Page 86 of Fierce-Jax

“I like it when you’re prepared,” he said.

“It comes in handy,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows.

“What are we doing today?” Gianna asked.

“Jax is going to take us on a lemur tour. Do you know what a lemur is?”

Gianna was shaking her head side to side as she chewed. Her brown wavy hair was falling out of her ponytail that was off-center on her head.

“It’s a monkey,” Jax said.

“I’m going to see a monkey?” Gianna yelled and flung her arm up. The pancake that was on her fork went flying.

“You are,” she said. “Because you run around like one most of the time, so you might as well do it with them.”

“Yes!” Gianna said, stabbing another piece of pancake while Dillion picked up the piece that had flown across the kitchen.

Jax took the next set of pancakes out of the pan and then shut the burner off and brought the plate of them to the table that Dillion had set for him and her.

They sat down and ate. “I thought we could go out to lunch after we saw the monkeys,” he said. “Do you like eating in restaurants?”

“I do,” Gianna said. “They give you crayons and paper to draw on.”

“I’ll give you a list of a few places to go,” she said.

“You forget I’ve got a nephew,” he said. “I’ve been taking Eli to restaurants for years.”

“Who is Eli?” Gianna asked. “Is that your kid?”

“No,” he said. She obviously didn’t understand what a nephew was. “Eli is my sister’s son. He’s older than you, but I get to hang out with him a lot too.”

“Can I meet him?” Gianna asked.

“Sure,” he said. “But not today. He’s with his mother.”

“How come you don’t have any kids?” Gianna asked.

“Gianna,” Dillion said. “It’s not nice to be intrusive.”

“It’s a question,” Gianna asked. “I wasn’t being mean.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “You can ask me any questions you want.” He had to figure out the best way to answer this though. “I want to have kids, but it hasn’t happened yet. Someday.”

“You’ve got me,” Gianna said. “I can be your kid.”

His shoulders dropped.

He looked at Dillion to see her grinning at him.

Yeah, she knew her kid.

Looks like she knew him well too.

“You can be my kid,” he said. “If you want to be.”

“I do,” Gianna said. “Just like I want a little sister. Can you give me one of them?”

Dillion coughed on her breakfast. He would not answer this one and turned his head to watch her, grinning like she’d been doing.

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