Page 32 of Tactical Revival

“Mom, what are you doing here?”

“I figured I would come pick you up. Then we can grab some dinner at the diner before heading home.”

He arches a brow. “What about the B&B?”

“Andie is watching the front desk for me.” I grew up with Andie Montgomery—now Andie Breeth since she married Elijah, one of the men of Knight Security. Since she runs her own boutique that’s only open three days a week, she occasionally steps in to help me run the front desk if I need a breather.

“Cool.” Matty turns to Anthony. “See you later.”

“Yeah, later.” He closes the door after offering me a quick wave, and I wrap an arm around Matty’s shoulders.

“How was your day?” I ask as soon as I’ve climbed behind the wheel of my car.

“Good. We got our hypothesis written and set the experiment up.”

“That’s awesome. What else did you do?”

“We played some Halo. Ate chips. Drank way too much root beer.”

I laugh, then shake my head. “You are having nothing but vegetables for dinner, you hear me? Broccoli and carrots.”

He rolls his eyes. “Yes, ma’am.”

We fall into a comfortable silence, something that isn’t unusual for us. We talk about nearly everything, or at least we do now. There was a time after Chad left that Matty was so far out of reach I’d been terrified he would do something that would land him in more trouble than I could get him out of.

Thankfully, he’s been doing better since Jaxson came to stay with us. Not sure what the reasoning is, whether it’s because he genuinely respects the detective or is just afraid he’ll get caught more easily, but I’m grateful for the change regardless.

“You okay, Mom?”

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You just seem off.”

“I’m okay. I just have a lot on my mind, that’s all.”

“Maybe a certain detective?”

Now it’s my turn to roll my eyes. “Jaxson and I are just friends.”

“Yeah, sure.” He laughs. “It was cool of him to loan us the money.”

Us. My boy won’t even let me carry the weight of it alone. “It was. We’re going to make sure we pay him back.”

“If he’ll let us. He seems even more stubborn than you.”

I laugh and shake my head. “Maybe.” My gaze drifts back to him. To the flecks of color in his hazel eyes. To the gorgeous grin he flashes when I catch him off guard.

“So what gives? Is it about Dad being back in town?”

I risk a glance at him, then pull into a spot in front of the diner. “You knew he was back in town?”

“Anthony’s mom saw him.”

My hands tighten on the steering wheel. “She told you that she saw him?”

“She told Ant and he told me. She told him not to, but we’re best friends and have no secrets.”

I sigh. I should have known Chad’s presence would get back to Matty. “I’m sorry, honey. I should have been the one to tell you.”

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