Page 12 of Fierce-Gabe

Her father always took the higher road. At times she worried she was too much like her mother and it bothered her.

Could be why she went to such great lengths to be the opposite. At least in appearance and actions.

“If Mom has an issue with me or wants to meet her first grandchild then she can either call me or drive here. She doesn’t need to pull you in and I’m sorry for that.”

“Don’t be sorry,” she said. “It’s Mom. I told her that. She could drive here and she says she’s busy. In my mind, you went out of your way to go there and introduce Chloe and you didn’t need to.”

“I wanted to meet her,” Chloe said. “It was the right thing to do. Maybe it was the nesting instinct in me. I’m not sure. Royce and I are trying to decide when is a good time to have Emily meet Willow.”

Emily was Chloe’s birth mother who’d given her up for adoption. Emily had been a teen and Chloe had just recently connected with her.

She found Chloe to be refreshing and upfront with her decisions in life. The way Elise tried to be too.

“I told Chloe that is her choice,” Royce said. “She was clear with Emily that she wasn’t looking for another family right now.”

“How did Emily take it?” she asked.

“She was good with it,” Chloe said. “I did let her know when I had the baby. I sent her a few pictures, but we haven’t talked much more. I don’t want to hurt my mother either.”

“Your parents seem so good about it all,” she said. Though she knew Chloe had butted heads with her adoptive mother at times, they were still close.

“They are. They’ve been open about everything. The truth is, we know I like my me time,” Chloe said. “I love the family I’ve got and the new one I’m marrying into. I’m busy with Willow and work is going to be nuts when I go back too with the next commercial building.”

Chloe was an engineer with Fierce Engineering. That was how Royce and she had met. They’d worked with Fierce for years, but it wasn’t until the last year that her brother and future sister-in-law started to get close.

Yep, the Fierces tried setting them up with her father playing a part in it. She’d never expected her father to do that and already told him to not even consider breathing her name around them.

Chloe had caught on first and informed Royce and the two of them got to where they are on their own terms. They even got engaged a few months ago, but Elise expected that to happen with the baby coming.

Not that she felt like people should get married because they had a child, but her brother and Chloe were so much in love. She was happy for him.

“Don’t remind me,” she said of the commercial building. The first one had been a lot of work, but most of it was trial and error. They’d gotten a rhythm going by the time they were under contract with the last few of the renters. There wasn’t much space left available and what was were small areas.

“What are you complaining about?” Royce said. “I’m the one on site daily and doing most of the work.”

“You’ve got Colt now to help,” she said. “I don’t have any help.”

Colton Abrams was hired last month as a project manager to take the load off of her brother’s shoulders.

“Colt is dealing with everything else,” Royce said. “All the home builds and everything not connected to the commercial builds.”

“He still has to know what is going on,” her father said. “He has to fill in for you when you’re out.”

“Like Royce takes that much time off,” she said.

“I’ve been off a few weeks with Chloe,” Royce argued.

“Still taking calls but not going in much,” Chloe said. “I appreciate it, but you can get out from under my feet too.”

“That a girl,” Elise said, grinning at Chloe’s smirk. “You tell him you need your space.”

There was some laughter in the room. “I told you months ago that we will look into getting you some help in the office,” her father said. “That is on you for not telling me what you need. Remember I said that when we met with Grant, Garrett, Walker, Jim and Gabe?”

“I remember,” she said. She put her head down. She’d been setting up the food on the island while everyone was in the living room talking.

The last thing she wanted was the name Gabe said around her.

It’d been two months since she’d seen him again and every time his name came up she felt shivers down her spine like she had when he leaned in with his sexy voice and pretty looks to talk quietly to her.

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