New plan.
“Why don’t we have a seat in the kitchen?” Aidan suggested with a smile as he kicked the shit out of his way, wrapped his arm around her and led her towards the kitchen before she could argue.
Once he had her in the kitchen, he-
“Shit!”
-realized that the kitchen was worse than the living room.
“Aidan-”
“One second,” he said, releasing her so that he could shove everything off the kitchen table, knock the stack of medical magazines that he’d been re-reading off a chair before pulling it out for her. “Here we are,” Aidan said, smiling as he gestured for her to sit down.
After a slight hesitation, Melanie sat down while she glanced around the kitchen that he was still in the process of unpacking and cleared her throat. “So, have you lived here long?” she asked, looking a little unsure where to begin as she glanced back at him and moved to place her hands on the table, but seemed to rethink it, and placed her hands on the large swell of her belly, reminding him that he couldn’t fuck this up, again.
“Not long,” Aidan said, deciding that five and a half months wasn’t long enough to unpack all his shit.
“It’s, um, nice,” Melanie said, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she looked around, taking in the half-empty boxes, discarded grocery bags, magazines scattered everywhere, empty water bottles and soda cans covering the counter and filling the sink along with-
Well, it wasn’t important what was in his sinks. What was important was that they had a baby on the way, which was why he’d dragged her back here after announcing that she was back on bed rest. That, and he had absolutely no plans of letting her walk away this time.
*-*-*-*
“I really don’t think this is going to work,” Melanie said, although she was touched by his offer, she honestly couldn’t see how this was going to work.
“Why?” Aidan asked when it should have been painfully obvious why this was a bad idea.
“We don’t even know each other,” she said, shifting to get comfortable even as she couldn’t help but wonder if there were any Swiss Rolls left in that Little Debbie’s box on the counter.
“I don’t think that matters, do you?” he said with a pointed look at the reason why she was here.
He had a point.
So, she moved on.
“There are stairs,” Melanie said, deciding to use the top reason that he’d used against her earlier to convince her that she couldn’t stay above the Fire & Brimstone anymore.
“Where?” he asked with a frown.
“The front step,” she answered lamely, making his eyes narrow suspiciously.
“There’s only one step,” Aidan said with a smug look that definitely reminded her of his brother.
“Fine, how about the fact that it should probably be condemned?” Melanie pointed out, wondering if he’d thought this through.
“Easily fixed,” Aidan said, still looking a little too smug for her liking.
“Overnight?”
“Probably not,” he admitted with a sigh before adding, “but definitely within a few days.”
“And until then?” Melanie asked, wondering if he had an answer for everything.
As it turned out, he did.
Chapter 6
“This is it,” Aidan said with flourish as he opened his bedroom door only to have the damn thing get stuck on the disturbing towel that he’d used this morning.
Throwing her another one of those reassuring smiles that was starting to make him feel like a jackass, Aidan discreetly shoved the door harder as he tried to kick the towel out of the way until the door finally flew open and-
“Shit!”
Slammed into the wall, breaking the doorstopper in half and allowing the doorknob to embed itself in the wall and officially making the very long list of things that he needed to do, which he couldn’t help but notice had tripled since this morning. Hoping that she hadn’t noticed, Aidan gestured for her to go inside.
He wasn’t exactly surprised when Melanie leaned in, took a good look at his bedroom and shook her head before turning around and making her way back to the front door. Since letting her leave would only be counterproductive to his plans, he quickly caught up to her, wrapped his arm around her shoulders and turned her around.
“I think you’re going to like this,” Aidan murmured as he kicked the towel out of the way and brought her inside the room that would be hers until he finished fixing the other apartment. For a moment, Aidan considered giving her this apartment and moving in upstairs with his brother, but quickly dismissed the idea since it would only make things more difficult than they needed to be.
“And why would you think that?” Melanie asked, sounding genuinely curious as she took in his bedroom.
“Because it’s spacious?” Aidan suggested, taking in the room filled with half-empty boxes, dirty laundry, discarded food wrappers, the messy bed, and wondered if she’d be willing to step into the hallway for a minute so that he could clean this up.
But he knew that if he gave her even half a chance that she would leave and since that would only make things more difficult, Aidan led her to the bed. “Why don’t you have a seat?” he suggested, giving her an encouraging smile.
When she just stared up at him, he mumbled, “Right,” nodded to himself, and made quick work of picking up all the shit on the floor and shoving it into whatever box was closest. In a few minutes, Aidan had the floor picked up, all his shit shoved into random boxes, and the bed somewhat made.
“Aidan-”
“So, the bathroom is right through here,” he said, cutting her off as he opened the bathroom door and flicked the light switch on only to remember that the light was out, which in retrospect, was probably for the best.
Shifting in front of the bathroom, Aidan closed the door, hoping that she hadn’t caught a glimpse of the mess that he planned on cleaning later and said, “So, that’s it. Any questions?”
“I think I’m going to stay with my parents,” Melanie said, already heading towards the hallway and making him hesitate.
He should let her go, but…
That wasn’t really an option.
She was having his child and having a hell of a time doing it. He hadn’t been there for the first six months, but he’d be damned if he missed the next three. With that in mind, Aidan followed after her, surprised that she’d managed to make it down the hallway so fast. Then again, with the way that she was carrying, gravity was most likely a helping factor.
“Melanie, wait!”
“Look,” she said, sounding exhausted as she turned around to face him, “I know you don’t want this baby, which makes me really appreciate what you’re offering here, but let’s face it, neither one of us wants this.”
“It doesn’t matter what we want,” Aidan said because he wasn’t going to lie to her and tell her what he thought she wanted to hear.
She was right. He didn’t want a child, but that didn’t matter, because they were having one. Just because he’d never wanted a child didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to step up and do the right thing. He was going to be a father to his son and take care of both of them. It was as simple as that, but he couldn’t do that if she didn’t give him a chance.