“And the Bradford curse?” his father asked, throwing him a questioning look as he reached over and helped himself to Aidan’s fries.
“Doesn’t matter. She deserves better,” Aidan said because he wasn’t about to let two hundred years’ worth of bullshit ruin this.
He was going to do this right and that meant getting down on one knee and begging the woman that he couldn’t live without to marry him. He was done waiting. He’d been hoping that she realized just how much he loved her by now only to realize that he needed to show her. He’d fucked up every step of the way to this point and he refused to fuck this up, too.
“Bradfords don’t propose,” his father said, getting right to the point.
The men in his family didn’t believe in proposing because proposing meant that you were still thinking clearly and you weren’t out of your fucking mind in love. He loved Melanie. There was no doubt in his mind and as much as he would love to drag her in front of the nearest Justice of the peace and make her his, he couldn’t do that to her. She deserved it all, a proposal, her dream wedding that was going to cost him a fucking fortune, and a romantic honeymoon where he would show her just how much he loved her.
“This one does,” Aidan said, glancing down at his watch and realized that he needed to move his ass if he was going to get out of here early and have a chance to do this right.
“It won’t end well,” his father said, sighing heavily as he helped himself to the rest of Aidan’s fries.
“I can’t fuck this up too,” Aidan said, grabbing his stethoscope off his desk.
“Do you remember when you were little and I told you what happened when I made the mistake of asking your mother to marry me?”
“Yes,” Aidan said because it wasn’t something that he was likely to forget anytime soon.
While most families liked to tell scary stories around the fire, his family liked to share fucked up stories about all those times that a Bradford ignored the curse that had been haunting their family since his great-great-great-great-grandfather Robert made the mistake of pissing off his neighbor and all the fucked up things that happened when they did. He’d heard tales of what happened when Bradfords met the one, made the mistake of proposing, and all those terrifying tales of when they tried to take their wives on a honeymoon before their first anniversary.
When he was a child, those stories use to keep him up at night, having him deciding that he would never-
“I held back,” his father said, shrugging it off as he moved on to Aidan’s abandoned burger only to add, “Your mother didn’t think it was a good idea to tell you everything. She was afraid of scarring you kids for life or something,” at Aidan’s questioning look.
“How could it have been worse?” Aidan asked as a tingle of apprehension rode up his spine only to dismiss it because everything would be fine. He just needed to make sure that he was careful.
“You know that scar that your mother has across her right palm?”
“Yes,” Aidan said only to swallow hard when his father gave him a pointed look that had him wondering if this-
“I’m sorry, Dr. Bradford,” MaryAnne said, drawing his attention to his office door to find her holding up a patient file, “but you have a new patient waiting for you and she said that it was an emergency.”
“What’s going on?” Aidan asked, following her into the hallway where she handed him the patient file and gestured to the exam room at the end of the hall.
“I don’t know. She wouldn’t say,” MaryAnne said with a helpless shrug.
“Okay, that’s fine. How’s my schedule after this?” Aidan asked over his shoulder as he made his way down the small hallway.
“Your three o’clock appointment had to reschedule,” she said as Aidan glanced down at the file in his hands, noted the “Jane Smith,” on the folder. Frowning, he opened the door and really wished that he hadn’t when he spotted Melanie’s sister sitting on the exam table, holding a paper gown against her chest, and-
“Oops!”
Turned around and left, closing the door behind him when she dropped the paper gown with a feigned gasp and a coy smile, deciding to use this time to make sure that everything was ready for tonight.
*-*-*-*
“Don’t even fucking think of it,” Arik bit out only to curse as he ducked out of the way and-
“So, does he know?” Rebecca asked, popping a Hershey Kiss in her mouth as they sat there, watching as Arik made the mistake of ducking left instead of right and-
“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.