“I can do that,” Melanie said, nodding solemnly.
“Don’t overdo it and take naps when you’re tired, but I think it would be in your best interest and the baby’s if you were more active. Go for walks, go swimming, keep it simple, but your best bet is sex,” Roger murmured absently.
“Sex?” Melanie asked, frowning in confusion.
“It should alleviate most of your problems with the added benefit of improving blood flow, recovering some muscle tone that you’ve lost while on bed rest, reduce stress, improve sleep, and help with some of your pain and discomfort as well as help strengthen your pelvic muscles, which is what we want,” Roger explained while Melanie sat there, once again avoiding looking in his direction.
“When’s the last time you had sex?” Roger asked, shooting Aidan a questioning look as Kenzie absently nodded with an, “I’m just gonna go wait out in the living room mostly because I really don’t want to know the answer to that question.”
When she left, everyone glanced at Rebecca as she popped another Hershey Kiss in her mouth with a mumbled, “I’m good where I am.”
“A little over seven months,” he reluctantly answered with a pointed look at Melanie’s belly.
“And before that?” Roger asked, looking back down at her labs.
“A year and a half,” Aidan admitted, having a bad feeling where this was going.
“And I assume that you’ve been tested?”
“I’m clean,” Aidan said, watching as Roger absently nodded before glancing down at his watch.
“There are a lot of benefits for sex during pregnancy, but it’s up to you, Melanie. Unprotected sex with the father is preferred because of the benefits from his sperm. I can email the articles to Aidan if you’d like to take a look at them. For right now, I think the most important thing is to get you off bed rest and get you moving again. I’d like to see you weekly at this point to keep an eye on your labs and to make sure that everything is progressing correctly,” Roger explained as he handed the iPad back to Aidan.
“O-okay,” Melanie mumbled weakly and just like that, Aidan knew that any progress that he’d made with her was gone.
Chapter 18
Maybe it was infected? Kenzie wondered as she stared down at the fresh bandage that she wrapped her arm in this morning. When it continued to itch, she decided that she should definitely run before Aidan could stick her with another needle. Decision made, she moved to get to her feet only to find herself gently pushed back down on the couch and the man that she couldn’t seem to get away from sitting down on the coffee table in front of her as he carefully began removing her bandage.
“What did you do this time?” Roger asked as she sat there, forcing herself not to think of all those things that she’d told herself to forget.
“Fell through a crawlspace,” Kenzie said, wondering how it was possible to hate someone this much.
Absently nodding, Roger removed the gauze pad and winced in sympathy when he saw the gash on her arm. “You’ve got to be more careful, Kenzie,” he murmured, gently turning her arm over so that he could get a better look.
“I’m fine,” she said, moving to pull her arm away only to have him tighten his hold around her arm and-
“Are you ever going to forgive me?” Roger asked as she found herself looking into the dark blue eyes that were going to haunt her for the rest of her life.
She opened her mouth to answer him only to find herself frowning when Rebecca answered for her. “Probably not,” her sister-in-law that really seemed to enjoy screwing with people’s heads said with a sad shake of her head.
“Then again,” Rebecca continued as she headed for the front door, “she doesn’t know that Missy lied in that letter and that you never touched her. Then there’s the fact that you only did what you did to save Reese from making the biggest mistake of his life because you felt guilty about that secret that we’re not supposed to be talking about.”
When Roger narrowed his eyes on her, Rebecca added, “Melanie doesn’t gossip. I was there, which is why I think you’re an idiot,” with a shrug as she walked out the door, making the decision that Kenzie had been struggling with for the past year easier.
It was time for her to leave and this time, she wasn’t coming back.
*-*-*-*
“I shaved my legs,” the man that she’d been trying to figure out how to explain, as politely as humanly possible of course, that she didn’t want to have sex with him, said.
“I’m sorry, what’s this now?” Melanie found herself asking, still not quite able to look at him at the moment because she actually did want to have sex.
Just not with him.
Okay, so that wasn’t entirely true, Melanie admitted to herself. It was just that she was fat, bloated, and…
She just…
She just couldn’t do it.
She couldn’t sleep with a man that she barely knew.
Okay, so clearly she could, Melanie thought, biting back a wince as she glanced down at her large belly, but that had been with the help of a lot of unidentifiable alcohol and a knee jerk reaction to finding out something that she really should have seen coming. Caitlyn wasn’t happy unless she got what she wanted. She’d been that way since they were kids.
If she saw something that she wanted, she’d do whatever it took to get it and unfortunately for everyone around her, Caitlyn usually wanted what someone else had. When they were little, that meant having to deal with tantrums, shouting, crying, and waiting until Caitlyn finally passed out when she held her breath until she got what she wanted. As she got older, she’d figured out how to get what she wanted without having to resort to tantrums. She’d learned how to get what she wanted with coy smiles, false flattery, and-
Melanie never thought that Caitlyn would do something like this to her. She should have known better, she thought with a sigh only to frown when she suddenly found herself looking down at the man helping her with her shoes.
“Umm, what are you doing?” Melanie couldn’t help but wonder.
“I considered waxing, but that just seemed like a lot of work,” Aidan said, instead of answering her.
“Umm, waxing?” Melanie asked as he finished tying her laces before standing up and helping her to her feet.
“Shaving seemed easier,” Aidan said absently as he took her hand in his and led her to the door.
“I’m sorry. I’m a little confused. Why are you telling me this?” Melanie asked as he handed her bag to her.
There was a heavy sigh and then, “It’s my next five things, woman. I’m really gonna need you to try to keep up here.”
Biting back a smile, Melanie asked, “And is there a reason why you shaved your legs?”
“My brothers are assholes,” he asked, opening the door for her.
“That’s what I heard,” she murmured, nodding solemnly as he led her to his car and helped her inside before closing the door.
“They convinced me that I had a better chance to get on the football team if I shaved my legs because it would make me faster,” Aidan explained as soon as he opened his door and climbed in.
“And did it help?” Melanie asked as she buckled in.