Although he did not try to actually come inside and participate in the baby shower, Matt decided to stop by and drop off a present.
As soon as he darkened the doorstep Julie felt her heart slam forward in her chest and then immediately halt its beating.
Beside her, Aaron froze midway through the motion of putting a musical toy dragon down on the floor. Leigh, who had opened the door, scowled and looked back as if to silently ask what the hell Aaron's treacherous brother was doing at the baby shower.
When Aaron collected himself, he rose and crossed to his brother.
"Leave."
Sighing, Matt said, "Are we really not past this yet? You don't have to like me, but you can't just boot me out of your life altogether. I have a present for Julie, if you don't mind."
"I do mind," Aaron replied, raising an eyebrow. "Anything Julie and our baby needs, I will provide. You can leave."
Shifting a glance at Leigh as she stood back observing, Matt lowered his voice and said, "You know, this really isn't very subtle."
"I don't have to be subtle. For one thing, you were definitely not invited to this baby shower—”
Holding up a hand to stop his brother, Matt said, "I know, I'm not staying. Just dropping off. Really, the sooner you let me give Julie her present, the better off we'll all be."
Julie sighed irritably, shoving herself off the chair and waddling over to the door.
Matt offered a smile and held out a card. "I figured my brother wouldn't like any additional reminders of me around, so I got you a couple of gift cards."
"Thank you," she said, taking the card from him.
"No problem," he returned with an easy smile. "We're all family, right? I couldn't very well miss the opportunity to—”
"Yep, have a good day," Aaron interrupted, shutting the door quite rudely in Matt's face.
Sighing a little, Julie placed a reassuring hand on Aaron's shoulder and shot him a questioning look.
Offering her a smile, he said, "It's fine. At least he just brought gift cards, right?"
Leaning her head on his shoulder briefly, she said, "See, you're getting better."
"I draw the line at him visiting you in the hospital," Aaron stated immovably.
"We'll bring our doorman and he can guard the entrance," she teased.
"I like that idea a lot."
Julie released Aaron's arm, giving him a brief kiss and then waddling back to her seat. As she went, she glanced in Leigh's direction and was struck by the horrified look of realization that she saw there.
Looking away, Julie decided to ignore it until Leigh's shock subsided. As many months as she had spent moving past all of her mistakes, seeing the situation as Leigh was seeing it for the first time, she still felt deeply embarrassed by it.
The rest of the shower went by without incident, and once everyone cleared out it was only Leigh and Aaron cleaning up while Julie miserably did little due to the swollen ankles that decided to flare up near the end.
"It's nice of you to stay and clean up, but you don't have to, you know," Aaron remarked as he tossed a stack of paper plates into the trash can.
"Yeah, I know," Leigh murmured, putting the remainders of the cake into an airtight container. "So... Matt stopped by. That's weird, huh?"
Aaron's jaw tightened, but he didn't say anything, merely threw some more garbage away and then went to grab a washrag to clean off the table.
Glancing back at Julie—or, more accurately, at Julie's stomach—Leigh smiled slightly and then walked over closer to Aaron, remarking, "You must really love her. I never thought you'd forgive anyone for that crime; you didn't even forgive Shannon."
"Shannon was a grasping slut, they have nothing in common," Aaron returned immovably.
Although her eyebrows inched up toward her forehead, she didn't argue, merely murmured, "If you say so."