Page 23 of Fierce-Jax

Another good quality.

He pulled his card out of the side of his bag. “If you’re interested, send your resume in and make sure you say I gave you my card. It was nice to meet you.”

She put her hand out and shook his. “You just made my day. I’ll do that,” Paisley said.

“Are you stealing another employee?”

Jax looked at his HR Director who was unlocking the door. She was earlier than normal today. Only a half a dozen people had a key to get in.

“She approached me,” he said. “Recognized me in the elevator. She works on the ninth floor and might be losing her job to outsourcing. She brought up the accounting position.”

“What’s her name?”

“Paisley. I bet she applies within the hour,” he said.

“I’m sure you’ll win that bet.”

He was whistling as he walked to his office feeling confident with at least one conversation he’d had today with a woman.

8

SERVES NO PURPOSE

“Hey, 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.

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