Page 12 of Fierce-Jax (Fierce Matchmaking #18)
START HIS DAY
T here she was.
The woman he was supposed to be set up with.
The one that he’d been too much of a chicken shit to ask out himself.
She wanted to be set up with him.
Yet here he was sitting in his car two days later listening to the end of some song as his excuse to not walk in and open his damn mouth.
He wasn’t trying to avoid her, just the awkwardness of this situation since neither of the Fierce women had reached out to give him Dillion’s contact information.
“I’m not afraid of her,” he told himself. “This is ridiculous.” He turned the music up. “I just like this song a lot.”
She opened the door to the building and walked in, his song ended as if it was meant to happen, so he got out of his car and strode toward the main entrance with the confidence he always had marching into work to start his day.
Like always, very few cars were here yet other than construction vehicles pulling in and out.
He got to the door and whipped it open with more force than needed, it slipping out of his fingers and flinging back. He grabbed it quickly to pull it closed hoping no one saw him.
And...there she was again, standing there waiting for him with a massive grin on her face.
Not even at the elevator, but next to the door he’d had to quickly grab before it smacked him on the way back.
“I wasn’t sure if you were trying to avoid me,” she said, smirking.
“No,” he lied. “There was a good song I was listening to.”
She smiled and nodded her head. “I’ve done that before,” she said. “It’s a good way to start the day.”
She bought it!
That it wasn’t he was afraid of being shot down by the woman he had been thinking of way too much. If they didn’t go on a date, then there wouldn’t be the worry of things changing and him not having the fun interactions they always did when they ran into each other.
“It is,” he said.
“Right,” she mumbled. Yep, there was the awkwardness he was hoping to avoid. “We both know what is going on. Kind of funny, don’t you think?”
“Starting my day off with a good song?” he asked. They were off to the side where she’d been waiting for him.
“Being matched up,” she said. “I’m glad because it seemed to me you would not make the move and maybe I’m a little old-fashioned and was hoping not to be the one to do it.”
His jaw dropped. “You wanted me to ask you on a date?”
She rolled her eyes playfully. “Jax, I thought you were a smart guy fully aware of your surroundings. I’m not sure how much more I could have said for you to get the hint.”
He felt like such a fool. “I thought you were being nice. That’s me, the nice guy.”
She kept her grin in place while her eyes roamed over the full length of him in an erotic-style appraisal.
Please don’t let my body react. Please don’t!
“I like nice guys. They don’t always seem to like me. I thought for sure this was one of those times again. Unless I’m reading this wrong and you just want to be friends.”
“I think being friends is a good foundation,” he said. “But I’d love to try for more.”
That wasn’t so hard to say.
All this self-talk was something he hadn’t done since he was in high school.
“Me too,” she said. “Not to put pressure on you, but I haven’t dated in years. Not since Gianna’s father.”
Which he knew nothing about and wasn’t even sure when to bring that up. He’d let her make that decision.
“Sure,” he said. “No pressure at all.”
She laughed. “You should see your face. I think I might have made a mess of things.”
“No,” he said. “You didn’t. Since you have a child, you tell me what works for you.”
“You’ve got my cell number,” she said. “When I called you to give your skin test results. Unless you deleted it.”
No reason to lie. He’d kept it. He even put her contact information in there.
Wishful thinking on his part paid off.
“I didn’t,” he said.
“Today is a bit of short notice for me,” she said. “Unless I say I got held up at work, which happens. My mother watches my daughter for me and she’s flexible.”
“I’ll make my schedule work,” he said. Because he’d be nuts to not. “You tell me what day works for you.”
She didn’t offer this weekend and she told him she wanted to spend the time with her child, which he could appreciate. She probably didn’t want to put too much pressure on them for anything more than an hour or two for dinner so she could use her daughter as an excuse if things went south fast.
Or maybe she would not tell her mother about going on a date and needed to keep it as if she got held up at work.
Neither of those things would offend him.
“I just need a day’s notice,” she said. “I’m normally out of the office by five at the latest.”
“I’ll text you when I get in my office to check, but I’m pretty flexible unless there is an emergency at work.”
“I try to be, but it’s not always possible. Hope you understand.”
“I do,” he said.
“We can get on the elevator now,” she said. “Maybe you’ll loosen up and give me one of those quick pitches. Or at least relax enough to make this fun like our usual conversations and not awkward.”
If she wasn’t smirking he might have flushed feeling like an insecure idiot.
“I don’t want it to be awkward,” he said softly.
“Me neither,” she said.
He held his hand out for her to walk first and he followed. “I wonder how long it’s going to be before one of the Fierce women reaches out to get your information to pass on,” he said.
She laughed. “I thought of that too,” she said. “I think saying yes surprised them.”
He hit the button to go up and the doors opened. No one else was around but the two of them like always this early. When the building got more tenants they wouldn’t have this luxury. “I got that feeling too.”
“I wonder if they are used to most people saying no,” she said.
“That crossed my mind,” he said. “Can I ask why you said yes?”
She turned to look at him, her eyes a shade of gray that matched a different jacket she had on. A black one today.
“Because I feared if I waited for you to ask it’d be another year or more. And since they told me you already said yes, I didn’t have to worry about it being one-sided and looking like a fool.”
He laughed over that. Maybe she was just as unsure as him but hid it much better.
“I’m not sure I would have waited that long,” he said, smirking. “Could be I was still feeling it out.”
“Slow,” she said, winking, then pushed her brown hair behind her ear giving him a better look at her face. High cheekbones, smaller lips bare of any gloss or lipstick, big eyes, minimal makeup. Classy in his mind. “That is what you are. Why did you say yes?”
“Because I’ve had my eye on you since you treated my rash. Which they wouldn’t know about. You know, the whole doctor-patient thing. I didn’t know if it was appropriate.”
That sounded much better than he thought it would.
She grinned and the elevator stopped on her floor.
The doors opened. “You’re not my patient anymore,” she said. “But if you were, I’m not sure I’d be too worried about it. It was only a minor thing. Not like I’m saving your life or you’re becoming dependent on me.”
He lifted his hand to give her a little wave because he was afraid if he opened his mouth something ridiculous would come out like he was terrified of how easy it might be for him to become dependent on her.