“God, you were fucking devious,” Aidan said, unable to help but smile as she took his hand in hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze as she admitted, “Still am.”
“That’s good to know,” he said, glancing back at the line to find that it stopped again.
“I can see that it would be,” Melanie murmured in agreement before she asked, “Why didn’t you want children, Aidan?”
When he didn’t say anything because he had no idea what to say, she said, “Rebecca and I weren’t allowed to be in the same class, so I would just go to her class every morning and sit with her at her desk until the school got sick of trying to separate us and let us stay together.”
“My parents tried to enforce their rule of no sleepovers on a school night for a while, but then they met Rebecca’s parents and decided that those rules didn’t apply to us. They even put an extra bed in my room and pretty much adopted her by the time that she turned ten. She stayed mostly with us, spent holidays and vacations with us and her parents really didn’t care. I’m pretty sure that if my parents had asked to adopt her that they would have said yes, but Rebecca didn’t want that. I think she always thought that they’d come around one day.”
“Some people aren’t meant to be parents,” Aidan said quietly.
“No, they’re not,” she murmured in agreement before asking, “Is that why?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head.
“Then why?”
“Because I knew that I would never be as good as my parents and I couldn’t stomach the idea of giving my children anything less than what I had,” he explained only to frown when she said, “You’re an idiot.”
“What?” Aidan asked, glancing down at her.
Nodding, she said, “You’re definitely an idiot,” with a heavy sigh that had him narrowing his eyes.
“I’m just as surprised as you are,” Melanie said with a sad shake of her head before once again adding, “But you’re definitely an idiot.”
When he continued to glare, she said, “You’re going to be an incredible father,” shrugged, and then mumbled sadly, “I wish they had pie.”
That was followed by, “Or cake. God, I could really go for a slice of cake.”
When she worried her bottom lip and glanced at the line of stores on the other side of the street, no doubt looking for any signs that would indicate that they sold cake, he found himself saying something that he should have said a long time ago.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Melanie mumbled absently as she continued searching for that cake, looking really fucking hopeful.
“I never should have talked to you the way that I did. Even as I was saying it, I wished that I could stop and take it back. I have no fucking idea why I did it other than the fact that you scare me, Melanie. Have from the first moment that I met you and when I realized just how badly I’d fucked up, I panicked. There’s no excuse for it and if I could go back and take back every word that I said that morning, I would. I am so sor-” Aidan said, only to cut himself off with a groan when she grabbed hold of his shirt and pulled him down for a kiss that had him struggling to remember where they were.
Without a word, Melanie tightened her hold on his shirt as she stepped back, taking them out of line and leaving him with no other choice but to go with her, terrified that if he stopped kissing her that-
“Oh, my god! Look who it is!” a painfully familiar voice said, reluctantly drawing their attention.
As they broke off the kiss, Aidan kept his eyes locked with Melanie’s, letting her know that this was far from over. After a slight hesitation, they broke apart, but he didn’t let her go far. He took her hand in his and ran his thumb over the back of her hand as they faced her sister.
“Oh, my god! It is you! What are you guys doing here?” Caitlyn asked as she grabbed onto Adam’s arm with an excited smile while Adam stood there, glaring at Melanie and looking seriously pissed off for a man that was engaged to another woman.
“We were going to see a movie,” Melanie said, moving closer to him with a wince as she placed her hand on her belly and-
“Oh, thank god,” she mumbled a few seconds later when he placed his hand on her belly, instantly calming their son, who apparently wasn’t fond of his aunt. Not that he could blame him, Aidan thought even as he couldn’t help but notice that Adam’s glare had followed the move.
“You really should be back on bed rest, Melanie,” Caitlyn said, nodding.
“I’m fine,” Melanie said, placing her hand over his right around the time that the muscle in Adam’s jaw began to tick.
“What are you looking for?” Caitlyn asked, drawing his attention back to find Melanie once again searching for the cake that he was going to have to get for her.
“Cake,” she mumbled absently only to end up pouting when she didn’t find anything that looked promising.
God, she was just so fucking cute, Aidan thought unable to help but smile as he leaned down and kissed her cheek. “If we leave right now, we might be able to make it to Dixon’s before they close,” he said, smiling when Melanie suddenly turned and began waddling towards his car, dragging him behind her with a murmured, “Goodbye,” and-
“I really enjoyed talking to you last night, Aidan. I hope you were able to enjoy the dinner I made for you,” came the announcement meant to fuck him over.
Chapter 35
“When I was six years old my brothers convinced me that I could get cooties by taking a bath,” Aidan said as he opened the door for her and helped her out of the car when all Melanie wanted to do was go home and curl up with her blankets and forget the last hour ever happened.
“Of course, I didn’t believe them,” Aidan said, leading her around the front of the car where his headlights were lighting up the empty back parking lot of Dixon’s bakery. He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and placed it on the hood of his car as Brian McKnight’s “Anytime” began playing.
“So,” he said as he pulled her into his arms and began moving them slowly to the sounds of Brian McKnight singing one of her favorite songs, “they waited until I fell asleep before they proceeded to cover me in red paste that hardened overnight and left a rash. No matter what my parents said after that, they couldn’t convince me to take a bath. For about a month, I refused to go near water, which of course, my brothers found hilarious until my parents threatened to withhold dessert until I took a bath.”
“How long did it take for them to convince you to take a bath?” she found herself asking as he pulled her closer.
“I had about thirty seconds before they grabbed me and dragged me outside so that they could hose me down,” he said, making her lips twitch until he followed that up with, “I’m not interested in your sister’s bullshit or whatever fucked up game that she’s trying to play. I don’t want her, Melanie,” he said, making her chuckle without humor because that was eerily similar to what Adam used to say.
He used to say a lot of things, used to tell her that he loved her only…
He’d lied.
It made Melanie wonder if any of it had been real. It also made her wonder why she hadn’t care
d when Caitlyn started smiling when she saw Adam or why it never bothered her when Adam couldn’t seem to look away from her sister. But it bothered her when she saw the way that Caitlyn looked at Aidan tonight.
“And the little prick used to say all those things, didn’t he?” Aidan guessed correctly, sighing heavily as he-
“How about this? I want a woman who fucking adores carbs, hogs the bed, kicks me in her sleep, and has a generous ass that I can’t get enough of,” he said, making her smile until-
“Wait a minute,” Melanie said in gasped outrage when she realized what he said about her ass, but he wasn’t done.
“Is willing to violently attack me to get her hands on my food, hoards blankets, refuses to share food, is beyond fucking demanding in bed, and did I mention has a generous ass?”
Lips twitching, she said, “Yes, I believe it’s been mentioned.”
There was a heavy sigh and then, “It really should be mentioned. Now, where was I?”
“You were giving me reasons to kill you?” Melanie supplied dryly, which earned her a kiss on her forehead, somewhat appeasing her.
“Right,” Aidan said, nodding before adding, “she also needs to be too fucking stubborn to listen to reason, sneaky as hell, and she needs to drive me out of my fucking mind.”
“And that’s more important than having a generous ass?” Melanie found herself asking, loving the sound of his chuckle as he leaned down and kissed her only to glare when he mumbled, “No, the generous ass is definitely a deal-breaker.”
“You do realize that I’m probably going to lose weight after the baby is born, right?” Melanie felt the need to point out.
“Are you planning on giving up carbs?” Aidan asked, sounding thoughtful.
“No.”
“Then I’m not really worried about it,” he said, making her smile as she felt herself relax in his arms.
“I’m glad to see that you have your priorities straight,” Melanie said as he moved his hand to her belly as they continued dancing slowly.