27. Means Too Much
MEANS TOO MUCH
“ F uck,” Elias said the following Saturday morning.
“What?” Phoebe asked.
They were cleaning up breakfast and trying to decide how they were going to spend Valentine’s Day.
The past week he’d been trying to figure out if his mind spent too much time on his girlfriend and not his business.
“We are having company.”
“We are?” she asked.
He turned his phone over for her to see. There was his mother’s car coming down his driveway. He had cameras on his property and got the alert someone had passed the entrance.
“My mother,” he said, his shoulders dropping.
She laughed. “The woman who doesn’t know about me?”
“Oh, she knows,” he said. “Or at least she does now and that is why she’s coming over. She’d know we’ll be together today and she would have a greater chance of meeting you.”
“You look nervous,” Phoebe said, snickering. “Do you think you’ll be in trouble?”
“Yep,” he said. “Don’t hold it against me. I’m not a Mama’s boy.”
“I think it’s sweet,” she said, rubbing her hand on his arm.
“Keep that thought in your mind,” he said.
His mother’s car came to a stop. Just an ordinary sedan. West had been on her case to get a nice luxury car for years and she refused.
Said it was a waste of money and she didn’t care how much her children made. Aileen Carlisle wanted the right things in life no matter how much all her children wanted to spoil her.
“I’ll finish cleaning up. Go greet your mother.”
He turned and pointed his finger. “Don’t you dare sneak out the back door or hide,” he said. “I’ll find you. I promise.”
Phoebe burst out laughing. “I’m not going to hide. Elias, oh my God, I never thought you’d be like this.”
It was the first he was introducing a woman to his mother and didn’t realize he’d be this nervous over it.
Maybe because it meant too much and he was terrified his mother might not like Phoebe.
He shouldn’t have had that worry though.
He opened the front door and his mother came marching up to him. “How dare you have a girlfriend and not tell me about it?!”
“Who told you?” he asked. “Talia?”
His mother’s jaw dropped. “Talia knows? Who else knows? I’m going to kick your sister’s butt.”
He grimaced. “How did you find out?”
“Foster,” his mother said. “I think he slipped. I was talking to Charlotte and he didn’t know. I heard him in the background talking to you. He asked about Phoebe. A pretty name. I had to all but twist his ear and that isn’t easy from five hundred miles away.”
“Jerk caved,” he said.
His mother whacked his arm. “I want to meet her. I’ve got to imagine you are doing something with her today.”
“Hello,” Phoebe said from behind him. “Elias worried I was going to sneak out the back door, but since he met my family last weekend it’s the least I can do.”
His mother swatted him a second time, but he jumped out of the way. “Thanks for throwing me under the bus,” he said.
“Elias Michael. I can’t believe you met Phoebe’s parents who live in Charlotte, two hours away and you can’t have me meet her and I’m less than an hour away.”
Which meant his mother got some facts.
“Who told you where Phoebe is from?”
“I looked her up,” his mother said proudly. “But you’re so much lovelier in person. And a saint to put up with a son who is breaking his mother’s heart.”
“Come on, Mom,” he said, wincing. “Now I’m going to be in the doghouse more.”
He turned and looked at Phoebe and she was laughing. “Thank you. No reason for Elias to be in the doghouse. My mother wanted to meet him too, and since he had to go to Charlotte for work, I decided to go with him. It wasn’t anything planned out too far in advance.”
“I appreciate you are trying to save my son.”
She smirked. “I’m not so sure he needs saving.”
“Right now he might,” his mother said. “Where are your manners, Elias? Are you going to ask me in?”
“Mom,” he said, throwing his hands up. “You don’t need an invitation into anyone’s house. Do you want me to spill the tea, as you call it? I didn’t give Phoebe much of a warning of what you’re like, but I can do that?”
“No, no,” his mother said, taking her jacket off and hanging it up. “But I would love a cup of coffee.”
“I’ll get it,” Phoebe said.
“Good,” he said. “Then you can find out more about my mother. I think it’s only fair since she’s going to grill you.”
Phoebe turned to walk into the kitchen and his mother pulled him aside and lowered her voice.
“Don’t you dare tell your girlfriend how I interfered with your siblings’ relationships.
I only did that after I knew them or they’d been dating longer.
You don’t want to ruin a good thing too early, do you? ”
She had him there.
“Fine,” he said. “But behave. And don’t make me out to sound like such a wuss.”
His mother leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. “I just love picking on you. You’ve got more patience than the rest of my kids.”
“As I’ve been told before,” he said. “But I’ve never had a woman that you’ve been introduced to either.”
“I’ll behave,” his mother said sweetly. He wasn’t so sure he believed it.
They walked to the kitchen. “Phoebe Kelly, my mother, Aileen Carlisle. Phoebe doesn’t know much about you, other than you’re a breeding machine. She hasn’t researched the family like others do.”
His mother’s jaw dropped. “That’s not a truce.”
“Like I believe you’re going to adhere to one,” he said, staring at her.
“Fine,” his mother said, shrugging. “I’ll behave. I promise. It’s very nice to meet you, Phoebe. I know you’re an attorney and opened an office in Southern Pines. How did you two meet if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Laken didn’t tell you? Nor Braylon or West?”
His mother all but snarled once she realized how many of her kids knew but her.
She hated to be kept out of the loop.
“No,” his mother said. “No one said anything. Is it a funny story? It seems as if all my boys have had to save the women in their lives when they first met.”
“I’ve heard about Abby, Lily, and Charlotte. Elias might have had to save himself. I rear-ended him on a snowy day when no one else was on the roads but the two of us.”
“Oh dear,” his mother said. “I hope you weren’t hurt.”
“Only my pride for being an idiot to think I could drive in the snow and not stay home for a few hours until it warmed up.”
“I’ll consider it fate,” his mother said. “You were at the right place at the right time.”
Elias rolled his eyes. “My mother is a big fan of fate,” he said.
“Are you?” his mother asked Phoebe.
“I never thought of it one way or another,” she said. “My mind is a bit more logical.”
He laughed. “She said you’re illogical. That’s great.”
This time Phoebe pursed her lips and marched over to him. He jumped out of the way expecting to get a pinch like his mother often did.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” she argued.
“Ignore my son,” his mother said. “He’s famous for putting his foot in his mouth.”
“He is?” she asked. “I’ve never seen it.”
“He was when he was younger,” his mother said. “Maybe not so much now. I guess everyone matures.”
“You haven’t,” he said.
“Elias,” his mother warned, but she was grinning at him.
“Yes, Mother. You know I’m your favorite.”
“You only say that so you don’t get in trouble,” his mother said.
“I’ve gotten in trouble just as much as everyone else except for Foster and Rowan.”
“No one got in trouble as much as the two of them,” his mother said. She turned to Phoebe. “How do you like this small town?”
“It’s interesting,” she said.
“She’s getting used to the fact she can’t go anywhere without someone bringing my name up.”
“It is annoying,” his mother said. “I remember when Sam was alive and we lived on base. We’d move somewhere new and I wouldn’t know many, but they’d come up to me and say something along the lines of the family with all the kids.”
“Ouch,” Phoebe said. “That’s not a way to be labeled.”
“No,” his mother said. “But I always had some reply for them. Even with all my kids, they were better behaved than most...out in public.”
“Because we were afraid of our mother.”
“As you should be,” his mother said, winking.
“I had a grandfather that we always feared,” Phoebe said. “But he was an asshole.”
Elias burst out laughing. “Did you just compare my mother to your old-fashioned sexist grandfather?”
“Oh my God,” she said. Her face turned bright red and he felt so bad that she looked as if she might cry. “I’m so sorry. Never. I’m so embarrassed.”
“Looks like my son isn’t the only one that can put his foot in his mouth. It’s okay, sweetie,” his mother said. “I’ve dropped in unexpectedly and everyone is off their game. We can start over.”
“Thank you so much,” she said. “My grandfather was a jerk. He treated women poorly and had no respect for them. My father and brothers are nothing like him.”
“Sounds like someone I would have loved to give a piece of my mind to.”
“And I would have loved to see it,” she said. “My mother and you, I bet you’ll get along well. She’s said a few things to my grandfather in the past.”
“Good for her. Especially since your grandfather was her boss, correct?”
Which meant his mother did do a lot of research.
“He was. But my father always stood by my mother and my grandfather knew. Name and reputation were important. My grandfather would never risk it.”
“You mean your father stood by his woman?” he asked innocently.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes. You’re forgiven for saying that.”
“Did Elias call you his woman?” his mother asked. “What a tool! See, puts his foot in his mouth. But love has you forgiving each other.”
Leave it to his mother to throw the L word out there.
He turned to Phoebe quickly to see her reaction and she flushed again.
Which of course told him nothing about how she felt.
Not surprising there. It felt as if he was always going to be left guessing.