Maybe she was feeding off his lousy mood?
He needed to lighten the mood and handle this, handle her delicately. So even though his killer stir-fry was calling to him, he didn’t flinch, didn’t pick up his fork. He didn’t even breathe.
“Then tell me,” he finally said, his voice calm. He wasn’t letting her off the hook that easily. He wanted to know why she hadn’t told her parents.
“Tell you what?”
“About your parents. Your relationship with them. How are they going to take the news that you’re having a baby?”
She reached for her glass of water and took a sip. “Not well.”
“Why?”
“Because … because I was the wild child. The rebel, the … the screwup. I was the one that dicked around in university for years, took off traveling to go and ‘find myself.’ Something that people in Tanner Ridge, the Matthews family in particular, just don’t do. We’re workers. We live to work, not the other way around.”
She rolled her big blue eyes, clearly already fed up with the conversation topic.
Too fucking bad.
She went on, though it seemed painful to do so. “Compared to my brother, Vince, I’m a family embarrassment. He finished school with scholarships, both athletic and scholastic. Got accepted to numerous universities and then graduated law school with countless offers. He moved home and started working at my dad’s small practice. Picked right back up with his high school girlfriend, who’s a pharmacist, and the two are planning their wedding for next summer.”
She shot him a sarcastic look. “Let’s just say that if I called them up right now and told them I was knocked up from a one-night stand, they’d be disappointed but not necessarily shocked. Thisbehavioris almost expected from me now. Hell … ” She snorted. “They thought for sure I was going to get knocked up in high school.”
He couldn’t see it. No, she wasn’t as responsible as he was, but few were. But she certainly didn’t strike him as the town bicycle or a careless person. Was it all in her head or did he really not know a damn thing about the woman he was having a child with? “What did you do that was so horrible that made you the black sheep?”
She rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time. “For starters? I didn’t marry my high school boyfriend. Curt and I were together for three years, since we were fifteen.”
Oh, good. Not the town bicycle. He didn’t think she was.
Brock didn’t say anything but simply nodded, encouraging her to continue.
“Then I went away to university, and he stuck around Tanner Ridge. We tried to do long distance, but it didn’t work. So eventually we broke up. I had some boyfriends and partners in university, hooked up a bit while I was traveling.” She must have caught his eyebrow rise. “I wasn’t a slut, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’ve had fewer partners than you, don’t forget.”
Shit. Fuck. Damn. He needed to work on his blank face.
Brock raised his hands in the air in surrender. “Sorry. I never said or even thought you were aslut.Please, continue.”
She grunted, made a face, but then went on. “Anyway, after traveling I came back to Canada. Finished university but still felt lost. I moved home to Tanner Ridge for six months. That’s when I went to an RCMP information session. It lit a fire under my ass, and I finally discovered what I wanted to do. I spent those six months preparing for the police academy. Curt and I picked up again, and it was like no time had passed. He thought I’d apply for a posting in town or at least near Tanner Ridge, but I wanted to move. We broke up again. My parents were devastated that I moved. Devastated that Curt and I broke up. Devastated that I wasn’t going to be like every other girl in Tanner Ridge and marry my high school sweetheart, work for a few years before hopping on the baby train express.”
He shook his head and picked up his fork, finally feeling like the conversation wasn’t so intense that he couldn’t eat and talk at the same time. “That doesn’t sound like ascrewup. That just sounds like you didn’t followtheirplans.”
Her shoulders slumped, and she let out another big, tired sigh before cramming more food into her own mouth and tucking it into her cheek to speak. “You don’t know them. In their eyes, thatisme screwing up.”
“Have you actuallyheardthe words ‘screw up’from your parents or brother? Do they call you that?”
She looked down at her plate. “Well, no, but that doesn’t mean they don’t think it.”
“Uh-uh,” he tutted. “Sounds to me like you’re putting words in their mouth. Maybe you’re the one that thinks of you as a screwup; they just think of you as Krista, their wonderful daughter who graduated university and became a cop. And you’re just projecting your feelings of insecurity onto them. Because it’s easier to blame others. Because in my opinion, you’re not a screwup. You’re a free spirit who decided to do things her own way. But you’re still a college graduate, a well-traveled person, and now you’re an officer of the law. How onearthcould anyone consideryoua screwup?”
She gaped at him. “What the fuck, Dr. Phil?”
His lip twitched. He was happy that she seemed to have ditched a bit of the bitchy mood. Hormones were the devil. “My mother’s a therapist, don’t forget. That shit was bound to rub off on me at least a little bit.”
“Little bit,” she murmured.
“You need to tell them.”
“You need to back off.” Oh fuck, her hackles were back up. For some reason, the woman wanted to fight, needed to feel the heat and passion of an argument coursing through her veins. Even though Brock had been pissed off when she got home because she was late, he wasn’t looking for a fight.
