Page 113 of Fierce-Hyde

Her husband frowned. “What am I supposed to be doing? Hyde and Tori seem to be doing well. What did you hear otherwise?”

She didn’t want to admit she hadn’t heard much. “Just like yanking on your chain.”

“Always,” Grant said. “Is there a reason you’re here today?”

“I wanted to get an idea of how many plates of cookies I needed to order from Payton and for what businesses. I’m meeting with Roni in a little bit but hoped you and Garrett could just go over the list I’ve got so far.”

“Sure,” he said. “Why don’t you leave it with me? Garrett is meeting with some staff right now.”

She pulled it out of her purse. She should have just emailed it, but she was old school and liked to write things down on paper. “I’m going to visit with Raina.”

“You’re not going to get anything out of her,” Grant said. “I’ve tried a lot.”

“You’re not me,” she said, leaving her husband’s office to make her way to Raina’s.

Ryder stopped her first. “Raina is meeting with Drake and Hyde right now. You need to go bug someone else.”

“I just saw Hyde,” she said.

“Yep,” Ryder said. “I know. He told me. I guessed Raina was your next stop. Move along, Mom. Boy, you guys never give up.”

“And we never will,” she said, laughing.

35

WEARING OFF ON HER

“My first Fierce gathering,” Tori said two weeks later. “We aren’t staying long, right?”

“No,” Hyde said. “We can leave when you want. The thing with this is you come and go. I haven’t been to their Christmas Eve buffet since I was a kid.”

“They did this back then?” she asked.

She told herself there was no reason to be nervous about coming here. Everyone knew they were dating. Or at least everyone in the family did.

She’d meet a bunch more people today and try not to get too overwhelmed.

“Yep,” he said. “The kids all had friends coming and going to it and their parents. They didn’t have as many employees back then so it was friends and family with it. There are still friends that come too.”

“Do your parents come?” she asked. “You and Ryder were best friends and I guess I never asked if your parents and Ryder’s got along too.”

“They do,” he said. “They’ve been coming for years and will stop in at some point but not sure when. They are bothworking some of today so they might come later. We’ll see them tomorrow anyway. I’m just glad we’ve got the night to ourselves.”

“Me too,” she said. “I won’t say anything about another family holiday that is new to me.”

He laughed. “You got through Thanksgiving just fine.”

She had. She’d made a big deal out of nothing.

Hyde’s parents were great. Even CeeCee was more open and friendly. Seemed she just wanted to make sure her voice was heard when it came to her brother.

“I did,” she said. “I’ll be happy when the holidays are over. It’s kind of hard to put a cheerful face on at work right now knowing I’m leaving.”

“But you’re happy about it, right?”

“Very,” she said.

She was offered the job last week and put in four weeks' notice. Molly wasn’t thrilled when she found out and didn’t really talk to her much for two days, but then they started to make plans on who would replace her.

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