Page 82 of Fierce-Matt

His smile was a tender one. His eyes softening a touch with it.

“One of those hard lessons. I got thinking earlier, that we could have had this years ago if I hadn’t messed up.”

“It wasn’t right back then.”

“That’s what I concluded. I would have ruined it. I won’t ruin this. I got the lecture from Phoebe before you returned.”

She coughed on the next bite. “You told your sister about us?”

“Was it supposed to be a secret?”

“Stop pouting,” she said. He snorted and she grinned. “No secret. I just hadn’t realized you were going to do that.”

“I didn’t want her to find out from someone else,” he said. “She told me you’ve been texting and never said a word.”

“Oh boy. We aren’t going down that road. We aren’t texting a lot. More like catching up and I haven’t talked to her in a few weeks. Don’t get me in trouble with a friend I’m just getting reacquainted with.”

“Sorry,” he said, slapping his bread on his sandwich. “I might have misjudged it.”

She ran her hand over his arm. “Don’t be. This is one of those things we have to work out. And it goes back to what is happening with Jolene. She was hinting around to something I couldn’t figure out. I wasn’t giving her much. She made a comment about my life being so serious and working all the time. I told her I had fun and mentioned Carowinds.”

“And that brings me to what happened on Friday afternoon at work.”

“What?” she asked, going back to her lunch.

“My parents came into my office at the end of the day. It’s not unusual for them to do that, but they sat down to talk. My mother was fishing for something but missing the bait on the line. It had to do with me taking Thursday off last minute and what I did.”

“Did you tell them?”

“I made a comment about rollercoasters and we laughed. Your name came up and how I rode them as a kid when you went with us. It was more a reminiscing thing.”

“Do you think they suspect us?” she asked.

“I more than think it now. I know it. And the source has to be Jolene. My mother and Jolene talked when Ben and Eve were dating. I hadn’t known at that time, but my mother had asked Jolene to set Ben up with someone.”

“No. I can’t believe your mother would do that.”

He laughed. “She did. She wanted her kids settled down. Ben likes to be the center of attention. The class clown.”

“He’s funny but goes about it differently than you.”

She remembered Ben was all about getting laughs at his own expense, not necessarily others.

“I looked up to him. I like to be original.”

“He’s the OG,” she said.

“He is and he reminds me. Back to my parents. They were giving each other funny looks every time your name came up or what I did on Thursday. I’m positive my mother is talking to Jolene again and trying to get me set up.”

“So she’ll find someone else for you?” she asked. Anya didn’t want to think of that.

Good lord, she wasn’t good with competition.

“No,” he said. “I’m betting anything she has you in mind for me.”

“But she doesn’t know us well, right? Either of us?”

“Nope,” he said. “But she has hawk eyes and she would have seen me dancing with you at the wedding.”