Page 10 of Fierce-Jax (Fierce Matchmaking #18)
RANG HIS EGO BELL
T he only thing worse than spending Valentine’s Day alone was spending it with an eight-year-old boy so that his sister could have a date night.
Jax had offered because he was sick of being alone.
Not that he thought he was much of a romantic in his life, but whenever he was seeing a woman, he put in one hundred and ten percent.
Maybe that was his problem. He put too much in and didn’t need to. Or shouldn’t.
But with that frustration over his Saturday night company, not that he didn’t have a great time with Eli, he decided he would ask Dillion if she wanted to get a drink the next time he saw her.
In the past two weeks, he’d run into her at least four times. Normally first thing in the morning.
Every time they had a fun easy conversation that let him think she was interested in getting to know him more.
Then he’d chicken out.
In this day and age, women asked men out just as much.
He’d been asked out plenty of times.
So in his mind, he figured she just liked the easy conversation they had.
Hence, the friend category once again.
But, as he’d told enough people, if you can’t change it, accept it.
Maybe he didn’t want to quite accept this.
When he pulled into the parking lot earlier than normal on Monday morning though, he didn’t expect to see Dillion getting out of her car too.
Shit, he wasn’t sure he was ready for this.
Funny, considering he could talk anyone into applying for a job at his place in less than a minute on a ten-second notice.
And since he was so good at the elevator pitch, that was what he was going to do.
“Morning, Jax,” she said when he held the door open for her.
“Morning to you, Dillion,” he said.
“I have to tell you,” she said, “I think I stole an employee from someone.”
He laughed. This was the confidence boost he needed. Right in his wheelhouse. “How is that?”
“I had to bring Gianna to the pediatrician the other day. When I was there, the nurse was just wonderful with her, but she was getting abused by some parents. I could hear it through the doors.”
“That’s horrible,” he said.
“It is,” she said. “I’ve been on the receiving end of it from past patients. I felt bad and just went in for the kill. I was thinking of you in my mind and decided to go for it, but you know, not in a mean way.”
The fact she was thinking of him and admitted it rang an ego bell.
Nope, that was just the sound of the elevator dropping down toward them.
“What happened?”
“I told her about my practice, that I needed a nurse that could also learn to do Botox injections and she all but jumped on me in excitement. Said she gets injections and wanted to know if that was part of the benefits package.”
He laughed. “Is it?”
“I can make it that way. I gave her my card and told her to think about it and apply if she was interested.”
“That’s great,” he said.
The doors opened, they stepped in, and he was just ready to ask about that drink when a hand stopped the doors from closing and two other people jumped on the elevator with them.
“Hey, Jax.”
As if it wasn’t bad enough there would be witnesses, it was one of his employees. One that had shown crush-like moves on him. “Morning, Nora.”
He didn’t know who the other person was and it didn’t matter.
His chance to ask Dillion out was long gone.
“You’re getting here early,” he said to Nora.
“I need to leave early and have a bunch of things to do. I’m going to help train Paisley when she starts so I want to get organized.”
“What a pretty name,” Dillion said. “Paisley.”
He’d told her about his interaction that day with his newest hire. That they’d met in the elevator first and he was recognized. Things he never shared with women he dated, he realized he was confessing to her when they ran into each other and had a few moments to chat.
“It is,” Nora said. “Paisley used to work on another floor, but she ran into Jax and he convinced her to apply with us. Better watch it, he might do it to you. He likes pretty women.”
His face paled at hearing that.
He knew Nora was just joking, but it made him look like a complete asshole.
“That’s not true,” he blurted.
“I think she was just complimenting me,” Dillion said. “Because I’d like to think someone was smart enough to not make a comment like that about their boss. Or in front of their face. That it could reflect poorly on him and start rumors that weren’t true.”
He looked into Dillion’s eyes and wanted to thank her, but the elevator stopped at her floor, and Dillion and the other woman got out.
He nodded to her over Nora’s head.
“I’m so sorry,” Nora said when the doors shut leaving the two of them in there.
Talk about killing a mojo he might have thought he had.
At least Dillion defended him.
He hoped she didn’t believe what Nora had foolishly and immaturely spoken of.
“You need to think before you speak,” he said. “I’m not sure what that comment was supposed to be. I’ve never once led anyone to think or believe what you just said.”
“It came out wrong,” Nora said quickly. Her face was red from Dillion’s chastising. “I meant she was pretty. Kind of your style. She’s classy and so are you. I mean, you’re kind of out of most people’s league.”
“Huh?” he asked.
“I think you intimidate a lot of women,” Nora said. “Maybe that is why you’re single.”
He was not having this conversation with an employee.
It was no one’s business if he was single or not and didn’t want to know how she was aware of it.
“I don’t know about that,” he said. “But my personal life is just that. Personal. This isn’t an appropriate conversation for you to bring up. I trust it will not happen again or be repeated.”
The heat coming off of Nora’s face now almost made him want to remove his jacket. “No. I’m sorry again. Sometimes I put my foot in my mouth. Being intimidated and all.”
The doors opened to their floor. They were the first ones there so he unlocked the door to their silence.
There was a part of him that felt bad saying what he had to Nora, but it was necessary.
He couldn’t let any of that go on.
Once inside, she went toward the hall leading to her office and he went to his.
He barely got his laptop out of his bag when he looked up to see her standing in the doorway almost in tears.
“Yes?” he said.
“I’m really sorry. It was inappropriate of me.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say I kind of had one of those crushes that people had on their bosses.
The older man thing, but it’s nothing more than that.
When I say I want to talk with you, I just want your advice on how to further my career.
You did it so young and, well, I think time is getting away from me. ”
He let out a sigh.
He wanted to growl over the whole older man comment.
He was only thirty-three.
He wasn’t that old.
It’s not like she was eighteen.
He’d put her in her mid-twenties for sure.
“Apology accepted,” he said. “If you want to advance your career, you need to watch what you say and to whom and in what situations.”
“My parents have been telling me that for years,” Nora said. “You’d think at twenty-eight I’d learn.”
He would have figured that too. “If it’s something you’re truly interested in, talk to your supervisors and then HR. There are trainings and seminars available with prior approval. There are a lot of things you could gain from them.”
“Thanks, Jax,” Nora said. “I mean it. The first one should be how to not put your foot in your mouth.”
He snorted. “There might be one or two that apply too.”
Nora left his office and he got to work, but two hours later, he was getting off a video call and opening his door when Carolyn and Diane Fierce both jumped back and shrieked as if he’d just snuck up and caught them trying to steal something.
“Oh, you scared us,” Diane said. “The staff was nice enough to let us walk around so we could see how the place looked. I haven’t been here in months.”
“Sorry,” Jax said. “How have you two been?”
He knew he was setting himself up talking to them, but he would not be rude.
“We’ve been well,” Carolyn said. “How about you? I heard you had Eli on Saturday night so your sister could have a date night.”
He didn’t even want to know how they found that out.
Way too many ways and it could have been from Roni or Trent if the women were in the other building just “looking around.”
“I did,” he said. “We went to the movies and out to dinner, then had a video game marathon.”
The women looked at each other. “Can we come in for a minute?” Carolyn asked.
He couldn’t very well say no.
Well, he could but decided not to.
The fact they wanted to come in at least would save any of his staff from hearing what they were going to say to him.
He was positive he knew.
He took a step back. “Of course.”
Carolyn shut the door and he smirked.
“You need to find yourself a woman,” Diane said. “We do really good work. You’ve seen our track record.”
“I’ve seen and heard it,” he said.
“I have someone in mind,” Carolyn said. “An old student of mine. Such a sweetie. She’s a doctor and works in this building.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to tell them no, he wasn’t interested.
Until he heard who it might be.
There was only one doctor in this building.
The woman he couldn’t seem to work up the courage to ask out himself.
If these two women thought he and Dillion would make a good match, who the hell was he to turn down a helping hand?!
“Who is it?” he asked. Better make sure he wasn’t wrong.
“Dillion Patrick,” Carolyn said. “I know it’s a guy’s name, but she’s a woman. A lovely single mother. I shouldn’t say that, but she has a four-year-old. I’m only telling you that so you’re aware. Some men don’t like women with kids.”
“I like kids,” he said.
“We know,” Diane said. “Which is why we think this might work. Other reasons too.”
“What reasons are those?” he asked.
“We don’t share our secrets,” Diane said, laughing.
“Are you interested?” Carolyn asked, her eyes a little wide over how he didn’t brush them off.
“Sure,” he said. “What can it hurt? As you both say enough, you do good work.”
Watching their jaws drop might have been the best moment of his day.
“I didn’t imagine that, right?” Carolyn asked when she and Diane were on the third floor in the lobby. “Jax just agreed to be set up with Dillion?”
“He did,” Diane said, shaking her head. “No one ever says yes. Ever .”
“I know,” Carolyn said. “I hope Dillion says yes. I’m going to feel horrible if she doesn’t. Then we’ll have to figure out another plan.”
“I don’t know her as well as you,” Diane said. “I never had her in middle school.”
“She was an attentive child that liked to push the boundaries, but knew when to back down. She was well-liked, comes from a great family, has good core values, and is doing it on her own. Just like Roni did.”
“Jax has a big soft spot for what his sister went through,” Diane said.
“Exactly. And though I’m not positive about what happened with Dillion and her ex, I know he was a doctor and passed away when Gianna was a baby,” Carolyn said.
“I can’t believe you don’t have the details of that,” Diane said.
“She didn’t do her residency locally. I think her mother went to help until Dillion was done and then she came to Duke for her fellowship and went into the private sector. I don’t know much more. I could ask Wyatt, but he probably wouldn’t know.”
“Sam might know more, but he will not tell me,” Diane said. “And he’s older than Dillion too.”
“I don’t think any of that matters,” Carolyn said.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. We’ve got a line baited in the water and we need Dillion to open her mouth and grab it,” Carolyn said. “Leave that to me.”
“I’m going to,” Diane said. “Show me how it’s done.”
“Now you’re just humoring me,” she said, smirking.
“I want to see how we are going to get Dillion to talk to us today. She’s probably got patients.”
“I’m sure,” she said. “But she’s joked with me before about other services. Maybe we can sneak in and ask a few questions.”
“I’m not getting Botox,” Diane said, looking appalled.
“Me neither,” Carolyn said. “But I wouldn’t mind a facial.”
“We go to Sloan for those,” Diane argued.
“I know,” she said. “But we have to do what we have to do to get this done. Play along with me.”
Diane laughed. “This is all on you.”
“That’s right,” she said. “The men had the last one. Even you with Hyde. I haven’t gotten to have any fun lately.”
“If Dillion says yes, there is no more fun with these two. They go on their date and we’re done. Did you think of that?”
“That’s just the beginning,” she said. “Trust me.”