“You really expect me to tell you all the things that I wouldn’t tell my best friend?”
“Only the good stuff,” Aidan said, making her smile.
“What about the boring stuff?”
“We should probably skip that stuff. I mean, I don’t think it’s a good idea to make things awkward,” he explained in a lazy drawl as he made another note.
“No, no, we wouldn’t want that. It might make things weird,” Melanie said, chuckling as she shifted to get more comfortable and couldn’t help but notice just how good he smelled. It was one of the first things that she’d noticed about him. The second had been his eyes. She knew that most women would have probably noticed how incredibly handsome he was, but there was just something about his eyes…
“And we wouldn’t want that,” Aidan said, chuckling as he stopped rubbing her belly so that he could swipe back to the previous page.
“Ready for the next rule?” he asked, returning his hand to her belly so that he could continue appeasing their son, who was finally giving her a break.
“Should I prepare myself?”
“You might want to.”
Melanie finished off her pie and reached for the package of chocolate cupcakes and held them up so that he could open them for her. Once they were open, she placed the package on the bed next to them, picked up a cupcake, took a bite, and nodded. “Okay, I’m ready.”
“Are you sure?”
“I mean, can you ever really be ready when it comes to something like this?”
Chuckling, Aidan wrote something else down. “True. Then I guess there’s no reason to put this off any longer,” he said only to pause for effect before adding, “Questions.”
Blinking, Melanie paused mid-bite of the chocolate cupcake that really was delicious as she tilted her head back so that she could frown up at the man that really made a comfortable pillow. “Questions?”
“They’re expected. Next page,” he murmured distractedly as he wrote something else down.
Speaking of questions…
“What exactly are you doing?” she asked as she picked up the next cupcake.
“I’m calling in a favor,” Aidan said absently as he glanced down at the notes that he’d made from her chart.
“What favor?”
“The asshole who screwed over my brother is a pediatrician,” he said, making her frown because there was only one other doctor associated with the Bradford clan that she knew about…
“You mean McDreamy?” she guessed correctly judging by the muttered curse that he bit out.
“Isn’t that from a TV show?”
“I watch a lot of television,” Melanie explained with a nod as she glanced down at the dwindling pile of treats and realized that she wasn’t going to make it through the night.
Not with only two Twinkies and a box of Ding Dongs.
“He’s not that good looking,” Aidan bit out.
“He really is, though,” Melanie assured him as she tilted her head back so that she was looking at him.
“I’m hotter.”
“Are you really, though?” Melanie asked with a sympathetic wince.
“How do you know about Roger?” Aidan asked, narrowing those incredible green eyes that she liked so much on her.
“I love gossip,” she said, nodding.
“You love gossip?” he asked, frowning in confusion.
“I live for it,” Melanie admitted with a heartfelt sigh.
“Really? What did you hear?”
“Sorry, I can’t tell you,” Melanie said with a sad shake of her head as she focused her attention back on that pile of treats that she needed to replenish before tonight.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t gossip,” she said absently as she considered her options.
“But you love it?”
“More than anything,” Melanie said, nodding.
“Fine. Then at least tell me why you hate him?”
“Because I’m sworn to hate him.”
“You didn’t ask?”
“Why would I ask?” she asked, frowning in confusion.
“Why wouldn’t you ask?” Aidan countered.
“That’s not how these things work,” Melanie said, sighing heavily with a sad shake of her head.
“Why not?”
“There are rules,” Melanie said, wondering why this was so difficult to understand.
“What rules?”
“Sorry, I can’t talk about that,” she said, which was a shame really because he probably wouldn’t hate McDreamy so much if he knew-
“I’ll never understand women,” Aidan said, shaking his head with a heavy sigh as he grabbed the notebook and tossed it on the nightstand along with the pen.
“Probably not,” Melanie murmured in agreement.
“Fine. Then at least tell me your next five things,” Aidan said, placing both of his hands on her belly.
“I thought it was your turn,” she said, tilting her head back to send him a hopeful smile.
“You thought wrong,” Aidan said with a mock glare.
“Does my obsession with gossip count?”
“Not unless you tell me what you know,” Aidan said as his lips pulled up into a sweet smile when their baby pushed against his hands.
“I’m afraid that I can’t do that.”
“What if I promised to get you pie afterward?” he offered.
“After what?” Melanie asked even as she couldn’t help but wonder if a steak and cheese sub with extra mushrooms came with that pie.
“After the asshole leaves,” Aidan said, making her gasp.
“McDreamy’s coming here?” she asked, already wiggling, shifting, and a weird combination of the two, towards the edge of the bed.
“The asshole is coming over to take a look at you. Why?” he asked, moving his leg out of her way even as he reached over to help her.
“I have to go change!”
“Wait. Why?” Aidan asked, moving to sit up.
“Because McDreamy’s coming!” Melanie said, grabbing her phone on the way to the bathroom, wondering if they had enough time to get that pie first.
Chapter 17
“Thank you for inviting me,” Rebecca said with a heartfelt sigh as she grabbed another Hershey Kiss from the large Ziploc bag that she’d brought with her and unwrapped it.
“You’re welcome,” Melanie said, popping a Hershey Kiss in her mouth as she glanced from the man standing next to him, frowning as he stared at Melanie as though he was trying to figure out how he knew her, to the small woman standing in the corner, who was glaring at the asshole next to him while Aidan stood there, regretting so many things, but he had no fucking idea where to start.
“Explain to me why he’s here again,” Kenzie, who’d dropped by a few minutes ago for her follow up appointment, asked as she gestured towards Roger, who was still staring at Melanie.
“To entertain us,” Melanie said as she popped another Hershey Kiss in her mouth while her partner in crime nodded in agreement and murmured, “He really is,” making the bastard’s lips twitch.
“Where do I know you from?” Roger asked, throwing Melanie a curious look before he focused his attention on the iPad in his hands.
“Rum and Coke,” Melanie said with a solemn nod as Aidan watched Roger suddenly go still.
“No one else knows,” Rebecca said, shrugging it off as Roger’s gaze flickered to Kenzie before focusing back on Melanie’s file.
“Knows what?” Kenzie asked, earning matching blank stares from the duo on the bed.
“Knows what?” Melanie repeated back, blinking innocently.
Eyes narrowing, his sister studied Melanie for a moment before shifting her attention to Rebecca and then back again before slowly nodding with a murmured, “I see.”
“That will make this easier,” Melanie said, nodding solemnly.
“It really will,” Rebecca agreed with a sympathetic smile before the duo shifted their attention back to Rog
er and gestured for him to continue.
“Now, where were we?” Melanie asked as she popped another Hershey Kiss in her mouth.
“We were about to be entertained,” Rebecca said, sending a hopeful look in Kenzie’s direction.
“I just have one question,” Kenzie said, gesturing lazily around the room. “What exactly is going on here?”
Popping another Hershey Kiss in their mouths, the duo looked at him. “Can I see you outside, Kenzie?” Aidan asked, trying to figure out how he was going to explain this.
Actually, what he was really trying to figure out was why his mother hadn’t told everyone yet. His brothers had barely managed to get the words out, letting their mother know that she was about to be a grandmother when she’d started spreading the word, planning baby showers, and sporting a “World’s Greatest Grandma” tee-shirt.
For the past two days, nothing. Not one word, email, or any of his brothers or cousins coming over to fuck with his head, which meant that his mother was fucking pissed. He’d worry about how he was going to make this up to her later, Aidan decided as he moved to step out of the room when the woman who lived to torment him decided that she wasn’t done fucking with him.
“You didn’t tell her the news, pookie?” Rebecca asked, blinking innocently.
“What news?” Kenzie asked right around the time that Melanie closed her eyes on a groan and said, “Don’t,” to her best friend, but Rebecca being evil and all…
“Yeah, what news, Aidan?” Rebecca asked with a calculating look in her eye as she popped another Hershey Kiss in her mouth.
“I’m going to be a father,” Aidan said, shifting his attention to find Kenzie frowning at him before she slowly glanced at Melanie and-
“I’m sorry. Could you repeat that?” Kenzie asked, throwing him a questioning look because she knew better than anyone that he’d never planned on having children.
“He’s going to be a father and I’m going to be a godmother,” Rebecca said, tossing another Hershey Kiss in her mouth.
Kenzie opened her mouth and-
“Wait. Why do you get to be the godmother?” Kenzie demanded with a frown.
Pursing her lips up with a thoughtful expression, Rebecca asked, “What’s her name?” as she gestured towards Melanie, who popped another Hershey Kiss in her mouth with a heavy sigh as Kenzie stood there, frowning and-
“Fair enough,” Kenzie said with a slow nod.
“Moving on,” Rebecca said, shifting her attention back to Roger. She placed a Hershey Kiss in her mouth as she gestured for him to get on with it only to sigh heavily when Kenzie said, “I didn’t even know that you were seeing anyone.”
“You’re really making this too easy,” the epitome of evil said with a shrug and a sad shake of her head.
“We’ll talk about it later,” Aidan said, feeling a headache coming on.
“You don’t want to talk about it now, pookie?” Rebecca asked with a calculating look in her eye.
There was a sigh and then, Rebecca was glaring at Melanie when her best friend took it upon herself to shove a handful of Hershey Kisses in Rebecca’s mouth before she could make this worse. With a regal wave, Melanie said, “You may continue,” as her best friend was forced to sit there, glaring at her as she finished eating the chocolate that had been shoved in her mouth.
“How are you feeling, Melanie?” Roger asked as he continued looking through her file.
“Bored out of my mind,” Melanie said even as she shoved another handful of chocolate in the little troublemaker’s mouth when she opened her mouth to fuck him over.
“How have you been sleeping?”
“Okay,” Melanie said, not quite able to look at him as she shifted and cleared her throat while Aidan narrowed his eyes on her.
“Nausea?”
“Better,” she said, still not quite able to look at him as she answered.
“I can’t help you if you’re going to lie to me,” Roger said, glancing up to find Melanie worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.
“It’s still pretty bad,” Melanie reluctantly admitted.
Nodding absently, Roger said, “Your doctor’s a fucking idiot.”
“That’s what I’ve heard,” Melanie said with a solemn nod.
“What do you think?” Aidan asked, hoping that they could do something to make this easier for her.
“Her numbers look better since your father changed her meds and so does the baby, but I’m concerned about the fact that she’s spent a majority of her pregnancy on bed rest,” Roger said, swiping back to one of her earlier lab reports.
“I told her to get off her lazy ass,” Rebecca said with a sad shake of her head and a sigh as she shoved another Hershey Kiss in her mouth.
“You lying bitch,” Melanie bit out with a glare. “You locked me in my room and gave that obscenely large bastard that you married my mother’s phone number so that he could tattletale on my ass anytime I got out of bed!”
“Again, with the lies?” Rebecca asked with a heartfelt sigh and a pitying shake of her head before she added, “I’ll pray for you.”
“Eat gluten, bitch,” Melanie said, making Rebecca’s lips twitch.
“Can we focus, ladies?” Aidan asked, biting back a sigh even though he was secretly pleased that Melanie was feeling well enough to banter with her best friend, something that he’d noticed that she hadn’t done since she came to live with him.
“I want you off bed rest immediately,” Roger explained as he swiped to another lab report.
“I can do that,” Melanie said, nodding solemnly.
“Don’t overdo it and take naps when you’re tired, but I think it would be in your best interest and the baby’s if you were more active. Go for walks, go swimming, keep it simple, but your best bet is sex,” Roger murmured absently.
“Sex?” Melanie asked, frowning in confusion.
“It should alleviate most of your problems with the added benefit of improving blood flow, recovering some muscle tone that you’ve lost while on bed rest, reduce stress, improve sleep, and help with some of your pain and discomfort as well as help strengthen your pelvic muscles, which is what we want,” Roger explained while Melanie sat there, once again avoiding looking in his direction.
“When’s the last time you had sex?” Roger asked, shooting Aidan a questioning look as Kenzie absently nodded with an, “I’m just gonna go wait out in the living room mostly because I really don’t want to know the answer to that question.”
When she left, everyone glanced at Rebecca as she popped another Hershey Kiss in her mouth with a mumbled, “I’m good where I am.”
“A little over seven months,” he reluctantly answered with a pointed look at Melanie’s belly.
“And before that?” Roger asked, looking back down at her labs.
“A year and a half,” Aidan admitted, having a bad feeling where this was going.
“And I assume that you’ve been tested?”
“I’m clean,” Aidan said, watching as Roger absently nodded before glancing down at his watch.
“There are a lot of benefits for sex during pregnancy, but it’s up to you, Melanie. Unprotected sex with the father is preferred because of the benefits from his sperm. I can email the articles to Aidan if you’d like to take a look at them. For right now, I think the most important thing is to get you off bed rest and get you moving again. I’d like to see you weekly at this point to keep an eye on your labs and to make sure that everything is progressing correctly,” Roger explained as he handed the iPad back to Aidan.
“O-okay,” Melanie mumbled weakly and just like that, Aidan knew that any progress that he’d made with her was gone.
Chapter 18
Maybe it was infected? Kenzie wondered as she stared down at the fresh bandage that she wrapped her arm in this morning. When it continued to itch, she decided that she should definitely run before Aidan could stick her with another needle. Decision made, she moved to get to her feet only to find herself ge
ntly pushed back down on the couch and the man that she couldn’t seem to get away from sitting down on the coffee table in front of her as he carefully began removing her bandage.
“What did you do this time?” Roger asked as she sat there, forcing herself not to think of all those things that she’d told herself to forget.
“Fell through a crawlspace,” Kenzie said, wondering how it was possible to hate someone this much.
Absently nodding, Roger removed the gauze pad and winced in sympathy when he saw the gash on her arm. “You’ve got to be more careful, Kenzie,” he murmured, gently turning her arm over so that he could get a better look.
“I’m fine,” she said, moving to pull her arm away only to have him tighten his hold around her arm and-
“Are you ever going to forgive me?” Roger asked as she found herself looking into the dark blue eyes that were going to haunt her for the rest of her life.
She opened her mouth to answer him only to find herself frowning when Rebecca answered for her. “Probably not,” her sister-in-law that really seemed to enjoy screwing with people’s heads said with a sad shake of her head.
“Then again,” Rebecca continued as she headed for the front door, “she doesn’t know that Missy lied in that letter and that you never touched her. Then there’s the fact that you only did what you did to save Reese from making the biggest mistake of his life because you felt guilty about that secret that we’re not supposed to be talking about.”
When Roger narrowed his eyes on her, Rebecca added, “Melanie doesn’t gossip. I was there, which is why I think you’re an idiot,” with a shrug as she walked out the door, making the decision that Kenzie had been struggling with for the past year easier.
It was time for her to leave and this time, she wasn’t coming back.
*-*-*-*
“I shaved my legs,” the man that she’d been trying to figure out how to explain, as politely as humanly possible of course, that she didn’t want to have sex with him, said.
“I’m sorry, what’s this now?” Melanie found herself asking, still not quite able to look at him at the moment because she actually did want to have sex.
Irresistible (Neighbor from Hell Book 11) Page 9
