Page 105 of Fierce- Royce
He ground his teeth. “I know for a fact Elise would have told you exactly what was going on and you are twisting the words to be what you want. His pacemaker failed. He was smart enough to know something wasn’t right and his chest pains were panic more than anything. He’s fine and recovering.”
“Your father never panicked over anything in life unless it had to do with the business.”
He wasn’t going to listen to this again. He was fed up with it and he was pretty sure Elise was too.
“You remember things the way you want to remember them,” he said. “I’m not sure why you can’t let go. You got what you wanted out of life.”
“I’m just looking out for my children. Don’t make the same mistakes that your father did,” his mother snapped.
“There is no reason to look out for me,” he said. He decided he might as well tell her about Chloe. She’d have to find out anyway. “I can take care of myself. I’ve got a girlfriend and child coming and I’m happy in my life. She loves me and accepts me for who I am.”
“What?” his mother asked. “Why am I just hearing about this now?”
“Because you never call me unless it’s to bitch,” he said. “I don’t need that in my life now any more than I did when I was a kid. I’m fully capable of making my own decisions.”
“Are you even going to give me any details about this woman? You said you’ve got a child coming? You never said anything about this at Christmas.”
“Her name is Chloe. I met her years ago through work. She’s an engineer. She’s due with our child in November.”
“You’ve been dating someone for years and never said a word to me?” his mother asked.
“There you go again hearing what you want and not listening. I said I’d known her for years. Things were starting to change with us in December.”
There, that didn’t sound so bad. It was when he realized what was going on. Or when Chloe filled him in on what was going on.
“So you got her pregnant and now she is stuck with you. Or she wants to be with you because of the company?”
“This is exactly why no one tells you anything, Mom,” he said. “You’ve got it all wrong, but I’m not going to waste my time explaining it because you’re going to believe what you want anyway.”
He hung up the phone. He didn’t have the patience for this.
“That sounded pleasant.”
He turned and saw Chloe standing there. She’d been upstairs measuring the room they were going to use as the nursery. He told her to let him know what she had in mind and he could start to put things together. Paint and so on when the time came.
He’d like to build some shelves in there and make it special for his child.
“My mother,” he said. “You know we don’t have the best relationship. I guess she has been calling Elise who has been ignoring her and then Elise must have just lit into her and said she was busy with Dad. I have no idea; I’m only guessing. As always, my mother hears what she wants and then criticizes on top of it.”
He told her the rest of the conversation and then saw her face get red.
“I’m not with you for money,” she said. “I hope you don’t think that.”
“I don’t,” he said. “You’ve got a good job. Besides, if you were that type of person the Fierces wouldn’t have picked you out for me.”
She crossed her arms. “Not funny.”
Guess he wasn’t so good at cracking jokes and this could turn into another one of their disagreements. “You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t. I’m not your mother. I never will be.”
“I know that. She just rubs me the wrong way all the time.”
“That’s fine. I get it. But don’t transfer that to me. I’m not going to give you crap for coming home late. I’m not going to make comments about if you’re dirty or sweaty or stink or anything like that.”
“I don’t think that.”
“I think you do,” she said.