“I’m going to take care of her,” Aidan said, hoping that would be the end of this discussion so that he could check on Melanie and find a way to push back his appointments this morning without giving his father another reason to be pissed at him.
Nodding, Rebecca said, “I already figured that out with the kidnapping.”
“Then what would you like to know, evil one?” he asked, sighing heavily as he rubbed the back of his neck.
“You know that this isn’t going to end well, right?” Rebecca asked absently as she pulled her phone out of her backpack, already bored with this conversation.
“What isn’t going to end well?” Aidan couldn’t help but ask as he dropped his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, beyond fucking exhausted.
He’d spent most of the night trying to clean the other apartment only to come to the realization that it was going to need a complete gut job. Once Aidan realized that there wasn’t much that he could do until he ordered a dumpster and got his hands on some tools, he’d spent the rest of the night going through Melanie’s file, checking on her, and trying to figure out how he was going to make this work.
“She’s not going to marry you,” Rebecca said, making him frown.
“I don’t remember asking,” Aidan pointed out with a sigh as he glanced over at her.
“That’s probably for the best,” she said, texting something on her phone. “Because you’re not her type.”
“I see,” he murmured thoughtfully, “and what makes you say that?”
Not that he was interested in Melanie any longer because he wasn’t, and even if he was, that wasn’t an option anymore. Not with a baby on the way. This was going to be difficult enough, but he was curious about a few things.
“Many things,” Rebecca said with a shrug.
“Not planning on clearing that up?”
“No, but you know what I’ve been wondering?” she said, sounding bored as she leaned back against the wall while he stood there, narrowing his eyes on her.
“What’s that?”
“How you’re planning on fixing this?” Rebecca asked, throwing him a curious look.
“I’m already taking care of everything,” Aidan promised her, hoping that it was enough, but of course, it wasn’t.
“Really? Then you figured out why my best friend who used to tell me everything refuses to tell me what’s wrong or why she always looks like she’s about to cry?” Rebecca asked as he tried to figure out how to answer that only to shake his head with a sigh as he admitted, “I have no fucking idea,” because he honestly had no fucking clue what he was going to do about that.
Chapter 8
“Oh, damn!” Melanie whispered, searching frantically for somewhere, anywhere, to hide, but there was nowhere to go unless she was willing to crawl beneath the kitchen table and she wasn’t, not when she wasn’t sure that she would be able to get back up again.
“Melanie?” Aidan called absently as he strolled into the living room while she looked frantically around the messy kitchen for a way out, taking in the piles of dirty clothes, grocery bags, trash, and stuff that she didn’t really want to think about, but there was nowhere to go.
Except for the backdoor, she amended with a groan a few seconds later when she spotted the perfect escape too late.
“What are you doing out of bed?” Aidan asked with a frown, tossing aside two large suitcases that looked like the ones that she threw in the back of her closet a few years ago.
“Why am I out of bed?” Melanie asked, hoping to buy herself some time while she tried to think of a reasonable explanation that would explain why she, a woman who was supposed to be on bed rest and taking it easy, was in the kitchen searching for food when he’d left her with a lifetime supply of baby carrots and celery sticks by the bed this morning.
“Is everything okay?” Aidan asked, immediately coming to her side and-
“Are you checking my pulse?” she asked, not really sure how she should respond because this was definitely a first for her.
“Yes,” he said absently as he released her hand, grabbed a black stethoscope off the back of a chair, dislodging a stained tie, raised her shirt, and placed the cold metal end of the stethoscope against her stomach while she stood there, deciding that yes, yes, this was in fact weird.
“Why aren’t you in bed?” Aidan asked, shifting his attention to another spot on her belly.
“I was hungry,” Melanie reluctantly admitted as her stomach growled, reminding her that she was here for a reason. She didn’t care if it was in the form of cookies, Pop-Tarts, donuts, or day-old bread as long as she got her carbs and she got them soon. The only thing that she cared about was making the vicious cravings driving her out of her damn mind go away.
“Well, that’s why I’m here,” Aidan said, gesturing towards his room with an understanding smile.
“Oh, thank god,” Melanie mumbled as she allowed him to lead her back towards his room, relieved that she was finally going to get some real food.
“Let’s just get you tucked in. Then, I’ll go grab you some oatmeal and maybe a bran muffin and be back before you know it,” Aidan said, giving her that well-practiced smile that almost made her miss something important.
“Oatmeal?” Melanie asked, praying that she’d misheard him because she honestly didn’t think that she was going to survive another hour without real food.
“Mmhmm,” Aidan murmured absently as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and started going through his emails.
“I see,” she murmured as realization hit.
He was determined to treat her like a patient and that just wasn’t going to work for her.
*-*-*-*
“Aidan?”
“Hmm?” he murmured as he scrolled through his emails, forwarded some to his secretary, deleted some, flagged others all while debating running out to get some fresh prunes to add to Melanie’s breakfast and grabbing some pancakes and eggs for himself.
Christ, he could go for some pancakes.
And home fries.
Maybe some bacon.
“Aidan?”
“Yeah?” he asked, double-checking his schedule to make sure that there weren’t any last-minute patients added to his day.
“I don’t want oatmeal.”
“It’s good for the baby,” Aidan said absently, forwarding an email to his father, who wasn’t talking to him at the moment and-
“I’m going to say this once and only once,” Melanie said as she wrapped her small hand around his tie and gave it a tug so that they were almost eye to eye. “Do not come between me and my food or I will hurt you.”
“I-”
“I will hurt you, Aidan. If you shove one more baby carrot or freaking plain, fat-free yogurt at me, I will tear you apart with my bare hands,” she bit out with a glare that told him that she’d start with his balls.
“I-”
“I’m not one of your patients,” she informed him.
“I-”
“So, stop treating me like one,” Melanie said before abruptly releasing his tie, turning around and waddling towards the bed only to pause to give the tray of fresh veggies that he’d left for her a look that made his balls pull up tightly in fear before climbing back into bed, curling up on her side and glaring at him with a look that dared him to offer her another baby carrot.
He opened his mouth to point out that she needed a wide variety of fruits and vegetables during her pregnancy, but the look she was giving him had him quickly shutting his mouth and clearing his throat. “What can I get for you?”
In seconds, the glare was gone and in its place was that beautiful, sweet smile that had knocked him on his ass the first time around.
Oh, fuck no…
“I could really use a Bradford Special from the Fire & Brimstone,” Melanie said while he nodded in agreement because he could definitely use one of those as well.
*-*-*-*
Maybe she shouldn’t have threatened to hurt h
im? Melanie thought as she shifted her attention from the plate piled high with pancakes that he’d handed her a few minutes ago to the man sitting on the floor, doing something on his iPad as he absently ate an egg sandwich that she was kind of hoping that he wasn’t going to finish. She opened her mouth to apologize again but decided against it since he’d ignored her last apology and instead, said, “Thank you for breakfast.”
“You’re welcome,” Aidan said absently as he picked up a file by his side and checked something before returning to his iPad and leaving her sitting there, struggling to come up with something else to say only to realize that she had absolutely no idea what to say to him.
As she sat there on his bed, Melanie realized that she really didn’t know anything about him. She had no idea where he’d gone to school, why he’d wanted to be a doctor, what he liked, what he didn’t like, or any of the thousands of things that she should really know about a man that she was about to have a baby with, and by the looks of things, he wasn’t in any rush to fill in the blanks for her.
She really wasn’t sure how they were going to do this, but for her baby boy, Melanie would find a way. She vowed then and there that as long as he wanted to be in her baby’s life that she would do everything within her power to make it work only to lick her lips hungrily as she watched him put his sandwich back down on the tray of hash browns that looked really good.
“That must be Rebecca. She said that she was going to swing by and drop off more of your stuff this morning,” Aidan said, shoving a hash brown in his mouth as the sounds of the doorbell echoed throughout the large apartment.
“Okay,” Melanie said absently, licking her lips as he grabbed another hash brown, stuffed it in his mouth, and abandoned that egg sandwich that had her stomach growling as he headed for the door.
She looked down at the large stack of pancakes on her plate and then to the sandwich that was sitting there on a lonely wrapper, clearly going to waste, and-
“Son of a bitch!” Aidan yelled, which was followed by the sounds of Lucifer snapping something inaudible at him along with the sounds of a pained grunt that made her realize something important.
His sandwich was getting cold.
“I told Lucifer about Aidan,” Rebecca announced as she strolled into the bedroom and dropped several large bags from Dixon’s bakery on the bed before strolling over to Aidan’s abandoned sandwich and picked it up.
“I figured,” Melanie said, ignoring the grunts, groans, and inaudible shouts coming from the other room as she accepted the sandwich from her best friend, who she loved more than anything in the world at this moment. “Is he mad at me?” she asked as she toyed with the wrapper, not really sure that she could take one more person being mad at her right now.
“Son of a bitch!” Lucifer shouted.
“No. Do you want something to drink?” Rebecca asked.
“No,” Melanie said around a bite of Aidan’s sandwich, “I’m good.”
“You bastard!” came Aidan’s shout as Rebecca nodded and joined her on the bed.
“He’s taking it well,” Melanie said, taking another bite as she took a peek at what was inside all those delicious smelling bags.
Rebecca nodded. “Yeah, he’s really excited about being an official uncle and godfather.”
“Congratulations, asshole!”
“You mean bastard!”
“I can tell,” Melanie murmured in agreement as she savored the last bite of Aidan’s sandwich, wondering if Aidan would mind if she finished off his hash browns. When she heard the gasp of pain and plea for a quick death, she decided to help herself.
Chapter 9
Monday
“Okay, let’s do this,” Melanie said with a determined nod as she pulled the fresh bag of peanut butter M&Ms that Rebecca dropped off a little while ago closer, stacked her pillows, laid down, realized that she couldn’t exactly breathe in that position, shoved her pillows back, sat up, shifted a bit, shoved her pillows back again, shifted again until she finally gave up trying to get comfortable, grabbed the television remote and started the first Indiana Jones movie.
“This isn’t so bad,” she said, shoving a handful of M&Ms in her mouth even as her gaze strayed to the laptop sitting idly on top of one of the boxes in the corner.
Maybe she could write a little code, Melanie thought right around the time that she decided that it would probably be for the best if she laid back down since sitting up was no longer an option. Placing her hand on her belly, she shoved the pile of pillows over, curled up on her side, and sighed with relief when she was able to breathe again.
Telling herself that was fine, more than fine, she focused her attention on the large television in front of her and decided that losing herself in an Indiana Jones movie marathon, only the first three since the fourth one didn’t exist in her mind, was exactly what she needed. Grabbing another handful of peanut butter M&Ms, she shoved them in her mouth with a resigned sigh, shifted a bit, swallowed, and at some point, returned to staring at her neglected computer.
She missed working, missed having a purpose in life other than making it to the bathroom in time.
Speaking of the bathroom, she should probably start waddling in that direction. Tossing another handful of candy in her mouth, Melanie paused her movie, struggled to sit up only to give up, wiggle to the edge and allow gravity to do the rest.
Once she was up, Melanie waddled towards the bathroom, shuffled past Aidan's dirty clothes, sat down on the potty only to realize five minutes later that she didn't really need to use the bathroom when her son shifted off her bladder. Once she finished washing her hands, Melanie headed to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water, a small bottle of apple juice, and after a slight hesitation, she grabbed one of the bags of food that Rebecca dropped off this morning and slowly made her way back to Aidan's bedroom.
Once she was there, she went through another ten minutes of trying to get comfortable only to give up, lay awkwardly on her side, and opened the bag only to groan in defeat when she realized that the bag she'd grabbed was filled with condiments, plastic utensils, rolls, and hand-wipes.
Too exhausted to go back to the kitchen, Melanie broke open a small packet of honey mustard, dipped her roll in it and sighed, hoping that tomorrow was better.
Tuesday
She missed her nightly baths, Melanie thought with a heartfelt sigh as she laid there on the cold bathroom floor, staring ahead at the small bathtub that she would kill to soak in as she waited for the last of the nausea to finally go away. Closing her eyes, she slowly exhaled, and-
“Melanie?”
-realized how late it was. Praying that she didn't do anything to tip off the man determined to nurse her to death, Melanie dragged herself to her feet, headed back to bed, climbed in, settled back against the pillows only to curse and curl up on her side, and tried to act natural.
“How was your day?” Aidan asked absently, walking into the bedroom and tossing his tie aside as he came to check on her.
“Fine,” Melanie said, biting back a sigh as she forced herself to lay there as Aidan went through his five-minute routine to make sure that she was okay. When he finished checking to make sure the baby was okay, he tossed the stethoscope back over the headboard, pulled her shirt back down, and went to tuck her in only to frown when she reached down and beat him to it.
“I picked up dinner from the Fire & Brimstone and dessert from Dixon’s. Is that okay or do you want something else?” Aidan asked, already pulling out his cellphone and heading for the door as he compared her vitals with yesterday’s.
“Thank you, that sounds wonderful. How was your-” Melanie started to ask, but he was already walking out of the room and she found herself alone, once again.
Wednesday
“Oh, my god, why would anyone post something like that?” Melanie mumbled to herself, careful not to wake the man passed out in the other room on the couch as she watched a video on Facebook in horror.
“That’s just a
ll kinds of wrong,” she said, even as she swiped to watch the next video on her phone.
Wincing when her baby boy landed a solid kick to her ribs, Melanie absently rubbed her belly as she rolled over onto her other side and tried to get comfortable only to give up with another sigh. Resigned to spending another sleepless night with only Facebook to keep her company, she forced herself to ignore the cramp in her back and her swollen legs that kept her up most of the night.
It probably wouldn’t be so bad if she could at least work, but that wasn’t a possibility as long as she was stuck on bed rest. Aidan told her that they might let her get off bed rest in a few weeks, but she wasn’t holding her breath. She was probably going to be stuck in this bed until her baby boy was ready to make an appearance. She just wished that it wasn’t three months away.
“Oh, crap!” Melanie whispered somewhat frantically when she heard movement in the other room. Hands trembling, she struggled to shut her phone off and shoved it beneath her pillow, closed her eyes, and prayed that he wasn’t coming in here to fluff her pillows.
When she felt the blankets being moved a minute later, Melanie couldn’t help but cringe. After what felt like an eternity, the blanket was brought up to her shoulders. She felt him gently sweep her hair away and-
Aidan checked her pulse, making her lips twitch.
Once he was done, Melanie heard him walk away. As soon as she was sure that he wasn’t coming back, she pulled her phone back out, returned to Facebook, noted the time, and hoped that exhaustion took over before she got desperate and started looking at Bieber memes to pass the time.
*-*-*-*
Thursday
“How’s life as a kept woman working out for you?”
“I hate you,” Melanie said, sighing softly as she laid there, unable to find the strength to properly torment her best friend today.
“That good?” Rebecca asked as she climbed onto the bed and curled up on her side so that they were facing each other.
“It’s the best,” she said dryly, trying to force a smile and failing miserably.
Irresistible (Neighbor from Hell Book 11) Page 5