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Page 9 of Fierce-Jax (Fierce Matchmaking #18)

SERVES NO PURPOSE

“ H ey, Dad,” Dillion said at the end of the day.

“There is my girl,” her father said. “I don’t get to see you much anymore. Just my granddaughter.”

“I’ve been busy,” she said.

“So I’ve heard,” her father said. “If it wasn’t for the fact that your car needed to be serviced, I might not see you much at all.”

She didn’t need the guilt trip right now. Dylan Patrick meant well, but he was overprotective of her most of her life.

Maybe that was why she ended up with a guy her father didn’t like. She figured anyone her father liked would be just like him.

Dylan wasn’t so wrong about Alec in the end though and maybe she should have listened more carefully. But your mind and your heart know what they want and sometimes unsolicited advice gets shoved aside.

“You should be happy I’m so busy,” she said. “Successful just like my father.”

“Now you’re trying to butter me up,” her father said. “They gave you a loaner, right?”

“Of course,” she said. “I’ll be back to get my car tomorrow after work.”

“I was going to say someone would bring it to you and pick up the loaner, but maybe I want to see my daughter two days in a row.”

“Maybe I want to see my father two days in a row too,” she said, smiling.

“What’s going on?” he said seriously. “What do I need to fix or whose heads do I need to knock around?”

She snorted.

Her father was in big boss mode right now. Sitting up straight in his chair, his eyes ready to drill blood out of anyone standing in his way.

The same man who wanted to fix everything in her life from the minute she was born rather than letting her figure it out on her own.

She wasn’t going to be that parent.

Or she hoped she wasn’t.

He couldn’t fix this.

He couldn’t make the guy ask her out on a date when she was all but throwing herself at his feet.

How much more of an idiot did she have to make of herself before Jax figured it out?

She told him she wouldn’t mind if he gave her a rash!?

Who the hell says that?

And all he did was flush and laugh nervously. Kind of adorably too.

No way he was interested in her other than being nice at this point.

Hell, any other guys she might wink at would be buying her drinks and trying to get her drunk, then invite her back to their place. With her kid in front of her!

But nope, the one she was interested in just wanted to carry a cake to her office for her.

“Nothing is going on and nothing to fix. I promise.”

“I know what your promises are like though,” her father said. “Do you know how many times I’ve heard everything was fine in your life only to find out it’s not?”

“More than I care to count,” she said.

Her father opened his mouth and closed it again. “You’re agreeing with me?”

“Why argue?” she said. “It serves no purpose.”

It just reminded her what Jax said. Couldn’t change it or her father. No use complaining if it just worked her up.

Might as well accept it.

“I’m not sure what is going on,” Dylan said. “But you’ve got a child of your own now. A daughter. You always told us things were fine and we believed it. That you had a good head on your shoulders.”

“I got it from you,” she said, smirking at him.

“You did, but we won’t tell your mother we are agreeing on that either.”

She laughed. “It can be our secret.”

“Things weren’t so good when you found out you were pregnant,” he said. “Best happy surprise in my life and might be yours too, but at the time, you weren’t thinking it.”

If her father hadn’t said what he had about it being the best surprise of his life, it might have just started another major fight for his sales staff and customers on the floor below him to look up and see family drama in Dylan Patrick’s big glass office where he sat and oversaw the action daily.

Like the big man he was here and in her life.

A king on his throne.

She supposed her father deserved it after his hard work over the years.

She just didn’t think she deserved a lecture at thirty-three years old.

“I wasn’t at the time,” she said. “I had too many plans it was going to mess up. But I wasn’t supposed to do it alone.”

“No,” Dylan said. “And if things didn’t happen the way they had, my guess is you’d still be doing it alone and you know it.”

As much as she didn’t want to acknowledge that, her father wasn’t wrong there.

“We’ll never know,” she said. “Alec never got a chance to see Gianna like I have.”

There was a pang in her heart over those words.

No matter how things came to an end and what Alec had done, Gianna was still his daughter and he had a right to be in her life.

“No,” her father said. “But you’re young enough to make sure she still has a father in her life. A man other than me. One that I approve of.”

Her lips were twitching and her father started to laugh over the last part of his statement. “You did that on purpose.”

“It made you stop feeling sorry for yourself, didn’t it?”

She didn’t know what was more depressing: the fact that the guy she had the hots for was oblivious to all the signs she was lighting on fire and tossing gas on, or that her father knew her well enough to want to fix something she said didn’t need to be fixed.

Now she was more annoyed with him than she was depressed.

“Thanks, Dad,” she said.

Her father winked at her.

“Look at her go down there on the floor,” he said.

Dillion moved closer to the big windows and looked at the showroom floor to see Gianna driving around in a small motorized red Mercedes convertible just like her mother had.

She threw her hands up in the air. “Dad. When did you buy that?”

“I got it last week. I’ve got two more coming. A G wagon like mine and a sedan like yours. She’s my best salesperson.”

“Oh my God, you’re pimping your granddaughter out to get sales.”

It was too outrageous for her not to laugh.

“I don’t need to do that,” her father said indignantly. “I get plenty enough sales on my reputation alone. I don’t own the top-selling luxury car dealerships in the state for nothing. It’s not like I’ve got Gianna out there doing the salesmen's work.”

“If you could, you would,” Dillion said.

“Nonsense,” he said. “She’s having fun.”

Her daughter noticed her and waved, then jumped out of the mini car and took off running.

Her mother jumped up to follow and she knew they were coming up to this level.

“Mommmmmm,” Gianna yelled. The excited version this time. “I want to be in a commercial.”

“What?” she asked, turning to look at her father.

His hands were up in the air. “Don’t look at me. I’d never do that.”

Her father was way too protective. The same reason she never volunteered who her father was.

“One of the customers just signed a lease for the same car Gianna was in,” her mother said. “The lady told Gianna she should be in a commercial.”

“Not pimping her out, huh, Dad?” she asked.

“Don’t blame your father,” her mother said, smiling. “You’re the one that said you’d pick up Gianna here. She’s been driving that in the back but asked if she could do it out here for you to see her.”

“I didn’t even know you had it,” she said. Dillion couldn’t believe her daughter never said a word when Gianna would spend hours telling her about a doll she played with at Pre-K.

“It’s new. It’s only the third time she’s played with it. It’s not fast enough for her,” her father said.

She smirked. “Now that I believe.”

“The mechanics in the back said they could give it more power,” her father said.

“Over my dead body,” she said firmly.

Her father laughed. “See what it’s like having a daughter? Remember that the next time you want to give me a hard time.”