Even now, almost five years later, Aidan scowled as he thought of Niall, that scumbag. He’d never once tried to contact Maura, or inquire about the baby he’d brought into the world. Being the youngest of eight children, Aidan treasured family. The McKinnons were all about honor, hard work, and loyalty to family. How any man could abandon their child like Niall had, Aidan would never know. And how any man could leave a woman like Maura, the most wonderful, beautiful woman he knew, was unfathomable.
He watched now as Maura reached out and ran her hand over Chloe’s hair, so like her own. Both had the most gorgeous strawberry blonde hair, long, thick manes of it that curled wildly at the ends. During the bad days after Niall first left, sometimes Maura would suddenly break down and cry, and Aidan would hold her and play with her hair. He’d just brush it back from her face in a rhythm meant to soothe, holding her close, rubbing her back, letting her cry it out in the safety of his arms because he didn’t know what to say or do for her… her hair felt like shiny ribbons of silk between his fingers.
“Chloe,” he said now, “I need to talk to your mum about something grown-up. Just for a few minutes. Could you please go to your room to play this game for a bit?” He tweaked the little girl’s nose as he gave what he hoped was a persuasive grin. “I promise we’ll call you back down as soon as we’re done talking. Okay?”
Chloe frowned, but got up from the couch. “Okaaaay. Promise it won’t be long?”
“I swear it, little miss,” Aidan said with mock solemnity. “You have my word.”
“Okay.” She looked at Maura and said, “I can bring the tablet with me, right?”
“Aye, you can. Go on now.”
They watched the little girl skip across the room and make her way up the stairs.
As soon as she disappeared, Maura turned to Aidan and demanded, “All right, enough. Out with it. What’s going on?”
Chapter Two
‡
“You know how you and I have always talked about taking a trip to New York?” Aidan asked.
Maura nodded. They’d talked about it so many times, she couldn’t count.
“And you know that my brother Gavin is getting married…”
She nodded again. “The wedding’s at the end of the summer.”
“Aye, last week of August. Well, his girlfriend—ehm, fiancée—Toni, you know she’s originally from New York, that’s where they met.” Aidan didn’t need to repeat details; Maura knew everything about his life, probably more than anyone else in the world except for his other closest friend, Baz. “Ya know their life’s here in Dublin, and the wedding will be here.”
“Sure I know, you asked me to go with you.” She reminded him, looking at him as if he were daft. “Unless you’ve changed your mind? You found a real date you’d rather bring?”
“No! No, of course not. You’re my always-date-for-official-events, ya know that.” He winked. “But Gavin and Toni have decided to also have a small ceremony back in New York, for all of her relatives and friends, since it’d cost too much to ask them all to fly here.” He lifted his beer bottle to his lips to steal a quick sip. “They said they fell in love on the beach on Long Island, so they want a ceremony on the beach there as well.”
“I think that’s lovely,” Maura said.
Being friends with Aidan for so long, over the years she’d met six of his seven siblings—everyone but Sean, who’d moved to New York City before Maura and Aidan had even met, and never returned. But Gavin was her favorite. He was unbelievably nice, and he was also a good doctor; when he’d switched to pediatrics two years ago, Maura had taken Aidan’s suggestion and made Chloe one of Gavin’s first patients. He was wonderful with her.
“So I was thinking…” Aidan said. “You’re turning thirty in July.”
“Don’t remind me.” She groaned. Her big birthday loomed, only two months away now, and she tried every day not to dwell on the milestone number. “You just love that you’re a year younger than me and can tease me about how bloody old I am.”
“Well, there is that,” he said with a laugh.
“You tortured me when I turned twenty.” She reminded him. “You’ll likely be unbearable with thirty.”
“Actually, quite the opposite,” he said. “I want to give you a fun gift. Something special. It’ll just be a bit belated.” He set the bottle down and leaned towards her, his eyes alight and focused. “Gavin and Toni are doing their New York beach ceremony over Labor Day weekend—that’s an American holiday. First weekend of September.” The corners of his mouth curved up and he took her hands in his. “I want you to come with me. Let’s go to New York for a week, I’ll pay for everything. We’d have a blast and you know it. What do you say?”
Her mouth fell open and her eyes got round. He laughed at her reaction.
“You can’t be serious,” she finally said.
“I’m dead serious!”
“But you—that’s—” She shook her head. “It would cost—”
“I told you, it’d be my gift to you.” He gave her hands a gentle squeeze. “We’ve always talked about going to New York City. This is a perfect reason! I figure we’ll stay for a week. See all the sights, catch a Broadway show, eat real New York pizza. I’m thinkin’ maybe four days in Manhattan? Then head out to Long Island for three days on the beach, for the wedding. My sister Anna will be there, the sassy one who does crazy shit to her hair—and my brother, Sean, too. You’d finally meet him, be eight for eight with all the McKinnon siblings. You can’t pass that chance up!” He smiled brightly as he added, “You haven’t gone on a trip in forever. Let me do this for ya. We’d have fun.”
“Aidan.” Maura shook her head. “What you’re suggesting sounds… amazing. Truly. So generous. But so bloody expensive.”
“And so bloody worth it,” he countered.
She stared at him, her slate-colored eyes wide. “Why on earth would you want to do that for me?”
Because I’m helplessly, totally in love with you, you sweet, silly girl. And you have no idea. You never have. “Em. Maura. Miss Maura Grace Callahan. You’re my best friend in the whole world. Whenever I have to do a family get-together, there’s no one I’d rather have with me. So on that note, this is no different, really. Just a bit of a commute.” With a wink, he reached over for his bottle again and took a sip of beer. “Besides, I want to do something special for you. Thirty’s a big birthday. Let me give you this gift.” Let me take you away from here, somewhere special, so I can try to sweep you off your feet and finally tell you how I really feel about you. It’s time.
“Jaysus!” Maura stared at him. “I… I don’t know what to say. It’s unbelievably generous, Aidan. And I do appreciate your thinking of me. But I don’t know…”
He fought for normalcy, putting on his best casual-yet-charming demeanor. “You accompany me to every wedding, company party, and family function as it is.” He pointed out. “You’d be doing me our usual favor. Just in New York, instead. Think of it, Em! New York City. And a wedding on the beach. You love that kind of sappy stuff! It’ll be fantastic; of course I want you to go with me.” He fixed her with his most persuasive stare. “C’moooon, say yes. You know you wanna.”
She smiled slowly, a rare sparkle in her eyes. “You argue a strong case…”
He hadn’t seen that sparkle in so long, it filled him with joy. “Say yes, Em.”
Suddenly, the doorbell rang, making her jolt. “Wow, they’re really early. They told me the pizza would take about an hour.”
*
Maura rose from the couch, her head reeling with Aidan’s offer. But she couldn’t stop smiling. The idea was an exciting one, she couldn’t deny that. She’d always been dying to go to New York, it was number one on her travel bucket list and he knew it. And of course they’d have fun…
She opened the front door. But it wasn’t the pizza delivery man standing there; it was Niall, her ex-fiancé, the father of her child, the man who’d walked out on them almost five years before
. The smile slid off her face as she gripped the doorknob tighter. A chill skittered over her entire body.
“Hello, Maura,” Niall said. His dark eyes raked over her. “You look well.”
His dark hair was shorter than she remembered, and heavy scruff covered his jaw. But those eyes… how she’d once loved to gaze into his eyes. God, how she’d once loved him. With everything she had. Yes, her pregnancy had been unplanned, and it seemed to bring out his temper. They’d argue, and he drank more than he should, but she wrote it off to the stress of the situation. And then, one night, he came home lousy drunk and hit her. Slapped her right across the face a few times, shoved her around the room… when she was seven months pregnant. Aidan had gone looking for him the next night, probably to kill him, but Niall disappeared, never to be heard from again.
“What…” Her mind had gone blank from the shock. “What are you doing here?”
“I was hoping to see you,” he said, smiling broadly.
It made her breath catch. That smile used to do things to her, and now it was like a Pavlov’s dog reaction—her heart fluttered. She didn’t like it.
In fact, she hated it. She hated that he had any effect on her at all. And she’d be damned if she let him know it.
Clearing her throat, she said staunchly, “Fine, now you’ve seen me. Is that all?”
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” he asked, still smiling, charming as ever. “I’d love to catch up.”
“Catch up on what, exactly?” she inquired. “How ya left? No thanks, I’ll pass on that stroll down memory lane.”
“Aww, c’mon now. We had some good times. Surely you remember that.”
“Aye, I remember,” she said, hoping her voice sounded like steel even as her stomach lurched. “And ya left anyway, that’s how much those good times meant to you. So I’ll ask one last time. Why are you here? Showin’ up out of nowhere after almost five years? There’s got to be a reason.”
“I told you.” His voice was smooth as velvet. “I wanted to see you.”
She started to close the door in his face.
He stopped it, holding it open with one strong hand. “All right, all right.” His smile faded and the glint in his eyes took on something much less charming. “I’m here to see my daughter.”
Maura drew a shaky breath, trying to swallow back the rush of emotion that made her mouth go dry.
She lifted her chin in defiance. “You gave up any right to call her your daughter when you left. She’s my daughter, and that’s it.”
Niall’s gaze narrowed and he opened his mouth to speak, but his eyes left her face to look at something behind her.
“Everything all right here?” Aidan asked.
She could feel him at her back and wanted to hug him with gratitude and relief. “Not really,” she said. “Unwelcome surprise visitor.”
“Aidan, well, look at that,” Niall said. “You’re still around, eh? You two always were inseparable. Guess that much hasn’t changed, eh, mate?”
“I’m not yer mate. What do you want?” The sharp edge of Aidan’s tone clearly brooked no bullshit.
“I’m here to see my daughter,” Niall repeated.
“She’s not your daughter,” Maura bit out. “She’s mine. You were nothing but a sperm donor.”
Aidan put a hand on her shoulder. “Lady’s got a point.”
“Can’t I just see her?” Niall asked, with the fake charm he’d used at first. “See what she looks like, at least? She’s my little girl.”
“You’ve got to be joking,” Maura said, trying to ignore the churning in her stomach. “How did you even find me?”
“Wasn’t too hard,” Niall said. “Figured I’d start at the beginning. Turns out your mum never sold the place, she’s still in this house. I came here to see her, to ask her for your address. This worked out better than I’d hoped.”
“Don’t you think you should call someone before just dropping by?” Aidan asked.
His voice was stern but calm and Maura wished she could reach into herself for some calm. Her mind felt like a pinball machine where the ball had been drawn back and shot hard; like that bouncing sphere, she was skittering between shocked, furious, and scared. Most of all, she hated the quickening in her heart when she’d first seen him. For a split second, she’d had an involuntary reaction… one of longing. She’d stamped it down quickly, but the fact it had flickered at all made her hate herself. Coupled with his astonishing request and the look in his dark eyes that made her uneasy, Maura’s head was reeling.
Thankfully, she wasn’t alone. “You need to leave now,” Aidan said firmly. “Call and perhaps we can arrange a meeting.” He slid his arm around her shoulders and gave her the slightest squeeze. She had never been as grateful for Aidan’s presence in her life as she was at that moment.
“Why wait?” Niall asked. “I’m here now.”
“Because she doesn’t know you,” Maura said. “To her, you’re a stranger. She knows nothing about you.”
His face changed at that. “Nothing?” The surprise was clear. “You never told her anything about me? Nothing at all?”
“Why would I?” she asked. “You were as gone as gone gets.”
“You must’ve told her something about her father.” He pressed, his anger starting to bleed through the thin veil of feigned charm.
“I told her he disappeared before she was born,” Maura said. “Not much else.”
His cheeks flushed as he snapped, “How do you tell that to a wee child?”
“How do you do that to a wee child?” she countered. Aidan squeezed her shoulder again. “Yet that’s just what ya did. I owe you nothing. Neither does Chloe.”
“I’m not going to just go quietly,” Niall murmured.
“Why not?” she asked pointedly. “You did the first time. After you beat me up, of course. Still want that stroll down memory lane?”
Aidan’s arm stiffened around her at the mention of Niall hitting her.
“No. But I want to get to know my little girl. So whether ya like it or not, I’m back now,” Niall said. Something in his tone made the words sound as much like a warning as it was a statement. “So I’ll come back again. And again. Until I get to my daughter. Ya hearin’ me?”
“Is that… a threat?” Maura wanted to vomit, or hit him. Maybe both. “We haven’t heard a word from you since I was pregnant, and you think you’re going to just drop on by, back into my daughter’s life, and I’ll let you? Smile and invite you in? Hell no. Because any man who’d knock around a pregnant woman is a danger to society. I won’t let you lose your temper on her like ya did on me. You think I just forgot how we ended, just before you left? Think again.”
“Quit the dramatics,” Niall said dismissively. “I want her to come around by me, get to know me.”
“Ya gonna hit her, too?” Aidan asked in a low voice. “Because I still didn’t put your face into the ground for when you raised a hand to Maura. I owe ya for that.”
Maura glanced at her friend. Aidan’s tone and gaze were lethal.
“You always hated me,” Niall said to him. “Didn’t ya? Couldn’t stand I was bangin’ your best girl.”
Maura’s breath caught. She saw Aidan flinch for a second, but all he said was, “You were scum then, and I see you still are. All the more reason you shouldn’t be near a small girl.”
“I am her father,” Niall growled. “I’ll find a way to bring her around. You can’t keep me from her forever.”
“You left!” Maura cried, finally losing what was left of her self-restraint. Her heart was pounding so hard, she felt as if it would burst out of her chest. “You said you weren’t cut out to be a husband or a father. You certainly proved that—you hit me when I was pregnant with your child! Then you left and never called, not once. Not so much as an email. Why would you just come back now and expect me to forget all that? Who the bloody hell do you think you are?”
“I think I’m her father,” Niall said darkly. “Whether you
like it or not.”
“No, no, you’re not,” Maura said. “A father is someone who’s involved, who cares, who’s there. You haven’t been, not ever. Aidan’s a hundred times more of a father her to her than you’ve ever been.” Her ice cold hands balled into fists. Aidan rubbed her back, meant to soothe, but she had rarely been so outraged. Years of pent up anger and frustration were boiling over. She crossed her arms across her chest and snapped, “It’ll just confuse her. I won’t let you shake up her world because you suddenly remembered she exists. Just go away.”
“I’m not going to just go away,” Niall warned. “I intend to see my daughter. To know her. To let her know she can come visit me sometimes.”
Blood roared in her head and rushed through her veins. “So I can be afraid for her safety? Wondering if you’ll get drunk while you’re with her, like ya did with me so often? Or lose it one time and hit her, like ya did to me? No way,” she ground out. “Now get out of here!”
Aidan’s hand moved to the small of Maura’s back in a subtle but unmistakable gesture of support. He said to Niall in a low, hard tone, “I believe the lady asked you to leave.”
“And what if I won’t?” Niall stared her down.
Maura’s heart felt like it was going a thousand beats a minute, and she could barely catch her breath.
“Mummy?” Chloe’s sweet voice floated from inside. “Is that the pizza man?”
“Is that her?” Abruptly, Niall tried to shove his way through the door.
Just as fast, Aidan moved to block him, their chests bumping before Aidan forcefully shoved Niall back, slamming his shoulders with both hands.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Aidan shouted.
“You can’t tell me I can’t see her,” Niall said, shoving back. “Let me pass!” He tried to push forward again, and again Aidan gave him a harder shove that sent him back two steps.
“You’re going to scare her this way!” Maura cried, panic rising in her throat. “Stop it! You claim to want her—why would you want to scare her?”
Marrying His Best Friend Page 2