“That’s right,” she said, turning to grin at him.

  “I’m sorry. That didn’t come out right,” he said, looking embarrassed.

  “Don’t worry about it.” She handed him the big bowl of macaroni salad. “You’ve got a good future ahead of you and you shouldn’t settle.”

  “I really put my foot in my mouth. This place is great.”

  “It is great,” she said. “And I’m proud of it. But just know everyone has a calling in life, and this isn’t yours.”

  “But it is yours and you’re really good at it,” Justin said earnestly, then walked the salad out to the counter and came back. “And you should really consider expanding to catering.”

  “What?” she asked.

  “You said you’d do special orders for donuts. But what about parties? You should sell sub platters and salads and such. People go to parties all the time and don’t have time to make something. They can get it from you if they call ahead.”

  She’d thought of that before, but wasn’t sure she could handle the work on her own, but now that the business was doing so well, she might consider it. It just might mean opening on Saturdays though unless she wanted to turn business away.

  Or maybe just be open for special orders on Saturday? It had merit, but the fear of failure always kept her from moving ahead.

  “You know what, Justin? I think you might have just given me the push I needed. Or at least something to consider.”

  “Really?” he asked, looking happy.

  “Really. Thanks.”

  Confusing Thoughts

  Bryce was sitting at the counter eating a stack of pancakes around nine the second week of June. His class didn’t start until ten and for once he wasn’t rushing to his office to get there. Work didn’t seem to be the first thing he thought of when he got up each morning, or went to bed thinking about each night.

  He wasn’t sure when it changed, but he knew a lot of it had to do with Payton since his thoughts were more often than not on her.

  It’d been a few weeks since he and Payton went to the fundraiser and had what he considered their first argument. They’d gone to bed that night and made up, or put it behind them, and things had gotten back on track, thankfully.

  As much as he wanted to come here daily for breakfast, he still wasn’t pushing it though. He liked the pace they were on and it seemed she did too.

  “Bryce, fancy seeing you here.”

  He turned his head. “Mom. What are you doing here?”

  “I thought I’d come in and gets some donuts and muffins for your father and bring them to his office.”

  “Really?” Bryce asked, not believing that. He’d found it funny that his mother hadn’t really asked much about his relationship with Payton and he started to wonder if she didn’t approve.

  Normally she was all over the three of them when they were dating someone, wanting to know all the details, more than he’d ever felt comfortable sharing. But for some reason she was keeping her distance now and causing all sorts of confusing thoughts in his brain.

  He never had confusing thoughts in his mind, or so many lately.

  “Yes, really. Did you think there was more to it?” she asked, her eyes challenging him to call her a liar. He wouldn’t dare.

  “There is always more to it and you know it,” he said as humorously as he could. He knew he’d be able to get away with that much.

  “Maybe I’d like to meet your girlfriend that you’ve been so quiet about.”

  He snorted. “You know her and you’ve met her.”

  “But not in the capacity of your girlfriend,” she pointed out, her eyebrows rising, her finger poking him in the side.

  He sighed and looked up to see Payton watching him, her lips twitching a bit. She was enjoying this, he could tell, so he waved her out.

  “Something I can help you with?” Payton asked him when she came to stand in front of him.

  “Payton, this is my mother, Diane Fierce. Mom, Payton Davies, though I know you’ve met before.”

  “It’s nice to see you again, Mrs. Fierce. I can’t thank you enough for getting the gift card for Bryce.”

  “It seems to be working out well. Your mother was the one that brought it up, so you should be thanking her. Is she aware you two are dating?”

  “I mentioned it a while ago, but we haven’t talked about it since.”

  “That’s interesting,” his mother said. “She’d never said a word about it before school ended.”

  “She wouldn’t have,” Payton said. “How long have you known?”

  Bryce was starting to sweat now. He’d never said his mother knew they were dating, as he didn’t want to put that kind of pressure on their relationship knowing their mothers worked together. Why wouldn’t Payton have said her mother knew?

  And was she mad that it hadn’t come up? It didn’t seem it.

  “I’ve known a few weeks, but Bryce is pretty quiet about things when he wants to be. I thought I’d come down and get some goodies to bring to Grant’s office and maybe have a chance to chat with you.”

  “Payton is busy, Mom,” Bryce said when a customer came in, but Kelly walked over and took care of it, like she always did. The same as Kelly was taking care of the people sitting at the tables too.

  “Too busy to see if she’d like to come to dinner this Sunday?”

  He couldn’t very well tell his mother no, he didn’t want Payton there, but he didn’t want her to feel like she was put on the spot either. “That is her choice.” He turned to look at her. “Don’t feel like my mother is putting the pressure on you. It’s your choice. She can be pushy and we just ignore her when she is like that.”

  “They do,” his mother said.

  “I’d love to come to dinner on Sunday. Only if I can bring dessert,” Payton added.

  “I will let you do that.”

  “Mom, you can get your donuts now before they are gone and let Payton get back to work. I’ve got to finish up and leave myself,” he said, putting the last bite in his mouth, then standing up and pulling money out of his wallet to throw a tip down. Payton just narrowed her eyes at him, but he didn’t care. If she didn’t take the money, then Kelly would since one of them cleaned up after he left anyway.

  “Wait up and I’ll walk out with you,” his mother said. He figured he wouldn’t be able to get away from her.

  “What can I get you, Mrs. Fierce?” Payton asked.

  “Please call me Diane. And I’ll take six of each of those donuts and four of each of the muffins.”

  “No problem, Diane.”

  He stood there as Payton filled his mother’s order, knowing if he tried to leave, she’d reach out and pinch his arm to get him to stay.

  His mother paid and then turned, smirked at him and followed him out the door. “Did you have to do it that way?” he asked her. “You couldn’t have brought it up to me beforehand and had me ask Payton to come over?”

  “You haven’t brought her name up once. I wasn’t sure if you were still dating or not until I came in here this morning.”

  He frowned and then looked away, not having thought of that. “What if I wasn’t here when you came in?”

  “Then I would have asked you if you were still seeing each other, but I figured I’d take my chances.”

  He didn’t believe her though, but like the last time, knew not to call her an outright liar. “What time for dinner on Sunday?” he asked instead.

  “Did you have any plans?”

  “No, but Payton goes into Millie’s to prep for Monday.”

  “I hadn’t realized that,” she said.

  “Which I could have told you if you’d asked me before you hit her with it.”

  His mother stopped and squinted her eyes. “You tell me what time is best then.”

  “How about five? That way she can go in and get what she needs to done and not worry?” He hoped that was fine with Payton. “Or let me double-check with her and get back to you.”

  “Smart boy,” his mother said, patting his cheek, then walking away.

  ***

  “What do you have there?” Grant asked when Diane walked into his office.

  “I’ve got breakfast for you and the boys.”

  “It’s a little late for breakfast, but we’ll take a snack.”

  He took the box from her and opened it up, saw the donuts and the muffins, contemplated for a moment and pulled out a glazed chocolate donut. “Where did you get these?”

  “Millie’s,” she said.

  “You just couldn’t leave it alone, could you?”

  “No. I don’t like that Bryce hasn’t said much even though they are still dating.”

  “And how do you know they’re still seeing each other if he hasn’t said much?” he asked his wife.

  “Because Sam made a comment about Bryce not going alone to the fundraiser two weeks ago and you know he never brings anyone to those things.”

  “True. So did you talk to Payton this morning? Did Bryce’s name come up?”

  Diane laughed. “Bryce was sitting there with puppy dog eyes watching Payton cook while he ate a stack of pancakes. I decided to invite her to dinner on Sunday and see what happened.”

  “I thought you were going to let things fall in place on their own,” he reminded her, knowing she wouldn’t be able to do that. He was surprised she’d lasted this long.

  “Please. The way Bryce is, it’d be another couple of months before he brought it up. And besides, we’ve got Cade and Alex’s wedding this summer, and Ella and Travis’s in the fall. I’d like to meet her before he brings her to them.”

  “If he brings her,” Grant said.

  “You know he will.”

  “We’ll see.” He turned his head when his brother Garrett walked in the door. “I should have known you’d find your way down here if there was food.”

  Garrett laughed. “Always. What did my favorite sister-in-law bring me?”

  Diane laughed. “Don’t let Jolene hear you say that. I brought donuts and muffins from Millie’s. Where Bryce’s girlfriend works.”

  “So it’s working?” Garrett asked. “Grant hasn’t said a word. Why haven’t you?”

  “Because there hasn’t been much to say,” Grant said to his twin. “Bryce isn’t saying much. We knew they went on a few dates and that was it. Diane agreed to let it play out, but instead interfered.”

  Garrett reached into the box and pulled out a blueberry muffin. “What did you do?” he asked Diane.

  “I invited her to Sunday dinner. Nothing scandalous.”

  “Seems innocent enough,” Garrett said.

  “Maybe.” They all turned their heads when a woman came out of Drake’s office and then Drake followed, saw them all standing here, and turned in their direction.

  “What’s going on?” Garrett asked his oldest son.

  “Nothing,” Drake said.

  “It didn’t seem that way to me,” Grant said. “Are you having issues with Kara?”

  “That woman drives me insane,” Drake said.

  “What is the problem this time?” Garrett asked. “I like her. She’s on the ball.”

  “She was complaining about my credit card statement. Said there were receipts missing.”

  Grant laughed. “That’s her job. She is just making sure the charges are legit.”

  “No,” Drake argued. “She was making comments about how often I take clients out to lunch and the places I take them.”

  Garrett laughed this time. “I tell you all the time you overdo it and spend too much. We hired her to analyze costs and expenses. No one escapes it.”

  “Whatever,” Drake said. “Hey, what’s in there?”

  “Donuts and muffins,” Diane said, moving the box toward him.

  “Thanks.” He grabbed a donut and left.

  “So, is that who you’re thinking for Drake?” Diane asked Garrett.

  “It crossed my mind. It’s funny watching Drake get so flustered. What do you think?”

  “I think you and Carolyn need to work on it while we figure out what is going on with Bryce and Payton this weekend.”

  “Are we horrible people doing this?” Grant asked his brother, then looked at his wife.

  “No way. We’re good parents just trying to see our kids happy,” Diane said, then leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. “Enjoy, boys, I’m going shopping with Carolyn today.”

  Grant sighed. “Talk about needing someone to look over credit card receipts.”

  “Tell me about it,” Garrett said. “Maybe we should have Kara analyze our wives’ expenses.”

  Grant laughed. “Imagine how well that would go over.”

  “About as well as it’s going over with Drake. I don’t get it. He was all for this position last year.”

  “He was until he was getting targeted,” Grant said. “Of course we all knew that would happen. Drake does spend more than the rest of us.”

  “He earns it,” Garrett said of his oldest son.

  “Of course he does. It’s a good thing he likes meeting with the clients so much. He took a lot of that off of our shoulders. You know how much I hated it. That was more your thing.”

  “Yeah. You didn’t care about playing nice as much as I did,” Garrett said.

  “You’ve never played nice a day in your life. That’s why we got into so much trouble growing up.”

  Garrett smirked. “Good thing our kids aren’t like us.”

  “Wyatt?” Grant said.

  Yeah Wyatt was a prankster. Just like their nephew Cade. “How about Ryder?” Garrett asked of Grant’s youngest and another employee in the building.

  “Yeah, well, Ryder is just more a pain and a headache to his brothers and cousins than he is to us at work.” Ryder was actually the ideal employee, which was kind of funny since he wasn’t always the ideal son when it came to listening.

  “That’s true. So, what do you think of Kara and Drake? Match or not? I know Gavin thinks it’s perfect from what we’ve told him, but they don’t seem to even like each other. Drake never loses his temper. He never gets annoyed or frustrated and Kara seems to bring the worst out of him just breathing the same air as him.”

  Grant wiggled his eyebrows. “I’m with Gavin. I think it’s perfect. Love and hate are so close. Let’s just see how it turns out.”

  “So what do you suggest? Bring them together on a few projects?”

  “I think that is the perfect idea,” Grant said.

  “Let’s brainstorm this weekend and figure it out. It’s got to seem legit. We don’t want to raise any flags. Sam and Dani worked out flawlessly. Bryce and Payton seem to be working.”

  “Diane has high hopes for Bryce and Payton, but I’m still not sure. I’m reserving judgment. I guess there is no reason you can’t work on Drake now and see how it goes,” Grant said.

  “I’ll talk to Carolyn tonight and get her take too. She’s been out of sorts that you’ve got one son down and are working on the second. Might as well give Drake the push and see where it takes us.”

  “Let me know what you come up with,” Grant said.

  “You’ll be the first to know.”

  Dumb Move

  “Sorry about this,” Bryce said when he pulled into his parents’ driveway and Payton noticed several cars. “My mother didn’t tell me she was inviting my brothers too. I thought it was just going to be us.”

  “Not a problem,” she said, glad that she decided to make a triple chocolate cake over cookies. She’d wanted something different for a change. She really did like to bake, but there was no way she was doing cakes in the deli. That’d be too much of a pain to serve.

  “You aren’t nervous, are you?” he asked.

  She thought that was nice of him to ask, but the truth was, she wasn’t until she saw his brothers were here. Diane had been sweet, and she was sure Bryce’s father was going to be nice, but brothers tended to be different.

  Not that she had much experience with siblings other than things she’d heard, but hadn’t Bryce said his brothers and cousins were always busting on each other and such?

  “No, not really. Thank you again for checking with me on the time too.” Talk about considerate when he asked her a few days ago. “It allowed me to go in and get everything prepped for tomorrow and not worry I’d be rushing around later.”

  “My mother can tend to steamroll over us. My aunts too. We’re used to it and let it go, but I got thinking after that it’s not just me that I needed to work around.”

  They got out of his car and walked to the front door. She wasn’t surprised the house was massive and in a nice neighborhood. Nothing she’d ever be able to afford or live in in her life.

  “It was still nice that you thought to ask. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I guess I should ask if you’re okay with it? You said your mom does this a lot. How many women have you brought home for Sunday dinner?”

  He turned to look at her. “Not a lot. I’ve always tried to avoid it if I can, but it’s not possible with my mother.”

  She wondered why he avoided it, but decided not to ask when they walked in the front door and Diane Fierce came rushing forward, her eyes lighting up at the cake in the container Payton was carrying.

  “What is that?” Diane asked, reaching for it.

  “Triple chocolate fudge. I hope it’s not too much. Bryce has a sweet tooth.”

  “All my boys have a sweet tooth. It’s never too much.”

  Diane started to walk toward the back of the house, so Payton followed along, feeling the comfort and security of Bryce’s hand on her lower back. “Mom, you better behave today.”

  “I always behave,” Diane said. “What a horrible thing to say.”

  When they entered a big family room in the back, Payton got her first look at Bryce’s brothers. Yep, testosterone filled the room with the Fierce men. There were some seriously good-looking genes in this room, starting with their father who, though older, was still very handsome...and huge.

  She liked that Bryce was over six foot and much taller than her, and she’d noticed his cousins were too. Looked like his brothers shared the trait, but their father was a few inches taller when he stood up to introduce himself.