Check out the PROLOGUE first

Chapter One

Work On Your Delivery

Seven Years Later

“Holy crap,” Megan Harrington said. She’d just walked into the backyard of Ryder Fierce’s house for a Jack and Jill party for Cody McMillan and Raina Davenport’s wedding next month. She loved Raina and considered her her best friend and couldn’t wait to be in their wedding.

This was the first Fierce party she’d been to and Ryder and his wife, Marissa, being the best man and matron of honor in the wedding, were hosting it.

She’d be meeting the rest of the wedding party too, which included Raina’s brothers, Jonah—whom she’d be paired up with—and Trent Davenport and Tori Miller, a college friend of Raina’s. Those two would be paired up too.

“Problem?” she heard and turned to see Raina standing there and then reaching in to give her a hug. Raina had been so quiet when they first met working at Fierce Engineering a few years ago, but now she’d come out of her shell. More so once she started to date Cody.

A match set up by Grant, Garrett, Diane and Carolyn Fierce. Those two couples sure did have the magic touch when it came to finding mates for their family. And since Cody was Grant’s daughter-in-law’s brother, they felt he was family.

They also thought some of their employees fell into that category too, which was how Raina popped into their head for that match.

“Is that your brother? I knew he was big, but I didn’t think he was that big.”

Jonah Davenport owned a gym and was a personal trainer or something. He was a big guy in both size and personality, but she hadn’t expected to see the man that was almost as tall as Grant and Garrett at six foot four and bigger than anyone else here. 

“Yeah, that’s Jonah,” Raina said, “standing next to Trent.”

Raina’s other brother was an inch or so shorter than Jonah and, though he looked to be in great shape too, he appeared small next to his brother. Everyone looked small in comparison.

Good Lord, she’d bet Jonah had a foot and a hundred pounds on her. They were going to look funny next to each other in the wedding party.

“You’ve said before his bark is worse than his bite,” she said, laughing.

“It is. I won’t say he’s a teddy bear, but don’t let his looks bother you. We know you can handle anything. Just crack a few jokes like you normally do. He’ll smile and you guys will get along fine. I should have made sure you were introduced before, but life gets in the way and Jonah is always so busy with the gym and all.”

“I’m sure,” Megan said, moving over with Raina to meet the man that she was trying not to drool over. 

Yep, he was big and intimidating, but he was hotter than hell on this summer day, making her wish she could go stand in front of one of the fans that were moving the breeze around on the deck. She should have figured Ryder would have everything here.

She’d never been to his house before. Not to any of the Fierces’ houses. Many employees were invited to a lot of the parties, but not everyone.

At least she knew more than half the people here today.

“Jonah, this is Megan Harrington. She’s going to be walking with you down the aisle at the wedding. I figured you two would be good paired up together since you’re stuffy and she’s not,” Raina said.

“I’m not stuffy,” Jonah said. “Just because I wanted to punch your fiancé in the face when he hurt you doesn’t make me stuffy.”

Megan lifted her eyebrow when Raina laughed. Even Cody did, having heard a few feet away. “I’d never hurt your sister and you know it,” Cody said.

“Yeah,” Jonah said. “As we know, she was the stubborn one then.”

Cody slipped his arm around Raina. Megan had no idea what this was about and would try to find out later, but it was probably nothing. For all intents, Cody was a gem and brought the best out of Raina.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Megan said. “You’re not going to want to punch me in the face if I upset your sister, are you? I mean there are times at work I annoy her when I want her to walk away from her desk and get lunch with me. That doesn’t count, does it?”

Jonah snorted. “I’d never touch a woman that way. And my sister can take care of herself.”

Just great. She insulted the guy. Raina reached her arm out and pinched her older brother. “Jonah, stop it. Megan was only making a joke and now you’re going to have her feeling bad.”

She looked at Raina and smirked. Jonah did look as if he felt bad about what he’d said. “Sorry. Guess I’m not allowed to joke either.”

Man, this dude was stuffy if he thought that was a joke. “No problem,” Megan said. “You might need to work on your delivery a bit more.”

Raina giggled and was pulled away by Cody. Trent, who had walked away, came back too. “I overheard Raina introduce you and you giving Jonah crap. Good. Someone needs to. I’m Trent.”

She shook hands with Raina’s other brother. She knew he was a few years older than Raina, but a few years younger than Jonah. She was guessing she and Trent might be the same age or a year apart, as she was older than Raina too.

At twenty-eight, Megan had to hear her mother reminding her multiple times monthly that her sisters were both married and had kids when they were her age. Here she was not able to even find a guy she could stand being around for more than a few months.

Or maybe it was the men she was dating. Ones that her older parents thought were perfect and she felt were boring.

“I’ve been told I’m good at giving people crap,” she said, grinning. “Mostly by my parents. Or maybe they said I’m good at giving them fits. That’s it.”

Jonah cracked a grin this time. “We might have that in common.”

“No might about it,” Trent said. “You’re the one that Mom said was going to be the death of her. You just made life so much easier for me. I’m the good kid now.”

“Well then,” she said. “We might have more in common than that, Jonah. I’ve never been the good kid. I’m the oops later in life baby that doesn’t seem to want to conform or do what she is told.”

She wasn’t sure why she said that when she rarely said it to many. Raina knew because they were friends, but not many others knew. It wasn’t something she was proud of. That her parents would never think she was good enough or doing the right things.

She’d even followed her father’s footsteps into accounting hoping he’d be happy. She supposed he was when it came to her career choices though she didn’t get her CPA like he’d wanted. And he sure the heck wasn’t happy about her personal life choices.

“Conforming is for weak people,” Jonah said. “Right, Trent? You’d know a thing or two about that.”

“Ass,” Trent said, shaking his head and walking away.

“That wasn’t very nice,” she said.

“I’ve been told I’m not a nice guy,” he said. “But in this case it was just me getting even for his crack. He gets told worse things than that being an attorney. He knows it.”

“We all have to live with our choices in life,” she said.

“You’re not kidding,” he said and she wondered what he meant by that.

***

“Carolyn,” Diane Fierce said. “Come here.”

She watched as her sister-in-law left Raina’s mother’s side and made her way over. “What’s going on? Do we need to bring out more food? Ryder told us to let the caterers do it all.”

“No, no,” she said. “Not that. Look at Jonah and Megan over there.”

They’d been at the party for a few hours now. She was thrilled that there was another wedding happening next month. They sure did good work. 

“That is interesting,” Carolyn said. “Jami was just telling me she is so happy Raina is settling down and has thanked me again for the helping nudge we had in this. She was hinting toward her boys. What do you think?”

“I don’t know Jonah and Trent all that well,” Diane said. “But I can see with my own eyes and Megan’s eyes have sought Jonah out a few times today when they weren’t together. And they seem to be talking again. Jonah’s eyes doing the same.”

When she’d seen the two of them together when Megan first arrived, her spidey senses saw the fireworks going off and her wheels started to turn.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were thinking that hours ago?” Carolyn asked.

“Sorry,” she said. “I’ve been busy and talking with people.”

“It could work,” Carolyn said. “Megan is such a sweet girl. I can’t believe no one has snatched her up yet. She’s funny and has a great personality. The two of them do make a striking couple too. Should we go corner her and see what is going on?”

“No cornering needed,” she said, lifting her arm and waving Megan over. Her sister-in-law laughed at her. “Hi, Megan. Are you having a good time?”

“I am, Diane. Your son knows how to throw a party. I’m thinking he got that from you.”

“Aren’t you so sweet to say that,” she said. “You’re here alone?”

“I am,” Megan said. “Sad but true. It’s all good. I wanted to get to know Jonah anyway. I’ve got to dance with the guy and since he could squish me if I misstep, or he does, it’s best to make sure our feet are moving in the right direction, don’t you think?”

“Most definitely,” Carolyn said. “He is a big guy. Intimidating too.”

“In a sexy way,” Diane said, lowering her voice and winking.

“He is that,” Megan said. “I’ve gotten a few smiles out of him. Raina said he needs to loosen up. Trent said he was stuffy too.”

“And we know you aren’t that. If anyone could get someone to relax,” Carolyn said, “it’s you.”

“Yep,” Megan said. “Just need to spend the day with him at the wedding and then we can move on. I want to have fun that day and it’d be better if my dance partner did too. Of course, for all I know, he’ll have a date and someone else to dance with. Then I’ll be out there busting a move on my own. Unless you two ladies want to join me.”

Diane laughed. Oh yeah. Megan was perfect for Jonah in her mind. The old opposites attract thing was going to be full force. 

“We’ll be out there with you,” she said. “As for Jonah, I believe he and his brother are single.”

“That is what their mother told me,” Carolyn said. “I think she wants our help. We do good work, you know.”

“I’ve heard and seen it,” Megan said. “Oh, I’m sorry. Raina is waving me over. I need to run.”

“We’ll talk to you again,” she said, then turned to her sister-in-law. “Well?”

“That’s the one we are working on next,” Carolyn said. “Guess we’ll have to fill the guys in later on it. As sad as it is, they see Megan more at work.”

“Yeah. I don’t like this part of it,” she said. “But at least now that Flynn and Julia appear to be moving in the right direction we do need to focus on someone else.”

“Yay us,” Carolyn said. “I’ve got to go hunt down my husband and see if I can get some more information on Megan. I’d try Jade, but she’ll see right through me. Kara actually might be the best bet.”

“I’m going to hit Ryder up. He has the loosest lips. We’ve got this.”