Chapter 13 #2
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 a screwup. That just sounds like you didn’t follow their plans.”
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, that is me screwing up.”
“Have you actually heard the 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 on earth could anyone consider you a 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.
He looked her calmly, squarely in the eye. “How would you feel?”
She sneered at him. “About what?”
“If this was our baby having a baby, and he or she didn’t tell you?”
Those damn rolling eyes. He was going to have to take her over his knee pretty soon. “You’re really grasping at some hypothetical straws. And I will tell them. Just not right now.”
“When?”
“When I’m good and fucking ready!” She pushed her plate away, growled at him, stood up from the table and left. Seconds later, a bedroom door slammed.
Brock really hoped it was their bedroom door.
She definitely needed time to cool off. Something, a bee, a hornet, a wasp, something was in her bonnet.
It would do nobody any good for Brock to follow her down the hallway and demand she continue their conversation from earlier.
He chalked the majority of it up to hormones and the rest up to her feeding off his bad mood. He really needed to work on that.
So instead, he finished his own dinner, wrapped hers up for later, did the dishes and then waited.
It was nine o’clock and he was watching the news in the living room when he finally heard the bedroom door creak open.
Good. She’d locked herself in their room. At least there was that.
Quiet as a mouse, she padded her fuzzy slippered feet down the hallway. He glanced up to find a pillow-creased, tear-stained face with wild red hair frizzed out as if she’d stuck a fork in an outlet. She looked sad and beautiful and so damn tired.
He turned off the television and popped the footrest back into his recliner, inviting her to move into his lap.
With no hesitation, she perched her strong, petite frame on his thighs. Fuck, she smelled good.
“You okay?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Care to tell me what that was about?”
She lifted her gaze from where she’d been studying her intertwined fingers. “Shit at work.”
His back stiffened.
Slade.
She ignored him. “And then I come home and you’re all grumpy. I plastered on a happy face even though I wasn’t happy, and then you get all Mussolini on me about telling my parents.” She wrinkled her nose and glared at him. “Not cool.”
“What happened at work? Was it Slade? What did he do?”
She rolled her eyes again. Now he really was going to have to take her over his knee.
A sigh escaped her. “Nothing … to me. But I ran into Wendy and Marlise, and we’re all going to go for coffee tomorrow.
I asked them about their one-night stands with Myles, thinking I could get some information for our case, and they got all weird, said they didn’t want to talk about it at work.
I know something’s up. Something happened when they slept with him. ”
Damn it. He’d told her to leave the digging to him and his brothers. He unclenched his jaw and rubbed her back. Now was not the time to get all tyrannical on her.
“You think it was rape?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I mean, we both saw him put that pill in Ingrid’s drink at the Christmas party, which means he’s obviously not above drugging a woman to get laid.”
The man shouldn’t be above anything. He should be fucking six feet under.
“You’re going to meet them in a well-lit, heavily occupied public place, right?”
There was that fucking eye roll again. “Yes.”
“Good.” He ran his hand up and down her back, squeezing the nape of her neck until he felt the tension begin to dissolve. “Now, about your parents … ”
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 as disappointed with 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.
” He continued 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.