by Natalie Ann
Her Man
When they walked into the bar at Fierce twenty minutes later, Jessica saw it was packed. There were people sitting in a little reception area waiting for a table to become available with drinks in their hands. “How do they get the drinks? Just go to the bar?”
“They can,” Mason said. “Or the hostess puts the order in for them and a waitress brings it over while they wait. That was Brody’s idea years ago when people were talking about it trying to make their way to the bar. It seems to work out well and people don’t mind the wait so much as long as they’re drinking.”
“Do we need to wait here?” she asked.
He laughed at her. “Hardly.” They made their way to the back of the bar area and stood off to the side. Mason walked behind the bar and asked her, “What do you want to drink?”
“Whatever you’re having,” she said. He’d said before he wouldn’t push himself in front of people, but she was guessing this didn’t count. While she was standing there, a couple got up when their table was ready, so Aimee told her, “Grab those two seats quick.”
“Is it okay to?”
“Sure is,” Aimee said. Mason had made his way back over to her and handed her a beer, then sat down. Aimee moved over to another customer and started to fill those orders.
This bar was massive, but with it as busy as it was, it didn’t seem so. Aimee was at one side, Brody at another and a third bartender moving around the middle, hopping in to fill orders when a waitress came over as needed. Everyone seemed to know what to do without being asked.
“Are you guys going to get some food?” Aimee asked, making her way back over. At Mason’s nod, she picked up a menu. “Staying here or waiting for a table?”
“We’ll stay here,” Mason said, grabbing the menus that Aimee was extending toward him.
“Well, well, look who is here.”
Jessica turned her head to see Jolene Fierce standing there with Gavin behind her.
“Mom,” Mason said. “Did you burn dinner again tonight?”
Jolene swatted Mason on the arm while Gavin said, “No,” but his head was nodding yes.
“I got busy doing something else and forgot about dinner,” Jolene said to Mason.
Jessica stood up. “Please, take my seat,” she said to Jolene.
Jolene laughed at her. “Aren’t you just a sweet thing giving your chair up to this little old woman.”
There was sarcasm dripping in her voice like drops of ice cream off a cone in the heat of summer and Jessica wasn’t sure what to do next. She thought she was being nice and considerate, but it seemed she’d insulted Jolene.
“Jessica,” Brody said, having made his way over for the moment. “Ignore my mother. She thinks she’s being funny when really all she does is annoy the shit out of everyone.”
“Brody Michael,” Jolene said. “Would you like to visit a nice mountain retreat?”
He laughed at her, then said, “It’s not a punishment if I bring Aimee with me. Would you like to watch Sidney for us while we go?”
“And that is how you get around our mother,” Mason said, bumping his elbow to hers.
A small brunette made her way behind the bar and to their end, saying, “We’ll have a table for you in the back in about five minutes. Table for four.”
“Thanks, Nic,” Jolene said. “Nic, this is Mason’s girlfriend, Jessica.”
Nic grinned and reached her hand forward. “I’ve been hearing all about you. I figured as much when the waitress came back and said Mason was here with a woman.”
Jessica reached her hand forward automatically, then Nic took off in a blur. What did Nic mean by that comment from the waitress? Did Mason never bring a woman here before?
Then she narrowed in on what else Nic said. “Four?” Jessica asked, starting to feel a case of the nerves. Sure she’d met Mason’s parents, but not since she and Mason started dating. Now it seemed she might be having dinner with them. Or maybe not. Maybe she was assuming something and they were just here meeting friends. Hopefully.
“Not going to let me slip away, are you?” Mason asked his mother.
Guess not, Jessica thought.
“Nope,” Gavin said. “You should know that by now.”
“How did Nic even know you were here?” Mason asked. He turned to her quick. “That’s Aiden’s fiancée, by the way. Not just another employee. Seems my mother lost her manners and only gave half an introduction.”
“Oh,” Jessica said. That explained why Nic felt so comfortable coming out and going behind the bar and no one even blinked an eye. It was also funny to see Jolene narrow her eyes at her son and see him only laugh back at her.
“I told them,” Brody said. “Or rather I stopped a waitress on the way back to get food and had them tell the hostess there.” Brody had come back down to this side of the bar to steal a kiss from Aimee, then made his way back. Jessica wondered if that was done a lot during the night.
She didn’t know what to expect from the Fierce family. They had to have boatloads of money that she couldn’t even imagine, yet they all worked. Even the women. Aimee probably didn’t need to be working in the bar on a Friday night, nor did Nic need to be in the back, yet here they were.
All the siblings worked a ton of hours; Jessica had seen that so far, but she kind of expected their fiancées to not be working on a Friday night. Maybe just working days to help out, but not this late. Though it really wasn’t that late. Only six thirty.
“How late does Aimee work?” Jessica asked Mason, for something to say. She was starting to feel unnerved at the way Jolene was looking at her and Mason together. Like she was reading something going on and wasn’t going to clue anyone else into what that might be.
“She leaves at seven for the night or once her replacement gets here. Brody closes most nights. Nic normally works days or early mornings now, but she’ll stay late on a Friday or Saturday with Aiden to help out if need be.”
It seemed to Jessica that she had a lot more in common with Aimee and Nic than being younger than their mates. That she wasn’t afraid of hard work and working any hour to be by her man either.
And when did she start to think of Mason as “her man” when she’d never thought of a guy like that before a day in her life?
A boyfriend, sure.
A lover, absolutely.
But her man. Never. Until now.
“Our table is ready,” Jolene said, drawing her thoughts away from the possession she’d never thought she’d feel for another person. “Come on back.”
Jessica had no choice but to follow Mason back and hoped she’d get through this meal without saying something completely stupid or embarrassing.
Thirty minutes in, she was relaxing. Maybe it was the beer, or the food, she wasn’t sure since both were plenty and both were awesome.
So was Jolene Fierce. What a riot. Jessica couldn’t imagine having a mother like Jolene. She was funny. She was blunt and to the point and she was loving and caring altogether.
It seemed she knew her kids well, and her husband too. The two of them had a nice banter going back and forth, but Gavin wasn’t quite as talkative. Either he was more like Mason, or she suspected he just could never get a word in edgewise around his wife.
“Easter is only a few weeks away, Jessica,” Jolene said. “Are you going back home for the holiday or staying in Charlotte?”
She hadn’t even thought much of the holiday that had to do with big fluffy animals and hidden eggs since she was twelve. By then her father was remarried with a toddler in tow. It had been her turn to spend Easter with her father and his new family that year. Her mother stopped hiding eggs for her years prior. Her father when she’d visited, too.
But that year he was all excited over it. He’d sat with his new wife and Evan in a highchair, with Jessica next to them all dying eggs. She never remembered her father doing anything like that with her as a kid. As much fun as it was, she was envious. More than she’d thought she’d be. But she pushed it aside because
that was what she did most of her life.
She’d learned to just accept her mother’s opinions and behavior, the same with her father’s. No one was mean to her. No one treated her badly. They just didn’t understand her and she gave up trying.
But that one night dying eggs, she’d realized that at some point in her life she’d like to have a family dynamic like that.
That next morning she’d woken up with Evan all excited and screeching while he ran around the house finding all the eggs with her father praising him. Praise she’d never heard from her father either.
Rather than be hurt by it though, she ran around with Evan helping him find eggs too. Or instead, finding them first, then helping Evan discover them on his own.
That day, she’d seen something in her father’s eyes. Acceptance. He’d never said a word to her, just nodded his head and pulled her in for a hug and a kiss on the forehead. It was enough back then.
Though she hadn’t seen much of it since, she still remembered.
“No, I just went home for Christmas. I don’t know when I’ll go home again.”
“We can’t have you be alone for a holiday. Mason, I hope you planned on asking Jessica to join us.” Before Mason could answer, Jolene turned to her. “Holidays are one day I tell the kids they can’t work. Aiden makes a huge feast at the house and we all have a peaceful dinner and relax.”
Gavin snorted. “Peaceful? When was the last peaceful anything that happened in our house?”
Jolene swatted his arm like she had Mason’s earlier. “Hush now. Jessica can form her own opinion that day. Well, Mason?”
Mason looked embarrassed and Jessica felt horrible he was put on the spot. She was going to tell him not to worry, but he’d said, “I would have asked her as we got closer and I realized the holiday was coming up. You always have to plan everything so far in advance, but I’d assumed she’d want to spend the day with me, whether it’s at your peaceful gathering or not.”
It was the way Mason said it. The way he looked into her eyes. Like he wouldn’t want to be apart from her. That he wouldn’t have forgotten and that he planned on being with her regardless of where it was.
She reached her hand over and held his in front of his parents and all. “I’d love to.”
***
“I told you this one was almost too easy,” Jolene said on the drive back home with her husband.
“Don’t go getting all ahead of yourself.”
“What’s there to get ahead of? She’s spending a holiday with us. And did you see the way she grabbed Mason’s hand? He didn’t pull away, didn’t even look embarrassed over it.”
“Yeah, I saw it.”
She laughed at her husband’s grouchy tone with the smirk on his lips too. “Just like you. You didn’t always make the first step in public, but you’d never pull away either.”
“You think you know me so well,” Gavin said.
“It’s because I do. So, what do you think of her?”
“I’ve met her before. I told you that. I like her a lot. She’s not over the top like Aimee or Nic could be.”
“They aren’t over the top. What are you talking about?”
“I meant that they have tempers. They give it back just the same and just as hard as Brody and Aiden when they need to. Jessica is more mild-mannered. More like Mason.”
“That was the point,” Jolene said. “Mason wouldn’t do well with someone who screamed and yelled when they were mad. He likes to be in control at all times. He needs someone like that.”
“What about you telling me all those years ago about opposites attracting?”
“That was you and me. It worked for you. It’d never work for Mason. Admit it. You know that as well as I do.”
“I’m only admitting it because you’re right.”
“The only one of our kids that might work with is Ella, and trust me, I’m having a hard time with her.”
“Leave Ella alone,” Gavin said. “I think she’s on to you.”
“Never,” she said, crossing her arms.
“Don’t bet on it. She’s made a few comments to me lately and I’ve had to lie through my teeth over it. I hate lying to the kids about anything.”
“Like what?”
“Just that she finds it funny that the last three women you’ve had a hand in finding for her brothers’ open positions end up dating them. That it’d never happened before and now all of a sudden three in a row. She isn’t buying the coincidence.”
“Mason’s doesn’t count. He asked me to help him.”
Gavin snorted. “He only asked you to help him because you trapped him into it knowing he’d give in.”
“Same thing,” she said, laughing.
“Trust me,” Gavin said. “This might be your last chance before someone calls you out on it.”
“No way.”
“Ella is too much like you. That’s how she is figuring it out.”
“You’re only trying to sweeten me up by saying that.”
“Is it working?” Gavin asked when they pulled into the garage.
“It always does.”
What to Expect
“That wasn’t as bad as it could have been,” Mason said later that night at his house. He and Jessica had driven together and left her car at the brewery.
“I wasn’t sure for a second there,” Jessica said. “It’s like your mom planned that, but how could she have known we were going to be at dinner there?”
“Beats me,” Mason said, “but she always seems to know everything. Happy coincidence, I’m sure. Are you okay with Easter dinner at the house? Sorry she put you on the spot like that.”
“She really put you on the spot more than me,” she said.
He was used to his mother’s ways. “Nah. I had planned on bringing it up at some point. Like she said, it’s still a few weeks away.”
“If you’re sure. I can stay home that day. I’m assuming the brewery is closed.”
“It is. The restaurant and bar are open, but none of my family will work that day. Brody and Aimee take Sundays off anyway.”
Jessica stood up and stretched her arms over her head. “I don’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. I mean we haven’t been dating all that long.”
“No one is going to feel uncomfortable but you.”
He didn’t think she would though. She was more outgoing than he’d ever been. Nic had been the only one that Jessica hadn’t officially met and he would have introduced them if his mother hadn’t jumped in. But it seemed his mother was always jumping into everything lately. Besides, he knew Aiden was talking to Nic about them so there was no secret there.
She laughed, like he figured she would. “I’ll be fine. Everyone has been so good to me. I never expected that.”
“Why?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Remember, you’re my first boyfriend, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I’m not used to a big family or such an easy acceptance.”
He pulled her in and hugged her, remembering some of the things she’d told him about her family. He hated that for her, but he wasn’t going to bring it up right now.
“So how am I doing in the boyfriend category?” he asked, then was surprised those words came out of his mouth. For someone who never really strove for a relationship before, he was putting a shitload of effort into this one. Maybe there was a bit of insecurity deep down that he was her first and she would want to move on and explore with someone else, when he wasn’t having thoughts of leaving her at all.
No matter how scary it was to be thinking that, his mind kept going there. Kept telling him that after watching Brody and Aiden fall down the rabbit hole, that he could understand how it could happen when you found the right person.
Jessica was turning out to be that person for him, but he wasn’t sure where her thoughts were. The last thing he wanted was to have her feel anything toward him that might not actually be there. That might be clouded because he was her first.
Fi
rst kiss. First boyfriend. First lover.
All of it had been a ton of pressure on his shoulders and he was trying his damnedest to make sure he kept his balance and didn’t fall.
But the other part was fear. That maybe he was just a stepping stone for her.
“Are you sure you’re okay going in so late tomorrow morning?” Jessica asked.
“I never get to sleep in, but I told Mac to open up. He’s good that way. Besides, you left your car there, so I’d have to leave and come back and get you, and you don’t want to go in that early anyway, do you?”
“Actually, I wouldn’t mind it if you’d show me some things.”
“Like what?” he asked. He’d pulled her down on the couch now to relax and flipped the TV on, searching for something that he knew he wouldn’t find. He never watched much TV for anything other than putting him to sleep, but he didn’t feel right always dragging her upstairs to bed when they got home.
“You offered to show me some of the brewing process. I understand that it doesn’t always work with my schedule, but I was wondering if you could explain some of the chemistry behind it. I’m kind of interested in all of that too.”
He debated. Many of those things were top secret, but there were some things he could show her. “If you want. Why don’t we compromise and get there around eight?”
“That works,” she said, turning and climbing into his lap, her knees on each side of his thighs.
Guess he could have dragged her up to his room after all, but this was even better. He loved it when she made the first move. Like she couldn’t get enough of him. What guy didn’t want a woman crawling all over him?
“Something you want?” he asked.
She put her hands on his cheeks. “Always something from you.”
He was thrilled at her outgoing side—one that he shouldn’t be surprised at. She’d never been shy, just awkward. Though there wasn’t much awkwardness about her now.
She was kissing his lips, his jaw, his neck and then reaching down and tugging his shirt out of his waistband. “Are you in a hurry?”
“I am. There’s something I wanted to do tonight, if you’d let me?”
