“Greg didn’t go to college, actually. He kept finding excuses not to go. Or to get work. He drifted between a lot of jobs, trying to figure out who he was—”

“While you supported him, right?”

Ugh. He saw right through her. “Yeah. I figured I was making money and was happy with what I was doing, and he was still trying to figure himself out. I thought it couldn’t hurt, and at some point when he decided what he wanted to be, it wouldn’t matter.” She raised a hand in the air. “Don’t tell me how dumb I was, because I already know.”

“I didn’t say that.”

His voice was surprisingly gentle, and that just made her ache a bit more for the young, headstrong, desperate girl she’d been. “My father and mother were a weird couple, you know? He married her because he got her pregnant and it was the right thing to do, but I don’t think he ever loved her. She loved him desperately and did everything she could to get his attention, and it was never enough.” Becca thought of them, shaking her head. “They’re still married, and my father still acts like my mother is a burden to him. Like she’s holding him back from being whoever or whatever he wanted to be. They’re not happy, either of them, but I guess the Vancouver seaside helps.” She smiled awkwardly.

Hank said nothing, just watched her.

“Anyhow, after a few more years of dating, I got really upset with Greg. I wanted kids. I wanted a big family. And he was still figuring out who he was, drifting from job to job. I told him I wanted to get married, and he said he wasn’t ready. So I threw him out. Told him if he wasn’t ready to get married, I wasn’t ready to support him for the rest of my life.”

He gave her an approving nod, flipping another pancake.

“That lasted about a week. Greg came back, apologized very sweetly and brought me flowers, and told me he was ready to get engaged and we could go pick out a ring.”

“That you paid for?”

Becca sighed. “That I paid for, yeah.”

He made a noise that wasn’t approval but indicated he was listening.

She went on. “So we were engaged, but every time I tried to set a date, he wasn’t ready. It was a bad time, he was trying to get his real estate license, all kinds of things. That went on for a few years, and I kicked him out again. He came back within a day and we set a date. And then as the date got closer and closer, he started acting weird.”

“Weird?”