With Strings Attached Read Online Free PDF Page A

discomfort he felt at having interrupted something like that, and the worry he felt about this guy his mom was involved with. There were some crazy-ass creeps out there, and Corwin had better not be some loser taking advantage of a lonely, well-off widow.
    When Corwin walked into the kitchen, Matt’s worries only increased. Sure, he was polite and seemed nice, shaking hands with a firm handshake. He was dressed in a pair of expensive-looking jeans and a golf shirt. He was probably about Mom’s age, with some silver in his dark hair, a pair of reading glasses perched low on his nose, and he looked in good shape. But he was smooth…almost too smooth. Matt studied him as he kissed Mom’s cheek and poured himself a cup of coffee as if he was completely at home there.
    Hell. This was just…well, hell.
    It was true that Jenna and Neve had often said they wished their mom would find someone and remarry, but somehow Matt had never thought it would actually happen. It had been so long and she’d never even dated. Why now? What was going on with her? And somehow he’d thought if she ever did find someone, it would be someone they all knew and approved of.
    He finished his coffee and stood. “Well, if your toilet’s okay, I’ll get going. I was going to pop over to Jenna’s and see how she’s doing.”
    “Oh, that would be great,” Mom said. “I talked to her yesterday and she sounded like she was having a meltdown. Corwin and I are taking the kids to the beach later to give her a break.”
    But hey…that was his job. Matt frowned. He gave a short nod. “Good. That’s good. I’ll go see if she needs anything done around the house.”
    He drove across town to the much smaller home on the southern outskirts of town where his sister lived. With Tom in the Navy and her being a stay-at-home mom, money wasn’t plentiful and Matt tried to help out that way too, as much as he could. It wasn’t like he was rolling in dough himself, but the brew pub had been doing well the last few years. Jenna also didn’t let him help as much he wanted, but when it came to things for the kids, she was a little softer.
    Jenna was happy to see him, as were the rug rats. While they wrapped their arms around his legs, nearly knocking him over, his heart went kind of mushy in his chest. They were cute kids: Emma, five, already a bossy female, and Bryson, three, so full of energy and curiosity. They missed their dad so much, and Matt knew it was hard for Tom, too, to be away from them, so anything he could do to be there for them was not a problem for him.
    He played with the kids in their backyard for a while before he got to work and cleaned out a plugged downspout on one corner of the house, tightened some screws on the loose doorknob and nailed down a loose board on the back deck. Jenna didn’t ask him to, but he also pulled a whole bunch of weeds from along the back fence and trimmed a few dead branches from the palm tree in the corner of the yard.
    “So I met Corwin,” he told his sister. “Did you know about this?”
    She made a face. “I sort of knew last weekend that she was seeing someone, but she was pretty closemouthed about it. When I talked to her last night and she offered to take the kids to the beach, she told me he’d be coming too.”
    “D’you know anything about this guy?”
    “Not much. She said he’s a lawyer.”
    Matt snorted. “You know what I think of lawyers. Or should I say, liars.”
    She laughed. “Oh, come on. They can’t all be bad. Have some faith in Mom’s judgment. She wouldn’t go out with a jerk.”
    “You know she’s not all that…er…street smart,” he said. “She’s kind of innocent. She hasn’t dated anyone since she and Dad got married and that was what…thirty-five years ago?”
    “Yeah. And she was young then. She probably hasn’t dated any other guy in her whole life.”
    “Christ.” Matt rubbed the back of his neck. “Well. Let me know what you think of him when you meet