Page 80 of Fierce-Dane

She’d grown up with it.

When your father was the leader of a cult and had multiple wives or women he’d had children with, jealousy was just second nature.

That flicker in Mel’s eyes was the only thing stopping her from feeling Dane was completely out of her league.

She tried to keep those insecurities to herself now.

She had a high school diploma and barely one at that. She was positive everyone passed her through because they’d felt sorry for her.

But she’d made a name for herself in her business and was proud of what she’d accomplished in her life so far.

It wasn’t just the education though that was different.

She had no idea what Dane’s ex did for a living, but she was more sophisticated than Sloane was.

Mel had a pair of light-colored cotton pants on that were wide and flowing and in style. There were pretty leather sandals on her feet with a soft white T-shirt. She almostlooked angelic and no one would ever say Sloane was an angel.

Mel’s hair was darker than Tiffani’s and styled perfectly. Straight enough for her to know that it wasn’t just a blow dry out but had a flat iron applied to it.

Though Mel’s makeup was minimal, Sloane realized it was meant to appear that way but most likely was more.

Here she was with her hair just swaying in any direction it wanted to go after she dried it with some mousse in it.

She put foundation on her face that was more of a tinted moisturizer and not much more than mascara and blush. Today she didn’t even add that because the heat of the day was giving her enough color.

She had good skin and was proud of it, so why cover it up?

“I don’t know about jealousy,” he said. “I think it had more to do with surprise.”

“No,” she said. “But we can agree to disagree.” She bumped her shoulder into his. “Do you think she will say anything to the kids?”

“I doubt it. They’d go nuts if they heard it from her and not me. Or the fact they won’t see me for three days. I told Mel I wanted to do this right, but I was going to tell them soon.”

“You are?” she asked.

He was looking into her eyes. “Would you prefer I don’t? I guess I thought what we had was a bit more than casual. It’s not like I’m going to have you meet them just yet. I want to warm them up to the idea of it first.”

“I’d like to meet your kids,” she said. “I’ve kind of met Tiffani already. I’m going at your pace and following your lead on this. I don’t want you to feel like you have to hit thebrakes or put a blinker on because you’re worried about me.”

“Thanks for that,” he said. “You didn’t answer me on if you thought this was just casual or not. I guess if it is in your eyes, maybe I should hold off more.”

She felt bad he was thinking that way.

“I’m not sure what we’ve got, but it’s far from casual. Do we need to put a title on it?”

“No,” he said, reaching for her hand and holding it. “We don’t. And we can get out of here if you want to do that.”

“Actually,” she said. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to walk around some more. I’m having fun. I don’t know the last time I had this much fun, except for having to hide in the bathroom.”

“I don’t want you to ever feel as if you’ve got to hide anything from me,” he said. “I’m serious. I’m one of these people that learns from my mistakes.”

“Stop right there,” she said. “I don’t know what happened in your marriage other than what you’ve told me and maybe a tiny bit of what your sister has said. And you know that too. But from what I’ve gathered, you didn’t make any mistakes.”

“I wasn’t around,” he said.

“Which she clearly knew was part of the deal. And if she didn’t, then she’s not as smart as I thought she was. Or looked. Which is a lot different than me.”

“Mel is on the small side,” he said.

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