“Yes, blinded. All you could think about was how wonderful it was that you found her. That you finally had the sister you always wanted. I understood that . . . I was even happy for you . . . but you weren’t exactly thinking straight. I was just trying to stay rational.”
“Because I’m so emotionally driven, I’m incapable of logic? Nice to know you have so much faith in me. Just because I’m not a lawyer anymore doesn’t mean I can’t think like one, Kyle. You really believe that if there had been any real sign that Brooke was dangerous, I’d ignore it and let her near our children?”
“Of course not! But what if you couldn’t see the signs? What if she was good at hiding them? What if there were things in her past she wasn’t being honest about? You just took her at her word!” He dropped into one of the kitchen chairs, put his elbows on the table, and tented his fingers on both hands against his forehead. His brown hair was shaggy, growing over the tops of his ears and an inch past his shirt collar. He needs a haircut, Natalie thought, and for some reason, noticing this took a slight edge off the anger she felt. They took care of each other. Maybe in running the background check, he had been trying to take care of her and just went about it the wrong way.
“I’m sorry,” Kyle said. He dropped his hands to the table, pressing them flat against the wood, staring at her with tenderness. “Okay? There wasn’t anything in the report of concern, so I decided you didn’t need to know what I’d done. I’m sorry that I hid what I was doing, but as with everything else in this situation, I meant well. I had your best interests in mind. Our family’s best interests. What if it had come back and said that she was a criminal? A con artist or convicted child molester? Would you be okay with the fact that I ran the report without telling you then?”
The question threw Natalie off, softening her anger even more, because Kyle was right. If the report had shown that Brooke was a danger to their family, Natalie knew it wouldn’t matter how that information had come to their attention. The only thing that would matter was that Kyle meant to keep them safe.
“Is that why you were late the night we had dinner?” she said, instead of answering his questions. “When you specifically promised me you wouldn’t be? Were you waiting for the results?”
Kyle shook his head. “I told you, I got called into a meeting with the DA. You know how it goes. I couldn’t leave. I’m sorry, but I swear I didn’t do it on purpose. I knew how important the dinner was. Do you really think I chose to be late when I knew how much it would piss you off?”
Natalie hesitated. “No,” she admitted. She couldn’t think of a time that Kyle had purposely done something he knew would hurt her. That’s why it had bothered her so much when she thought he had.
“I’m sorry for how I talked with Brooke,” he said. “I honestly didn’t realize how I was coming across. She just seemed so guarded, which you know, in my job, usually means someone’s hiding something. My defense lawyer senses were tingling.”
“She seemed guarded because she was nervous. I told you she doesn’t open up easily. And now that I know she’s pregnant, it makes even more sense. She’s scared, and until now, she’s been totally on her own. She needs support, and I’m going to give it to her. I even went to a doctor’s appointment with her this afternoon.”
“How’d that go?”
“Fine,” she said. “But you remember how scared I was when I got pregnant with Hailey. Just imagine her feeling all of that and not having anyone to talk to. No support. Trying to cope with the idea of having to raise a child completely on her own.”
“Yeah, you went a little bit nuts for a while there,” he said, clearly teasing. She looked at him from under raised brows, wishing he would stop trying to make light of the situation. He held up his hands in an I-surrender gesture. “I hear what you’re saying, Nat. Okay? I promise, I’ll do better.”
“Can I see it?” Natalie asked. “Do you have it here?” The anger she felt had deflated just as quickly as it had inflamed earlier, sitting on her mother’s couch. She tried to focus on her husband’s motivation instead of the fact that he’d kept what he was doing from her.
“The report?” Kyle asked, and she nodded. He got up from the table and walked into the living room, returning with a thin folder, which he handed to her. “It came back a couple of days after she came for dinner.”
“Thank you,” Natalie said quietly. She felt his eyes on her as she sat on one of the stools next to the island and pulled out the few pages in the folder, scanning them. While the background check showed that Brooke had worked for more than ten different employers and lived at eight different addresses since she turned eighteen, she had no criminal record, nor any civil judgments against her. She’d had four tickets for speeding, all of which she contested and had reduced, but paid on time. She’d never been married or filed for bankruptcy. Her record was clean.
“I understand why you did this,” Natalie said slowly, as she set the papers down in front of her on the counter.