When she just stared up at him, he mumbled, “Right,” nodded to himself, and made quick work of picking up all the shit on the floor and shoving it into whatever box was closest. In a few minutes, Aidan had the floor picked up, all his shit shoved into random boxes, and the bed somewhat made.
“Aidan-”
“So, the bathroom is right through here,” he said, cutting her off as he opened the bathroom door and flicked the light switch on only to remember that the light was out, which in retrospect, was probably for the best.
Shifting in front of the bathroom, Aidan closed the door, hoping that she hadn’t caught a glimpse of the mess that he planned on cleaning later and said, “So, that’s it. Any questions?”
“I think I’m going to stay with my parents,” Melanie said, already heading towards the hallway and making him hesitate.
He should let her go, but…
That wasn’t really an option.
She was having his child and having a hell of a time doing it. He hadn’t been there for the first six months, but he’d be damned if he missed the next three. With that in mind, Aidan followed after her, surprised that she’d managed to make it down the hallway so fast. Then again, with the way that she was carrying, gravity was most likely a helping factor.
“Melanie, wait!”
“Look,” she said, sounding exhausted as she turned around to face him, “I know you don’t want this baby, which makes me really appreciate what you’re offering here, but let’s face it, neither one of us wants this.”
“It doesn’t matter what we want,” Aidan said because he wasn’t going to lie to her and tell her what he thought she wanted to hear.
She was right. He didn’t want a child, but that didn’t matter, because they were having one. Just because he’d never wanted a child didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to step up and do the right thing. He was going to be a father to his son and take care of both of them. It was as simple as that, but he couldn’t do that if she didn’t give him a chance.
“I don’t know you and honestly, I’m not really sure that I like you,” Melanie said, deciding to go the honest route as well.
“Which is why I want you to move in so that we have a chance to get to know each other before the baby comes,” Aidan explained as he leaned back against the wall, hoping that she would show him a little mercy and let this go for the night. He just needed a little more time to wrap his mind around everything that happened so that he could figure out his next step.
“I don’t think that moving in here would be such a good idea given the circumstances,” Melanie explained, and he honestly couldn’t have agreed with her more, but unfortunately for both of them, he was a Bradford, which meant that he was too damn stubborn to listen to reason.
“Do you really want to move in with your parents?” Aidan asked, already guessing that she didn’t. He had no idea what her parents were like and for all he knew, they could be great parents and her best friends, but he did know one thing.
Not many people wanted to move back in with their parents once they got a taste of freedom.
“What do you want from me, Aidan?” she asked, shaking her head in surrender.
“Melanie, I-”
“I don’t get you, Aidan. I really don’t. One minute, you’re charming and sweet and the next, you’re ditching me so that your father can give me a pelvic exam. Then, when I’ve had enough you chase me down, tell me that you can’t find the source of the bleed, that my blood pressure is elevated and my blood levels are off and then, when I’m genuinely freaked out, you suggest that I move in with you and you actually expect me to jump at the chance to do it?”
“Well, I-” he started to explain, but she cut him off, clearly not done tearing into him yet.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Melanie said with a disbelieving laugh that kind of killed his ego a little bit there, and unfortunately, she wasn’t done. “Because of you, I’ve had to handle the last six months on my own when you should have been by my side, holding my hand and telling me that everything was going to be okay. Instead, I had to handle this on my own, because my doctor was worried about how the stress from telling you that I was pregnant was going to affect the baby,” she said, confirming his suspicions of why she’d kept the news from him, which also confirmed his opinion that her doctor was a fucking idiot.
“I wish you would have told me, Melanie,” Aidan said quietly, knowing that it wasn’t enough.
“Really? So that you could have passed me off to your dad sooner?” she asked, blinking up at him as he tried not to wince.
“I can’t be your doctor, Melanie,” he said, hoping that she would understand.
“Oh, I understood that. What I don’t understand was how you could promise to hold my hand one minute and the next, you pulled a disappearing act and left me to sit in that room by myself, scared out of my mind that something’s wrong with my baby!” she snapped, her voice breaking at the end there as the first tear rolled down her cheek.
“I…” Aidan began only to shake his head, disgusted with himself. “I keep fucking this up,” he groaned, rubbing his hands roughly down his face.
“And that’s exactly why I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to move in. You told me that I needed to go on bed rest, which means that I am going to need help, not someone who breaks his promises.”
“I’m sorry, Melanie,” Aidan said, rubbing the back of his neck with a weary sigh and wondering why he kept fucking up every time he was near her. “I wasn’t abandoning you on purpose. While my father was with you, I was tearing through your file, making phone calls, and running tests. I wanted to make sure that you and the baby were okay, but I only ended fucking this up again.
When she hesitated, he continued.
“I understand that you don’t like me, and I don’t blame you. I’ve given you enough reason to hate me, but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re having a baby and we owe it to him to get to know each other so that we can do this right. I think the best way for us to do that is for you to move in,” Aidan said, only to rush to continue when she opened her mouth to cut him off. “You can’t do this on your own and I know that you have friends and family that you can count on to help you. I also know that I don’t have any right to ask, especially after the way that I treated you, but I would really like a chance to make this up to you and to prove that I’m not an asshole.”
When she didn’t immediately tell him to go fuck himself, Aidan took that as a win and pressed his luck. “And if it doesn’t work out, then we’ll figure something else out, but I would really like the chance to be there for you and the baby,” Aidan said, promising her everything short of marriage.
He didn’t love her, didn’t know much about her other than the fact that she had a smile that had once driven him out of his fucking mind. It wasn’t enough to build a lifetime on. Even though he’d been raised to do the right thing and that meant marrying her, he couldn’t do it, not when it meant doing something that he swore that he would never do for all the wrong reasons.
Unlike the rest of the men in his family, Aidan didn’t want to get married and have a family, and he did whatever it took to make sure that it never happened. He didn’t form attachments, take unnecessary risks, or come within ten feet of any woman that could tempt him into wanting more.
Until Melanie.
“Please, Melanie. Give this a chance,” Aidan said, praying that it was enough when she shook her head with a sigh of resignation and said, “I know that I’m going to regret this.”
“But you’ll give this a chance?” he asked, holding his breath as he waited for her answer, surprised to realize just how badly he wanted her to stay.
“Fine, I’ll give it a chance,” Melanie said, giving him a look that told him just how many more chances she was willing to give him after this.
Absolutely none and he couldn’t blame her, which meant that he was going to have to do everything he could to make sure that he didn’t f
uck this up again.
Chapter 7
Don’t look!