But if there was a time, this was it.
The idea of this guy being in her life. Taking my place. No. Fuck no.
I was the father. This was my kid. Maybe. I hoped. Probably.
“Aria,” I gritted out. Did she not see me coming out of my skin here?
Another glare for me. Another pained smile for Andy. “Have a merry Christmas.”
“You too.” Andy backed away and, finally, turned and disappeared down a hallway.
Leaving me and Aria in the middle of a hotel lobby to stare at one another.
She did look awful. Worse than awful.
And beautiful.
I’d had a hard time getting her off my mind since the wedding. For two months, I’d done my best to return to normal life. Work had been busy and I’d used it as an escape. But in the dark hours, when I was at home alone, I’d find myself in the kitchen, wishing those flowers she’d stolen hadn’t died.
She’d been right. They had added some life to the house.
Her scent, floral and sweet, had disappeared from my bedroom the morning after she’d left. Ron was too good at his job at times and had washed my sheets while I’d been in the shower. But I could still picture Aria in my bed, sleeping soundly with the slightest smile on her face.
When I closed my eyes, her silky hair greeted me first. Then her eyes. Those molten, chocolate eyes with the fiery flecks. Next came her coy smile. The one she’d flashed me countless times at the wedding.
Aria Saint-James was impossible to escape.
And now she was pregnant. With my baby.
Pregnant.
I’d been playing that word in my head, over and over. Rolling it around. Testing its severity. For three hours during the flight, I’d mentally repeated it on loop. It was so . . . enormous. Eight letters that had changed my life.
The concept was too much. Too big. So I’d deal with a smaller one first.
“Who is that?” I nodded in the direction where Andy had disappeared.
“Andy is my boss.”
“He’s in love with you.”
“No, he isn’t.” She rolled her eyes. “He has a little crush on me. Nothing more. It’s awkward but temporary.”
Temporary. Clearly, she didn’t realize the depth of Andy’s feelings. Or that nothing about her rendered temporary. Aria had a lasting effect. She walked into your life and you struggled to remember what it had been like before you’d seen that first smile.
“Why did you come here, Brody?”
“You’re . . .” I gulped.
“Pregnant.”
That word was like a bullet racing out the barrel of a gun. By some miracle, my knees didn’t buckle. Hearing it from her lips, watching them form the word, there was no denying it. That didn’t stop me from asking a dumb question.
“You’re sure?”
“Uh, yeah.” Another eye roll. “Why would I lie?”
Because it wouldn’t be the first time a woman had tried. But Aria had moral fiber. She wouldn’t understand that a child with me meant the payday of a lifetime. “And it’s—”
“If you ask me if it’s yours, I will cut your balls off and string them on the Christmas tree.”
I held up a hand. “That’s not what I was going to say.”
“Oh.”
“It’s okay? Healthy? You’re okay?”
She dropped her gaze to the shiny marble floor. “I’m tired. I feel like shit. Probably why I look awful, as you so graciously pointed out.”
“Sorry.” I dragged a hand over my bearded jaw.
“What are you doing here, Brody?” she asked again.
“I’m in a little bit of shock. I had to make sure.”
“A phone call would have sufficed. Or you could have not hung up on me in the first place.”
Not an option. The moment her announcement had set in, I’d had to see her. In person. I’d had to watch with my own eyes as my ears heard the word come from her lips.
Aria was pregnant. The truth settled into my bones. The world that had been spinning in one direction suddenly shifted, spinning on an entirely different axis. One that was centered around the life growing inside her.
There was a lot of shit to figure out.
“Join me for dinner.”
“I just ate.”
I checked my watch. “At four o’clock?”
She shrugged. “I eat when I’m hungry. That doesn’t happen all the time, so I take advantage.”
“Coffee? Decaf. Please.”
“What do you want, Brody?” Her frame slumped. Her voice held so much exhaustion, all I wanted was to scoop her up and tuck her into my bed for the rest of the week.
“To talk. I want to talk.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “I was just on my way home.”
“Lead the way.”
She gave me the side-eye, then shrugged on her coat. I followed close behind as she walked past me and out the front doors.
I fell into step beside her on the sidewalk, keeping up with her brisk pace. The cold air bit into my ears and nose. Where was her car?
Aria kept walking, following the curve of the street. I expected her to stop at one of the parking lots, but she kept on going.
Then we changed directions after a few blocks, starting up a side street. Step by silent step, we made our way farther and farther from the hotel and the sound of the ocean.
She shouldn’t be walking, not when she was this tired. Not at this hour. The sun was beginning to set. In an hour, it would be almost dark. Even now, the light was dim enough to mute the colors of the homes we passed.
The leaves had fallen from the trees, their limbs bare. The grassy lawns looked to have been frozen a time or twelve. It was just . . . cold. The damp chill from the humid air seeped through my suit coat and made me shiver. I clenched my teeth to keep them from chattering.
It was too cold for her to be walking every night. Alone.
“Why don’t you have a car?”
“I haven’t bought one since leaving the Cadillac with Clara. Besides, I like to walk.”
I opened my mouth, ready to debate the safety merits of her preferred method of transportation, but I stopped myself first.
Aria would argue. I would argue. It was what we did. And tonight, with so many other important topics looming, this wasn’t the argument we needed to have. So I closed my mouth and kept pace with her as she navigated us toward a two-story row of condos.
There was no need to ask which condo in the row was hers. Even in winter, she had plants on her porch while the other three condos had nothing surrounding their front doors.
Aria had two potted trees, their evergreen boughs trimmed precisely to a point. A row of red lights had been wrapped around them in a perfect spiral. Yellow lights, draped from the porch’s beam, decorated the space. In the corner, a huge pot held a bush. Its red holly berries decorated the thick green leaves.
Aria slid her key in the door’s lock and pushed inside. One step past the threshold and her scent enveloped me. Sweet flowers. A hint of vanilla. Aria. I dragged in a long breath and let the warmth of her home chase away the chill.
She shrugged off her coat, taking it into the living room and tossing it on the back of a cream couch. Inside was like stepping into another world. Sheer white curtains covered the dark windows. There were plants everywhere, most varying shades of green but some with flowers. Red and pink poinsettias decorated the dining table. A bouquet of yellow roses flourished on the kitchen counter. With the light walls and neutral furniture shades, it was like a bungalow tucked away on a quiet island.