Page 116 of Fierce-Matt

“She had many people she was talking to and entertaining. There were a lot of Gavin’s family there from Durham so we got a reprieve. Your father and I talked with Ben and Eve more than anyone else, then we left after we ate. Since we got there late, it was about two hours.”

“Enough to get you out of the house,” he said.

“That was the thought. All those people aren’t my thing. You’d love it and fit right in.”

“Maybe years ago, but now life in the slow lane is more my style.”

“Anya might complain you’re boring again if you do that,” Grace said.

He snorted at the smirk on his mother’s face. “I mix enough fun in there to keep her happy.”

“It’s not just about keeping her happy. I want my son happy too.”

“I am,” he said. “More than I ever thought I’d be.”

“I’m thrilled to hear it. You two have come a long way,” his mother said. “I always knew you had a crush on her. I knew she had one on you too.”

“If you ever told me I wouldn’t have done what I had.”

How could his mother not have given him a heads up? To let him continue on with the way things were with just a few short words here and there.

“Matt. You were going to be you regardless. We told you enough to dial it back and you didn’t listen. You only learn when it comes from someone else. Teens don’t care to be told the same things again and again by their parents because we are never right in their eyes.”

He wondered if that was what happened with EJ and his parents.

“You’re not wrong.”

“Someday you’ll have kids of your own and experience that.”

“Yay me,” he said. “But I learned from the best. I’m sure I can handle it.”

“You’re handling things well.”

“There you are,” his father said, popping his head in. “You’ve got someone up front asking for you.”

He frowned. “Who? I’ve got no one scheduled this morning. I’ve got to be in court at ten.”

His father looked at his mother. “It’s Macy.”

His ex.

“You’re joking, right?”

“No,” Tim said. “She was walking in the same time I was. I held the door for her. I almost didn’t recognize her because I wasn’t thinking of her. She looks a little different. Her hair or something.”

He didn’t care. Macy was always changing the way she dressed and hairstyles. In her eyes there was always something better out there.

It was part of why they split.

She wanted more than he was willing to give.

He saw through her and, as much as it killed him to say his mother was right, he had used Macy for a good time and nothing more.

“She asked for me?” he asked.

“She went to the desk and asked for you. She said it’s urgent.”

“If you’ve got a child out there you know nothing about, Matt, I swear to God I’m going to smack you upside the head.”