“How come I’m here and not Gabe or anyone else?” That thought just hit her.
“Gabe is busy this morning,” her father said. “I need to check out this building and what work it needs, then we’ll run the costs for that.”
“Which is why you need me?”
“That’s part of it,” her father said. “Plus, with the grandkids and all, we know you and Gabe want a bigger part in things. You told your mother you were willing to learn. Got to start somewhere, unless things are too crazy right now?”
Her father was putting her on the spot in front of Garrett. Not just in her work but her personal life.
It was best to get this out anyway.
It’s not as if they didn’t know she had something in the works almost a month ago.
“I can handle it,” she said.
“Strong and stubborn just like my Jade,” Garrett said. “She’ll never back down from anything.” Garrett turned toward her father. “You said grandkids. Is Elise having twins?”
“No,” she said. Jocelyn answered because she knew the comment was directed at her. “It has to do with me and the man I’m dating.”
“Are you pregnant?” Garrett asked, his eyes lighting up brighter than a full moon on a clear night.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “But the man I’m seeing has a child.”
She didn’t know how deep to go with this. “Kids are great things. Who is the lucky man if you don’t mind my asking? This way I can take you off our list.”
She shook her head, not surprised he put it out there like that. “Do you really have a list?”
“A mental one,” Garrett said, tapping his finger to his forehead.
“And we know you’re sharp as a whip,” she said. “Something tells me that who I’m dating won’t surprise you.”
“Even better,” Garrett said. She ignored her father’s cough.
“Chance Drummond. I know that is who you wanted to set me up with. Bet you couldn’t figure out how to do it and got lucky we managed it on our own.”
Garrett laughed. “All that is true. He really would be a good fit for you and I’m glad it’s working. Though I hadn’t been aware he had a child.”
“Neither was he until about a month ago,” her father said.
Thanks, Dad! But it’s not like it wasn’t a fact.
“Oh,” Garrett said. “And that’s where things get tricky.”
“It’s long and complicated. Or not really. I don’t know. But we are working it out and I’ve got his son Maverick at night when he’s at the firehouse. That is where my father was going with the grandkid comment.”
Her parents had been around Maverick a few times. Once when Jocelyn stopped at their house to visit and once when her parents came to her house. Both times she was watching Chance’s son for him.
She had no problem doing it. Even enjoyed and looked forward to it.
If it meant that she and Chance weren’t doing anything fun or going out alone anymore, she was fine with it.
It was more quality time when they were together now. Important talks and the things that a couple in a serious relationship would have.
Did she miss going out with him and the time they had together? Yeah. But it wasn’t as if it was much.
But she couldn’t even really go sit at the pub with him at night while he was working because she had Maverick.
Though he was at the bar less and she knew it bothered him.
