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“You’ve been doing business with Kennedy Construction for years,” Garrett said.
“I have been. I knew Richard and Royce. Gabe did too. But it’s not like Elise was around much on sites. Just working in the offices more than anything. I don’t know one way or another. To be honest, I’m not sure when I even found out they were both at Clemson.”
He never paid too much attention to those things.
His son was an outgoing kid and had a lot of friends. He dated on and off that he and Stacy were aware of but nothing really serious.
Not to the point that Gabe brought a girl home until his junior year and that relationship hadn’t lasted long either.
He always thought his boy had a great personality, but he wondered if he got taken advantage of by the girls.
Then he’d been told a few times that Gabe had complained that women had said he was too nice.
Not sure where in the world being a nice person was a bad thing but guess in this day and age it was.
“There has to be a reason the two of them don’t talk,” Grant said.
“It’s more Elise than Gabe,” Garrett said. “I noticed when we walked in Gabe was leaning down and talking to Elise quietly.”
“Really?” he asked. “I wonder what that was about.”
“I noticed some blushes too,” Garrett said. “Maybe Elise has a crush on Gabe.”
“No,” he said. “I’ve talked to Richard about this recently. He and I both have no idea what is going on, but he knows his daughter and she isn’t the type to have a crush on someone and be shy about it. I don’t think Elise Kennedy has a shy bone in her body.”
When the Fierce men first broached this idea, Jim and Richard had thought they were nuts, but it was funny how fathers could agree to anything when they were desperate for their children to find some happiness.
He just hoped he was doing the right thing and his son didn’t come out of this missing some skin. Because he knew if that happened, Gabe would be taking some off of him and his wife in the process for even considering trying to set him up.
3
GLOWING PERSONALITY
Elise saw her phone ringing two months later right before she was getting ready to leave for her father’s house for Thanksgiving.
It was her mother and she let out a loud growl but decided if she didn’t answer it, it might be worse. She’d been avoiding her mother’s calls for over a month and just sticking to texts.
“Hello,” she said.
“Happy Thanksgiving,” her mother said.
“Same to you,” she said. Maybe her mother was going to be nice today. It’d be a first. So she’d try if her mother was.
“I’m assuming you’re going to your father’s?”
“I am,” she said. It’s not like her mother invited her. She hadn’t in years. Her mother would normally decide last minute to invite her and Royce to some holiday dinner and then only want them there for a short period of time before she kicked them out.
Like last Christmas. They drove the ninety minutes there to have brunch and then had to leave so that they could be gone before Steve’s kids came.
Elise didn’t talk to or spend any time with her stepsiblings and had no issue with it. She didn’t think Steve’s kids did either. It’s not like her mother promoted any kind of relationship there and as far as she knew, her stepsiblings could barely tolerate her mother. They only sucked it up for their father.
“I don’t understand why your brother couldn’t come with the baby,” her mother said. Snotty tone of voice as always. Guess the peaceful conversation didn’t last long and her back got up wanting to defend Royce.
“Did you invite him?” she asked. Which would be news to her. Royce would have told her because they always stuck together when it came to their mother.
“I shouldn’t have to invite my kids to come to my house,” her mother said sarcastically.
She snorted. “Actually you do,” she said. “We never know what you’re doing and half the time you don’t want to mix and mingle families. No invitation, no visitation.”
