“Which explains the large coffee that you rarely come in with. How come you didn’t get me one?” Gabe asked.
“I didn’t think I was going to get it but drove by and found my car going through the drive-thru. Sorry.”
She walked past her brother to her office, him right on her heels. She could never shake him loose when he thought something was wrong.
“Are you sure everything is okay?”
He wouldn’t leave until she gave him something.
“The stupid alarms were going off again last night. They caught the person who was setting them at least. It was like three in the morning before I got back into bed.”
“Was Chance with you?”
She lifted her eyelids to glance at Gabe. “Why?”
“Because this isn’t the first time the alarms have gone off on you, but it would be the first time you had a guy with you, and since you don’t want people to know about him, it might be hard to hide. Or if men in his department saw him.”
“They did,” she said.
“And he had a problem with it or you did?”
She wasn’t so sure.
She shrugged. “It’s fine.”
“Doesn’t sound it to me,” Gabe said. “Is it because the Fierces kind of have their mark on it?”
“They don’t,” she snarled.
“Whoa,” her brother said, his hands up, a smirk following. “Okay. They don’t.”
She sighed. “Gabe. You know him. Do you think he’d like that someone was setting him up with me? Or what do you think his reaction would be if he knew?”
“I don’t know him that well. I didn’t even know you and Jayce went to school with him.”
“You didn’t tell Jayce about Chance and me, did you?”
“No, but he’ll find out at some point. It can’t stay a secret forever even if you want it to. Is it just fun for you both?”
“It’s fun,” she said. “But I’m not sure how much more. I don’t know what he wants. He’s been pretty honest about not really being in relationships. He doesn’t have much free time.” She debated adding this and decided it wouldn’t hurt. “He thinks he’s not good enough for me. He jokes about it, but I know he really means it.”
“That’s bullshit,” Gabe said. “We aren’t snobs.”
“No, but everyone carries shit from their youth. He had a hard life. I mean,reallyhard.”
“How hard?” Gabe asked. “Like trouble with the law?”
She didn’t want to tell her brother what she knew, but she could trust him. “No. They labeled him a troublemaker as a kid in school. His mother was a teen when she had him, his grandmother raised him and got custody when his mother overdosed when Chance was thirteen.”
“That’s rough.”
“It is. He bought that pub because his grandmother had worked there for like twenty years and would have lost her job when it went up for sale. She wasn’t ready or financially stable enough to retire.”
“That makes him a pretty honorable guy to me.”
“Me too. I don’t think he sees those qualities. And you can’t push someone who isn’t ready. We’ll figure it out on our own one way or another.”
“As your older brother, you know I’ve got to watch out for you.”
