Another sigh.
“Just hear me out.”
Her petulant look was just screaming to be dealt with. “I get how you feel. But this is their grandchild, and they have a right to know. If they’re asdisappointedwith you as you say they will be, I will fly to Tanner Ridge myself and deal with them. But I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with their response.” Hecontinued to knead the back of her neck.
She glared at him. “You were in a dickish mood when I got home. What was so terrible about your day that made you grumpy? Did someone switch your beer for piss?”
His lip twitched, and he wrapped her soft, rebellious hair around his hand, pulling until her neck tilted and she looked into his eyes. Her gaze softened, and that glimmer of defiance that he was coming to love so much returned. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I was worried about you. About the baby. I don’t like you driving in the snow. Or going to work when I know Slade is going to be there.”
Those big blue eyes batted thick lashes at him. And a slow, knowing smile flitted across her lips when she felt his cock jerk in his jeans. “Get over it, man.”
A low growl rumbled deep in his chest. “Do you have any idea how many times you’ve rolled your eyes at me today?”
Her lids sank to half-mast, and her nostrils flared. “At least three spanks’ worth?”
“Try six.” And his mouth crashed down on hers.
Chapter 14
The following day, Krista pulled into the parking lot of the swanky little café that overlooked the breakwater at Ogden Point. The lighthouse at the end of the long, manmade L-shaped jetty shone bright and white against a dreary gray sky while people and their dogs or companions braved the nasty wind and walked the path. Harsh gusts threatened to shove them into the frigid green water if they weren’t careful. The Juan de Fuca Strait sat in front of her with raging whitecaps on dark waves, and snow-capped mountains stood tall and authoritative in the backdrop on the Olympic Peninsula.
Knowing that she had fifteen minutes to kill before the girls were set to arrive—reluctantly, but knowing that cocky, disgustingly responsible roommate of hers was right—Krista pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed.
“Hello?” her mother answered after the third ring.
“Hi, Mum.”
“Krista? Is everything okay, dear?” Apparently calling twice in the span of a week was cause for concern.
She swallowed. “Uh … everything is just fine, Mum, how are you?”
“Getting ready to tear the tree down.”
“I thought you didn’t do that until New Year’s Day?”
“Well, as neither you nor your brother live at home, and your dad and I are busy with work, I figured I might as well make the most of my day off.”
Krista hummed a response and let her gaze focus on a seagull caught up in a wild gust of wind. “Um, Mum?”
“What is it, dear?” She could see it now: Her mother had dropped whatever it was she was doing and wandered over to her chair in the living room, with her basket of knitting on one side and her stack of Danielle Steele novels on the other, with half a cup of long-turned-cold coffee perched on the coaster Krista had made her in the third grade sitting on the end table. It was her television watching chair, reading chair, knitting chair. But most of all, it’s where Elaine Matthews went to think. The woman was anything if not predictable and set in her ways.
“I, um … I’m pregnant.” Good job, hardly hesitated at all.
Silence.
“Mum? You there?”
“Y-yes … I’m here.”
“Did you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“And?” Well, now her mother was just being downright frightening. Krista hoped to God her dad was home, or at the very least a neighbor was within screaming distance, in case her mother went into cardiac arrest and needed medical attention.
“D-do you know who the father is?”
Riiiight—because she didn’t marry Curt, she was a giant hussy, spreading her legs for any man willing.
