Fierce-Ella (The Fierce Five Series Book 5) Read online

  “Sassied?” she asked. “Is that a word?”

  “It’s my word. All jazzy and not a hair out of place.”

  “I’ll have you know I don’t have a hair out of place right now even if I am in jeans.”

  His eyes looked her over, assessing her nice and long, and heat started to fill her body in the frozen food section. She’d forgotten he’d never seen her dressed casually before since he never attended any of the family parties even though he’d been invited. All employees were and he was considered an employee of sorts in her parents’ eyes.

  “You look surprised by the food in my cart,” he said suddenly.

  It was only getting worse. He was catching every little move she made. “I have to admit your cart is about as healthy as mine.” He had lots of meats and dairy, some veggies and fruit. Not one bag of chips or bottle of beer. She was impressed.

  “A healthy body feeds a healthy mind,” he said, shocking her even more. She’d said that a few times to her brothers too.

  “Yes, it does,” she said back, knowing that might be the only thing she could think to reply at the moment. Who was this guy that hardly ever talked to her before? She wondered if she was coming off sounding like an imbecile that she always feared he thought she was anyway. She finally gathered her wits. “Are those habits you picked up in the Marines?”

  “Navy,” he said.

  “What?”

  “I was in the Navy. Not the Marines. Where did you hear it was the Marines?”

  She couldn’t remember if she ever did. “Not sure. I just knew you were in the service and my mind went to the Marines for some reason. Why did you leave?”

  He paused and looked around the grocery store, which happened to be full of people that were moving around them and giving them dirty looks. Why hadn’t she noticed that either? It was so unlike her to be unaware of her surroundings.

  This time he leaned in close and said for her ears only, “That sounds like a conversation for outside of the grocery store. Maybe for dinner sometime?”

  She stood back, startled. Her face had to be flushing because she felt the burn. “I’m sorry. That was completely rude of me to ask you that. I’ll let you get on with your day. I need to get home before my niece Sidney comes over. I’m babysitting her so Brody and Aimee can have a night out.”

  “You’re rambling, Ella. You don’t ever ramble. But I’ll let you get on with your night too.”

  He walked away from her, grinning, while she stood there and took a deep breath.

  Shit! She was so embarrassed right now. All those years of being shot down by guys because of who she was or who her brothers were, or walking away from any man that she sensed was just using her had messed with her confidence. It was the only part of her life where she had none at all.

  And she’d just exposed that to the one guy she’d love nothing more than to go out and have dinner with.

  ***

  Travis was driving back to his house wondering if Ella lived close by or not. He’d never seen her in that grocery store before, but he knew she was just as efficient as him and probably shopped at the closest store to her home that had the best selection of foods for her healthy lifestyle.

  He never thought they’d have much in common, but he’d heard Brody talking before about Ella always exercising. Then when he saw what was in her cart, he realized they both were healthy overall.

  Disciplined was the word he’d like to use, and by the cracks he’d heard from her brothers in the past, he was guessing Ella was the same way.

  His tastes in women had always run more toward the opposite of everything Ella embodied.

  She was strong. She was independent. And he always thought she was confident.

  That is until just now during the longest conversation the two of them ever had. It was like a different Ella and he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.

  He’d like to think that maybe he made her nervous. That maybe she was interested in him and just didn’t know how to approach it, no matter how funny that actually sounded to him.

  Except he blew it by jumping the gun too fast and bringing up dinner, causing her to all but run away from him.

  Though she did ramble adorably and he was going to take that as a win.

  Work Up the Nerve

  Wednesday morning, Ella was at her desk bright and early gathering everything she’d need for the family meeting that they always had at ten on the same day every week. She liked her schedules and her routines and it kept her brothers on course and engaged so that everything didn’t always fall toward her.

  She knew if she didn’t enforce these meetings her brothers would just do their own things, leaving her to pick up all the pieces.

  Her staff would be in shortly, her brothers not until the meeting started. Cade would probably roll in a few minutes late as always, even though his office was next to hers.

  She started checking things off her list like she always did, pushing everything and everyone out of her mind and focusing on her job. On keeping everything together for Fierce. Her brothers and her parents depended on her to give them all the information on how the business was operating at all times behind the scenes.

  This was what calmed Ella. What kept her level. The daily routine of getting up and exercising, then coming into work and diving in.

  She liked to feel needed. She liked to feel like she was accomplished.

  Maybe she pushed it too much as a kid, always challenging everyone and needing to win, but it was hard when she was the lone girl with four big domineering brothers.

  She learned to be tough. She learned to give it as good as she got it. And she learned to be the best more times than not.

  As an adult, her brothers respected her. They listened to her. They believed in her.

  She needed to feel those things, having felt like she was all alone in her teen years.

  Everyone always thought she had it all together—if only they knew how wrong they were.

  The time passed by quickly like it always did and she heard Brody and Aiden coming up the stairs with Mason following behind. The three of them were laughing and talking about their families now. Something she didn’t have in common with them like so many other things in her life.

  All three of them walked by her office, gave her a wave, but kept going. They didn’t often stop in to talk to her. To just say hi. No, they only stopped in to talk about work or a family issue. Never to see how she was doing personally.

  If her mother was to be believed, she probably brought a lot of it on herself by being so rigid most of her life. By shutting so many people out.

  It was hard to dig herself out of a hole when the shovels were buried in more dirt than her feet.

  She pushed back from her desk, grabbed the papers she needed, and made her way into the conference room.

  Cade came running in two minutes late. That was actually early for him. “Sorry,” he said. “I was at Alex’s going over a few merchandising ideas I had.”

  Since he had a box in his hand, he was probably telling the truth. “Let me see,” she said.

  “No way,” Cade said back. “This isn’t Christmas where you can peek before it’s time. You need to wait until it’s my turn to talk.”

  Everyone laughed at her. She even cracked a grin herself. Yeah, she was a sneak like her mother, but she hated to be taken by surprise, thanks to Cade and his little practical jokes on her her whole life. Even getting a gift could take her by surprise, so if she could snoop and see what it was beforehand, she did. Then she’d know how to react to it. She liked having order and plans in her life.

  “Fine,” she said. “You can go first, Cade.”

  Cade set the box on the table. It was from his fiancée’s business where she printed and created all of Fierce’s merchandising. “Look at these shirts.”

  “Let me see,” Ella asked, reaching for it.

  “Didn’t you get enough clothes at Christmas?” Brody asked. “You must have opened up a
whole wardrobe of stuff.”

  “You can never have enough clothes,” Ella said and tugged the shirt out of Cade’s hand. “I like the white.”

  “I figured you would. We always have red shirts, but Alex wondered how it would look if management had different colors to stand out. I thought black was better, but she said white. White gets dirty,” Cade said.

  “Only if you’re a slob or puke on it,” Aiden said. Since Aiden was the neat freak of the family, Ella knew he’d be on her side. Not to mention Cade had a weak stomach and could throw up at the slightest movement of the earth.

  “Ass,” Cade said back.

  She knew her brothers would get into it again if she didn’t call order and keep them on track. “Guys. Work, please.”

  Mason winked at her. “Black would be better at the brewery,” Mason said. “It’s hard to stay clean there and I’m not a slob like Cade either, Ella, so don’t say it. And Jessica is done puking too.”

  “I wouldn’t even consider it, but I see your point. How about white or black?” Ella asked. “Give management the option and then red for the staff. This looks more fitted too. It has to be a woman’s shirt.”

  “Like you’d ever wear a Fierce T-shirt or polo shirt,” Cade said, his face all wrinkled as he ducked his chin down and frowned, forcing a second chin on him. She knew he was doing that on purpose to get her to laugh. He was always making faces and funny noises as a kid.

  She ignored it now like she did as a kid. “I’ve worn them before,” she argued.

  “When we’ve had to beg you to,” Brody said.

  “Which is why Alex made this for you,” Cade said.

  He pulled two sweaters out of the box. A white one and a black one. Both were cardigans and both looked to be fitted to her small frame.

  “I love Alex,” Ella said, putting the white one on over her orange blouse. “I love the embroidery on it too.”

  “I’m sure you still won’t wear it every day though,” Mason said. “But I know Jessica will like it when she’s at the brewery.”

  “Of course I won’t,” Ella said, sniffing her nose. “I never wear the same thing twice in a month, let alone a week.”

  “A month,” Aiden said, snorting. “I bet you can go six months without repeating any article of clothing.”

  “I’m not that bad,” she argued. Everyone snorted at her this time. “If Cade is done, can we move on to someone else then?” she asked as primly as she could.

  “I feel sorry for whoever Mom finds for you,” Brody said.

  “Not happening. She and I had this discussion and she knows better,” she said before she could stop herself. They’d agreed to not really talk about it in front of Cade yet until he was told what their mother did.

  “What are you guys talking about?” Cade asked. “Is Mom trying to match-make with you, Ella? It’d take Mom years to find someone to put up with all your OCD tendencies.”

  Mason went to open his mouth and she shot him a look. “Mom will not find anyone for me. I told her to get over it. That you four all have mates and to be happy with that.”

  Brody, Aiden, and Mason all laughed. Cade still had no clue he’d been set up, but she figured they’d let him in on it soon enough.

  “Fine,” Mason said. “I’ll go next. Has Travis gotten back to you yet on the reason for the cameras not recording some spots of the brewery?”

  “He has. He said the heat is fogging them up and putting a film over the lens, and in some cases almost short circuiting them. I’ve got a quote here for replacement cameras in those sections of the brewery.”

  She started to pass them around the table, but only Mason looked at it. The others would just defer to her and Mason for something like this. “Go ahead and order them,” Mason said. “We need it done.”

  “I figured you’d say that, so I’ll contact Travis after this meeting.”

  Everyone else had their say around the room and left her there by herself to pick up the leftover papers. They always did this to her. She knew it was to get on her nerves, which was why she never reacted to it.

  When she was back in her office, she shut her door before she called Travis.

  She was going to do what she’d been doing her whole life. She was going to prove her brothers wrong and find a man before her mother could even consider it.

  She was going to ask Travis on a date and show everyone that there was someone out there that was interested in her. Now she just needed to work up the nerve.

  Ask For It

  Travis was looking over the plans for a client one more time when his phone rang. He reached for it without even looking. “McKinley.”

  “Hello, Travis.”

  Ella. “Hey there,” he said back.

  “I just got out of the meeting with my brothers and we’re a go for the new cameras.”

  “That’s good to know,” he said, picking up a pen and jotting down a note to order them when he hung up the phone. “They should be here in a few days and then I’ll work out a time with Mason to get them installed. Unless you want to talk to him and get back to me?”

  “Just let me know when they’re in for sure and I’ll check in with Mason on production and when the best time is to get them swapped out. How much time do you need?”

  “Just an hour or two,” he said, leaning back in his chair, putting his feet on his desk and crossing them. He sure did like listening to her talk. Too bad she was always in a hurry to end any conversations.

  Well, not in the grocery store she wasn’t. He was hoping maybe they could get back to that.

  “That should make it easier,” she said.

  She was silent for a second, not hanging up, but not talking. “Something on your mind, Ella?”

  She cleared her throat and he realized he might be making her nervous again. Imagine that. “About the other day.”

  “What other day? There are a lot of days that could be considered other days.”

  She let out what he thought might be a half laugh. “In the grocery store.”

  “When you were checking out my...cart.”

  There was a gasp this time and he knew he probably just pushed his luck again, but damn it all, this was just too much fun. “Yes. You said something about dinner.”

  Her voice was firmer this time, sending a jolt of heat to his belly that traveled up his chest and reminded him of why he stopped eating five-alarm chilly late at night. Yet here he was wanting to grab the spoon for another mouthful.

  His grin filled his face. “What about dinner?” He was going to make her ask him. She’d shot him down so much in the past few years when he was just wanting a conversation, that if she really was interested in a date, she’d have to make that move now.

  “Would you like to have dinner?”

  “I always want to have dinner,” he said.

  More silence. “Tonight?” she asked.

  “I eat dinner every night.”

  “Me too. Well, I guess I’ll let you—”

  “No, wait. I’m just teasing you. Are you asking me out to dinner, Ella? As in a date?”

  “I was going to, but not if you’re going to be a tool about it all,” she said all prim and proper again.

  He laughed. That was the Ella he was used to seeing and surprisingly he wanted to see more of it. His whole life he’d been drawn toward weak women. Someone he had to take care of. Someone that needed him. Protection was second nature to him and he was so good at it.

  Only he’d failed deeply in the past and he couldn’t let go of that loss. He swore he’d never let himself be put in that situation again. He’d never be the one that had to be the strong shoulder a woman needed in order to just make it through the day. The one that had to make all the decisions even when he was a country away. He couldn’t bear that weight on his shoulders again.

  But could he handle being with someone that might be as headstrong as him? Guess it wouldn’t hurt to try it out.

  “I’ll stop being a tool if it makes it easi
er,” he said.

  “Thank you. Then yes, Travis, would you like to join me for dinner tonight?”

  “I’d love to. Where would you like to go?” he asked. He’d love to say one of their places, but considering how hesitant she’d been to ask, he wasn’t going to press his luck.

  “I know this place just outside of town. Cade’s been there a few times. If tonight doesn’t work, we can try another night.”

  There was no way he was letting her push it off. “Tonight works just fine. Do you want to meet, or am I allowed to pick you up like a gentleman? Even if I’m a gentleman tool?”

  She laughed this time. She needed to do that more often and he was going to try to hear it as much as he could. “I suppose you could pick me up. I’ll text you my address in a few minutes.”

  “Then I look forward to tonight,” he said and hung up.

  He had a date with Ella Fierce. An ex-Navy SEAL that was rougher than most, bigger than many, and lost his soft spot four years ago. But something about Ella made him want to try again.

  It was time to stop beating himself up. It was time to see what he was missing in life.

  It was time to move on and find something completely opposite of what he’d lost and try to enjoy the world he was living in now.

  ***

  Ella was pacing around her place and wondering why that was. When was the last time she was nervous about going on a date?

  When was the last time she’d been on a date?

  What a depressing thought that was. It had to have been over two years. How had so much time gone by without any type of companionship?

  Easy when she realized that most guys didn’t want her for any reason other than her name in the past several years. She’d pretty much given up trying to find someone or dealing with the headache, the frustration...the hurt.

  But watching her brothers all fall in love made her realize what she was missing. The thought of her mother having a hand in selecting someone was more than she could handle...even if her mother had been dead on with the boys.