Page 36 of Fierce-Hyde

She moved past Grant and tried not to run to her office while she battled back the tears and hoped to figure out why she was so upset that they were just going to leave it as friends.

“How is CeeCee doing?”Grant asked Hyde. He’d been on his way to check in on him and was slightly stunned to hear the conversation between Ryder’s best friend and Raina’s best friend.

What had he missed and why hadn’t anyone told him what was going on?

“She’s doing well,” Hyde said. “She was up and walking this morning. Not happy and in some pain, but that is to be expected.”

“That’s great news,” Grant said. “Ryder filled us in last night. He failed to mention something with you and Tori though. When did this start?”

“Nothing to say,” Hyde said. “We had one date. We don’t seem to be too compatible. Just ending it on friendly terms.”

Not from what he’d heard but no way he was going to argue about that.

Hyde had enough going on in his life right now.

He’d get to the bottom of it, but it’d have to be another day.

“Sometimes that happens,” he said. “I’m glad to hear about CeeCee though.”

“It was a long couple of days, but things should get better.”

“Any time you need to take to help with her recovery or bring her to appointments, you know you don’t need to ask.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I’ll work something out with my parents, but I’m sure they will have it covered too.”

“I’ll let you get back to work,” Grant said.

He needed to move, see his son and find out what was going on.

He wanted to run to Ryder’s office, but that would look too obvious.

“You look out of breath,” Ryder said to him. “Don’t give yourself a heart attack. What’s wrong?”

He shut his son’s door. “Why didn’t you tell me Hyde and Tori are dating?”

“I’m not aware that it was anything more than one date,” Ryder said. “That isn’t dating in my book. I guess it went fine, but no clue. Why are you asking me and how did you find out?”

“I just heard Tori apologizing to Hyde in his office.” He debated sharing the rest and figured it wouldn’t hurt his cause. “She commented he brought the worst out of her and she did the same to him. That they’d be better off friends.”

“Not surprised,” Ryder said.

“Why?” he asked. “What do you know?”

His son laughed at him. “Nothing I’m going to share with you. Let’s just say that I’m going to repeat myself. Leave Hyde alone. He’s getting to a good point in his life and doesn’t need anyone interfering. It’s probably for the best with him and Tori. They are both smart people to make that decision, so it’s over by the sounds of it.”

“Heard loud and clear,” he said.

Ryder snorted. “You always hear, but you don’t do so well following directions.”

“Now you know what you put your mother and me through for years,” he said before he hurried to his brother’s office.

“What’s the rush?” Garrett asked him.

He shut the door. “We’ve got someone to work on,” he said.

“For what?” Garrett asked.

“You know,” he said. “Our little side hustle.”

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