Page 52 of Fierce-Jax

“And now there are no worries. Does this man know about Gianna?”

“Jax,” she said. “His name is Jax Hollister. I know you’ll tell Dad and Dad will look into him. He’s great. His sister is the property manager for the two Fierce buildings. She’s married to an attorney. Jax is an upstanding member of the community.”

Her mother laughed. “You don’t have to sell me on anything or anyone. Despite what you think, your father only cares about a few things. One, that you’re happy and cared for. Two, Gianna is also accepted. Three, that whoever you end up with only wants for you what your father and I do.”

“Then Dad has nothing to worry about,” she said.

17

SHOULD HAVE BEEN EASY

“Are you going to the new building anytime soon?”

Garrett Fierce looked up from his computer to see his wife standing in his doorway. “Grant and I are going to meet with new potential renters this afternoon, why?”

His wife laughed and walked in, sat across from his desk, and had a beautiful charming smile on her face.

One she’d had the first day he met her.

He was toast then and now he was about to be a soggy mess while she asked the world of him.

“Can you stop in and see Jax?”

He returned her smile. “No.”

She put a pout on her lips and he laughed. “How come?”

“Because you’ve been bragging to everyone you had this covered. Look at it this way, you’ve got the privilege to tell everyone that someone said yes to being set up. You don’t want to come back and blame someone else for messing it up now, do you?”

“Garrett,” she said sweetly. “There is no messing anything up. You just need to stop in and say hi. See how he’s doing andhow nicely the space is set up. It looks great by the way. I’ll write the message down for you to give him.”

She reached for a pad on his desk, but he slapped her hand on it.

“No,” he said. “I’m not passing messages as if we are in grade school. Are you crazy? Just call him.”

“I can’t call him again,” she said. “I left him a message that day and I haven’t had a chance to see Dillion and get her information. You know I’ve been sick. Just tell him that. Please?”

His wife had a touch of a cold for almost a week. That didn’t mean he was going to do her bidding.

“You can go over and see him just as easily as me,” he argued.

“Then his staff might wonder why I’m there again,” she said. “It would make sense if you were there and not me. It could be he doesn’t want anyone to know what is going on. Would you?”

His lips twisted. “No, I wouldn’t want anyone to know,” he said. “But I handle it differently than you. Why can’t you just give a message to Tori when you see her next? Or better yet, give it to Hyde to give to Tori to give to her boss.”

“Do you hear how ridiculous that is? That is just like elementary school.”

“Exactly,” he said. “No different from what you’re asking me to do,” he said, putting his chin up. “I’m not doing it. Give it to Roni.”

“No,” she said. “He might not want Roni to know either. I want to keep it between us for now.”

“Us means you and him, not me.”

“It’s always about the four of us,” she said firmly. “Don’t you forget it.”

“Garrett,”Jax said on Friday afternoon. “Come on in. Did you walk around and see how everything was set up?”

“I did,” Garrett said. “It looks great in here. I know if you had any problems you could have talked to Roni about it.”