He laughed. “My father wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole and my mother is too busy to even think of me with someone.”

Which was a lie and he hoped they didn’t catch on. The truth was, his mother was busy, but she’d love nothing more than to see her children find mates.

All the more reason he was going to have to let them know soon.

“No parent is too busy for that,” Carolyn said. “But we’ll let you go, for now.”

He leaned down and said quietly, “You gave in way too easily. I’m disappointed.”

Both of their jaws dropped when he said that, but Zander moved on whistling and was thrilled he got in the last word.

“I’m telling you, Jolene,”Diane said hours later that night. “Doreen did it. She set her son up and she will take it to the grave with her.”

Diane was sitting in the living room talking to her sister-in-law who was in Charlotte and wanted an update after the party.

“Good for her,” Jolene said. “It’s rubbing off. But you know darn well you and Carolyn still had a hand in it.”

“Of course we did,” she said. “But in the end it only matters that the couples are happy.”

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