Page 148 of Fierce-Matt

Her husband wasn’t wrong. She always felt as if Matt was acting out for her attention. Ben was the oldest. Phoebe the baby and the only girl.

She worried that if she was too hard on him, he wouldn’t come to her.

The realization hit her now and she knew she overstepped.

“You were the bad cop, I was the good cop.”

“And I was again this time,” Tim said. “Which is why you can thank me.”

“How so?” she asked.

“Because I pointed out that he boasted to us that he and Anya told each other everything to build on the trust and clear the air. He told her he’d do what was needed for that trust and didn’t do this.”

“Ouch,” she said. “I should have thought of that.”

“That’s right, but you didn’t. You were too busy listening to Jolene.”

Her lips twisted in frustration. “This time I was wrong. I apologized to Matt for slipping.”

“But you and I know you didn’t slip.”

“Yes, I did. I truly thought he brought it up to her,” she said.

She wouldn’t have wanted to cause a fight on purpose. It was more about being nosy to see if Anya knew and her reaction to it.There was no reaction at all and she believed Anya and Matt had gotten through something that might have caused a fight.

A sign that they had worked through something.

Not that she’d just lit the match to the fuse at the fireworks show.

“Now you know otherwise. Are you going to be honest with your son?”

“You know I will be,” she said, standing up. “Might as well do it now before I lose my nerve. I just hope those two are fine. I should apologize to Anya too.”

“A word of advice,” Tim said. “Don’t. If you talk to her about it, she might think Matt put you up to it. Or that Matt can’t handle his own problems. Talk to your son and do whathewants and needs. Not what youthinkhe does.”

Now she knew how Matt felt months ago when they gave him some tough love and told him he acted like his grandfather.

She was guilty of it now. Some might say it was a form of manipulation when she would call it mothering.

She walked to Matt’s office and stood in the doorway. “Got a minute?”

“Yeah,” he said.

The look on her son’s face said it all. Her little boy was upset and she’d caused it.

“I’m sorry.”

“It happens. I should have said something. There were a lot of witnesses to it here and it would have come out, I’m sure.”

“I agree with that. I agree with what your father said and I truthfully thought she knew. But there is another side to it.”

“What’s that?” he asked. “Your meddling?”

She was caught there too. “You know?”

“It’s not that hard to figure out once I calmed down. The question is why? Don’t you trust me not to mess this up? Which is stupid considering I just did.”

“It wasn’t a matter of trust.” Her heart was breaking over her misstep here. “Everything is going so well with the two of you. I wanted to see if she had a reaction to Macy’s name. She didn’t. I thought, great, he told her and nothing happened.”