He’d been a fucking asshole and his biggest regret that morning was that she hadn’t kicked him in the balls before she’d flipped him off and stumbled out of the room because he’d more than deserved it. His other regret was that he hadn’t gone with her to the pharmacy to help her get the Morning-After Pill, because clearly, she’d fucked that up and now they were both paying for that mistake.
Speaking of the pill…
*-*-*-*
“You didn’t take the Morning-After Pill,” Aidan said with a glare pointed at her stomach that she really didn’t appreciate.
“Oh, you mean that pill that you recommended for me to take while I had a hangover? The same one that can cause severe nausea? Do you mean that pill?” Melanie asked cheerfully before she shook her head in disgust, grabbed another donut from the bag that she was still hugging, and decided that she’d had enough for one day.
She didn’t care that it was barely ten in the morning or that he deserved some answers, Melanie turned around and began the long waddle back to her room. If he wanted to talk, then he could come back after he’d pulled that stick out of his-
“We can discuss who fucked up the most on the drive back to my office,” Aidan said pleasantly as she suddenly found herself walking in the opposite direction thanks to the large arm wrapped around her shoulders.
“We’re not going to your office,” Melanie said with a sigh and a shake of her head as she tried to duck beneath his arm, but the fact that she was six months pregnant made the move impossible.
Ignoring her failed escape attempt, Aidan continued to lead her towards the large door that she was going to make sure that she kept locked from now on. She tried to shove his arm away, but he simply took the move as an opportunity to pluck the bag of donuts out of her hands, wrap her jacket around her shoulders and before she knew it, he had her in the hallway and heading towards the door that would take her to the stairs that she loathed more than bed rest.
“Aidan-” Melanie began even as she tried to decide between politely warning him that she was seconds away from making him a eunuch or begging him to stop so that she could catch her breath as they started down the stairs.
“We’ll make a day of it. We’ll go to my office, run tests, take a sonogram, pee in a cup, grab lunch, and while we’re eating you can explain to me why you’ve kept the fact that I’m about to a be father a secret. It will be a great time, you’ll see,” Aidan murmured, giving her arm a gentle squeeze as he helped her down the stairs.
“I don’t need any tests,” Melanie managed to get out before she was forced to grab onto the railing so that she could catch her breath.
“Yes, you do,” Aidan said softly.
“No, I-”
“You left the office before the tests came back from the urine sample you left,” Aidan said, making her realize that she’d never asked how he’d found out about the baby.
Swallowing, Melanie looked down at the railing that she was currently holding onto for support and closed her eyes as she prepared herself for the bad news that she already knew was coming.
“You’re bleeding.”
Chapter 4
“What are you going to do?” his father asked as Aidan leaned back in his desk chair.
“I have no idea,” Aidan said quietly as he stared down at the sonogram image in his hands.
A boy.
They were having a baby boy, he thought numbly, wondering when this was going to start feeling real. This morning the only thing that he had to worry about was missing lunch and now…
Christ, he didn’t even know where to start.
“Does she know yet?”
“That her doctor’s a fucking idiot?” Aidan asked as he shook his head slowly, forcing his gaze away from the proof that things were about to change and placed the sonogram photo back on the desk next to the thick folder that her doctor sent over earlier. “Only what you told her,” he added, sighing heavily as he sat back in his chair so that he could see the disappointment in his father’s eyes.
It wasn’t something that he was used to seeing. At least, not because of him. He’d seen that look on his father’s face more than enough times growing up thanks to all of his siblings fucking up, but never because of him. He’d always been the golden child, the one that didn’t fuck up and if he did, he immediately worked his ass off to make it right.
Not this time.
This time he’d seriously fucked up and he had absolutely no idea how he was going to fix this. He would take care of Melanie and their son, provide for them, make sure that they had everything that they needed, and of course, he would be there to help raise his son, but that wouldn’t fix everything.
“I’m going to give you some time to figure this out and do right by that young lady, but you and I are going to sit down and have a talk real soon,” his father said, leveling a look on him that told him just how badly he’d fucked up as his father stood up and headed for the door only to pause.
“By the way,” his father said, gesturing lazily towards Melanie’s patient file, “if I ever find out that you spoke to a woman like that again, I’ll knock your goddamn teeth out. Understood?”
“Understood,” Aidan said, surprised that his father wasn’t doing it now, but then again, they both knew that he had something more important to do at the moment.
“Fix this,” his father said, and with that, his father was shaking his head in disgust and walking out the door.
Aidan stared at the file for another minute, thinking about just how much of an asshole he’d been that morning. He…
His father should have knocked his fucking teeth out, Aidan decided as he shoved his chair back and headed for the door. He was never going to forgive himself for what he’d said to her. Because of him, she’d gone through this alone. He should have been there from the beginning, biting his fucking tongue and standing by her.
God, what the fuck was wrong with him?
As soon as she’d stormed out of that hotel room, he’d wanted to go after her and apologize, but he’d been too fucking hungover to think straight. His pride had kept him from hunting her down once he’d realized what a bastard he’d been to her. He’d found a thousand excuses not to call her over the next few months, but it never stopped him from thinking about her.
He’d lost count of how many times he’d thought about her, how many times he’d found himself picking up the phone to call her only to change his mind, and how many times he’d found himself halfway to the Fire & Brimstone, hoping to catch a glimpse of her only to turn around with some bullshit excuse. He should have kept going the first time he’d found himself driving towards the Fire & Brimstone, knocked on her door, handed her a baseball bat, and let her go to town.
Once she was done beating the shit out of him and he’d apologized, they could have sat down and talked this through. The outcome wouldn’t have changed, but at least Aidan would have been by her side from the start instead of being the one delivering more bad news to her.
*-*-*-*
“Melanie? Shit! Melanie, wait up!” the jerk that had scared the hell out of her before showing her to a small exam room with an air conditioner on steroids and handing her a paper-thin exam gown that didn’t actually fit her before mumbling something about calling her doctor and promptly pulling a disappearing act on her, which had lasted for five hours, thirty-two minutes and fifteen seconds, said.