“Now, back to this,” Trevor said, holding up the framed photo. “Who’s this?”
“None of your business,” Aidan said since there was no way in hell that he was going to tell his cousin about his son before he had a chance to tell his mother, who would then tell everyone that she’d ever met that she was about to have another grandchild, thereby saving him from having to do it. He just needed to figure out a way to break the news to his mother that he’d had a one-night stand with a woman that he barely knew and got her pregnant without her killing him.
Shrugging, Trevor put the frame back down and returned to rummaging through his desk. When he found Aidan’s stash of cookies, he leaned back in the chair and popped a cookie in his mouth as he shot Aidan a curious look that he ignored as he finished cleaning his sister’s cut.
“When was your last tetanus shot?” Aidan asked, praying that it had been recent, otherwise…
“I don’t need one,” his stubborn sister bit out with a murderous glare that dared him to argue.
“I see,” Aidan murmured, unwrapping a fresh gauze pad even as he sent Trevor a look that he prayed the large bastard understood. With a nod, Trevor popped one last cookie in his mouth and stood up, ready to do what needed to be done. Applying one last gauze pad to her arm, Aidan stood up as well and headed for the door, praying that Trevor didn’t fuck this up.
“No needles, Aidan. I’m not kidding,” Kenzie said, returning her attention to her phone, trying to play it cool, but he didn’t miss the calculating glance she kept shooting his office door.
“No needles,” Aidan lied as he closed his office door behind him and headed down the hallway as he contemplated calling a few of his brothers and cousins to give him a hand with this when his father stepped into the hallway.
“Wait…what are you doing? He said no needles!” Kenzie yelled, right around the time that a pained grunt reached his ears and Trevor muttered a curse.
“What’s going on?” his father asked, shooting Aidan’s closed office door a questioning look.
“He said no needles!”
“Is Kenzie here?” his father asked with a frown.
“She fell through another rotted floor,” Aidan said with a sigh as he rubbed his hands down his face, wondering if he was about to get another lecture when his office door was thrown open. Shooting him an accusing glare, Kenzie came running out of his office and headed for the exit, but she’d barely made it two feet before Trevor was there, grabbing her and taking her to the floor with a pained grunt when she went for his balls.
“You said no needles!” Kenzie yelled somewhat desperately as she tried to squirm her way free and just when he was about to help his cousin hold her down, the phone call that let him know that he’d fucked up again, came.
*-*-*-*
“Your prescriptions will be ready in a few minutes, Dr. Bradford.”
“Thank you,” Aidan murmured absently, not bothering to look up as he sat there with his head in his hands as he finally faced facts.
He had no fucking clue what he was doing.
None.
The only thing that he knew was that he kept fucking this up. He had a woman that he barely knew counting on him, a baby on the way that still didn’t feel real, and his mother waiting to yell at him at home and he was fucking clueless how to fix this. He just needed to-
“I wipe my own ass,” came the proud announcement that had Aidan looking up to find a cute little boy wearing Superman footie pajamas standing in front of him, nodding solemnly.
Lips twitching, Aidan said, “Me, too,” as he raised his hand for a fist bump that the little boy happily tapped with his tiny fist.
Nodding, the little boy said, “That’s ‘cause we’re big boys.”
“It really is,” Aidan agreed.
“I don’t need tampons,” the little boy added.
“Me neither,” Aidan said, chuckling.
“Mommy does,” the little boy said, gesturing absently behind him.
“I see,” Aidan said, smiling as he watched the little boy shift his attention to the Spiderman band-aid on his hand.
“My cat’s mean, see?” he said, holding up his hand for Aidan’s inspection.
“That must have hurt,” Aidan murmured with a sympathetic nod.
“It did. I almost died,” the boy readily agreed.
“You’re lucky to be alive,” Aidan said, nodding in agreement.
“I know,” he said, nodding as he climbed onto the chair next to Aidan.
“Where’s your mom?” Aidan asked, glancing around the store for the woman in question.
“Wondering why the store doesn’t carry super tampons,” the little boy said, shrugging it off as he helped himself to one of the free prescription magazines.
“I’ve wondered that myself,” Aidan said, watching as a woman, who looked completely fucking exhausted, hurried over with a baby in one arm and a handbasket in the other.
“Timmy, what did mommy say about walking off?” she asked with a resigned sigh.
“That it was going to drive you to drink one day,” Timmy said, making Aidan bite back a smile as the woman’s eyes narrowed on the little boy and her lips twitched.
“It really is,” she said before shifting her attention to Aidan. “I’m sorry if he bothered you.”
Aidan opened his mouth to answer when Timmy said, “He wipes his own ass too, Mommy.”
“Umm, that’s nice,” she murmured before clearing her throat and asked, “Are you ready to go?”
“Did you find your super tam
pons, Mommy?” Timmy asked as he obediently climbed off the chair and joined his mother, who was currently turning an interesting shade of red.
“No, no, I did not,” she murmured, looking embarrassed.
“Does that mean that you’re gonna have to use those diaper thingies again?”
“It was nice to meet you,” she said with a wince, not quite able to meet Aidan’s gaze as she turned around and headed towards the front of the store while Aidan sat there, wondering if his son was going to torment Melanie like that and found himself chuckling because his son was a Bradford after all.
Oh, shit…
He was having a son, Aidan realized as he sat there and-
“Timmy! No, Timmy, wait! Don’t pull your clothes off in the store!” came the heartfelt plea as Timmy, in all his glory, ran past Aidan towards the bathroom with a, “I have to pee!” while Aidan sat there, unable to help but smile because he was having a son.
Now, he just had to figure out how he was going to do that with a woman that he had no fucking clue how to talk to.
Chapter 12
Perhaps she should call for help?
“You had a one-night stand?”
Perhaps not, Melanie thought with a heavy sigh as she slowly scooted closer to the faucet so that she could drain the cold water that was slowly turning her into a prune. Doing her best to ignore the argument going on in the living room, Melanie closed the drain a few minutes later and added more hot water as she debated her next move only to realize that she didn’t really have one.
“Mom-”
“We raised you better than that!” his mother yelled, cutting off whatever Aidan had been about to say and making Melanie wince in sympathy because this conversation was eerily similar to the one that she’d had with her parents after she’d told them about the baby.
Except for the crying that is, she amended a few seconds later, noting that no one was crying or screaming hysterically and telling Aidan that he’d ruined his life. Lucky bastard, Melanie thought as she leaned back only to sit right back up when her baby boy expressed his displeasure with a well-placed kick to her ribs.