Chapter 7 Bring You Back To Earth
brING YOU BACK TO EARTH
“You’re doing a lot of pacing.”
Matt turned and walked back to his mother’s office he’d just passed. “I’m getting something to drink.”
“I know my son and you’re wearing holes in the carpet. What is going on?”
He wasn’t about to admit to his mother that he’d had a crush on Anya most of his childhood and that he’d made a complete disaster out of things without knowing.
Or that it sounded as if he’d played a part in messing up some of her life back then.
“I’m waiting for the Emersons to show up. I wanted to help with Elliot if he needed it.”
“That’s so sad,” her mother said. “What happened to their business? What else is going on?”
His parents, owning the firm, were privy to all the cases and files landing on every attorney’s desk. They got reports at the end of the week. He’d have no reason to fill them in for something that happened twenty-four hours ago. Nothing this minor in the scheme of the cases they took on.
“How much time do you have?”
“Enough for you,” his mother said. “But it appears you’ve got them coming in.”
He looked at his watch. “Not for about thirty minutes, but they could show up early. First, I’m assuming you know about their employee stealing from them.”
“I saw it on the news,” his mother said.
He filled his mother in on that part. “I’m going to meet with Amber another time for the lawsuit. Yesterday was more about getting power of attorney and medical proxy all established and updated. Elliot has dementia.”
“Oh dear,” his mother said. “I know they are older than us, but I don’t remember how much.”
“Elliot is sixty-eight. I think Amber is younger.”
His mother would turn sixty this year, his father sixty-one. They were still plenty young in his eyes and nowhere close to retiring.
“She was a teacher I believe.”
“Yes. Good thing she had the insurance.” He told his mother the rest of what was happening.
“I’m glad they are taking the steps now. So many wait until the last minute and then it’s harder. It sounds as if Elliot is aware enough and agreeable to everything. I find that hard to believe.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because I remember Phoebe telling me that there was always drama in the Emerson household. Anya spent so much time at our house to get away.”
“Away from what?”
How much more foul-smelling substances could be dumped on him over his past actions?
“Anya’s brother and father never got along. Between us, I think his son—”
“EJ,” he said.
“Yes. Elliot Jr., but they called him EJ. I think there was something wrong with EJ. Anger issues or something. If not that, just selfishness. Phoebe said there were always fights with EJ stating everything should go to him or he should be given what he wanted. When he didn’t get his way, he’d trash his room or break and throw things in the house.
He’d been kicked out when he graduated from college. ”
“Yikes.”
“He came back after a month,” his mother said. “Amber smoothed things over. She did that a lot. I always liked Amber. I didn’t have a problem with Elliot. I’d never seen his temper, but he didn’t seem as if he was around much either.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I guess he was working a lot.”
“Like most people do when they own a business.”
“A business that was failing long before his employee stole from them. They are getting their ducks in a row. Anya mentioned they owned the building the business was in. There was a second mortgage on it for repairs and a line of credit, but the location of the building alone should give them a nice nest egg.”
He’d done a quick search of commercial property values in the area, and it could be over two million depending on the state of the building.
“I hope they find a buyer. It’s only worth what someone will pay,” his mother said. “It was nice to see Anya at Ben’s wedding. She was a surprise guest.”
“Did you know she worked at Fierce?”
“I found out after the fact,” his mother said. “She sells real estate also, so I’m betting she lists her parents’ property.”
“She is going to,” he said. “They are waiting to get a value of the business alone or if they should liquidate and then sell the building.”
“It’d be faster to sell the building without the business,” his mother said. “Did you advise that?”
“I didn’t feel as if it was my place. She’s the expert, not me.”
He’d held his tongue. The last thing he wanted to worry about was Anya getting annoyed that he was telling her how to do her job.
“There was once a time in your life you thought you knew it all,” his mother said, smirking.
“And I believe my mother set me right.”
His mother laughed. “Not just me but plenty of others.”
“I was a teenager,” he argued.
He’d acted that way in college too.
Throughout law school he thought he had a leg up because he grew up around attorneys.
He found he wasn’t alone. And he wasn’t as special as he’d hoped.
He was cocky and never disputed it.
But he didn’t think he was a dick about it.
Guess he was wrong there too.
“You were,” his mother said. “There is a tiny touch of your grandfather in you.”
“Ouch,” he said, his hand going to his heart. “That hurt.”
He wasn’t even trying to be funny.
It really bothered him to be compared to the man that no one liked and very few respected. James Kelly was feared and he was a dick, but he paid well and that was how he kept his staff.
He won anything thrown his way because he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and not play fair.
His father and mother didn’t run the firm that way and they made it clear changes were effective immediately and anyone who didn’t like it could leave.
Matt hadn’t been an attorney at that point, so never practiced that way.
Not that he would have.
He was serious about his job.
He was out to be like his father, not his grandfather.
“It wasn’t intended to hurt you, but to bring you back to earth.”
“You were good about doing that to me for years,” he said.
His mother never had a problem putting him in his place.
“Everyone needs it now and again. You’re a good kid, Matt. A brilliant attorney. I had my doubts because you were always goofing off, but your father said you wouldn’t be that way when it mattered.”
“No. I don’t even do it as much now outside of work,” he said.
“I know. Why is that? Not that I’m complaining. I’m thrilled the practical jokes stopped. Or they aren’t as much. I will admit playing the video of your brother as a cheerleader at that football game in front of Eve the first time she met our family was funny.”
He’d done it to embarrass Ben because his brother had embarrassed him enough in life.
He always took it in stride when people did it to him. Just like he knew Ben would when the video went up.
“Let’s just say that the older I get, the less women enjoy getting picked on.”
His mother clapped her hands. “There is a fine line between gentle busting or getting people to laugh and making them the butt of the joke. I’m glad you see that.”
“I learned,” he said.
“Hey, don’t harp on Macy. She wasn’t right for you.”
“But she wasn’t wrong either,” he said.
“You think she was the one?” his mother asked. The appalled look sent his way said his mother felt the way he’d assumed all along about his ex.
“No. Not at all. She wasn’t wrong that I wasn’t serious about anything other than work. I think I joked so much because I didn’t believe she was the one. I was making the relationship fun. Something to do when I wasn’t working.”
“To burn off steam. You used her.”
“Yikes,” he said. “This is the morning for me to get singed.”
“You have it coming to you,” his mother said. “But you’ve got thick skin. It’s one thing that I’ve always admired about you. You dish it out but have never been afraid to take it.”
“It shouldn’t be a double standard.”
“That’s right. As for Macy, she only wanted you for your name.”
“You never liked her, Mom. Be honest.”
“I’m always honest. Nope. She was money hungry. She makes the rounds trying to step up in life.”
He knew that now but didn’t know how his mother found out.
“Did you have her looked into?” This was news to him.
His mother looked up at the ceiling. “I’m pleading the fifth.”
“Mom! Seriously? You didn’t do that with Eve or Elias, did you?”
His mother sighed.
“What’s going on in here?”
Matt turned to see his father walk in and sit down.
“I just asked Mom if she had Eve and Elias looked into since she alluded to doing it with Macy.”
His father smirked. “Your mother never trusted your taste in women.”
“Holy shit, Mom. First you say I’m a little like Grandpa.”
“What did you do to piss your mother off?” his father asked, laughing.
“Nothing,” his mother said. “I was speaking the truth. Matt has always been cocky.”
“He has. You get that from my father.”
“You and Ben are too,” he argued.
“We are,” his father said. “I’m not denying that.”
“So you’re just like him then too.”
If he was going to get thrown under the bus, his father and brother would take up residency there with him and eat some asphalt.
“In that aspect, we are,” his father said. “There isn’t much more where you are like my father, so don’t worry about that. What else did your mother say to you today?”
“She said I used Macy.”
“I think you did,” his father said.
Who were these people?
It’s as if the last month he was getting all his bad and negative behaviors shoved under his nose after they’d been coated in pepper.
“Explain that.”
“You don’t like to be alone,” his father said.
“You like to have fun. You take your job seriously. I always knew you would. You’re an excellent attorney and care about your clients.
But in order to not burn out, you need a release.
For you that came in the form of going out and cutting loose.
You didn’t care who you were with to do it.
Macy was a convenience for you when no one else was around. ”
“I didn’t think so,” he said. “We dated for seven months.”
“In the beginning not seriously,” his mother said. “You even admitted it. She called you more than you called her.”
Which was how most of his relationships went.
Yet he made the first move with Anya.
She didn’t return it the way he would have hoped though.
“That’s true. But she grew on me.”
“She grew on you because she wanted your last name. When you weren’t giving her what she wanted, she turned on you,” his mother said. “And that is when I took a closer look at her social media. She had a history of dating wealthy or older men. Or men with the potential to raise her status in life.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I knew that going in.”
Which was part of the reason he put little effort in also.
He wanted her to prove to him he was special and not just another notch for her to climb.
Yep, that was cocky on his part.
“And that is why you used each other,” his mother said. “I’d have no reason to look into Eve.”
“Because you asked Jolene Fierce to set Ben up,” he said, pointing his finger. “You trusted her vetting process.”
His father lifted his eyebrows at his mother. “Matt has you there.”
“It’s a good thing I have nothing to do with Fierce,” he said. “And with Phoebe, Ben already knew Elias. Again, no reason for you to do anything.”
They’d trust Ben’s opinion over the fact of Elias’s background.
Their family had never been snobby.
“Matt.” He turned his head to see Eileen standing there. “The Emersons are here. You weren’t answering your phone.”
“I’ll come up,” he said. “Can you bring everything into the conference room by my office for them to sign?”
“Sure,” Eileen said and moved away.
“We’ll finish this conversation later,” his mother said.
“Or not,” he said, laughing.
He’d gotten beaten down enough this morning.
“You were saved before you slipped,” Tim Kelly said.
“I wouldn’t have given it away,” Grace said. Her son wouldn’t have caught on either. He couldn’t see two feet in front of him even when you held his hand and led him to the fire.
How many times had she pointed out his flaws to him for him to be like “oh, yeah, you’re right”?
“Do you really think Anya is going to give him the time of day after the way he treated her as a kid?”
“They were kids,” she said. “And Jolene has her hand in this. She hasn’t failed once. She says Anya is nothing like we remembered. Matt needs someone to put him in his place.”
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Tim. Matt had the biggest crush on Anya when he was younger. We even joked about it. I remember talking to Amber about it once too. That it’d be so sweet if they ended up together.”
“You never told me that,” he said.
“Because it was nothing more than two mothers trying to pair their kids up.”
Her husband rolled his eyes.
“I agree Matt had a crush back then. He might even find her attractive now, but Anya has never been his type.”
She crossed her arms. “Why would you think that?”
“Because Matt always went for high maintenance women. Or those that were snobby. Anya isn’t any of those things.”
“Exactly,” she said.
“Which means that isn’t what he wants,” he argued.
“It’s exactly what he needs. All those women didn’t get Matt’s sense of humor.”
“And Anya didn’t appreciate it.”
“Oh, she appreciated it and enjoyed it, until he pushed it too far. They both wanted attention from the other but were too young to understand the right way to do it.”
“I guess we’ll see which one of us is right.”
“It’s going to be me,” Grace said.
Her husband laughed and stood up. “I know better than to argue with my wife.”