Page 26 of Fierce-Matt

Her parents left the conference room and Matt shut the door. “Wow. I’m really sorry about that. I got grounded for weeks for that prank. I didn’t know you had nightmares about it.”

“Don’t think so highly of yourself. It had more to do with EJ. He was more than twice as bad as you. I can’t even put a number on it.”

She wasn’t lying there, but the last thing she wanted to do was rehash one of Matt’s many pranks that backfired on her when it wasn’t meant to.

“And I compounded it?”

“Something like that,” she said.

“I feel as if I’m never going to dig myself out of a hole I didn’t know I was in.”

She snorted. “Probably not.”

7

BRING YOU BACK TO EARTH

“You’re doing a lot of pacing.”

Matt turned and walked back to his mother’s office he’d just passed. “I’m getting something to drink.”

“I know my son and you’re wearing holes in the carpet. What is going on?”

He wasn’t about to admit to his mother that he’d had a crush on Anya most of his childhood and that he’d made a complete disaster out of things without knowing.

Or that it sounded as if he’d played a part in messing up some of her life back then.

“I’m waiting for the Emersons to show up. I wanted to help with Elliot if he needed it.”

“That’s so sad,” her mother said. “What happened to their business? What else is going on?”

His parents, owning the firm, were privy to all the cases and files landing on every attorney’s desk. They got reports at the end of the week. He’d have no reason to fill them in for something that happened twenty-four hours ago. Nothing this minor in the scheme of the cases they took on.

“How much time do you have?”

“Enough for you,” his mother said. “But it appears you’ve got them coming in.”

He looked at his watch. “Not for about thirty minutes, but they could show up early. First, I’m assuming you know about their employee stealing from them.”

“I saw it on the news,” his mother said.

He filled his mother in on that part. “I’m going to meet with Amber another time for the lawsuit. Yesterday was more about getting power of attorney and medical proxy all established and updated. Elliot has dementia.”

“Oh dear,” his mother said. “I know they are older than us, but I don’t remember how much.”

“Elliot is sixty-eight. I think Amber is younger.”

His mother would turn sixty this year, his father sixty-one. They were still plenty young in his eyes and nowhere close to retiring.

“She was a teacher I believe.”

“Yes. Good thing she had the insurance.” He told his mother the rest of what was happening.

“I’m glad they are taking the steps now. So many wait until the last minute and then it’s harder. It sounds as if Elliot is aware enough and agreeable to everything. I find that hard to believe.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because I remember Phoebe telling me that there was always drama in the Emerson household. Anya spent so much time at our house to get away.”