Page 24 of Fierce- Royce

“I will. I’m spending it with my family.”

“Oh,” Carolyn said. “No one else?”

“Not anyone else to spend it with,” she said, grinning.

“You know, we could help you with that,” Carolyn said, lifting her eyebrows.

She’d give Carolyn credit for putting it out there. “As I’ve said to Grant and Garrett before, I’m good. Thanks. Merry Christmas to you and the family.”

She left and started to laugh when she got to her car. Hopefully Royce would do his part too.

“Another successful party,”Diane said later that night when everyone had left and it was just she and her husband, her sister-in-law and brother-in-law. “More and more people each year and it’s like I can’t keep track of who came in and who left.”

“You love every minute of it,” Grant said. “You know you do.”

“I do,” she said. “Jonah and Megan look happy. You guys are doing a good job there. But you’re failing with Chloe.”

Grant sighed. “We’re trying. She doesn’t seem interested. Or maybe Royce isn’t. I tried with him too and got nothing.”

“I saw them talking together,” Carolyn said. “Just for a few minutes.”

“So did I,” Grant said. “Well, it was more they were standing together and not talking. It was probably more that Royce didn’t want to stand alone. I saw him seek Chloe out and then he moved to me quickly.”

“And I swooped in on her,” Diane said. “We are good at tag teaming this, but I got nothing out of her.”

“I tried,” Carolyn said. “I saw her leaving after you talked to her. She didn’t stay long after Royce arrived. I tried to get her to stay longer by asking if she had plans, but she said she had a long day ahead of her with family tomorrow.”

“Did you ask if it was only family?” Garrett asked.

“Of course I did,” Carolyn said. “I’m not new to this rodeo. She said it was. I even told her we could help her with that.”

“What was her response?” Grant asked.

“That she was good. Just like she told you two. So that is my point; you need to work harder on her.”

She watched as her husband and brother-in-law looked at each other and sighed. “We’re trying. I’m not sure what more we can do. Even Richard is trying and not getting anywhere,” Grant said.

“I talked to Richard the other day and he said Royce has been running around like crazy the past two weeks and then he alluded to his ex causing some drama in the family with the holidays too.”

“Becky always had a lot of drama surrounding her,” Grant said.

“I wonder if that has affected Royce at all,” Diane said.

“No clue,” Garrett said. “Men don’t talk about those things.”

“Maybe you should,” Carolyn said. “Then you’d have a better chance at this match. You two told us you had it covered, but it doesn’t seem to be happening.”

“Well, if you two think you’ve got a better shot at it, then go for it next week at the New Year’s Eve party. If we can even get Royce there,” Grant said.

“You get him there and Carolyn and I will do our magic and show you two how it’s really done,” she said.

“Sure,” Grant said. “What do you think, Garrett? We going to let our wives show us up?”

“Good luck, ladies. This one might be our first failure.”

“It’s thinking like that that has this match not going anywhere,” she said. “Just remember that.”

9

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