Page 92 of Fierce-Trent

“My father likes to pick on her,” Royce said. “And here comes the cavalry. Good luck.”

Roni turned her head and saw Grant and Garrett making their way over. There was a lot of laughter to Royce’s statement.

“Roni,” Grant said. “We are so glad you could make it. I’m sure you know most of the people here. We’d be happy to introduce you around.”

“I was doing it,” Megan said. “You know, trying to be a friendly face. But she got sidetracked here.”

Grant looked at Megan and Jonah and then over to Garrett. She swore there was a twinkle that just popped into his eye. “That’s great, Megan. Such a good girl stepping up like that. Did you know Megan’s fiancé is Trent’s brother?”

That wasn’t smooth at all. “I do know that,” Roni said. “It’s all in my flowchart.”

Garrett elbowed Grant. “We told her that back in July when Trent was moving in. Remember?”

“Oh yeah,” Grant said. “I forgot.”

“Looks like age is catching up with you, Uncle Grant,” Drake said, moving over. “Why don’t you two go bother someone else? I think Roni is in good hands here. It’s not as if she’s a stranger to the name Fierce at this point.”

She grinned at Drake, who smirked at her. He was also nice when he came into the building and she’d been seeing more of him lately with Chloe out.

“If you say so,” Garrett said.

Both the elder Fierces left after that and she remained standing there with Drake, Royce, Richard, Chloe, Megan and Jonah.

“You do know what my parents and aunt and uncle are doing, right?” Drake asked her.

This was the first someone had put it out there on her. She had to play it up right. More so with Jonah and Megan in on the secret. “I think everyone knows what they do,” she said.

“Just like my sister is running to the opposite side of the room whenever she can,” Royce said.

“Oh really?” she asked.

“Dad, why don’t you enlighten Roni on that?”

“I think Jim is waving me over,” Richard said and took off in the other direction.

“What am I missing?” she asked.

“Nothing and everything,” Drake said. “I want to say my parents throw darts at a wall to figure out who to work on next and then find that match. Who knows? Put it from your mind and stand your ground. Just because they’ve got someone picked for you doesn’t mean you have to believe it.”

She looked at Megan and hid her smile. “I’m pretty good at doing my own things in life.”

“Damn you,” Drake said. “You know it’s Trent and you two have something going on, don’t you?”

“Drake,” Chloe said. “Go away. You of all people know how this works.”

Drake left laughing at that and she knew she’d have to let Trent know that there was someone with the last name of Fierce that figured it out. She wasn’t sure how long this was going to remain quiet at this point, but it’d be nice to get through the holidays at the very least.

* * *

“That was a success,”Garrett said to his brother, wife, and sister-in-law.

“These parties are always a success,” Carolyn said. “Diane and I put a lot of work into them.”

“Of course you do,” he said. “And you two do a wonderful job. I loved seeing all the kids today. It was a shame to not have Ryder and his family and Cody and Raina here.”

“It’s only a shame because you were trying to see if Raina was talking to Roni at all,” Carolyn said. “Be honest. You two men zoomed right in on Roni next to Megan and had to hear what was going on. You were way too obvious.”

“It was Grant,” Garrett argued. “He put it right out there on the first thing he said.”

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