Page 9 of Fierce-Gabe

He supposed he should be cutting Elise some slack rather than picking on her.

The more he thought of it, he kind of felt like an ass.

But he couldn’t help that when he saw her he just wanted to bring back the girl he’d seen at that college party so many years ago.

The one that came in a skirt with her hair done, some makeup on her face. She didn’t look like he’d ever seen her before and he had been blown away.

He’d always been wary of going up to talk to her for some reason. She was very unapproachable.

But that night, she wasn’t.

And maybe the two of them had a little more to drink than they should have, but it was a night he’d remember forever.

Just like he couldn’t forget what happened the next day either. Or the years later.

Talk about shitty luck on his part.

“Just like Gabe said,” Walker said. “Why don’t we check out the rest of the building.”

An hour later everyone was leaving. It’d taken time to walk the seventy-thousand-square-foot space. They’d have to come back again for a thorough inspection if they decided to put an offer in and it was accepted.

In his mind it was a good purchase. Elise had been taking notes on her phone, but he wasn’t sure what of. She and her father were talking quietly and he assumed it had to do with things they’d bring back to Royce.

Everyone was talking but not loudly to not interrupt others’ thoughts. He knew most of the partners were relying on him and his father before they moved further.

When the realtor left, Grant asked, “Well? What does everyone think?”

“The building is pretty solid,” Gabe said. “There are cracks in the foundation, but I think they can be fixed easily. An inspection will tell us more, but we got a good look at things.”

“Windows all need to come out,” Richard said. “Not sure any of them are worth salvaging and that is going to be a massive expense.”

“We can take care of a bunch of them,” his father said. “Depends if we need to move windows for renters or not.”

“The roof is in good shape,” Gabe said.

He and Grant had gone up on it when the rest of them were on the sixth floor walking around. Six floors and a basement that they could rent out. About ten thousand square feet on each floor, give or take. It’d keep them busy for a while.

“That’s good to hear,” Walker said. “If you guys want to reach out to us when you get an idea of the cost for what has to be done before we can even get to finding renters then we can figure out if it’s worth making an offer. I’m sorry, but I’ve got to run.”

Gabe looked at his watch. “I’ll walk out with Walker. I need to get going too. Dad, I’ll catch up with you later and we’ll get this all to Jocelyn and get it worked up. Bye, everyone. Bye, Elise,” he said when she didn’t say anything.

She looked up from her phone. “Bye,” she said and then dipped her head back down with a slight blush.

He was positive she didn’t catch his grin.

“Okay you two,”Jim McCarthy said. “Lay it on me. No way, right? I think you’re both nuts.”

“Just like I told Richard earlier,” Grant said. “There is smoke.”

“Smoke signals,” he said. “One of them might be asking for help to get away from the other.”

“Please,” Garrett said, waving his hand. “We are good at this. We know what we are doing. Do you have any idea why Elise seems so cool toward Gabe? It doesn’t seem like he’s that way toward her.”

“No idea,” Jim said. “They went to the same college. She was a year behind him.”

He watched as the brothers looked at each other and laughed. “No one thought to mention that to us?”

“I don’t know if they even knew each other then,” he said.

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