Page 45 of Fierce- Royce

“He’ll open it up if it’s right,” Diane said. “Just remember that.”

“I will. And I’ll keep you posted,” Jolene said.

They hung up a few minutes later. “That was fun,” Diane said. “And I’m thrilled for Flynn and Julia. I know Carolyn wanted to talk to Jolene, but she lost her voice yelling over all the excitement today.”

“She does have more babies to get excited about, then the engagement. Life is turning out better than we ever hoped, isn’t it?”

Who would have thought his nephew Wyatt and niece Jade would both announce pregnancies yesterday. The funny part was those twins didn’t even know the other was doing it.

“It sure is,” he said. Fingers crossed it was for Megan and Jonah though. “In the meantime, what do you think is going on with Chloe and Royce?”

His wife sighed. “I can’t get a read on them, and as much as it pains me to say this, I guess you and Garrett need to put more work into it too. I don’t like not having a hand in it much.”

“Get over it,” he said. “We know what we are doing.” At least he and his brother thought that at one point last night, but today he wasn’t so sure when he replayed some of the night in his head again.

“And that is why you’re feeling so guilty about what you said to Jonah last night, right? Because you’ve got such a good handle on it?”

He sighed. “Hey, Garrett and I are a work in progress.”

She leaned over and kissed him. “You are. My work in progress.”

16

Stick To The Truth

“Morning,” Elise said to Royce when he walked into the office on Tuesday.

“Morning,” he said, walking past his sister’s office to go into his. He figured she’d be here early like him. Most of the other staff weren’t in yet, including his father.

“Did you have a good time at the party on Saturday night?”

“I did,” he said. “What about you with your friends?”

“It was nice,” Elise said. “Since I was driving I didn’t drink much. Just had two glasses of wine early on and then stuck to soda. I was surprised you went to the Fierces’ this year.”

He wasn’t sure why his sister was. “Why? They’ve asked for years and you don’t go and neither does Dad.”

“That’s right, but you went this year. Was there a reason why?”

“Because this year we are a partner with them and not just clients. It’s a different relationship. One of us should have gone and since you two had plans and I didn’t it wasn’t that hard to suck it up.”

“Hmm,” Elise said. “You’re not one to stay and hang out with people you don’t know.”

“I know a lot of them there and you know that,” he said. He had no clue where she was going with this unless she was aware of what their father was doing with the Fierces too.

Nah. Elise wouldn’t approve of being set up herself and she’d stick up for him.

“True. What did you do the past few days?”

“Wow, you’re awfully nosy. What do you think I did? It’s what I normally do when I have a day off.”

Yesterday he’d done laundry and watched sports, had a beer and fought the urge to not text Chloe.

The last one was the only different thing on a day off.

Sunday, the holiday, he’d managed to talk Chloe into staying after breakfast. They’d watched sports and he found she was just as into college football as he was.

For lunch they had sandwiches and chips. For dinner she found chicken in his freezer and baked it with some roasted potatoes with leftover bacon mixed in and a bag of mixed veggies that he wasn’t sure how they got in his freezer.

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