Page 39 of Fierce- Royce

“I was trying to do that,” he said.

“Was?” Jade asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Stupid slip. “Am doing that, but it seems the Fierce clan is pulling me in.”

“Nope,” Drake said. “More like warning you if you didn’t already know. Did you?”

“I might have had some suspicions,” he said. “My father isn’t nearly as good at being sneaky as your fathers.”

“Oh boy,” Noah said. “They recruited your dad in on this. That’s a good one.”

“I’m not so sure,” he said. “Let’s just say your fathers’ escapades precede them.”

After five minutes, he found himself wandering off to talk with someone else and realized that he’d all but exhausted some of those he knew other than Chloe.

He shouldn’t have done that, but he was friendly enough to figure it out.

He went to get a drink and was looking around for Chloe again so he could get a better glance at her than what he had when she popped over to say hi.

Staying away from her too much tonight was going to be harder than he thought.

But he found her talking to Jade, the two of them laughing.

She had on a pair of black pants that fit her better than any other pair he’d seen on her before. She had black pumps on her feet raising her up some and a burgundy-and-black silk shirt with a few buttons undone that he’d been trying his hardest not to stare at when she was by him not that long ago.

It was almost as if she sensed his eyes on her and her head turned and they made eye contact. Jade said something and the two of them laughed again and Chloe’s face seemed to flush.

He could only imagine what was said and he lifted his eyes to look past her but have his head in the same direction. No easier way to get caught than to turn his head fast as if he was trying to avoid what he was doing.

“You guys might strikeout on this one,” Ryder said to Garrett two hours later.

“What?” Grant asked his son. “Not sure what you are talking about.”

“Please,” Ryder said. “Everyone knows you are working it hard. You’re splitting your time between hosting this party, talking with Megan and Jonah and now Royce and Chloe. The last two don’t seem to be cooperating with you.”

He was going to deny what his son was saying, but his brother spoke first. “Why is this one so hard?” Garrett asked.

Jade slid over when Garrett asked that. “Dad, you two can’t win them all. I told Mom and Aunt Diane that not so long ago. Maybe it’s that you are spreading yourselves too thin.”

“We aren’t spreading ourselves thin,” he said. “We’ve got this covered.”

Might as well admit it at this point. The longer he and Garrett and their wives tried to deny it the more wasted time there was.

“You always say that,” Ryder said.

“And we always come out on top in the end,” Garrett said.

“I’m not so sure this time,” Jade said. “Royce and Chloe have barely talked to each other.”

“I saw her go to Royce when he first showed up. Ryder, what was said?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Ryder said. He didn’t think his son was going to help him.

“Chloe and Royce didn’t talk at all?” Garrett asked, frowning.

“Nothing for you to latch onto,” Ryder said. “She came over and said hi, that she hadn’t seen him in a while, asked how his holiday was and then moved on.”

“That’s not very much,” Grant said.

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