Page 11 of Fierce-Ivan

“Most likely. I didn’t stick around much after that and left Ella to deal with her. I got what I needed anyway.”

He would have liked to go to Kendra’s office to talk to her more, but no way he was staying in the building let alone being seen with a single woman. For all he knew, his aunt was getting stars in her eyes over him and Kendra.

He might be interested in Kendra Key, but the last person that was going to know that was his aunt. He was doing things his way, on his terms and especially his time.

His aunt was going to have to cool her jets.

* * *

“Jolene,”Shay said into the phone hours later. “You need to dial it back. You’re going to get me in trouble.”

“What did I do?” her sister asked her with a big sigh. “I’m entitled to talk to my nephew when I see him.”

“You all but threw me under the bus today. I had to play it up like I didn’t know what you were doing or how you found out he was at the office with Ella.”

“Come on now, Shay. You know I can read between the lines. You made it a point to say Ivan had the day off and was coming to dinner. You knew as well as I did that I’d suspect he was meeting with Ella. I know what is going on with the business.”

“And you rushed right over there, didn’t you?”

“Of course I didn’t.”

Shay snorted. “I don’t believe you.”

“Fine,” Jolene said. “I might have looked at the cameras to see if his car was there.”

“Jolene,” she said, shocked. “I had no idea you had access to the cameras. Do your kids know that?”

Her sister laughed. “Please. They know Gavin does on his computer and phone. No one thinks I sit down long enough to look for things.”

“They are all idiots then,” she said. “They should know by now if you want something bad enough you’ll put up with anything to get the information.”

“That’s right. Thankfully it didn’t take long. I signed on after I hung up with you and looked. I didn’t see his car and went about doing laundry and when I went to look the second time it was there. I played it back and saw he’d just arrived.”

“And you rushed out the door,” she said. “Did you tell Gavin what you were doing?”

“He knows. He said he’d finish the laundry for me. Did you get anywhere with Ivan?”

Shay sighed. “No. It doesn’t help when you insult him that his swimmers are going to dry up. What is wrong with you?”

“I thought that was brilliant myself,” Jolene said. “You should have seen his shocked face.”

“I can only imagine. Tell me, who is it you’ve got planned for him? You’ve been working on him for almost a year. Or don’t you even know?”

“I know,” Jolene said. “It’s just taking more time than I thought. From both Ivan and the other party.”

“No more playing games with me,” she said. “If you want my help with sneaking you information to push this on, then give me the name. I didn’t ruin anything with Devin. I’d like to think I’ve proven myself to you.”

She’d asked her sister for help with her oldest to find Devin the perfect mate. Devin and Hope were married and she was waiting on that first grandchild herself. She didn’t need to bug her son about it because her sister was doing it for her.

“If you must know, it’s Kendra.”

“Ella’s assistant?”

“Yes. And she’s more than an assistant. She is all but holding the offices together for Ella at times and probably will when Ella has Landon. I did get some information out of Ella though. She’s got Kendra and Ivan working on a project together. Maybe things will start to progress.”

“Does Ella know what you are trying to do?”

Jolene let out a snort. “Of course she does. Nothing gets by my girl. There was part of me that wondered if she was stonewalling me, but I don’t think so. She tried to say Kendra might not be into dating, but I think she is shy like Ivan.”