Page 65 of Fierce-Gabe

His father laughed. “I heard they were making the rounds. I think we’ll be getting some.”

“They said you are. Probably after they go to Kennedy’s. I don’t have time to explain much, but here is the deal.”

He told them what he’d said to the Fierce women.

“That’s a lot to take in,” his father said. “Though I’m happy.”

“They wouldn’t admit they had us paired up. I don’t care. It’s not about them and their game, but I don’t need any more roadblocks. So I’m counting on you and Mom to keep everyone in line and let me handle this.”

“You’ve got my word,” his father said.

He hung up and went back to work and hoped to hell that he actually convinced them to give him space.

“Stacy,”Diane said when she and Carolyn all but ran into McCarthy Construction. They were going to go to Kennedy’s next but changed their plan. They had to regroup.

“I heard,” Stacy said. “Come into my office. I can’t let Jocelyn hear anything. Or anyone.”

“Gabe works fast,” Carolyn said. “But he did ask us to give him twenty minutes. We figured it’d take us this long to drive here so we came here first.”

“Oh, look at those cookies. Let me bring them to the conference room and get Jim.”

“We called our husbands when were driving over,” Diane said. “They wanted us to call them when we got here so we can all get on the same page.”

They watched as Stacy left with the cookies.

“Do we call Richard?” Carolyn asked. “This way we don’t have to worry about Elise hearing anything.”

“I think that’s a good idea, but we’ll see what the guys say,” she said.

“Why do we have to see what they say?” Carolyn asked. “They mess it up half the time anyway.”

“True,” she said. “But we have to make sure we all have the same information. I’ve got an idea too and I want to see what Jim and Stacy think of it.”

When Jim and Stacy came back in, Carolyn said, “I’m going to call Garrett now. He’ll have Grant with him. We were wondering your thoughts on bringing Richard into the news.”

“He has to know,” Jim said. “I’d want to know if Jocelyn was involved.”

“Oh, we’ll get your daughter at some point,” Diane said.

“Not yet,” Stacy said. “Gabe needs to be settled first.”

Carolyn got Garrett on the phone and she heard her husband there too. “We are going to call Richard,” Diane said. “Then we’ll all be on to talk.”

Diane hit a few buttons. “Richard, Diane Fierce here. We’ve got you on speakerphone with the guys and Jim and Stacy. Is Elise around?”

“She’s in her office,” Richard said.

“Shut your door,” Jim said. “We need to make sure no one can hear this.”

They waited and heard the door shut.

“What’s going on?” Richard asked. At least it didn’t sound like he was on speakerphone.

Jim filled everyone in with what Gabe had said. Gabe said more to his father than the two of them, but Diane figured that would be the case.

“Can you believe it?” Stacy asked.

“This is unreal,” Richard said. “I’d have no idea as Elise never says much to me about those things. So what do we do now?”

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