Page 32 of Fierce-Jax (Fierce Matchmaking #18)

SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD

“ D illion is nice,” Trent said on Memorial Day.

Everyone had the day off and his parents wanted to have a small gathering for Eli to meet Gianna.

He didn’t dispute it because it’s not as if they had any plans, but they spent the entire weekend together.

“She is,” he said. Dillion was talking with Roni and his mother. His father was manning the grill and he and Trent were further in the backyard while Eli and Gianna played.

“But something is on your mind,” Trent said. “What is it? Or you can tell me to mind my own business?”

He debated a second. “This is the first time I’ve dated anyone with a child.”

“It’s difficult,” Trent said. “I know. Especially someone who is used to doing it all on her own or wants to.”

“You’d think I’d be used to it with Roni. And I kind of am. But this weekend I saw another side to it all.”

“Care to elaborate?” Trent asked. “I know you’ve been spending a lot of time with Dillion with Gianna around.”

“I have, but this was the first it was for several days in a row.” He explained what happened on Friday when he picked up Gianna and then at dinner that night.

“That’s rough,” Trent said. “It is her child and she has the right to decide those things.”

“One hundred percent agree,” he said. “But she gave me conflicting information. How hard it is being the boss.”

“Which we know from our jobs,” Trent said. “It’s an added layer of stress and responsibilities.”

“It is,” he said. “Then she comes home and it’s all on her too. When her kid doesn’t like the answer, there are tears or fights.”

“Just like you and I did as kids too.”

“I don’t know that I shed too many tears if I didn’t get my way.”

Trent snorted. “Like me. We are the more diplomatic ones.”

“I accepted it if I couldn’t change it. You most likely tried to talk your way out of everything.”

“I didn’t pick this career for nothing,” Trent said, smirking.

“True,” he said. “So advise me here as my brother-in-law. Dillion was talking about how hard it is to be the boss but then on the other hand didn’t like that when she tells her mother to do something, her mother doesn’t always listen. It’s like you can’t have it both ways.”

“Women are fickle creatures,” Trent said.

“I’m learning that too. I think the best advice I can give you is what I did with Roni.

Eli has a father, and as much as I can’t stand the guy, he’s always going to be in Eli’s life.

Most things have to be between Roni and Jeff and I step in if she asks me to or I feel as if I need to. ”

“Gianna doesn’t have a father,” he said. “The first time she met me she asked if I was going to be her daddy.”

“Oh,” Trent said. “I hadn’t heard that.”

“I have told no one. We said I was Dillion’s friend. She’s too young to understand, but I think she knows it’s more. She’s telling everyone how great I cook breakfast.”

Trent laughed. “Out of the mouth of babes.”

“Exactly. Dillion doesn’t seem to mind and it’s fine with me. We’ve said no secrets or hiding what we’ve got. Even the Fierce women have been around little.”

“They are getting information from others most likely,” Trent said. “At least that is what they did with us. Be lucky you weren’t at their party on Saturday.”

He’d been invited to the annual Memorial Day party and was told to bring Dillion. Grant and Garrett stopped in the week before to let him know, but he had no intention of going and seeing all the matched-up couples and families and being put on display as the next work in progress.

No, thank you!

He knew Dillion wouldn’t want to go either and the only reason he was being invited was his relationship to Roni. They hadn’t invited him in the past.

“I’d rather not,” he said, laughing. “They’ve had enough entertainment with me and Dillion.”

“Considering you agreed to be set up, I can understand that.”

“Can I let you in on a secret?” he asked.

“You know I can keep one,” Trent said, smiling.

“Dillion and I had been talking for a solid month or more before we agreed to be set up. We were flirting. She was throwing hints at me and I saw them but didn’t do anything.”

“Why?” Trent asked. “I’ve never known you to not go after what you want.”

“Because I didn’t want to find out we’d be better off as friends. I enjoyed what we had and it was something to look forward to.”

It sounded ridiculous now when he said it.

“So when they wanted to match you both up and you know their radar was always dead on, you figured it was your chance?” Trent asked.

“I did,” he said. “Come to find out she felt the same way.”

Trent laughed. “Then it worked out. And we know you were dating before you were given Dillion’s information to set it up.”

He figured his sister shared that part.

“We were.”

“And now everything is going smoothly,” Trent said, looking at Eli pushing Gianna on the swing set.

“It seems to be,” he said.

“You’re not sounding convincing.”

“It is,” he said. “I think we are both maneuvering things. It’s been three months and not a lot of hiccups.”

“Other than dramatic children?” Trent asked.

“Just that once. Most times I find her entertaining. Dillion’s parents seem to be fine with everything. I’ve only been to their house one other time. Her father works a lot or Dillion wants to give them a break since they’ve got Gianna so much.”

“And now Gianna isn’t going there on the weekends for the night,” Trent said. “That was a big hurdle for us too.”

“What are you two talking about over here?” Roni said as she walked across the lawn.

“Your husband is giving me some advice.”

Roni shut one eye at him. “Dating a single mother advice?”

“That’s the one,” he said. “Tell me from your point of view. What things would have pissed you off if Trent did something?”

“Oh, I ticked her off,” Trent said. “By getting into the middle of things she tried to handle herself.”

Jax snorted. He’d known that and did the same thing as Trent at times.

His sister needed someone to step in and get her to do the right thing with her ex.

It made it better in the long run.

“You don’t have that worry,” Roni said. “No ex to have drama over.”

“No,” he said. “I know little about him. Nothing more than he was shot and killed when Gianna was a baby.”

“You never looked him up?” Trent asked. “I know I would have.”

“I did,” he admitted. “Months ago. There wasn’t much other than he seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Someone drove by and shot him on the street. There wasn’t a lot of information.”

“He was the only one shot?” Roni asked. “That’s horrible.”

“It was a small article. Nothing more. I don’t even know if they caught who did it. It’s not something we’ve talked about.”

“You haven’t brought it up?” Roni asked. “Or she hasn’t?”

“Both,” he said. “I think it’s one of those things she has to do in time. She was upfront early on so that I knew there was no ex. I know she wouldn’t have been able to do it without her parents.”

He wouldn’t say financially. There was no reason to add that part. It was almost a given.

Emotionally was more important to him.

“I wouldn’t have been able to without you and Mom and Dad,” Roni said. “On a lot of levels. I don’t know how I would have had the courage to leave Jeff if I didn’t know I had a place to land.”

“Dillion always knew she had a place to land.” Even if she and her father butted heads a lot.

He lifted his hand when he saw Dillion looking at the three of them talking.

Eli had come running over and left Gianna in the swing set buckled in so he went to get Dillion’s daughter when she called Eli back.

“I wasn’t done yet,” Gianna said.

Jax laughed and gave her a little push. “I think he might have been getting tired,” he said. “You have to let him play with things he wants to do too. Don’t you do that with your friends at school?”

“Yes,” Gianna said. “But he said he liked pushing me. So he can still do what he likes.”

Sometimes a child’s logic was so simple and accurate at the same time.

“It doesn’t mean he wants to do it for hours,” he said, giving her another push.

“Mommy,” Gianna yelled when Dillion walked toward them.

He loved seeing her so relaxed in her shorts and T-shirt, sandals on her feet. “I’ve got to pee.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” he said, stopping the swing and getting Gianna out. She was hopping on the ground around her mother and holding her hand between her legs.

“You have to know to ask,” she said. “I realized it’d been a while since she’d gone. Come on. Race you.”

“I’ll take her,” he said, running to catch up with Gianna, then scooping her up under her arm to walk faster.

“She’s going to wet herself on you laughing,” Dillion shouted, so he slowed down to everyone’s laughter.

He put her in the bathroom and shut the door.

Dillion was next to him by the time the toilet was flushing, then opening the door to help her daughter wash her hands.

“My underwear got a little wet,” Gianna said. “Jax was jiggling me.”

He cringed. “Sorry,” he said.

“I’ve got a change of clothes in my car. I’m always prepared.”

“Just my underwear,” Gianna said. “I like this outfit better.”

“Heard,” he said, “little Ms. Fashionista.”

“No,” Gianna said. “I’m Ms. Cannon. I don’t like having a different last name as Mommy. Why can’t we all have the same last name?”

Another one of those questions he had no intention of answering because he was positive Dillion might not be ready for what he had to say.