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“Richard,” Gabe said when he walked onto the open floor. Men were working everywhere. A ceiling was ripped out and the steel beams were exposed. “I figured I’d be talking to you today.”
Gabe stepped away from the crew and they went to the other side of the open area. No one would think anything of them talking.
“Just had a little powwow with the Fierces and your father.”
Gabe laughed. “That is where he ran off to. Comparing notes?”
“We were,” he said. “Have you talked to Elise yet?”
“Just a text,” Gabe said. “Don’t tell me what was said. I don’t want firsthand knowledge. I want to hear it from her.”
He smiled. That was exactly what he hoped to hear. “Good. I’m glad it’s out in the open now.”
“Thank Carolyn and Diane.”
He grinned. “I reached out and told them. They got a good laugh over it. It was the first thing Elise told me. To make sure they knew you were off the table.”
“Oh really?” Gabe asked.
“You didn’t hear that from me. Sorry.”
“Nope, I didn’t. I’m sure she’ll tell me herself.”
“Most likely. Just keep her happy. That’s all I ask,” he said.
“I hope I’m able to,” Gabe said.
Richard walked away after that thinking, if anyone could, it was the man he just shook hands with.
28
KEEP ME THERE
“Ican’t believe you fell for it,” Jocelyn said to Gabe at the end of the day. “I even gave you a heads up.”
He expected this from his brother, not his sister.
No, he had to remember Jocelyn lived in Durham and she would be worried she’d be on the list too. Jayce seemed to get a pass living in Charlotte.
“I didn’t fall for anything,” he argued.
“Please,” his sister said. “You knew all along you were on the list. You had to know it was Elise. What I don’t understand is how it happened. I thought she couldn’t even stand to be in the same room as you.”
His sister had heard him complaining about it before. Or more like mumbling under his breath in the past that he might come back missing skin if Elise was around.
He tried to make a joke out of it.
“Maybe it was a front,” he said.
Then he figured he should let his sister in on the fact that he was working with his parents and the Fierces. She’d keep a secret. It was best for now because he was positive his mother would want Elise over at some point.
“I don’t see that,” Jocelyn said. “No one has that much anger like you said and then it just turns around.”
He didn’t like what his sister was saying.
“Maybe it wasn’t there as much as I’ve let on. Could be it was a misunderstanding and she and I talked and realized it.”
“If you say so,” Jocelyn said.
