Page 89 of Fierce- Royce

“Would it be too much to have a family dinner?” Elise asked. “We know her and all, but now that it’s out in the open, I’d like to be able to just talk to her in general.”

“I think she’d like that,” he said. “I’ll talk to her and get you a date. Probably not this weekend. She’s going to her mother’s tomorrow and then we’ll see what is going on.”

“You’re not going with her?” his father asked.

“No.” He wasn’t going to say that he offered, but she wanted to do it alone and since he was doing the same alone there wasn’t much he could say about it. “It’s her choice. Her parents don’t even know about the fact that the Fierces were trying to set her up. Maybe it was easier for you guys to accept because you know her.”

“All the more reason for you to be with her,” his father argued.

“We have to do things our way,” he stressed.

“Are you going to tell Mom?” Elise asked.

He hadn’t even thought of that. “At some point, but not now. No reason to. She’ll know before the baby is born though.”

His father laughed. “Your decision on that. What is the next step with you two? You’ve got a baby coming. You don’t live together. I’m not going to ask if you’re getting married or anything. That is old-fashioned thinking even for me.”

“We haven’t gotten that far,” he said. “She took a home test last weekend and went to the doctors a few days ago. We’ve got time yet. I’m sure we’ll have more figured out before the baby arrives. If you’re asking me if I plan on letting her be by herself, the answer is no. But I also know she isn’t someone that can be pushed if she isn’t ready.”

The past several days he’d been thinking about their first conversation and how they were talking about why they wanted the friends with benefits situation.

She didn’t like to compromise her time and space. She didn’t like to be pressed or pushed to conform to the norm either. He didn’t have time for someone and seemed to put his career first.

They were both going to have to figure this out and he was positive they would be able to.

“You’re not someone that can be pushed either,” Elise said. “Guess that makes you both good with the other.”

“I’d like to think there are a lot of things that make us good for each other.”

“Grant and Garrett have said that all along,” his father said.

Not what he wanted to hear. “No gloating. It’s the last thing we want to hear or deal with right now. I get it, there are going to be comments and we’ll take them as they come.”

“Chloe will be a good sport about it,” his father said.

“She will be. So will I,” he said. “If there isn’t anything else, then I’m going to call it a day.”

“Are you going to be with Chloe tonight?” Elise asked.

“Yes. We normally spend the weekends together,” he said. “Unless there is an emergency with work, I need the time.”

“I’ll cover anything,” his father said. “Go be with Chloe.”

He left after that. He wasn’t in the mood to be drilled on his relationship because the problem was, he didn’t have a lot of answers.

This was as new for him as it was for her, but as he’d said, they would figure it out.

He wasn’t home twenty minutes before Chloe came in through the garage. He’d given her a garage door opener so she could come and go when she wanted and keep her car in the garage at night.

“How did it go?” she asked.

He was in shorts and a T-shirt. It wasn’t that warm out but it wasn’t cold either. Spring was coming in and he was more comfortable this way.

“It was fine. I asked them not to say anything about the baby. My father and Elise were excited about it more than anything.”

“Really?” she asked. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her that uncertain about anything before.

“Yes. They aren’t judgmental. We reserve that for my mother.”

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