Page 26 of Fierce-Jax (Fierce Matchmaking #18)

HAPPILY HOOKED UP

“ I t’s been killing you to wait this long to come in and talk to someone, hasn’t it?” Roni asked.

Carolyn looked at Diane two weeks later and grinned. They were caught and she didn’t care.

“It might have,” she said. “But with Easter and all, we’ve been busy. Lots of grandkids to spoil and baskets to put together. How was your Easter with Eli?”

Carolyn and her sister-in-law had put their heads together and decided the best course of action was to get information from a third person.

They couldn’t keep stopping in to see Jax, and Dillion was almost impossible to pin down with patients filling her schedule.

That left Jax’s sister, Roni.

Roni would understand what was going on. Or more like what the two of them were going through, and appreciate the patience in letting Jax and Dillion figure it out.

Dillion and Jax had to have gone on a date by now.

She hoped.

“Easter was nice,” Roni said. “We had Eli early in the morning and spent it with my parents and Jax. Then after I dropped him off with my ex we went to Trent’s parents for dinner and spent it with them.”

“I know Raina and Cody were there,” Diane said. “My kids were at the house too, as Cody and Marissa’s parents didn’t come up for the short weekend.”

Trent’s sister, Raina, was married to Cody, and Cody was the brother of Marissa, who was married to Diane’s son Ryder.

“No,” Roni said. “Everyone was at Trent’s. I got to play with their son, Duke. You know, getting ready for my own baby.”

“Are you pregnant?” she asked, looking down at Roni’s belly as she sat at her desk.

Roni laughed. “I am. We are just letting people know. I’m due mid to late October. Four months after Megan’s baby.”

Megan was employed by Carolyn and Diane’s husbands at Fierce and married to Trent’s brother, Jonah.

All these couples they’d had a hand in matching up.

She high-fived Diane. “See, we do excellent work.”

Both of them hugged Roni and congratulated her. “We hope you put a good word in with your brother about how well we do,” Diane said. “Right?”

“Of course,” Roni said. “And yes, I know what is going on with him and Dillion.”

“How they both said yes,” she said. “They wanted to be set up with each other. Unlike the rest of you that resisted us.”

Roni laughed. Her phone rang at her desk, so she held her hand up and answered.

Carolyn and Diane moved back to talk and give Roni space.

“Should we ask for details and if it’s happened?” Diane asked her.

“Yes,” she said. “That is the reason we came here. Jax and Roni are close. We both assumed they saw each other over Easter recently. We only want to know if they’ve had time to go on a date yet. It’s been three weeks since we gave Jax Dillion’s number. Five weeks since they both said yes.”

It shouldn’t have taken even this long in her eyes.

Roni hung up the phone and both of them moved closer.

“We are sorry to bother you,” Diane said. “We stopped in since we were close by.”

Roni laughed. “You want to know if Jax and Dillion went on a date yet.”

“Well,” she said. “We do, if you know that information. I’m positive they are going to hit it off.”

“You say that about everyone,” Roni said, shaking her head.

“And we haven’t been wrong once,” Diane said. “Don’t you want your brother happily hooked up?”

“I do,” Roni said, smirking. “Yes, they went on a date. And, yes, they had a good time.”

“One date?” she asked.

“You’re not getting any more out of me,” Roni said. “Go do your detective work somewhere else.”

“Heard loud and clear,” Carolyn said. “I might have hoped for more, but I know you’re loyal to your brother.”

“Very,” Roni said. “But you know, I appreciate and thank you often for pointing me in Trent’s direction, so it’s the least I can do.”

“We’ll take it,” Diane said and grabbed Carolyn’s arm to pull her out into the hall.

“I wasn’t done yet,” she argued. “I know I could have gotten more out of her.”

Talk about frustration. One date and they got along. She could have figured that out herself.

“You have to know when to push and when to sit back,” Diane said. “They had their date and got along well. Remember, Dillion has a child and is doing it alone. It could be something on the slow end. We’ll check back in a few weeks.”

“I can’t keep coming back to Roni to check in,” she said.

“That is right,” Diane said. “So we’ve got to plan on how to check in with Dillion or Jax. Until then, know that so far our track record is still going strong.

“Sorry I missed your message,” Jax said. “I was at a community service board meeting that was running late.”

He always had his phone on vibrate in his pocket and didn’t take it out to look during meetings unless it rang.

“Not a big deal,” Roni said.

“The two of them waited longer than I thought they would to snoop into my dating life again.”

It’d been well over a month that he and Dillion had been dating.

In his mind, everything was going pretty darn good.

Which wasn’t the best thing because that was when you got smacked upside the head with the unexpected.

But Gianna loved him.

Dillion’s parents accepted him.

He’d take that any day.

He’d only met them that once, but it went well and Dillion said her father had said little, which meant he was okay with things...for now.

Dillion had laughed when she’d added that part, but he understood and didn’t take offense.

She and her father butted heads a lot and anytime father and daughter weren’t bickering it was a nice day in the Patrick household per his girlfriend.

“I think the holiday put them behind,” Roni said. “Or that was their excuse. It was funny watching them both almost jumping around my office and one holding the other back.”

He snorted. “I’m not complaining. What did you say?”

“I told them you had been on a date and it went well. They tried to ask if it was more than one and I told them it’s all they were getting out of me.”

“Thanks,” he said. “You know I’m not big on over-sharing parts of my life.”

He was walking to his car while he was talking to her. Several people were waving to him at the same time and he was nodding his head.

Normally he’d be talking to others in the parking lot after a meeting and exchanging opinions on the topics that were discussed, but the text from his sister saying she’d had two visitors this morning was enough for him to bypass that and put work second for a change.

“I know,” Roni said. “I had you covered, but you have to give them something or they spin even more.”

“I’d rather they go to you than come to my office again. I’m sure Dillion feels the same way. People are going to get suspicious if I keep getting visits from them.”

At least those who might know what the Fierces do. Which thankfully weren’t a lot, though Tori had brought it up the other day.

Just joking since she was going through it now with her boyfriend, Hyde, whom she’d been set up with.

“When are you going to have it be more out in the open?” Roni asked. “I know you. You won’t announce it by any means, but Dillion is pretty close to her staff, you’d said. And you two do work in the same building. You see each other all the time. Unless you’re avoiding that for now.”

“We aren’t avoiding it, but not running to the other’s office to stop in either. She doesn’t have much free time and can’t just walk away like I might be able to.”

Not that he had much free time either.

Though as he climbed into his car right now, he wished there was a way he could have lunch with her.

Something they didn’t get because she took little time off between patients.

Maybe thirty minutes, and if she was running behind, only went to eat at her desk.

“But you can see each other in the mornings if it works out,” Roni said.

“It does a few times a week,” he said. “At least once.”

Not as often lately. It’d have to be perfect timing to always pull in the same time and now that he was dating Dillion, he was sure the flirtation gods weren’t working in their favor for those quick visits.

“Better than nothing,” Roni said. “But I understand too. I got to see Trent walking by my office pretty much daily. It was nice back then.”

“And you still see him,” he said. His phone buzzed in his hand and he looked down to see Dillion texting him. “Hey, I’ve got to run.”

“No problem. I wanted to give you a heads up.”

“Thanks,” he said. He got to his car and climbed in before he called Dillion. She never sent him messages during the day. Or at least one asking if he was busy.

“Hi,” Dillion said on the first ring. “I didn’t think you’d call me.”

“Is everything okay?” he asked. “You hardly ever text me during the day and if you do you never ask if I’m busy.”

She was the busy one. Most dermatologists were only open three or four days a week. Her practice went from two full-time doctors down to her and she was open five days rather than the four days before she owned it to accommodate the existing patients.

She said she hired another PA to see patients so maybe it was working out.

It was not something they talked about often since they rarely had time together alone.

In the past, it didn’t bother him that much. He always wanted relationships to progress organically rather than push.

With Dillion, he wanted his gloves on to get a good grip to move them to a faster pace.

“I wasn’t sure if you were able to get lunch today,” she said, laughing.

“You will not believe this. I have two patients that canceled today and they are back-to-back. My staff were going to call to see if someone wanted to come in earlier, but since both are before lunch, I thought, hmmm, let me see if I can sneak away.”

He laughed. “You want to get lunch with me rather than see patients?”

Funny how he was just thinking that this never happened with them.

“Uh, that’s a silly question for you to be asking,” she said. “I do. Things like this never happen. Maybe it’s just fate for us to have the time. Unless of course, you don’t have the time.”

“I’m leaving a meeting right now,” he said. “I’ll be back to my office in about forty minutes. When can you meet?”

There was a pause. “Will you be going by your house or are you in the other direction?”

“I’ll be driving by my house,” he said. “Why?”

“Because I’ve got two more patients and they are quick visits and I can be out the door and meet you at your house in forty minutes. If you can.”

He laughed. “I’ll see you there.”