Chapter 29 Knows His Limits
KNOWS HIS LIMITS
“Thank you for doing this,” Anya said three weeks later.
“Thank my mother,” he said. “She’s the one making brunch.”
She closed one eye at him. “I meant the trip for the two of us. I’m not sure how you managed this last minute.”
He puffed his chest a little as he brushed his knuckles across his chest. “Mighty Matt at your service.”
She shoved him off the sidewalk they were walking on toward his parents’ house. Just like she had when they were kids and he tried to be funny.
“You’re so full of yourself.”
“You love it,” he said.
She loved him.
She hadn’t said it and it was eating her up like a beast clawing its way out of her chest.
She’d been so mad at him when they were at her parents’ house weeks ago and her mother and father wanted to talk about Shelly and their lawsuit.
Her heart rate was rising that day, her palms were sweating, her head was swimming and she’d wanted to go running to her room and lock herself in.
It was an irrational reaction from her fear that her father was going to have one of his episodes in front of her boyfriend. Matt would witness what she’d lived with growing up.
She didn’t need him to feel like crap again that he might have compounded more drama in her life. She’d thought they’d gotten past everything, but it seemed she was the one that hadn’t moved from her spot.
Her mother propelled her out of it.
She couldn’t fault the way things happened, looking back, and was thankful that Matt handled it the way he had.
He said to trust him and she did.
He pulled her back, he held her tight, and he said he had her.
If that wasn’t love, she didn’t know what the hell was!
“I might have a thing for a cocky man who knows his limits,” she said.
Matt turned from where he was opening the door and squinted one eye at her. “Had to get that last part in there, didn’t you?”
“Always,” she said, batting her eyelashes.
He leaned down and gave her a quick smooch. “You keep me on my toes.”
“My son needs that,” Grace said. They were walking to the back of the house.
“Hi,” Anya said. “Thanks for brunch today. I’ll be so stuffed by the looks of that and with Matt’s driving I’ll be sleeping for the whole trip.”
“What’s wrong with my driving?” he asked.
“Nothing. Just saying, with you driving, I’ll be sleeping.”
“I remember you always fell asleep in the car on trips with us,” Grace said.
“Are you going to sleep in the car?” he asked. His face was scrunched with a mixture of annoyance and moping.
“I doubt you’ll let me,” she said. “You’ll want to talk nonstop.”
“He always did,” Tim said. “He hasn’t outgrown it that I’ve seen.”
“You haven’t been on a long trip with me in years,” Matt argued, looking at his father.
“We went to Myrtle Beach last year golfing for a week,” Tim said. “This is about the same distance and you didn’t shut up once.”
“You’ve got a point,” he said. “Sorry, Anya. Guess you’ll need earplugs.”
“Don’t worry,” she said, running her hand on his arm. He looked embarrassed and she didn’t want that. “I can’t wait to see Charleston again. I haven’t been back since the year I went with you guys in high school.”
Both Phoebe and Matt had been allowed to bring one friend for the spring break with his parents.
She loved that the Kellys included her in so many day- and week-long trips back then. Her parents didn’t go on many vacations when she was a kid.
Not because of money but more her father wouldn’t step away from the business for more than a few days. And if she could ever bring a friend, she opted out because EJ was such a dick, and she didn’t want to put any friend through that.
Phoebe had witnessed it a few times when she’d come over and that was enough in Anya’s eyes.
“We aren’t in the same hotel,” Matt said. “I was lucky to get the one I did, but I thought it’d be fun to return.”
“Are you going to be nice to Anya this time?” Tim asked.
“Sit and eat,” Grace said. “I know you want to get on the road soon. I’m glad you were willing to stop over for a quick holiday brunch before you go.”
They pulled chairs out and Matt poured her orange juice from a pitcher, then they passed around plates of muffins, assorted fruits, a quiche, and waffles. She put some of everything on her plate.
“You didn’t answer your father,” Anya said, nudging his arm. “Are you going to be nicer to me on this trip than the last time we were there?”
“I don’t remember what I did that was so bad last time,” he said.
The frown on his face said it all.
“Seriously? You threw me in the pool fully dressed. My watch broke.”
“Oh shit,” he said. “That was there?”
“Yeah, Matt,” Grace said. “You had to buy Anya a new watch.”
She’d felt bad about that. She had told no one it died.
Phoebe saw it on the dresser and knew Anya was wearing it when she went into the pool.
Her best friend told her parents and the next day, Matt knocked on the adjoining room she and Phoebe had, with Matt and his friend on the other side, and he presented her with the new watch and apologized.
“I guess you played so many pranks on me you can’t remember what and where anymore,” she said.
“Yeah,” he said, putting his head down. “Sorry about that.”
She leaned over to kiss his arm. “You can’t go into the past and change everything you did. That would change who you are and I wouldn’t want that.”
“Thanks,” he said, attacking his food. She’d felt bad that some of his shine had been scuffed during this last-minute meal with his parents.
“Why did you pick Charleston?” she asked, going back to her food. She wanted to lighten the mood up some. Anya needed this break away more than she could explain.
She’d had another closing last week with the first-time homebuyers. There were a lot of nervous jitters, phone calls, and battling back and forth with lawyers to get a time set that almost ruined this mini vacation.
There had been a small setback on her parents’ building when the inspector found several minor items. She thought for sure Sally and Paula would either back out or renegotiate. But since not one item hit the threshold alone, Sally and Paula agreed to let it go.
“I remember you had a good time there before,” he said. “I figured I was a dick and it’s pretty bad that I didn’t remember the watch incident there. I thought I’d give you a better time. No pun intended.”
That was sweet of him.
Anya put her head on his shoulder. “It will be a great time. Don’t worry about it.”
He turned and pressed his lips to her forehead. She caught the look between his parents but went back to eating.
“Can I say it does my heart good to see you two getting along?” Grace said.
“Crazy, isn’t it? If you asked me this years ago, I’d say you were nuts to even consider it,” Anya said.
“Not me,” Matt said. “I always saw this.”
She closed one eye at him. “Seriously?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Call me cocky.”
“Oh, we know you are,” Tim said. “But come on, Matt. We all know how Anya felt about you back then.”
“I didn’t know,” he argued.
She patted his leg. “I don’t feel it now. Let’s move on from it, okay? I don’t want to always have this hanging over us.”
“Neither do I,” he said.
They finished their meal and left after his mother gave Anya a hug. “You’re good for him,” Grace whispered.
“I think he’s better for me,” she said.
“What did my mother say to you?” he asked when they were in the car.
“Nothing.”
“I don’t believe it,” he said.
She turned to look at his serious face. “Will you smile? It’s nothing major.”
“I’m used to them giving me a hard time,” he said, shrugging. “Normally I don’t mind, but I do with you. We don’t need any setbacks.”
Anya let out a gush of air, her shoulders dropping. “We can put them on ourselves enough. I know. But it’s not that. If you must know, your mother said I’m good for you.”
“Oh.” This time his grin was wider than a whale’s smile.
“There you go again, being cocky. I might as well add to it. I told your mother that I think you’re better for me.”
Matt reached his hand across the seats for hers, threaded their fingers together and held on.
“Would it scare you to know I love you?” he asked.
A road trip was the last place she thought this would come out. “If I was scared you’ve got me trapped on the highway,” she said, laughing.
“That’s not funny.”
“It is a little. But no, I’m not scared because I feel the same way.” She released his fingers. “Now both hands on the wheel.”
“I’m not letting you change the subject,” he said. “You do that too much.”
“I’m not changing it,” she argued. “I do love you. I’m not sure how we went from where we were to where we are now, but I’m thrilled it happened.”
“Me too,” he said. “I meant it though. I always saw us here.”
“I didn’t. When I was younger, I thought you were hot in the way a teenage girl lusts after her best friend’s older brother. But thoughts of this?” Her hand was moving back and forth between them. “It didn’t cross my mind because I didn’t know it existed.”
“I did,” he said. “I saw it with my parents. Your parents look happy together.”
“They are,” she said. “But it wasn’t a household like you’ve got. My father wasn’t someone to express his love freely. He worked a lot and in his mind a good father and husband was a provider. My mother was to be the soft sensitive one between them.”
“So the parts of your father that I see now, taking your mother to lunch, or planting her flowers, he wasn’t like that?”
“Not that I saw. Maybe it was behind closed doors. There wasn’t a lot of open affection there.
I’m not saying they didn’t love each other.
They did and they do. But their kids didn’t witness it.
Not like your parents always had. I see that difference.
You’re very free about hugging, kissing, touching me in front of them.
I wouldn’t have been like that in front of my parents before. ”
“You are now though,” he said. “Or was that fake in front of my parents?”
“Nothing in front of your parents is fake. I’m more open in your household than I’ve been anywhere else. And trust me, I’ve had a lot of reasons to be withdrawn, but there is something about your parents that allows me to be unhinged. Untethered with my emotions and feelings.”
Grace had always been so nice to her when she’d been in the house.
The first one to give Matt hell for overstepping and pulling him away.
The one who would take them to get their nails done and sit with them and talk about boys and crushes.
The mother who gave just enough space to let the girls feel as if they had freedom when deep down they really didn’t.
That was a balance that couldn’t be achieved in her household.
Maybe if it had been, things would have been different.
But as she’d said, the past was where that needed to live and she preferred to move into the future.
With Matt.