“Did Lucifer ever tell you that I used to have a speech impediment?”
“Not right now, Aidan,” Melanie said, wiping angrily at her face as he pushed away from the door and crossed the room.
“It was actually pretty bad. I couldn’t form a coherent sound until I was four and that was after two years of speech therapy. All the specialists told my parents that they should probably start looking into special needs schools and resign themselves to the fact that I would probably never be able to talk,” Aidan began as he joined her at the window.
“My parents refused to give up on me. Every day my mother would wake me up with a smile and told me just how much she loved me. Then she would spend the rest of the day talking, just talking about anything and everything so that I could hear how sounds were made. She’d talk about her day, share random thoughts, read everything she could get her hands on out loud for me, cookbooks, brochures, signs, the disturbing notes my brothers’ teachers sent home, and when she ran out of things to talk about, she’d start all over again. At the end of the night, she would tuck me in bed, beyond fucking exhausted, and tell me that she loved me again.”
“My brothers would help, too. They’d read their comic books to me, tell me about their day, and tell me how they were going to fuck each other over,” he said, noting how her lips twitched as she wiped away the last of the tears.
“As soon as my father came home, he’d pick up where my mother left off. He’d throw me over his shoulder and start telling me about his day, the cases that he had, the medicine that he’d prescribed and why. The days that he filled in at the emergency room were my favorite. He’d tell me the best way to do a suture, the things to watch out for, and the tricks he’d taught himself to keep his hand steady. I decided before I could talk that I wanted to be a doctor.”
“By four, I could choke out sounds and by the time I started school, I could mumble gibberish that my mother swears to this day that she could understand. My teachers tried to work with me, but they’d end up getting frustrated and would ask me to lay my head down on my desk whenever they couldn’t understand me.”
“What about the kids?” Melanie asked as they stared out the window.
“The ones in my class were fine. The principal had a talk with them on the first day of school and asked them to try to be understanding. They took that as leave me alone. The other kids weren’t so understanding. For the most part, they left me alone because of my brothers, but-”
“Kids can be cruel,” she said softly.
“Yes, they can. They mocked me every time I made the mistake of opening my mouth and made my life a living hell. It made me work harder, made me desperate so that every night I would come home and practice my sounds until I passed out. I thought it was helping, but it actually made everything worse. I mangled sounds, struggled to get them out, and started to get more frustrated.”
“No one in my family said anything. They acted like it was no big deal, so I never realized that I was saying my brother Christopher’s name wrong until the kids at school said something. I called him Lucifer and when they made the mistake of making fun of me for it, he beat the shit out of them and told them that it was his name,” Aidan said with a fond smile, still remembering the way his brother corrected anyone that got it wrong, even the principal. That had been a fun phone call for their parents.
“What happened after that?” Melanie asked, glancing up at him.
“I stopped talking,” Aidan said with a sad smile as he reached over and gently caressed her cheek, wiping away the last tear.
“Why?” Melanie asked as he stood there, wondering why he’d never noticed just how beautiful her eyes were before.
“I tried to give up, but Lucifer wouldn’t let me. Every day, he’d drag me out of bed early, sat me down at the table with a bowl of Lucky Charms and one of Kenzie’s baby books and worked with me until I started talking again. It’s the reason why if you hadn’t chosen him to be Drew’s godfather, I would have,” Aidan said as he caressed her cheek, wondering if he’d ever felt anything this soft before just as his mind wandered to that night again.
As he stood there, caressing her cheek, Aidan told himself that it didn’t matter what happened that night, but even knowing that it was a mistake, he found himself moving closer, unable to help but wonder if he’d told her how beautiful she was, if he’d taken his time to run his hands over her body, or if he’d-
“I don’t remember what happened that night.”
Chapter 23
“What?” the man gently caressing her cheek, asked.
Licking her suddenly dry lips, Melanie found herself admitting, “I don’t remember what happened that night, Aidan, but I know why I drank too much and went out with a man that I barely knew.”
“Your sister,” he guessed, only…
“Adam,” she said, watching as understanding dawned as he dropped his hand away with a nod.
“You’re in love with him,” Aidan said, rubbing the back of his neck as he turned away from her with a curse.
“I thought he was the love of my life,” Melanie said with a sad smile, knowing that she’d been wrong. While Adam had been telling her that he loved her, he’d apparently been doing the same with her sister.
Four years…
“What changed that?” Aidan asked, watching her as he leaned back against a beautifully polished bureau with his initials carved into an intricate design across the top board.
“Caitlyn,” she said with a careless shrug.
“How long were you with him?” he asked, pulling his tie loose.
“Since I was sixteen and it ended three years ago. I didn’t know they were together until-”
“That night,” he finished for her with a nod of understanding before adding, “I was the rebound.”
“I’m sorry, Aidan,” Melanie said, having absolutely no idea what else there was to say to make this right.
If she hadn’t reacted to the news the way that she had or said yes when she normally would have said no, they wouldn’t be in this situation and Aidan-
“You make me nervous.”
“What?” Melanie asked, unable to help but frown as she watched him push away from the bureau with a nod.
“You make me nervous, Melanie. Have from the start. I don’t normally have problems talking to women, never have, but you…” Aidan said softly with a slow shake of his head, “you make me nervous and I have no fucking idea why. You’re the reason why I wanted to give Rebecca the news at home because I wanted to see you.”
“You did?” she found herself asking as she watched him walking towards her, biting back a wince when their baby boy chose that moment to kick her, demanding attention.
“Yes,” Aidan said softly as he placed his hands on her large belly and gently ran his hands in a soothing motion, instantly calming their baby boy. For a moment, neither one of them said anything as he continued gently caressing her belly and then, “I made a lot of mistakes that night, Melanie, and if I had to do it over again, I would do things differently, but I would have still asked you out.”
“Why?” Melanie asked, watching as he slowly looked up to meet her gaze.
“Because you make me nervous,” Aidan said as his gaze dropped to her mouth and-
“Dinner’s ready,” came the announcement that drew her attention to the doorway to find his father leaning back against the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest, watching them.
With an unreadable look in his eye, Aidan gave her belly one last caress before dropping his hands and stepped away from her as his attention once against returned to that large bay window overlooking the front yard. Frowning, she glanced back at Ethan as he stepped into the room with a reassuring smile and a, “We’ll be right down.”
Not sure what else she was supposed to do, Melanie nodded as she headed downstairs and immediately wished that she’d stayed upstairs when she saw who was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs.
Adam.
/> *-*-*-*
“You can’t fuck this up, Aidan,” his father said, sighing heavily as Aidan stood there, absently nodding.
“Trust me, I know,” he said, rubbing his hands roughly down his face, wondering what the hell was wrong with him.
For the past month and a half, he’d been careful around her, trying not to do or say anything that would make this more difficult than it had to be and then tonight…
“She deserves better than to be toyed with,” his father said as he joined Aidan by the window.
“I’m not toying with her,” Aidan said, shaking his head because he might not know what the hell he was doing, but he knew that this wasn’t a game to him.
“Then what are you doing?” his father asked, throwing him a curious look.
“I honestly have no fucking idea,” Aidan said even as he had to admit that he was wondering about that himself.
“Do you want her?”
“God, yes,” he said, wishing like hell that he didn’t.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Drew,” Aidan explained, slowly exhaling as he leaned against the windowsill.