“Goddamn it!”
-ended up covered in what looked like ranch dressing as Rylie, who really seemed to hate the large Bradford that went out of his way to piss her off, reached inside the bag with Black Jack’s written across it-
“Knows what?” Melanie asked, biting back a yawn as they watched Arik get hit in the chest with a large Caesar salad.
“That you’re in love with him,” Rebecca said, sounding bored as they watched Arik move to grab the bag away from Rylie only to rethink it, curse, and-
“Oh, come on!”
“He won’t let me tell him,” Melanie said, unable to help but smile as she glanced down at Cody, who was sitting in his bouncy chair, to find him turning his head so that he could watch his uncle try to duck out of the way of a large pizza only to smile around his bottle when it nailed Arik in the chest.
“I see,” Rebecca said, sounding thoughtful before she asked, “and that seems normal to you?”
“Nothing about this is normal,” Melanie admitted, sighing heavily as she leaned over so that she could kiss Cody’s baby toes.
Keeping his eyes locked on his uncle, Cody wiggled the toes on his other foot in silent demand, making her lips twitch as she moved to kiss his other foot. He was such a sweet baby, Melanie thought, unable to help but smile as she watched him close his eyes and fall asleep with a small smile playing on his lips.
“True,” Rebecca murmured absently as she leaned back as they watched Arik trip over the curb to get away from Rylie’s food assault only to end up getting shoved to the ground, having the small woman that he should probably stop antagonizing straddle his stomach, grab a handful of fries, and shove it in his face.
“I’m scared,” Melanie finally admitted.
“Because of Adam?” Rebecca asked, sighing heavily.
“Yes,” she said only to frown when Rebecca closed her eyes and said, “Please, tell me that you’re not still in love with that asshole.”
“It’s not that,” Melanie said, shaking her head with a sigh as she moved to take Cody’s bottle away only to have her son open his eyes, glare, grab hold of his bottle, and commence suckling as his attention once again went to Arik as Rylie shoved one last handful of fries in his face before she got up, muttered something that had Arik’s eyes narrowing dangerously on her as she grabbed her delivery bag and stormed off.
“That doesn’t really answer my question,” Rebecca said as she got up and walked over to the outside faucet, turned on the water, and-
“Goddamn it, woman!”
-began hosing Arik off as she waited for an answer, one that Melanie wasn’t sure how to give her.
“No, I don’t love him. I don’t even think that I like him to be honest,” Melanie said, moving over so that Arik, who was now completely drenched, could storm past her and head inside where he would most likely spend the rest of the night trying to come up with a way to get back at the small woman that was providing them with countless hours of entertainment.
“And you’re afraid that you’ll end up hating Aidan, too,” Rebecca guessed as she tossed the hose aside and joined her on the front step.
“No, I’m afraid that he’ll end up hating me,” Melanie said with a sad smile as Rebecca wrapped her arm around her and-
“Please don’t make me kill you,” her best friend said, giving her shoulder a comforting squeeze that she really didn’t find all that comforting at the moment.
“Is there a reason why you’re threatening me, waddles?” Melanie asked, turning her head so that she could watch her best friend’s eyes narrow dangerously on her.
“I don’t waddle.”
“Not yet…”
“I really do hate you,” Rebecca said, nodding solemnly.
“The feeling is mutual,” Melanie said, unable to help but smile when Rebecca glared.
“Don’t screw this up because of what Adam did. Aidan is nothing like him and would never hurt you,” Rebecca said, giving her shoulder another squeeze that had her frowning.
“I didn’t think you liked Aidan.”
Rebecca dropped her arm away and grabbed her drink as she cleared her throat and mumbled, “I may have, ummm, underestimated him.”
“What makes you say that?” Melanie asked, watching as Rebecca threw a nervous glance over her shoulder.
“Many things,” was all Rebecca said as she took a sip of her drink.
“You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
“I’d really rather not talk about it if that’s okay with you,” Rebecca mumbled as she started to look over her shoulder again, rethought it, cleared her throat, and said, “Stop overthinking this and tell the man that you love him so that you can put him out of his misery.”
Chapter 40
Maybe this was a bad idea?
Definitely a bad idea, Melanie decided as she glanced around the empty waiting room and decided that it was a bad idea to bother Aidan at work. Definitely a bad idea, she thought, worrying her bottom lip as she glanced over at the white door that led to the back and found herself shifting nervously in her seat as she slowly exhaled.
She could do this.
She could definitely do this, Melanie told herself, following that up with a firm nod only to realize that she was shaking her head and eying the exit again. That was followed by telling herself that she was overthinking this and decided that as soon as Aidan opened that door that she was going to tell him just how much she loved him and-
“I told Dr. Bradford that you were waiting,” the very friendly receptionist said with a warm smile before she closed the privacy glass and Melanie decided that she should probably go since she was a coward.
Decision made, she grabbed the brown paper bag filled with takeout from Aidan’s favorite burger place that she’d picked up hoping to distract him, carried it over to the receptionist desk, placed it on the counter with, “Can you please give this to Aidan. I um, have to go,” before quickly making her way back to her seat, threw her bag over her shoulder, grabbed Cody’s car seat, noted that he was still asleep, and rushed out the door, only to sigh in relief when she spotted her car, and-
“What are you doing here?” came the unexpected demand that had her berating herself for not moving her ass faster.
For a brief moment, Melanie considered asking her sister what she was doing here, but since she really didn’t care…
“I can’t believe you turned out to be such a bitch,” Caitlyn said, somehow managing to say the one thing that would make Melanie slowly turn around, telling herself that there was no way that she could have heard her sister correctly, not after everything that she’d put her through over the years.
“I’m sorry, what was that?” Melanie found herself asking.
“I really just don’t understand how you could do that to someone,” Caitlyn said, shaking her head in disgust.
“Who am I doing what to?” Melanie asked, glancing down at Cody to make sure that he was still-
“Trying to force Aidan to marry you,” Caitlyn snapped, making her frown.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Melanie said since they’d never even talked about getting married, something that she’d been afraid that he would insist on when she was pregnant. As much as she loved Aidan and would love to spend the rest of her life with him, she couldn’t marry him because of Cody.
“You are so full of shit! You got pregnant on purpose to get back at me.”
“No, I didn’t,” Melanie said, shaking her head because she would never do something like that.
“Do you really think that I’m the only one that figured it out? It wasn’t difficult to count back nine months and figure out what happened,” Caitlyn snapped, shaking her head in disbelief. “I get that you weren’t happy about finding out about Adam and me, but going out and getting pregnant on purpose to try to get back at us is just pathetic. It’s been three years, Melanie, you really need to move on and get over it. Adam wasn’t in love with you, hadn’t been for a long time
, and every time he tried to tell you, you went out of your way to make him feel bad so that he stayed until he finally got sick of you and now, you’re doing the same thing to Aidan.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Melanie said, shaking her head as she forced herself to turn around and head to her car, afraid that she would finally give in to urge to slap her sister, something that she’d promised her parents that she would never do no matter how much Caitlyn pissed her off.
But god, did Caitlyn have it coming…
“Oh, but I really do. When I was walking to the exam room to get my checkup, I heard Aidan and his father talking in his office. He’s going to ask you to marry him because you got pregnant and he wants to do the right thing. He doesn’t deserve to be used like this. You need to do the right thing and let him go. This just isn’t right.”
“He loves me,” Melanie said firmly, reminding herself that Caitlyn was just trying to cause problems because that’s what she did.
That’s what she always did.