Page 13 of Fierce-Jax (Fierce Matchmaking #18)

LEARNING EXPERIENCE

“ I ’ll be home before you’re in bed, Gianna,” Dillion said the next day.

“Do you promise?” Gianna asked.

She rolled her eyes. “Yes. It’s just something I’ve got to do after work.”

“I want to tell you about my day with Max.”

“Max?” she asked. “Is this a new friend at school?”

“It’s a boy,” Gianna said. “And he’s not nice. I told him that too.”

“What did he do?” she asked, frowning.

“He’s calling me GiGi,” her daughter said. “I don’t like that. I told him my name is Gianna.”

“Maybe it’s just a cute nickname,” she said.

“It’s not cute. It made the other kids laugh and then they were picking on me and calling me MiMi and DiDi and everything else they could think of.”

Her daughter sounded upset and she worried maybe she should be home to deal with this.

“Sometimes that happens,” she said. “I bet Max didn’t mean any harm by it. Could be he likes you and didn’t know how to act.”

“I don’t like him,” Gianna said firmly. “I told him that too. That he’s mean and he needs to pick on people his own size. He’s fat so it’s not easy.”

“Gianna,” she said sternly. “You don’t say those things. It’s hurtful.”

“So is calling me GiGi. I can’t change my name, but he can change his body. Maybe he shouldn’t eat so much.”

Dillion bit back the laugh. The things that came out of her daughter’s mouth. “Please don’t say that,” she said. “You don’t know his life or if he has something medically wrong with him.”

“Yes, I do,” Gianna said. “His mother and father are fat too.”

Her mouth opened and closed. Good thing they were on the phone so her daughter couldn’t see how dumbfounded she was over this.

“Let me talk to your mother,” she heard her mother say. “I’m sorry, Dillion. I’ll talk to her more about it. I was getting dinner ready and didn’t think she’d go off like that with you.”

“Please do,” she said. “And I’ll make sure I talk to her when I get home. What is going on with this kid? Is it as simple as that? He just shortened her name or did she say something mean to him first?”

She’d never known her daughter to be mean to anyone.

Talkative and hyper, sure.

Not always thinking of what she said before it flowed out of her mouth. Yep.

But not outright mean!

Even when she was at the birthday party and some of the other girls were pointing and giggling at others, Gianna wasn’t part of that group.

She hated to think her daughter would fall into that trap so early on to follow along, but she knew it could happen. That it most likely would at some point.

Everyone falls to peer pressure a time or two. Some more than most.

Like Gianna’s father.

Urgh, it was the last thing she needed on her mind when she was going on her first date since Alec.

“I’m trying to get the facts out of her,. There seems to be some confusion over the timeline of stuff said.”

“What stuff?” she asked. “Things from today?”

“Ongoing. The teacher talked to me about it when I picked Gianna up.”

“They should call me,” she said. “I’m her mother.”

Her mother sighed. “I don’t think it was anything more than they just wanted to make me aware that Gianna had a bad day with a little boy named Max. She wasn’t giving sides or anything like that. Don’t think much of it. I know you’ve got something to do, so put it from your mind.”

“It’s hard to do that if my daughter needs me,” she said.

Was she wrong to do this?

To start dating and putting herself first for once?

“She doesn’t need you like you think,” her mother said, laughing. “She’s being dramatic and defensive. I’ve handled a little girl like that a time or two in my life.”

“I’ve never been dramatic,” she argued.

“You most certainly were when you were a teenager. Then in college, you were always on the defense.”

“Because Dad was smothering and overbearing,” she said.

“Just like you’re doing with Gianna. Or you have.

It’s natural for a parent to be that way,.

I’ll get more information out of Gianna, but I think it’s nothing more than kids being kids.

Some mean girls pick on others there and maybe this boy is trying to get ahead of it. My guess is he’s picked on a lot.”

“So he’s targeting Gianna to get the attention off of him?” she asked.

“Could be something as simple as that, but your daughter will not put up with it. She’ll give it back. Just like her mother.”

“That’s because she was raised right,” she said, lifting her chin.

“Like your father raised you to do, so relax. It’s a learning experience and we’ll get to the bottom of it. Enjoy your night.”

It was the tone of voice her mother had that made Dillion wonder if her mom guessed she might be going on a date.

No, no way. She’d been late before to have dinner with vendors or other work-related events. Even after-hour interviews.

She’d just said she had a dinner meeting and would be home late.

If her mother suspected she was going on a date, she was positive there would be a hundred questions.

Questions Dillion had no answers for and even if she did, she didn’t think she was going to answer them.

“Thanks, Mom. For everything.”

“You’re welcome,” her mother said and hung up.

Dillion looked at the clock and saw it was almost five.

Thank God all her patients and staff were gone too.

She didn’t want anyone around to see her leaving at the same time as Jax. Or him coming to get her. It was too soon to get those kinds of questions.

They’d leave together and drive to the restaurant he’d chosen not that far away.

When he texted his schedule was open the rest of this week and for her to pick, she decided on today so that she didn’t lose her nerve.

She didn’t want to.

Not when she’d put up this air of confidence yesterday to make sure things weren’t awkward.

But the more she thought of her first date after so many years, the crazier she was making herself.

The doubts on if she was ready or not.

She wouldn’t cancel though. She couldn’t.

She jumped when there was a rap at the glass door to her office.

She’d been sitting in the reception area talking to her mother and contemplating her life choices and there was Jax on the other side smiling at her. Her tense shoulders released in his presence.

He just had a way about him that she needed in her life.

She got up and unlocked the door, then walked back to get her jacket and bag on the chair.

“You’re early,” she said.

“Probably late if you’re sitting there waiting for me,” he said.

He had tan pants on, brown shoes, she couldn’t see much more than a checkered multi-colored collar peeking out of his black fleece that he had zipped up with his backpack over one shoulder.

His face was clean-shaven again, his hair trimmed and styled well but not with a ton of product.

He was stylish without being over the top.

It amazed her at how someone as good-looking and friendly as him was still single.

She supposed many said the same about her, but she had her reasons.

He probably did too.

“Or we could take it as things are working in our favor not holding us up,” she said.

“I like that thinking,” he said. “All set?”

“I am,” she said, turning to set the alarms and locking the door.

They walked out together and to the elevator. Not talking as they normally did, but there were many people around and they hadn’t said whether or not this was going to be a secret.

Guess it was going to be one of those things they’d talk about tonight.

In the elevator, they were packed in, no one talking, him close to her body, their shoulders touching, her body heating and telling her she was definitely ready for this date.

At least her body was.

But nothing would happen any time soon.

She was lucky she could sneak out for a date for an hour. Finding time alone was a heavy task to complete.

When the doors opened on the first floor, they piled out with everyone else, walked to their cars, and drove to the restaurant they were meeting at a few miles away.

The silence was getting to her ten minutes later while they waited to be seated.

The minute they were, she opened her mouth, but he beat her to it. “I don’t want this to be awkward.”

“Me neither,” she said, snorting out a laugh.

“I know you’ve got Gianna as your priority and you have to work around her. I have no problem with that and completely understand. Roni didn’t date for years for that very reason, so I know firsthand.”

“Roni?” she asked. “Who is that?”

He frowned. “My sister. Roni Davenport. Used to be Roni Hollister. She’s the property manager for Fierce. I thought you knew. I figured one of the Fierces would have brought it up during their push on how well they do matching people up.”

She laughed. “They said they set up Roni, but they never said she was your sister. Oh my God, I can see the resemblance now. And Eli, that’s her son.”

He smiled. “Yes. Sorry. I thought it was common knowledge, though few of my staff are aware. I’m afraid if they knew they would call Roni for stupid things.”

“I can see where it might be an issue,” she said. “So your sister got set up too.”

“I’m sure you know a lot of the players,” he said. “Starting with all their kids.”

“I have heard bits and pieces,” she said. “Carolyn was my elementary school teacher. I still call her Mrs. Fierce when I see her. Now it’s to annoy her. Mean of me, I know, but I can’t help it at times.”

He laughed. “Good for you. I don’t know them that well other than through Roni. I’ve spent more time with the men getting my space ready. Their tossing my name around shocked me. I don’t like being set up.”

She leaned back in her chair when the server came over to place their water glasses down and take their drink orders, tell them the specials, and then walk away.

“Then why did you agree to this?”

“Can I be honest with you?” he asked.

Her heart sank.

This was where he was going to tell her he wasn’t interested but didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

“I’d like you to be.”

“It’s because they are always right, and though you’ve been throwing out signs, I’ve been blind to them. You know, the nice guy that always finishes last.”

She nodded her head. “And you didn’t want to change what we had? Or you were still feeling it out as you said?”

“Yes,” he said. “I’m confident in every aspect of my life but when it comes to women. If you looked up how fast to get slammed into the friend’s category, you’re going to see Jax Hollister with the speed record. Or maybe I’m the instructor now. I might have graduated to that.”

“Stop,” she said, waving her hand. “I highly doubt it’s that bad.”

“I could give you examples but don’t need to embarrass myself one bit.”

She smiled. “You couldn’t embarrass yourself in front of me. I happen to like nice guys.”

“You’d be the first,” he said. “No, that’s wrong. From my experience, some women like a man who is nice if they think he’s a pushover.”

“You’re not,” she said. “I can tell right away.”

“Not even close. So it contradicts them. I’m not a jerk though. I’m not some big macho man getting in someone’s face. No one would say I’m a bad boy and that coming out of my mouth makes me cringe just thinking of it. Do women really want that?”

She thought of Alec and his problems.

She didn’t know what he could be classified as and didn’t want to think of it either.

What she wanted was no drama.

That’d be a pleasant change of pace in her dating life.

“Not this woman,” she said. “I’d hope that is all you’d be concerned with.”

It was the slow smile that filled his face. “I can’t tell you how nice it is to hear that. But being in the friend’s category doesn’t just pertain to personality...unfortunately.”

She knew where he was going with that statement, but she wasn’t about to admit that her body had told her what she needed to know long before they talked.