“Priorities are important,” Aidan said, gently caressing her belly as she laid her head against his chest and closed her eyes.
“They really are,” she murmured, smiling when he leaned down so that he could kiss the top of her head.
“You were wrong,” Aidan said after a slight pause.
“About what?”
“He wasn’t the love of your life.”
Chapter 36
“What did we talk about, woman?” Lucifer demanded as Melanie tried to get comfortable on the lounge chair that she’d been ordered not to move from, but her back was killing her.
“She’s going to kill him one day,” Rebecca said, sounding thoughtful as Melanie gave up trying to get comfortable and settled for watching as Lucifer’s mother glared at him.
“Probably,” Melanie agreed, biting back a wince when more pain shot down her back. Maybe she should go inside? she thought only to immediately dismiss the idea when she remembered that Caitlyn was still in there.
“Everything okay?” Rebecca asked, sending her another curious glance, something that she’d been doing since they arrived a few hours ago.
“Everything’s fine,” Melanie said, forcing a smile as she did her best to ignore the cramp tearing through her back.
“You’re not a very good liar,” Rebecca reminded her with a heavy sigh as she glanced around the large backyard filled with Bradfords, her family, and friends and sighed again. “Where is he?”
“Who?” Melanie asked, deciding that it was time to curl up on her side.
Yup, definitely time to lay on her side, she thought as the next cramp stole her breath.
“She’s right. You are a bad liar,” Joey, who’d joined them an hour ago only to promptly bury her nose in a book, said, not bothering to look up from her book as she turned the page.
Shawn, the teenage boy sitting on the ground between them playing Minecraft on his iPad and Joey’s BFF apparently, asked, “Why is she hitting him?” making them frown as they looked back at Lucifer.
“That’s gonna leave a mark,” Rebecca said, sounding bored as they watched Mary throw one last hamburger bun at Lucifer before storming off.
“This isn’t over, woman!” Lucifer called after his mother only to curse under his breath and turn to run when she abruptly stopped, turned around, and-
“That’s definitely going to leave a mark,” Melanie said, sucking in a breath when the next cramp tore through her back, making her really regret her decision to lie to Aidan and tell him that she was fine. When she felt the warm hand wrap around hers, she glanced over to find Shawn holding her hand as he stared down at the iPad in his lap and decided that she was definitely going to have to steal him because she could always use an extra BFF.
“I’m getting Aidan,” Rebecca said, moving to do just that only to sigh heavily and drop back down on her chair when Melanie said, “Don’t. I just overdid it this morning. It’s just a backache.”
Mary and Lucifer had worked so hard to throw them a baby shower and she didn’t want to ruin it. She also didn’t want to give Aidan another reason to fuss over her. Over the past week, he’d been fussing over her, taking care of her, and glaring, god the glaring was going to get him killed, every time she so much as lifted a finger to do anything.
Which was why she’d been forced to get up in the middle of the night so that she could rearrange all the baby clothes they’d picked out last week because she knew that he would never let her do it. At least, that’s how she’d explained why she was up at two in the morning to him when he found her sitting on the floor, surrounded by baby clothes, crying incoherently because they were all so cute. She was actually hoping that they could forget that moment ever happened, Melanie thought, biting back another wince.
“What are we supposed to do then?” Rebecca asked when another cramp tore through her back.
“Just…just distract me,” Melanie said, slowly exhaling.
There was another heavy sigh and then, “Fine. We’ll gossip.”
“I love gossip,” she felt the need to point out.
“I know you do, sweetie,” Rebecca murmured, joining her on the lounge chair so that she could reach over and take her other hand in hers. “Where should we start?” Rebecca asked, sounding thoughtful as Melanie forced herself to open her eyes so that she could consider their options.
When she saw the incredibly hot guy, and yes, he was somehow hotter than Aidan and Roger combined, that had stopped playing touch football with the rest of the Bradfords so that he could sit down and play tea with the cutest little girl that Melanie had ever seen, she nodded in his direction. “What’s his story?”
“Devin Bradford,” Rebecca said with a heartfelt sigh as a little boy walked over and dropped himself across Devin’s lap. “Single father of two, twins Dustin and Abbi. He owns Bradford Creations. They make furniture with secret compartments and specialize in creating hidden rooms. From what I heard, he doesn’t date and has absolutely no plans on changing his mind until the kids are adults.”
“Really?” Melanie asked, digesting that piece of information as she shifted her attention to Aidan’s brother, Garrett. “What about him?”
“He’s systematically torturing our neighbor out of revenge,” Joey said without bothering to look up.
“Hmm,” Melanie murmured as she shifted her attention to her right only to wince when she spotted Adam walking towards her and-
Gasped as she released the hands trying to comfort her, grabbed hold of the edge of the lounge chair, and screamed the only thing that she could think of as excruciating pain tore through her stomach.
*-*-*-*
“I think they’re planning on killing you,” Arik said, not really sounding like he cared as Aidan stood there, biting back a sigh as he tried to figure out something to say to them only to decide against it when Melanie’s brother Lucas, a Marine who was on leave so that he could be here for Cody’s birth and the seriously pissed off man that had explained in minute detail what he would do to him if Aidan even thought about hurting his sister, narrowed his eyes on him.
“They really do,” Duncan said, helping himself to the platter of sandwiches and not really sounding all that concerned.
“Not that you could really blame them,” his father said as he helped himself to the brownies as Aidan gave up trying to smooth things over with Melanie’s family and shifted his attention to Kenzie, who was in another glaring match with Roger. Neither one had said anything for the past hour, they just…glared.
“That’s getting creepy,” Connor, his cousin Rory’s husband, said as he helped himself to another brownie.
“It really is,” Trevor agreed as Reed grabbed the platter of vegetables and placed them back in the refrigerator with a murmured, “Joey can’t tolerate the sight of celery without getting sick,” making Aidan frown because-
“There you are!” came the announcement that had Melanie’s family muttering, “Jesus Christ,” and Aidan looking for the closest exit.
“What can I help you with, Caitlyn?” he asked only to bite back a curse when she plucked the plate out of his hand and began filling it.
“You shouldn’t have to do that. This is your day,” she said with a teasing smile that had his family sending him curious looks and her family shifting their glares to her.
“I’m fine,” Aidan said, grabbing another plate with a forced smile and started filling it with all of Melanie’s favorites, again.
“I was actually hoping to get a chance to talk to you. I-”
“Aidan!” came the pain-filled scream that had him dropping the plate on the floor and shoving his brothers out of the way so that he could race towards the back door with Melanie’s brother on his heels.
He shoved the back door open and-
“Aidan!”
He spotted Melanie curled up on the lounge chair where he’d left her, holding onto the side as she bit back another scream. He was across the lawn in seconds and-
“Drugs!”
Melanie demanded only to follow that up with, “I’d really like some drugs now!”
“I know you would, baby,” Aidan said with a sad smile, pushing her hair back as he placed his hand on her belly.
“T-take him out, Aidan,” she said on a pained gasp as she closed her eyes, blindly reached down, grabbed his hand, and-
Made him realize that it was time to move their asses when she forced him to bite back a grunt of pain when she squeezed his hand, hard. He waited until she was done before he leaned down and whispered, “Let’s get you out of here,” as he kissed her cheek.
There was a sniffle, and then, “Yes, please.”
“I’m going to pick you up now, okay?” Aidan said softly as he reached down and-
“I never fucking touched her!” came the announcement that had them all looking back towards the house as Kenzie stormed out of the house with Roger right behind her.
“Wait, I changed my mind,” Melanie said, licking her lips as she moved to sit up only to gasp in pain.
“Time to go,” Aidan said, picking her up carefully and headed towards the driveway as Kenzie stormed off in that direction as well with a, “I don’t care!”
“We need to talk about this,” Roger said, grabbing her arm to stop her and-
“Seriously. I-I’m good. Let’s just stay here and see where this goes,” Melanie said, sounding really fucking hopeful and making him chuckle as he leaned down and kissed her.
“Please?” Melanie said, watching as Kenzie yanked her arm free and-
“Stop walking away from me!” Roger snapped, which was followed by Kenzie giving him a one-finger salute as she headed towards her truck and-
“Goddamn it, Kenzie, I love you!”
“Seriously. I’m good. Just put me down anywhere,” Melanie said, absently gesturing towards the lawn as every Bradford within shouting distance watched Roger’s every move.
“You can’t keep walking away from this, Kenzie!”
“Watch me!”