Page 39 of Starfish and Coffee
“Yes,” he promised her and then leaned down and kissed her forehead because that gash on her shin looked painful. He felt terrible leaving her. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I’m fine.” She pushed at his bare shoulder. “Go cool off. I’ll calm him down.”
He didn’t want to think about how Holly was going to calm his brother down. This whole thing was giving him some seriously fucked-up mental whiplash. Alex got on his bike before Will came outside and said something that would make forgiving him impossible.
Chapter Ten
“Now you’re riding around on that motorcycle like some sort of Hell’s Angel.”
Matt couldn’t help the laughter that burst out of him. “I think any respectable Hell’s Angel would be thoroughly insulted by that comparison. You know parking on the island is a nightmare. Having a bike makes life easier.”
“So have Charlie drive you,” his mother said dismissively. “We pay him too much as it is. Make him earn his paycheck.”
“He earns it. In fact, I’m thinking of giving him a raise.” Matt took another drink of his scotch and rubbed at his temples where a headache was forming. “If the only reason you called is to bitch at me about the bike, then I’m hanging up again.”
“You know I don’t like that sort of language.” Her voice was shrill with disapproval. “Those restaurant people are teaching you to talk like that.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t college.” He snorted. “You sent Charlie all the way over here to tell me to pick up the phone. I’m talking to you. What do you want?”
“You said you’d take me to the club this week.”
“I was going to take you tonight until the little incident at Frank’s today,” he said, knowing it was mean to do so, but he was halfway to being drunk.
“You are wretched! Your father would’ve never treated his mother like this. He put your grandmother on a pedestal until the day she died. If she wanted to do something, we all had to bow to her wishes. He certainly never gave me that sort of respect.”
“Oh Jesus.” Matt took another drink, thinking he was just going to skip dinner and get completely shitfaced.
“Now my own son deliberately embarrasses me in front of all my friends,” she went on as if she hadn’t heard his moan of complaint. “Do you know how mortifying that was?”
“Yeah, I’ve got a pretty good idea,” he barked, knowing he was falling into her trap. “You’ve been embarrassing me in front ofmy friendssince I was old enough to have any.”
“Well, you never had any taste when it came to friends. I thought that Trevor Hart was bad until you decided to bring the scum of society into your inner circle just to make your mother miserable.”
Matt closed his eyes and counted to ten before he took a steadying breath and said, “First off, it’s not always about you. I don’t choose my friends based on how much it’s going to piss you off. Secondly, there is nothing wrong with Trevor. He just got accepted into Harvard medical school. He’s brilliant.”
“Probably on scholarship.” She sniffed in disapproval. “That fraternity has certainly gone downhill since your father’s day.”
“I’m not playing anymore,” Matt said tiredly. “There’s nothing wrong with Trevor or the friends I’ve made at Frank’s. If you can’t handle my social choices, I can’t help you with that.”
“Maria says you’ve let that tall blond boy spend the night more than once.”
“So what?” Matt scowled, knowing it was a mistake to let his mother’s housekeeper come over to clean and do the laundry. “And tell Maria if she keeps playing spy, she’s going to be finding herself a new job.”
“You cannot fire my help!”
Matt set his drink down and leaned against the kitchen counter as he growled, “Watch me.”
“Where’d I go wrong with you?”
“I’m hanging up.”
“When are you taking me to the club?” she finally asked in defeat, obviously hearing the grim certainty in Matt’s voice. “You’ve been here a month and haven’t spent any time with any of yourreal friends.”
“Maybe on Friday.” Matt knew there was no getting out of it.
“Excellent. It’s lobster on Friday,” she said, obviously pleased now that she’d gotten a date out of him. “And Devon Hastings is coming down for the weekend. You know he flies to the island every other weekend just to spend time with his mother?”
“Isn’t that wonderful of him.”
