Page 87 of Fierce-Michael

“It’s fine,” she said. “It’s not as if he was a virgin. Neither was I.”

“Anyway,” Cade said. “Before Ella interrupted, I said that Kelly might be the best thing to happen to Michael.”

“No,” she said. “You didn’t say that. You said that he deserves to have some of my sunshine.”

“Cade,” Ella said softly. “That might be one of the nicest things you’ve said. How come you don’t say those things to your sister?”

“I normally reserve them for my wife and daughter,” Cade said. “Now I’ve got two daughters, but I mean it, Kelly. He’s a great guy.”

“He is,” Ella said. “So the important thing is, what is going on with my mom?”

“We haven’t put any thought into telling her. I mean, we aren’t the announcement type of people. We don’t live and die for her enjoyment and I’m not looking to make some event out of it. I don’t know. I don’t want to make a big production about it. I don’t like the attention and I don’t think Michael does.”

“You love attention,” Cade said, laughing.

“Not on my personal life though,” she said.

Mostly because it’d been so dismal.

“Fair point,” Ella said.

“As for your mother, no clue. Michael commented that he’d like to come have lunch with me at times once everyone knows.”

“Then do it,” Ella said. “The four of us in the building know.”

Which meant all the spouses knew too. “Does Mason know?”

“I told him,” Cade said. “Not that Michael is over there much, but he does know.”

“Then it’s just having your mother show up when Michael and I are having lunch,” she said. “Then it’s out. That seems simple enough. Or it will get back to her if others see us.”

“Leave that to me,” Cade said. “I’d love to do it.”

“I want to,” Ella said. “Have Michael come to lunch today.”

“He could be busy,” she said. She didn’t want to bother him with these things. It felt petty and immature on her part.

“Nope,” Cade said, pulling his phone out. “I’m taking care of it.”

She watched as Cade texted something and then put his phone away.

“What did you say?”

“I told him I wanted to rub my mother’s face in this for being the first one to know. I never get to do it and if he’d be a bro and let me do it by coming over in an hour since I was here today.”

“That’s low,” she said, laughing.

Cade pulled his phone out and smirked. “He’ll be here at noon.”

Her phone went off on her desk. It was Michael asking if she knew what was going on.

She replied yes and then said, “Guess we’ll see what you’ve got, Cade.”

She went back to work and, an hour later, looked up when Michael was standing in her doorway.

“Hi,” he said. “You’re okay with this?”

She shrugged. “Ripping the band-aid off. Though no one is telling me what is going on. Do you know?”

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