Chuckling, he said, “Not even a little bit.”
*-*-*-*
“I demand to see the rule book,” Melanie said, crossing her arms over her chest as she narrowed her beautiful blue eyes on him as he finished his burger.
“We discussed this,” Aidan lied, mostly because he felt that it would be in his best interest if they moved away from this subject.
“We really didn’t,” she said with a sad shake of her head as she plucked a dessert menu off the table.
“We really did, though,” he said as he followed suit and grabbed a menu, hoping to change the subject but the beautiful woman across from him refused to let it go.
“Can you really start telling me something and then stop? Doesn’t that go against the rules?” she asked, throwing him a teasing smile that he liked a little too much.
“I changed my mind.”
“Can you really do that though?” Melanie asked, looking thoughtful.
“It’s in the rule book,” Aidan said, admittedly pleased that she was smiling and seemed comfortable with him again.
For a moment there, he’d been worried that they were going to have to start over and they didn’t have time for that, not with a baby on the way. He had less than two months to figure out how to make this work and he couldn’t afford any delays. He might not have planned on having a family, but he had one now and he was going to do everything within his power to make this work.
He wanted to be part of his son’s life and he didn’t want to have to go through the courts to make that happen. He wanted to be able to see his son whenever he wanted, wanted to be there for birthdays, holidays, and everything in between. He didn’t want to have to settle for seeing his son every other weekend, alternate holidays, and argue over who was going to have him in the summer. He wanted to be there for his son, making sure that he was taken care of and knew that he was loved, and he wanted to do this with Melanie.
They were in this together.
When Trevor’s dad stopped coming around, Aidan had only been four years old, but he remembered the look on his cousin’s face whenever his father was mentioned. He remembered those times when Trevor’s father actually showed up to family events, the screaming over visitation and child support, the crying, and the way that it had destroyed his Aunt Sarah.
She’d struggled to raise Trevor on her own, worked two jobs to keep food on the table, and had bent over backwards to do everything to make it work for Trevor. She’d pleaded with Trevor’s father to show up and held Trevor when he didn’t. They’d struggled and Aidan didn’t want that for his son. He didn’t want his son to hate him or cry when he wasn’t there, wondering what he did wrong, and he sure as hell didn’t want to be the reason Melanie cried.
“Can you produce this rule book?” Melanie asked, propping her chin on her fist as she considered her options for dessert.
“I’m afraid that you’re going to have to trust me,” he said, debating between the chocolate cake and pumpkin pie.
“Then I’m afraid that you’re going to have to tell me why you had a Jonas Brothers poster on your bedroom wall when you were fifteen,” she said with a sad shake of her head and a heartfelt sigh.
“What if I just bought you one of every dessert instead?” Aidan said, hoping to use her love of carbs against her.
Without missing a beat, Melanie said, “Make it two,” letting him know that they were going to get along just fine.
Chapter 19
A Week Later…
“Veto,” Melanie said with a heavy sigh, wondering when he was going to start taking this seriously.
“What’s wrong with Gage?” Aidan asked as he settled back against the side of the tub as he shifted his attention to the stack of patient files next to him.
“Pet Semetary,” she said as she settled back in the tub, enjoying the hot water as it slowly worked its magic on her sore muscles and swollen feet.
“Are you going to keep vetoing names based on movies and television?”
“Yes, yes, I am,” Melanie said, feeling her lips twitch when he released another long-suffering sigh.
“You’re high maintenance, woman.”
“I have been told that,” Melanie admitted as she closed her eyes and felt herself relax.
“What do you think of Chris?” Aidan asked.
“As in Chris Hemsworth?” she asked only to sigh wistfully when she thought of the incredibly hot actor that-
“Veto,” Aidan bit out, making her frown.
“Wait. You’re vetoing your own suggestion?” she asked, opening her eyes to find him staring down at the file in his lap.
“Yes,” he murmured absently as he picked up another file.
“What if I vetoed your veto?” she couldn’t help but wonder.
“I’d veto that,” Aidan said, making her chuckle.
“What about Drew?” Melanie asked as she reached for the apple juice he got for her and took a sip.
“Drew Bradford?” Aidan murmured, testing the name and…
Melanie realized that she was going to have a different last name than her son. It was something that she’d never really thought about until now. She’d always thought she would meet the right man who would sweep her off her feet, they’d fall in love, get married, have a family, and grow old together, but that hadn’t happened. It might never happen, she realized, unable to help but smile as she felt her baby boy push against her stomach.
“You like Drew, baby boy?” she asked, placing her hands on her belly, chuckling when he pushed against her hands.
“Does he like it?” Aidan asked, shifting so that he could reach back and place his hand over hers without looking, respecting their unspoken agreement that allowed her to take a bath without dying of mortification.
“I think he does,” Melanie said, smiling.
“Then Drew Bradford, it is.”
*-*-*-*
“Why are we watching this?” Aidan couldn’t help but wonder as the small woman bundled up in a shitload of blankets next to him absently took a bite of the blueberry cake donut that he’d been eying for the past hour.
“Research,” Melanie said absently with a nod that had him looking from her to the crime show that they were binge-watching and back again.
“Research?” he repeated only to sigh with relief when he saw what time it was.
“Time for another walk,” Aidan said, hitting pause before tossing the remote aside.
“But I didn’t find out why the acid didn’t work on the body yet,” she said with a disappointed sigh as she reluctantly saved what she was working on before closing her laptop so that he could set aside the laptop table that he’d picked up for her yesterday when it became apparent that her old one wasn’t pregnancy-friendly.
“You’ll just have to wait until after your walk,” Aidan said even though there was no way in hell that he was going to be able to sit through four more hours of this.
“Fine,” Melanie mumbled with an adorable pout as she pushed the blankets off, carefully got to her feet and waddled towards the bedroom to put her shoes on as he found his gaze lowering to her generous ass and-
He forced his attention back to the article that he was reading, reminding himself that sex wasn’t an option, something that Aidan had to remind himself at least a hundred times a day. He didn’t think that it was a good idea to cross that line, not if he wanted this to work. It didn’t matter how good she felt in his arms at night or how much he’d thought about her since that night, she was off-limits. Unfortunately, even knowing that nothing was going to happen didn’t stop him from thinking about that night