Page 97 of Fierce-Hyde

A tall man was looking at her and then smiled and put his hand out. “Tori Miller, right?”

“That’s what it says on my nametag.” She glanced up at his. “Oh, Jax Hollister. Roni’s brother. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“That’s me,” Jax said, smiling. “Our six degrees of separation thing going on.”

Jax’s younger sister, Roni, was married to Raina’s older brother, Trent. She’d met Roni before in the Fierce building, since Roni was their property manager for their other buildings but had come into her building before too.

“Nice to meet you,” she said, shaking his hand.

“I wondered if you’d be here,” Jax said. “Roni has brought it up before what you did. You know, you probably love your job and everything, but I’ve heard some great things in the community about you.”

“Really?” she asked. Jax was the Executive Director of an agency about four times the size of hers. They had some of the same programs she ran too.

“I have,” Jax said. “I keep my ear to the ground. Some don’t like that I try to steal employees, but if I see an opportunity, I’ll take it.”

She smiled over his grin. “I love where I am, but I’d be crazy to never at least keep an open mind too. Things change for sure.”

Jax pulled his card out and handed it over. “Here. Reach out to me if you want. Even if you love it where you’re at. My program director in your field is retiring at the end of the year and I’m on the hunt.”

She laughed. “Did you only come to this conference to look for employees?”

She wouldn’t have thought to do that, but the truth was, it was kind of brilliant.

Jax had a fantastic reputation in the community for his programs, his agency, and the staff all seemed to enjoy their jobs.

“That might be part of the reason,” Jax said. Someone called his name and he moved away and she grabbed the brochures she was going to get.

“Is Jax trying to steal you away?” Molly asked her.

“What?” she asked. She had her hands full and was going to put them in her bag on her shoulder.

“I saw you talking to Jax Hollister. He thinks he’s so sly, but he’s got a reputation for snatching employees from people.”

Her boss was grinning. She didn’t want to lie but wasn’t going to address that either. “His sister, Roni, is married to Raina’s brother Trent.”

Molly knew Raina, as she’d met her before in the office. Tori liked her boss and they talked now and again about personal things.

“Oh,” Molly said. “I hadn’t realized that. If I didn’t know it was Jax I would have asked if that was your boyfriend, though he wouldn’t be here. When do I get to meet him? See, if you left you wouldn’t be in the same building as him.”

Tori smiled. She wouldn’t let that control any career decision she made.

“You haven’t been around the few times he’s stopped in. But next time I’ll come looking for you. I promise.”

“You do that,” Molly said. “I heard he’s a treat on the eyes.”

“He is,” she said.

Someone spoke so they made their way to the conference room and their table, Tori glad she didn’t have to talk about anything else.

When lunch rolled around, she grabbed her bagged lunch, and rather than find other people she knew to talk to, she went to her car. She hadn’t really talked to Raina much in a few days and the conversation with Hyde after her mother’s call was weighing on her mind.

Not that things seemed off with Hyde, but she hated she was even thinking that.

Then to run into Jax and Molly’s comment about leaving the building because Hyde was in it. Her first thought was never to make a career decision because of a man.

But was that wrong on her part to jump to that?

Was she so rigid and still locked up? Or was she overthinking this whole thing?

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