Page 30 of Fierce-Matt

“She grew on you because she wanted your last name. When you weren’t giving her what she wanted, she turned on you,” hismother said. “And that is when I took a closer look at her social media. She had a history of dating wealthy or older men. Or men with the potential to raise her status in life.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I knew that going in.”

Which was part of the reason he put little effort in also.

He wanted her to prove to him he was special and not just another notch for her to climb.

Yep, that was cocky on his part.

“And that is why you used each other,” his mother said. “I’d have no reason to look into Eve.”

“Because you asked Jolene Fierce to set Ben up,” he said, pointing his finger. “You trusted her vetting process.”

His father lifted his eyebrows at his mother. “Matt has you there.”

“It’s a good thing I have nothing to do with Fierce,” he said. “And with Phoebe, Ben already knew Elias. Again, no reason for you to do anything.”

They’d trust Ben’s opinion over the fact of Elias’s background.

Their family had never been snobby.

“Matt.” He turned his head to see Eileen standing there. “The Emersons are here. You weren’t answering your phone.”

“I’ll come up,” he said. “Can you bring everything into the conference room by my office for them to sign?”

“Sure,” Eileen said and moved away.

“We’ll finish this conversation later,” his mother said.

“Or not,” he said, laughing.

He’d gotten beaten down enough this morning.

“You were saved before you slipped,”Tim Kelly said.

“I wouldn’t have given it away,” Grace said. Her son wouldn’t have caught on either. He couldn’t see two feet in front of him even when you held his hand and led him to the fire.

How many times had she pointed out his flaws to him for him to be like “oh, yeah, you’re right”?

“Do you really think Anya is going to give him the time of day after the way he treated her as a kid?”

“They were kids,” she said. “And Jolene has her hand in this. She hasn’t failed once. She says Anya is nothing like we remembered. Matt needs someone to put him in his place.”

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Tim. Matt had the biggest crush on Anya when he was younger. We even joked about it. I remember talking to Amber about it once too. That it’d be so sweet if they ended up together.”

“You never told me that,” he said.

“Because it was nothing more than two mothers trying to pair their kids up.”

Her husband rolled his eyes.

“I agree Matt had a crush back then. He might even find her attractive now, but Anya has never been his type.”

She crossed her arms. “Why would you think that?”

“Because Matt always went for high maintenance women. Or those that were snobby. Anya isn’t any of those things.”