All Your Loving (Bachelors & Bridesmaids) by Barbara Freethy Page B

look. "Probably not what you wanted to hear."
    She shrugged. "I was pretty sure of your answer when I asked the question. So are you going to tell me where we're going?"
    "Palo Alto. I hope you don't mind if I take care of some of my own family business before we go to dinner."
    "What kind of family business?"
    "My youngest brother David goes to Stanford."
    "He's the one who's thinking of dropping out?"
    "Yes—dropping out of one of the best schools in the country that many people would kill to go to," Matt said with anger in his voice. "He's been avoiding my calls, but I happen to know where he'll be in about thirty minutes from now, so I'm going to ambush him."
    "Do you really want me around for that?" she asked doubtfully.
    "It won't take long. I'm sure David will try to blow me off after about five minutes, but I still have to try. I'd at least like him to finish out the year and not drop out now."
    "That makes sense. But it sounds like your brother wants something that college can't give him."
    "Yeah, he wants to be a rock star. I'm thinking maybe you can relate to that."
    "Oh," she said, now understanding why he wanted her along. "Because I wanted to be in an orchestra once, you think David will relate to me in some way."
    "It did occur to me," Matt admitted.
    "He won't. In fact, I'm sure he'll think I sold out my passion for money. Not that I make a lot of money in a non-profit, but it's still a steady job with an income. And he wouldn't be wrong, Matt. There's a part of me that did give up on music because I was too afraid to live that kind of gypsy existence. I wanted to feel like I could take care of myself. So I'm not the right person to convince him to go for a business degree."
    "Do you have regrets, Julie?"
    "Not really. I like what I do now, so I'm okay with it. But that's just me. If your brother has a burning desire to be a musician, I don't think you'll be able to stop him."
    "I'm fine with David playing music, but he has to have a day job, a way to support himself. I can't help him out forever. At some point, he has to be able to stand on his own feet, and I don't know that he can do that."
    "Neither of you will probably know if he can do it, until he has to actually do it. It's like when the mama bird pushes the baby bird out of the nest when she thinks it's ready to fly. That's the real moment of truth. And most birds fly."
    He smiled at her analogy. "Really? Do you actually know that?"
    "Well, I don't have concrete proof, but there was a bird's nest in the backyard of the house I grew up in, and I never saw a dead baby bird on the sidewalk. And at some point, they all flew away."
    "Well, I'm not David's mother, so I don't have the maternal instinct."
    "That's true," she murmured. "Where is your mom in all this? Why doesn't she talk to David?"
    "I haven't told her that he's thinking of dropping out."
    "Has David told her?"
    "I doubt it."
    "Why not?"
    Matt hesitated, then said, "I think my mom was so busy trying to keep things together that as kids we tried not to bother her with small problems. I used to tell everyone to come to me first. They got into that habit, and it stuck."
    In a lot of ways Matt had become the father of the family, she realized. That had been a lot of responsibility to take on as a kid. "I can understand why you did what you did back then, but now you're working a lot, and I get the feeling your mom is not? Or is she?"
    "She still works part time at a clothing boutique, but now it's because she likes it, not because she has to. I've made sure she'll be okay if she never wants to work again."
    "Then maybe it's time to let her share in some of these issues with your siblings."
    "I'm going to see if I can handle it," Matt said.
    Of course he was going to do that. He was not a man to ask for help.
    Silence fell between them as Matt maneuvered his way through a freeway interchange. Traffic was getting heavy with the evening commute, but Matt seemed to find open lanes whenever he