“My,” sniffle, “cupcake.”
“I’m really sorry,” he said, holding his hands up in surrender. “My name’s Arik and I’m an asshole.”
Sniffle, “I know,” Melanie said with a sad nod as she turned around and headed back inside, not really surprised when Arik followed her.
Deciding that she’d more than earned a break, Melanie sat down on the couch and curled up in her blankets. When he opened his mouth, most likely to apologize again, she simply raised her hand and pointed towards the kitchen. Frowning, Arik followed the gesture and-
“Oh, my god,” he said in a reverent whisper when he saw all the food.
“Timer’s about to go off,” Melanie said as she tried to get comfortable only to give up, struggle to get back to her feet and waddled towards her bedroom.
Thirty minutes later, she was curled up on her side where she decided that she would wait until Aidan came home so that he could-
“You’re clearly carrying a Bradford,” Arik said with a thoughtful expression on his face as he walked into the room with two plates overflowing with food and sat down on the bed next to her.
“Who are you?” he asked as he placed one of the plates down on the bed next to her.
“Melanie,” she said, picking up her fork and took a bite of fettuccini before adding, “Rebecca’s bitch,” making his lips twitch.
“And Aidan’s the father,” Arik guessed correctly as he reached over and helped himself to one of the bottles of water that Aidan left on the nightstand for her.
“Yes,” Melanie said, shifting her attention to one of the biscuits he’d buttered for her.
“Does my mother know?”
“Yes,” Melanie said only to wince when the baby kicked her, forcing her to try to sit up.
Without a word, Arik placed their plates on the nightstand and when she kept struggling to get comfortable, he grabbed the pillows from the other side of the bed and stuffed them behind her.
“And my mom’s pissed,” he correctly guessed while Melanie was forced to shift, wiggle, and groan as she tried to get comfortable.
“You could say that,” Melanie said, once again forced to give up trying to get comfortable and settled for lying there, sighing unhappily until another kick to her ribs had her once again moving, shifting, sighing, and shifting again.
“Are you comfortable?” Arik asked, sounding amused.
Now that he mentioned it…
Chapter 21
Are you going to tell me what you’re doing here?” Aidan asked when another minute went by and his eleven o’clock appointment continued to sit there, glaring at him.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Jason, his asshole cousin and the reason that he felt a migraine coming on, said in a harsh whisper.
“Look, Jason, I-”
“I can’t keep living like this,” Jason said with a sniffle.
“Like what?” Aidan asked, sighing heavily as he pinched the bridge of his nose even as he had to hand it to his father because the man definitely knew how to make his life a living hell.
While Aidan had been trying to make sure that Melanie had everything that she was going to need today, his father had been busy making sure that Aidan knew just how pissed he was. He’d switched out Aidan’s caseload and hand-selected every patient that Aidan had to see today, making sure to keep his schedule open later this afternoon to cover sick visits, lice, and walk-in emergencies that could be handled with an ice pack and a few Advil.
“I just need a moment,” the asshole that he got stuck with thanks to his father, said with a shuddering sigh as he wrapped his arms around himself.
“Please don’t make me kill you,” Aidan said, hoping that his cousin cut him some slack and got to the point because he honestly wasn’t sure that he could handle this today.
“You insensitive bastard,” Jason whispered with a sniffle before releasing a shuddering sigh as he raised his hand and pointed one damning finger towards the small woman sitting quietly in the corner where she was reading on her Kindle. “She’s trying to kill me!”
“We talked about this,” Haley said, not bothering to look up from her Kindle as she pushed her glasses back up her nose.
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Jason said with a sad shake of his head that had Aidan reaching for the small pack of Excedrin in his pocket that he’d grabbed when he’d realized who his next patient was.
“Take what?” Aidan asked as he pulled his cellphone out of his back pocket and checked to see if Melanie texted him only to bite back a groan when he saw the message waiting for him.
“All the dirty things she does to me,” Jason said with an accusing glare at Haley.
“This again?” Haley asked with a sad shake of her head and a bored sigh as she swiped to the next page.
“Yes, this again!” Jason snapped while Aidan popped the aspirin in his mouth and swallowed them dry.
Deciding to take advantage of his cousin’s bullshit, Aidan checked his schedule, noted that his next appointment had been canceled and that he didn’t have anything scheduled until two o’clock. That gave him enough time to take Melanie out for lunch, something that had him praying that his cousin took pity on him and cut the bullshit so that he could go see her.
“You’re overreacting,” Haley said, still not bothering to look up from her Kindle.
“Maybe we should let the doctor decide that.”
“Maybe you should tell me what’s going on,” Aidan countered, knowing that this could go on for a while.
“Happily,” Jason said with a glare at his wife before shifting his attention back to Aidan. “She’s pregnant and refuses to listen to reason,” Jason said, taking Aidan by surprise.
“You’re pregnant?” Aidan asked, glancing back at Haley to find her smiling that same smile that Melanie wore when she told him that they were having a boy. That smile told him everything that he needed to know. Melanie already loved their son and would do whatever it took to keep him happy and safe, which he was counting on.
“Yes, which means that she should be taking it easy and keeping her dirty little hands off me!”
“Did your doctor tell you to go on bed rest?” Aidan asked, glancing back at Jason to find the large bastard glaring at him.
“I don’t fucking care what he said. She should be resting,” Jason bit out.
“I see,” Aidan murmured as he glanced back at the cute little thing that had somehow managed to put up with his cousin’s bullshit for the last fifteen years and asked, “Are you having any problems?”
“Just him,” Haley said, gesturing lazily towards the man gasping in outrage.
“I’m the love of your life!”
“Well, I won’t really know that until my second husband,” she pointed out with a shrug and a sympathetic wince that had Aidan biting back a smile.
“Like you’d ever leave me.”
“At least, not without a backup plan,” Haley mumbled thoughtfully with another shrug.
“Oh, my god,” Jason said, shaking his head in disgust. “That’s been your plan all along, hasn’t it? You were just using me for my body!”
“Pretty much,” Haley said as a text alerted him to the fact that his reprieve was finally over.
*-*-*-*
“There’s no pleasing that woman!” his cousin Theo snapped as he stumbled out of Melanie’s room, struggling to pull his shirt on as Aidan stood there, wondering why his family was here.
Dropping his bag by the door, he took in his siblings and cousins sitting around Melanie’s apartment, the bags of food from the Fire & Brimstone and Dixon’s Bakery, and catering pans filled with food covering every available surface and found himself focusing back on Theo, who was now pouting in the corner with a plate of food in his hands.
Curious, Aidan headed towards the bedroom, ignoring Lucifer’s mumbled, “This just isn’t going to work for me,” as he walked past the nursery, the glares that his family was sending him, and found hi
mself wondering why his brothers were in bed with Melanie. Actually, what he was wondering was why Danny was half-naked in bed with Melanie in his arms.
“You know who we should call?” Kasey asked from where she was curled up in her husband’s arms next to the bastard that Aidan was going to kill.
“Roger,” Zoe, who was sitting on the floor between Trevor’s legs, said.
“God, can that man snuggle,” Kasey said with a dreamy sigh that had her husband glaring down at her.
“He really can,” Necie said, nodding in agreement as Aidan shifted his glare to Melanie and realized that she was struggling to get comfortable and looked beyond fucking exhausted.
“Get out,” Aidan said, already reaching for his tie as he toed off his shoes.