A Clandestine Corporate Affair(23)

Of course he would. She was supposed to be avoiding him, not manufacturing family activities that Max would be too young to remember anyway. She was only making this harder on herself.

“What was it you disliked so much about Christmas anyway?” she asked him.

“Let’s just say it was never what you would call a heartwarming family experience.”

“You know, in all the time I’ve known you, you never once talked about your mom and dad,” she said. “I take it there’s a reason for that. I mean, if they were awesome parents I probably would have heard about it, right?”

“Probably,” he agreed. Then nothing.

If she wanted to know more, obviously she would have to drag it out of him. “So, are they still together?”

“Divorced.” Nathan leaned forward to set his cup down on the coffee table. “Why the sudden interest in my parents?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess it would be nice to know about the family of the father of my baby. Especially if he’s going to be spending time with them.”

“He won’t be.”

“Why not?”

“My mother is an elitist snob and my father is an overbearing bully. I see her two or three times a year, and I haven’t talked to my father in almost a decade.”

Her father would never be parent of the year, but she couldn’t imagine him not being a part of her and Max’s life.

“Besides,” Nathan added, “they’re not ‘kid’ people. Jordan and I were raised by the nanny.”

“I think if my mom had lived, my parents would still be together,” she said. “I remember them being really happy together.”

Her father had loved her mother so much, in fact, that he never got over losing her.

“I don’t think mine were ever happy,” Nathan said.

“So why get married?”

“My mom was looking for a rich husband and my dad was old money. I was born seven months after the wedding.”

“You think she got pregnant on purpose.”

“According to my grandmother she did. As a kid you overhear things.”

She didn’t even know how to respond to that. What a horrible way for Nathan to have to grow up, knowing he was conceived as a marriage trap.

Ana would make it a point to assure Max that even though his parents didn’t stay together, he was wanted and loved dearly from the minute he was conceived. Which was exactly what Nathan’s mother should have done, whether it was true or not.

Then she had a thought, one that actually turned her stomach. “This is why you thought you wouldn’t be a good parent, isn’t it?”

“I haven’t had the best role models.”

He sure hadn’t. And why was she was just hearing about this now? Talk about being self-absorbed. Why hadn’t she asked about his family when they were dating? Why hadn’t she tried to get to know him better?

She thought she loved Nathan, but the truth was, she hardly knew anything about him. Had she been so self-centered, so busy having “fun” that she hadn’t even thought to ask? Or was she just too busy talking about herself?

No wonder Nathan had dumped her. If she were Nathan, she would have dumped her!

“I’m a terrible person,” she said.

He looked genuinely taken aback. “What are you talking about?”

“Why didn’t I ever ask you about your family before? Why didn’t I know any of this?”

He laughed. “Ana, it’s not a big deal. Honestly.”

“Yes, it is,” she said, swallowing back the lump that was filling her throat. “I feel awful. I remember talking about me all the time. You know practically everything about me. My life is a freaking open book! And here you had all this…baggage, and I was totally clueless. We could have talked about it.”

“Maybe I didn’t want to talk about it.”

“Well of course you didn’t. You’re a guy. It was my responsibility to drag it out of you by force. I never even asked. I didn’t even try to get to know you better. I was a lousy girlfriend.”

“You were not a lousy girlfriend.”

“Technically I wasn’t even your girlfriend.” She got up from the couch and grabbed their empty cocoa cups. “I was just some woman you had sex with who talked about herself constantly.”

She carried the cups to the kitchen and set them in the sink.