Two Man Advantage Read online

  “Mom, what are you doing here?”

  “You needed me,” she said, patting his arm as she walked in. “I’m livid with your father, so I took a shot of vodka and got on the train that came into the city because I’m not driving in this awful town.”

  Matty smiled as he shut the door behind her. “You took a shot?”

  She shrugged. “That’s what Seth said to do. He even told me to bring the bottle with me, but I wouldn’t dare. I don’t want people knowing I drink.”

  Matty smiled as she took his hand, leading him to the couch. Patting the back of his hand, she smiled up at him. “Seth wanted to come too, but he’s in some meeting or something, I don’t know. Plus, you’ll see him this weekend when Avery and Ashlyn are here.”

  Matty looked away. “I didn’t think I’d be invited.”

  She waved him off. “Of course you are. You’re a member of this family, no matter what. It was always your choice not to come to dinner when we’d meet up with Avery.”

  “I wasn’t invited then.”

  She held up a finger. “That isn’t true. You were, you just chose not to come.”

  “I didn’t feel welcome.”

  “Because you didn’t allow yourself to be.”

  Matty cleared his throat nervously. Maybe she was right, but it was pointless now. “Dad won’t let me in the house.”

  “Yes, he will,” she said with more confidence than he had ever seen her display. He wasn’t saying she was weak, but she sure wasn’t vocal when it came to going up against his father. She was the family caregiver, not his partner. At least, that’s how Matty always saw it. “You are our baby, no matter what.”

  As he held his mother’s gaze, his eyes started to cloud with tears. “It was awful.” Wrapping her arms around him, she kissed his cheek as he cried into her shoulder. “He said no one would support me or love me. Avery and Seth already said that was shit, but I was so worried you would feel that way.”

  She scoffed as she pulled back, cupping his face in her hands. “Oh, my sweet boy, don’t you know that I’ve known you were gay since you were in middle school? So this is no shock to me.”

  Matty’s mouth dropped open. “What? How?”

  “Oh, honey, a mother just knows. Unlike your brothers, you never seemed interested in girls. But I saw the way you looked at Caleb when he’d come over for Avery. I knew, and it killed me that you wouldn’t admit to it. I figured you’d come out in your own time, but no matter what, I was going to love you. You’re my baby boy.”

  Swallowing hard, he looked away as the tears spilled over. “Why can’t everyone be like you? Laurence was a jerk, and so was Dad.”

  “Well, they’re the same person. They see homosexuality as a weakness. Avery, Seth, and I don’t see it that way. It’s who you are, and honey, we just want you to be happy.”

  “I want that too,” he admitted, looking up at her. “Why can’t I just be happy?”

  She smiled. “Because you got stuck with the worst qualities of both your father and me.” She paused, lacing their fingers together as she tapped the back of his hand. “Your father has to be in charge of every aspect of everything that he gets his hands on. He knows how something should be, and that’s final. Then you have my tendency toward overthinking and my habit of caring way too much about what people think.”

  He nodded his head ruefully. “That’s all me.”

  “Yes, but, Matthew, you also have such passion in you, and such kindness when you allow it to be seen. You have this drive, this ability to beat the odds. And boy, do you fight. You have a powerful confidence when you need it, but there are times when you don’t use it. And that’s not good, honey. You need that. You need to be you. Because you’re good. Yes, you’ve done some not so good things, but you’ve also done some great things. That’s why the people who love you, love you with everything inside of them. That’s why it was so hard for Avery when you were so awful to her. Because she loved you, and you couldn’t accept who you were, so you lashed out against everyone.”

  “If you knew, why didn’t you stop me?”

  “Because I didn’t know how bad it really was, and I believed you’d figure it out. I had to let you fall because when you did, you learned how to get back up.”

  Her words wrapped around him like a warm blanket in a snowstorm. Everything she had said had already been expressed by Wells. Wells constantly told Matty how amazing he was, how he loved both the good and the bad, but Matty couldn’t see that when he was freaking out about his dad. He should have been more self-assured.

  “All of you, Seth, Laurence, Avery, and you, are so resilient. I wasn’t the best mom, I tried so hard to be your father’s partner that I forgot I had four kids who needed me. But you four had it. You figured out life all on your own, and now I have four beautiful and successful kids who are self-made. I’m proud of that. But letting your father, someone who was never really there for you, knock you back down… I can’t let that happen. So I came, despite my fear of traveling, to remind you that you have the strength to get back up. That you can do anything you put your mind to.”

  Matty blinked a few times before he blew a breath out of his nose. “Did Dad tell you about him? Wells?”

  “Nothing productive, or even true, I’m sure. We aren’t speaking currently. I’m very upset with the way you and Wells were treated. I’m upset with Laurence too.”

  Matty nodded. “He’s perfect, Mom, Wells is.”

  She smiled, leaning in as her blue eyes sparkled. “Is he handsome?”

  “Beautiful,” Matty gushed, his heart beating so hard. “I love him. I love him so much it hurts.”

  “Oh, that’s wonderful. I want that for you. For all of you. Avery found that early with Jace, and it pleases me to no end now that you have found it too.”

  He looked away, guilt flushing through him. “I’m scared of what people will think when it comes out.”

  “Matty, come on, does it really matter? At the end of the day, who are you really worried about? Them or Wells?”

  The answer was easy. “Wells.”

  “Then why are you even entertaining what other people could think?” She smiled, patting the back of his hand. “You’ll learn with age that no one matters more than the person who knows everything about you and still loves you.”

  “He does,” Matty answered after a moment. “He loves the good and the bad.”

  “Then why in the world are you worried?”

  That was a great question.

  He just wished she had been the one to find them instead of his father.

  Because Matty might have fucked everything up.

  But maybe, just maybe, he could fix it.

  Twenty-Six

  The Haverbrooke home was just as big as Wells remembered it.

  And though his hatred for the home was great, he still couldn’t help but admire the beauty of it. He knew it wasn’t a love-filled home like his and Wren’s parents’ home, but he appreciated that it had molded Matty into the man he was. Wells was curious on the inside. Would it be cold and sterile, or would there be little bright spots? He wasn’t sure, but he desperately wanted to know.

  Which surprised him a bit.

  Pulling his gaze from the home, he looked back down at his phone where he was playing a game. He had already been waiting a couple of hours for Matty’s parents to return. According to the butler, Mr. Haverbrooke went out to get Mrs. Haverbrooke, and they would be home soon. Soon wasn’t fast enough, though, not that he was leaving until he spoke with them.

  And boy, was he nervous.

  That wasn’t something he felt often. He was a pretty confident guy, but he was taking his father’s advice, and he wasn’t sure how that would be received. He wanted to show that he was a stand-up guy and that he loved Matty greatly. But as this was the man who had called him a faggot at least three times in a span of ten minutes, it was easy to say he was a bit unsettled. Sucking on his lip, he tried to pop a bubble that held pandas, but just a