Page 22 of Fierce-Matt
“Smart,” he said.
“I’m not as dumb as people think,” she said.
“I never thought you were,” he said. “I know I keep saying I’m sorry, but that is the last thing I’d want anyone, especially you to think.”
“You said it enough,” she said, closing one eye at him.
“I have to live with that. In the past month it’s actually eaten at me to find out how you felt. I had no idea, and if I’d had, I would have stopped it.”
“Phoebe knew,” she said.
Seemed Ben did too, yet no one told him. Or told him seriously enough for him to understand.
“She used to say things to me, but I thought she was joking.”
“Not everyone jokes about life, Matt,” she said. “It’d be great if it was funny day in and day out, but it’s not. There are real life struggles that people have behind closed doors they are too embarrassed about to be known.”
He squirmed in his chair as if someone lit a fire under his ass.
This was getting worse and worse in his eyes.
There didn’t seem to be any way he could make it right.
“I know that now. I see it at my job. If it makes you feel any better, part of the reason I’m still single is that many of the women I’ve dated feel the same way you do. Life isn’t all fun and games and they didn’t like that I don’t take things seriously outside of my career.”
“Oh, so it wasn’t just me that got the privilege of your cockiness? I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or not. Yeah, not.”
He opened his mouth to reply, but there was a knock on his door, and it opened. His legal assistant, Nettie, popped her head in. “Amber and Elliot Emerson are here.”
He stood up. “I’ll come get them.”
It sounded as if her father might need some help.
“I can do it,” Anya said.
He turned to look at her before she bolted on him. Something she did often as a kid when he thought of the past and should have realized what he was doing was wrong.
“You want to trust me, then let me helpyou, not just your parents.”
It was a step in the right direction when she nodded her head, but she still followed him down the hall.
6
CLOSING THE DOOR
“Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Emerson. It’s so good to see you again.”
“Matt, right?” her father asked and shook Matt’s hand. “Phoebe’s brother?”
“That’s right,” he said. Matt kept his hand on her father’s shoulder, replacing her mother’s, and assisting her father down the hall. “Why don’t we go into this conference room? We’ll have more space. I’m going to grab my laptop.”
They turned into the room before Matt’s office and Anya and her parents sat at the table, while Matt went back to his office.
“How are you doing, Dad?” she asked. He seemed clear-eyed and alert. That was a plus today. They needed it for what was being done.
“Not bad,” her father said. “Your mother told me why we are here. Guess I overslept this morning.”
“He didn’t want to get up,” her mother said. “I told him he could nap when we got home if he wanted.”
