Irresistible (Neighbor from Hell #11) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,22

new apartment, the same apartment that she really wasn’t sure that she was going to be able to afford.

Right now, it was a dump, but once it was cleaned up, there was no way in hell that she was going to be able to afford a first floor, two-bedroom apartment, within walking distance of downtown. At least not without working, and that was out of the question right now. She’d tried to get some work done today, but since sitting up was no longer an option working on her computer hadn’t worked out so well for her.

The only thing that she was able to do now was to lay on her side, curled up, staring at the television as she counted down the days until the big day and hope that her baby boy didn’t keep her waiting. Laying around waiting for the big day to come and hoping that she didn’t go broke before then kept her up most nights, her sore back and legs kept her up the rest of the time.

It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if she was still able to take her nightly bath, but she’d gotten to the point that she couldn’t get in and out of the tub without help and she wasn’t comfortable asking Aidan for help, which was stupid. Besides the fact that he’d clearly already seen her naked, he was also a doctor, but she just felt weird asking him for help. He was already doing so much for her and she hated asking for more.

A few minutes after Aidan left this morning with a murmured, “I’ll see you tonight,” she’d found herself nibbling on one of the celery sticks that Aidan kept in the fridge on the off-chance that she accidentally wanted one, hoping that it would be enough to take the edge off her hunger. Instead of bringing her relief, it had filled her with the sudden need to become better acquainted with Aidan’s bathroom. She shouldn’t have touched the celery and if she lived through this, she never would again.

In fact, if she survived this pregnancy she’d be willing to give up vegetables, more than willing, Melanie thought with a pathetic whimper as her stomach gave another violent growl and she wasn’t sure if it was demanding food or trying to make sure that she never touched another vegetable for as long as she lived.

Definitely never touching another vegetable, Melanie decided, leaning heavily against the bathtub, wishing that she were somewhere other than in the bathroom, surrounded by a month’s worth of Aidan’s dirty clothes. She really wished that-

“Oh, my god!” came the startled voice, pulling her attention to the older woman standing in the doorway, holding an empty laundry basket and looking genuinely surprised to see her.

Closing her eyes, Melanie sighed with relief, hoping that whoever this woman was that she would put that empty laundry basket to good use and free her from the terrifying mess surrounding her so that she wouldn’t be forced to pass out near a pile of Aidan’s dirty socks.

Chapter 11

“Hold still,” Aidan said, chuckling when his sister Kenzie stuck her tongue out at him, but at least she’d stopped squirming so that he could examine her arm.

“I am holding still,” Kenzie said absently as she glanced down at her phone, looking completely bored while he sat there, trying to decide if she was going to need stitches. God, he really hoped that she didn’t need stitches because he wasn’t sure that he’d be able to handle that today.

“How’d this happen?” he asked, pressing a clean gauze pad against the gash running down her arm.

“She fell through a rotted floor,” Trevor, the bastard lounging in his desk chair, said, making everything in him go still.

“You fell through a floor?” Aidan asked, shifting a glare to his cousin to find Trevor frowning down at the sonogram picture that Aidan had framed of his son.

“Who’s this?” Trevor asked, nodding towards the framed picture.

“Why didn’t you call an ambulance?” Aidan asked, ignoring the question and wondering what the hell was wrong with his cousin as he grabbed a penlight and focused on his sister, checking her pupils to make sure that she-

“I fell through the first floor into a crawl space three feet high and landed on my feet. No worries,” Kenzie explained as she pushed the penlight out of her face.

“Now, back to this,” Trevor said, holding up the framed photo. “Who’s this?”

“None of your business,” Aidan said since there was no