Sighing, Rebecca reached over and pushed a strand of Melanie’s blonde hair out of her face. “That bad?”
Shrugging, she said, “It’s fine.”
“You could move in with us,” Rebecca offered, and as much as she would love to say yes, she couldn’t do that to her best friend.
She’d married the man of her dreams, had a restaurant to renovate, was going to school, and Melanie wasn’t going to mess that up for her. After all the years of bullshit that Rebecca had endured, she deserved a little happiness and Melanie was going to do her best to make sure that she got it, which meant slapping a smile on her face and saying, “It’s fine, really. I’m just tired.”
For a moment, her best friend didn’t say anything, but then she nodded with a sigh and said, “This is probably the most boring conversation that we’ve ever had.”
“Without a doubt,” Melanie readily agreed.
Friday, Saturday, and so forth…
Too depressing to mention.
Chapter 10
One Month Later…
“I. Will. Kill. You,” the angry pregnant woman that had four minutes left growled from the bathroom while he stood there, shaking his head because this just wasn’t going to work for him.
“You have three minutes,” Aidan said, deciding to use the fourth minute as a buffer to ensure that he had her safely back in bed before he had to leave for work.
“Oh, my god! Are you standing outside the bathroom again?” Melanie demanded, not really sounding all that happy to have him there. “We talked about this!”
“You might need help,” he pointed out when it really should have been more than obvious that he was here to make sure that everything went smoothly.
“Go away!”
“I can’t do that,” Aidan reminded her as he glanced down at the daily schedule that he’d created with Lucifer’s help after the two of them had broken out a couple of ice packs and Advil to make sure that he didn’t fuck this up again after the large bastard had congratulated him on the baby by beating the shit out of him.
“I’m not a patient!” Melanie snapped, again.
“I know that,” he said, staring down at the schedule that they’d come up with and wondering why she was having such a hard time getting on board with his schedule. After three weeks, she should have this thing down, but unfortunately for him and his schedule, the stubborn woman fought him every inch of the way.
“No, you don’t!” she snapped, and since she was clearly still upset that he hadn’t given in to her demands for donuts this morning, he ignored her and focused on everything that he needed to do today.
“Aidan?”
“Yeah,” he said, thankful for the distraction.
“Are you planning on treating me like a patient for the next two months?” she asked, clearly not ready to drop this.
“I’m not treating you like a patient,” he said, even though he had a bad feeling that he was doing exactly that and for one very good reason.
He didn’t know how to act around her.
“What would you call it?”
“Taking care of you,” Aidan said, not pointing out that treating her like a patient was the only thing that helped because he honestly had no idea what he should say to her.
He couldn’t really treat her like an ex, because they’d only had a one-night stand. He also couldn’t call her a friend, because even after a month he barely knew anything about her. The only things that he knew about her was that she was stubborn, had an appetite that put his to shame, had an addiction to carbs that actually frightened him, and was just as uncomfortable around him as he was around her.
Whenever they were in the same room, it was…awkward.
Working on her apartment helped. Now after he took care of her and made sure that she was eating enough and staying hydrated, he could go work on her apartment and spend the rest of the night trying to figure out how he was going to raise a child with a woman that he had absolutely no idea how to talk to.
“I can take care of myself,” Melanie pointed out from the bathroom when she was supposed to be waddling back to bed.
“And you’re two minutes over the schedule,” Aidan pointed out, scrolling through his schedule and noting that he was scheduled to work a shift in the emergency room tonight.
Shit!
“Is there any chance that Rebecca can come over to help you with dinner? Or maybe your mom?” he asked, kind of hoping to avoid her mother since the woman liked to pretend that he didn’t exist. Not that he didn’t deserve it, but still…
“Yeah, I’m sure one of them can stop by,” Melanie said after a slight hesitation, making him wonder if he should ask his father to cover for him so that he could take care of her, but since his father was already picking up his slack at work so that Aidan could check on her during the day, he didn’t want to push his luck.
“Good,” Aidan said, sighing as he checked the schedule for the rest of the week and amended his previous question. “Is there any chance that one of them could come help you with dinner for the rest of the week?”
“I’m sure it will be fine,” the woman that was now making them run five minutes behind schedule said as she opened the door and proceeded to waddle towards the bed, leaving him to follow after her and nodding like an idiot, because he had absolutely no idea what else he should say to her.
*-*-*-*
Perhaps she should have called Rebecca like she’d promised? Melanie thought with a groan as she slowly, because there was no other way that she could do it, sat back against the bathroom wall and closed her eyes as she struggled to catch her breath. She definitely should have called her mother since her mother would have refused to leave until Aidan came home just so that she could get the chance to ignore him again.
At the very least, she should have brought her cellphone with her. Out of habit, she’d left her cellphone on the nightstand, which was only ten feet away, but it might as well be a hundred miles away right now. Resigning herself to sitting there until Aidan came back, and she really hoped that he was coming back soon, Melanie shifted to get more comfortable.
She was sick to her stomach, exhausted and ready to call it a day, curl up, and go to sleep. But, she couldn’t do anything more than sit here, waiting for the nausea to stop so that she could get her butt back into the rather comfortable bed that she was stuck in until her own bed was moved into her new apartment, the same apartment that she really wasn’t sure that she was going to be able to afford.
Right now, it was a dump, but once it was cleaned up, there was no way in hell that she was going to be able to afford a first floor, two-bedroom apartment, within walking distance of downtown. At least not without working, and that was out of the question right now. She’d tried to get some work done today, but since sitting up was no longer an option working on her computer hadn’t worked out so well for her.
The only thing that she was able to do now was to lay on her side, curled up, staring at the television as she counted down the days until the big day and hope that her baby boy didn’t keep her waiting. Laying around waiting for the big day to come and hoping that she didn’t go broke before then kept her up most nights, her sore back and legs kept her up the rest of the time.
It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if she was still able to take her nightly bath, but she’d gotten to the point that she couldn’t get in and out of the tub without help and she wasn’t comfortable asking Aidan for help, which was stupid. Besides the fact that he’d clearly already seen her naked, he was also a doctor, but she just felt weird asking him for help. He was already doing so much for her and she hated asking for more.
A few minutes after Aidan left this morning with a murmured, “I’ll see you tonight,” she’d found herself nibbling on one of the celery sticks that Aidan kept in the fridge on the off-chance that she accidentally wanted one, hoping that it would be enough to take the edge off her hunger. Instead of bringing her relief, it had filled her with the sudden need
to become better acquainted with Aidan’s bathroom. She shouldn’t have touched the celery and if she lived through this, she never would again.
In fact, if she survived this pregnancy she’d be willing to give up vegetables, more than willing, Melanie thought with a pathetic whimper as her stomach gave another violent growl and she wasn’t sure if it was demanding food or trying to make sure that she never touched another vegetable for as long as she lived.
Definitely never touching another vegetable, Melanie decided, leaning heavily against the bathtub, wishing that she were somewhere other than in the bathroom, surrounded by a month’s worth of Aidan’s dirty clothes. She really wished that-
“Oh, my god!” came the startled voice, pulling her attention to the older woman standing in the doorway, holding an empty laundry basket and looking genuinely surprised to see her.
Closing her eyes, Melanie sighed with relief, hoping that whoever this woman was that she would put that empty laundry basket to good use and free her from the terrifying mess surrounding her so that she wouldn’t be forced to pass out near a pile of Aidan’s dirty socks.
Chapter 11
“Hold still,” Aidan said, chuckling when his sister Kenzie stuck her tongue out at him, but at least she’d stopped squirming so that he could examine her arm.
“I am holding still,” Kenzie said absently as she glanced down at her phone, looking completely bored while he sat there, trying to decide if she was going to need stitches. God, he really hoped that she didn’t need stitches because he wasn’t sure that he’d be able to handle that today.
“How’d this happen?” he asked, pressing a clean gauze pad against the gash running down her arm.
“She fell through a rotted floor,” Trevor, the bastard lounging in his desk chair, said, making everything in him go still.
“You fell through a floor?” Aidan asked, shifting a glare to his cousin to find Trevor frowning down at the sonogram picture that Aidan had framed of his son.
“Who’s this?” Trevor asked, nodding towards the framed picture.
“Why didn’t you call an ambulance?” Aidan asked, ignoring the question and wondering what the hell was wrong with his cousin as he grabbed a penlight and focused on his sister, checking her pupils to make sure that she-
“I fell through the first floor into a crawl space three feet high and landed on my feet. No worries,” Kenzie explained as she pushed the penlight out of her face.
“Now, back to this,” Trevor said, holding up the framed photo. “Who’s this?”
“None of your business,” Aidan said since there was no way in hell that he was going to tell his cousin about his son before he had a chance to tell his mother, who would then tell everyone that she’d ever met that she was about to have another grandchild, thereby saving him from having to do it. He just needed to figure out a way to break the news to his mother that he’d had a one-night stand with a woman that he barely knew and got her pregnant without her killing him.
Shrugging, Trevor put the frame back down and returned to rummaging through his desk. When he found Aidan’s stash of cookies, he leaned back in the chair and popped a cookie in his mouth as he shot Aidan a curious look that he ignored as he finished cleaning his sister’s cut.
“When was your last tetanus shot?” Aidan asked, praying that it had been recent, otherwise…
“I don’t need one,” his stubborn sister bit out with a murderous glare that dared him to argue.
“I see,” Aidan murmured, unwrapping a fresh gauze pad even as he sent Trevor a look that he prayed the large bastard understood. With a nod, Trevor popped one last cookie in his mouth and stood up, ready to do what needed to be done. Applying one last gauze pad to her arm, Aidan stood up as well and headed for the door, praying that Trevor didn’t fuck this up.
“No needles, Aidan. I’m not kidding,” Kenzie said, returning her attention to her phone, trying to play it cool, but he didn’t miss the calculating glance she kept shooting his office door.
“No needles,” Aidan lied as he closed his office door behind him and headed down the hallway as he contemplated calling a few of his brothers and cousins to give him a hand with this when his father stepped into the hallway.
“Wait…what are you doing? He said no needles!” Kenzie yelled, right around the time that a pained grunt reached his ears and Trevor muttered a curse.
“What’s going on?” his father asked, shooting Aidan’s closed office door a questioning look.
“He said no needles!”
“Is Kenzie here?” his father asked with a frown.
“She fell through another rotted floor,” Aidan said with a sigh as he rubbed his hands down his face, wondering if he was about to get another lecture when his office door was thrown open. Shooting him an accusing glare, Kenzie came running out of his office and headed for the exit, but she’d barely made it two feet before Trevor was there, grabbing her and taking her to the floor with a pained grunt when she went for his balls.
“You said no needles!” Kenzie yelled somewhat desperately as she tried to squirm her way free and just when he was about to help his cousin hold her down, the phone call that let him know that he’d fucked up again, came.
*-*-*-*
“Your prescriptions will be ready in a few minutes, Dr. Bradford.”
“Thank you,” Aidan murmured absently, not bothering to look up as he sat there with his head in his hands as he finally faced facts.
He had no fucking clue what he was doing.
None.
The only thing that he knew was that he kept fucking this up. He had a woman that he barely knew counting on him, a baby on the way that still didn’t feel real, and his mother waiting to yell at him at home and he was fucking clueless how to fix this. He just needed to-
“I wipe my own ass,” came the proud announcement that had Aidan looking up to find a cute little boy wearing Superman footie pajamas standing in front of him, nodding solemnly.
Lips twitching, Aidan said, “Me, too,” as he raised his hand for a fist bump that the little boy happily tapped with his tiny fist.
Nodding, the little boy said, “That’s ‘cause we’re big boys.”
“It really is,” Aidan agreed.
“I don’t need tampons,” the little boy added.
“Me neither,” Aidan said, chuckling.
“Mommy does,” the little boy said, gesturing absently behind him.
“I see,” Aidan said, smiling as he watched the little boy shift his attention to the Spiderman band-aid on his hand.
“My cat’s mean, see?” he said, holding up his hand for Aidan’s inspection.
“That must have hurt,” Aidan murmured with a sympathetic nod.
“It did. I almost died,” the boy readily agreed.
“You’re lucky to be alive,” Aidan said, nodding in agreement.
“I know,” he said, nodding as he climbed onto the chair next to Aidan.
“Where’s your mom?” Aidan asked, glancing around the store for the woman in question.
“Wondering why the store doesn’t carry super tampons,” the little boy said, shrugging it off as he helped himself to one of the free prescription magazines.
“I’ve wondered that myself,” Aidan said, watching as a woman, who looked completely fucking exhausted, hurried over with a baby in one arm and a handbasket in the other.
“Timmy, what did mommy say about walking off?” she asked with a resigned sigh.
“That it was going to drive you to drink one day,” Timmy said, making Aidan bite back a smile as the woman’s eyes narrowed on the little boy and her lips twitched.
“It really is,” she said before shifting her attention to Aidan. “I’m sorry if he bothered you.”
Aidan opened his mouth to answer when Timmy said, “He wipes his own ass too, Mommy.”
“Umm, that’s nice,” she murmured before clearing her throat and asked, “Are you ready to go?”
“Did you find your super tam
pons, Mommy?” Timmy asked as he obediently climbed off the chair and joined his mother, who was currently turning an interesting shade of red.
“No, no, I did not,” she murmured, looking embarrassed.
“Does that mean that you’re gonna have to use those diaper thingies again?”
“It was nice to meet you,” she said with a wince, not quite able to meet Aidan’s gaze as she turned around and headed towards the front of the store while Aidan sat there, wondering if his son was going to torment Melanie like that and found himself chuckling because his son was a Bradford after all.
Oh, shit…
He was having a son, Aidan realized as he sat there and-
“Timmy! No, Timmy, wait! Don’t pull your clothes off in the store!” came the heartfelt plea as Timmy, in all his glory, ran past Aidan towards the bathroom with a, “I have to pee!” while Aidan sat there, unable to help but smile because he was having a son.
Now, he just had to figure out how he was going to do that with a woman that he had no fucking clue how to talk to.
Chapter 12
Perhaps she should call for help?
“You had a one-night stand?”
Perhaps not, Melanie thought with a heavy sigh as she slowly scooted closer to the faucet so that she could drain the cold water that was slowly turning her into a prune. Doing her best to ignore the argument going on in the living room, Melanie closed the drain a few minutes later and added more hot water as she debated her next move only to realize that she didn’t really have one.
“Mom-”
“We raised you better than that!” his mother yelled, cutting off whatever Aidan had been about to say and making Melanie wince in sympathy because this conversation was eerily similar to the one that she’d had with her parents after she’d told them about the baby.
Except for the crying that is, she amended a few seconds later, noting that no one was crying or screaming hysterically and telling Aidan that he’d ruined his life. Lucky bastard, Melanie thought as she leaned back only to sit right back up when her baby boy expressed his displeasure with a well-placed kick to her ribs.
Irresistible (Neighbor from Hell Book 11) Page 6
