Page 89 of Fierce-Michael

“So you can keep an eye on us?” Michael asked.

“Kelly is here, not you,” Jolene said.

“And you’re not going to bug my employee,” Cade said.

“Why are you standing here watching me?” Jolene asked of Cade. The rest of the siblings had gone back to work.

“Because I want to make sure you aren’t being a nag. You can thank me for giving you a heads up though.”

Jolene narrowed her eyes. “How long have you known?”

“Not long,” Cade said.

“I’ll go find out from Ella,” Jolene said. “She has known for a long time.”

“Both about the same,” Cade said. “I figured it out pretty fast. No one told me. Just pointing that out.”

“You’re so proud of yourself, aren’t you?” Kelly asked.

“I actually am,” Cade said. “Now come on, Mom. Leave them to figure things out on their own.”

“Good seeing you again, Jolene,” Michael said.

Their lunch was brought out and the two of them started to eat.

“What am I missing?” she said.

“No reason to tell Jolene what we feel for each other. Let her keep guessing. It will give her something to do.”

“True,” she said. “I didn’t think of it that way.”

“We don’t need anyone’s approval,” he said.

“Not true,” she said. “We both wanted it from our family.”

“That’s different,” he said. “It’s nice to have it, but I don’t need it. I do what I want. I don’t let other people influence my decisions. You should know that by now.”

“I do,” she said, reaching for his hand and squeezing it. “Let’s get this lunch eaten and you can go back to work.”

“Thanks,” he said. “We can talk about what to do this weekend with Ty too.”

“I’d love to,” she said, picking up her sandwich and taking a huge bite. Guess that worked out better than she thought.

“You two both suck,”Jolene said to Cade and Ella upstairs in Cade’s office. “I can’t believe you’ve known and haven’t said a word.”

“You don’t need to know everything,” Ella said.

“But you know I was trying to set her up. I had Michael in mind too. Let that be known too. I don’t want anyone to say that I wasn’t thinking it.”

She always had to get that in there. It was the truth though. She’d been saying Michael’s name around Kelly for over a year and no one bit.

She wondered if maybe that did help Kelly look at Michael differently or not.

She’d keep that part to herself for now or her kids would get on her case about her always having to be right.

“You were thinking of a lot of people for her,” Ella said.

“But Michael was at the top,” she said. “Fill me in, Cade. You have to know the most.”

---