Page 60 of Fierce-Baker

“Then let me ask you this. What is it you’re looking for?”

“Beats the shit out of me.”

“If you don’t know, then you can’t expect her to know or give it to you. Sorry. You need to figure that out first.”

He didn’t need his sister to tell him what he already knew.

17

HELD IN SO TIGHTLY

“Are you going to tell me what is going on with you?”

Tasha just handed her son off to her father on Saturday afternoon and was talking to her mother in the kitchen.

Micah had eaten lunch, taken his nap, and was ready to launch into laps around her parents’ backyard.

“What does that mean?”

“It means you never ask us to take Micah overnight. It wasn’t that long ago that we did it. And you insisted we didn’t have to and yet now you’re asking.”

“You could have said no if you had something going on,” she argued. She knew asking was going to bring this conversation up, but she’d long since given up sharing her personal life even before Shane.

“We don’t. I know you like your life private,” her mother said. “But can you tell me if you’re going on a date or just out with friends?”

It normally took her months to share a man with her parents because so many times it just failed and there was no reasonto get them involved when her mother would ask a million questions.

Not being mean. Not even nosy. Just being her.

But she wasn’t some teenager who had to report her every move anymore and they finally respected that.

Until she said she was pregnant and wouldn’t say who the father was or anything about him other than he wasn’t going to be in Micah’s life.

They saw her devastation over the news. They knew she was reeling from a breakup and were there to support her rather than condemn her.

That came after when she wouldn’t say who Micah’s father was.

“I’m going on a date. I’m actually dating someone.”

“Oh,” her mother said, waving her father in.

“No,” she said. “Don’t. Micah doesn’t know and I don’t want him to.”

“He’s not going to understand it. Has he met this man? What’s his name? Can you give me something?”

She shook her head at her father through the glass doors and pointed at him to turn right back around. Her father laughed because he knew her well enough to know he’d find out once she left.

“His name is Baker Hansen. He works at Fierce. He runs the distillery for Mason.”

Her mother’s jaw dropped, her hands rubbed together, and her feet were almost tapping in place ready to break out in dance.

“Is this one of those Jolene things? She did so well with Margo and Liam.”

This was why she didn’t want to bring it up. But since her mother knew the players involved and saw or talk to Margo now and again, it was going to be hard to keep it all quiet.

And since she knew Baker’s background and people who could vouch for him, even knew where he lived and that he was single, she didn’t feel as if it all had to be held in so tightly.

There were no red flags like she ignored with Shane.