Irresistible (Neighbor from Hell #11) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,8

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