Maternally Yours. Kathie DeNosky

supposed to take it easy, and I’m going to make sure you do,” he said sternly. “Besides, you’re my guest. So sit down.”

      She glared at him as if she intended to argue further, then finally relented and seated herself at the table. “Brett, I…”

      To his horror her eyes filled with tears and her perfect lips trembled. His gut twisted into a tight knot. He hadn’t thought her feelings would be hurt over something as trivial as his insistence that she relax, while he finished cooking breakfast.

      “Elena, honey, I’m sorry,” he said, kneeling in front of her. He took her hands in his. “Please don’t cry.”

      “I hate this,” she said, pulling away. She covered her face and cried harder.

      He felt like a world-class jerk as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him. “I don’t blame you for hating me, honey. I was out of line. I shouldn’t have spoken so harshly.”

      She shook her head and sobbed into his shoulder. “It’s not you. It’s me.”

      “You?”

      She nodded and Brett had no idea what she meant. But at the moment he didn’t care. Her small body pressed to his, the feel of her arms wrapped around him and her warm breath teasing the sensitive skin of his neck were wreaking havoc with his good intentions.

      “It’s…hormonal,” she sobbed. “I can’t…control it.”

      So that was it. Her uncontrollable crying was due to her pregnancy.

      Thinking back several years, Brett remembered his twin brother, Drew, mentioning that his wife had experienced all kinds of emotions while she was pregnant with their daughter, Amanda. In fact, he and Drew had jokingly referred to Talia’s sudden mood swings as the Nine-Month Nutsies.

      Of course, they hadn’t dared mention that to Talia or any other woman. They’d had better sense than that.

      “Feeling better?” he asked when Elena’s sobs tapered off and her shoulders stopped shaking.

      She nodded and pushed away from his embrace. “I’m so embarrassed,” she said, her voice nothing more than a whisper as she stared down at her clasped hands.

      He retrieved a handful of tissues from the box on the counter, then gently touched her damp cheek to wipe away her tears. “Don’t be embarrassed. It goes along with being pregnant.”

      Elena looked up at him with one perfect brow raised questioningly. “You’ve had experience with pregnant women before?”

      “No, but my twin brother’s late wife had a lot of trouble with her emotions when she was pregnant,” Brett explained. “That was back when Drew and I still confided in each other.”

      The look on his handsome face, the sadness in his deep baritone made Elena wonder what had happened. “You’re no longer close?”

      “Not as close as we were.” He shrugged, but she could tell it still bothered him. “After Talia died, Drew pretty much shut himself off emotionally from the rest of the family.”

      “Why did he do that?” she asked, unable to understand why anyone would distance themselves from their family at the very time they needed them most. If she’d ever had a family, she knew for certain she would have turned to them innumerable times for their love and support. It would have made coping with her two miscarriages and the breakup of her marriage so much easier.

      Brett stood and walked over to the stove. He broke a couple of eggs into the skillet before he spoke again. “I think Drew pulled back from the family emotionally because he blames himself for Talia’s death. She died of a drug overdose when their daughter was little.” Brett turned to face her. “The rest of the family knew there was something wrong with her, that she was taking way too much prescription medication, and we tried to tell him. But Drew was in denial about her problems. When he finally found the evidence and faced facts that his society bride was addicted to drugs, it was too late. He came home from work one day to find her dead.”

      “I remember reading about that. That must have been awful for him.”

      He nodded. “And the media just added to it. Since she was a Van Dorn, married to a Connelly, the newspapers were like sharks in a feeding frenzy. Every publication from here to Milwaukee carried the story, and most of the television and radio stations gave it more than average attention.”

      Having dealt with reporters at crime scenes, she was well aware of the tactics used by some reporters to slant the facts or to create a story where none existed. But when two of Chicago’s most prominent families were touched by the same scandal, it was noteworthy. Factor in Brett’s mother, Emma, being the former princess of Altaria and it would naturally become front-page news.

      “There are times I’ve despised dealing with the media,” Elena said sympathetically. “More than once they’ve complicated and, at times, even jeopardized investigations.”