Chapter FIVE
Aidan’s chest tightened at the prospect of letting Emma out of his sight for even a second. They had come so far in the last few hours he was afraid it might all fade like a dream if they didn’t remain together. He was desperate for anything to keep her with him. A thought flashed in his mind, and he blurted, “Can I see Beau?”
Emma stared down at her lap. He could tell she was raging a battle within herself about whether to let him come over. “Please?” he pressed.
Her shoulders sagged, but she raised her head and smiled. “Of course. I mean, he does miss you.”
Aidan gave a bark of a laugh. “I doubt it. He chose you over me, didn’t he?” He was then assaulted with the painful memory of the night Emma caught him with Heather. The sight of Beau running after Emma, nudging her stomach and whining to go with her, cut through to his heart the same way it did that night. Shuddering, he forced a smile to his face. “I’m sure he’s too busy eating table scraps and lying around on your couch to miss me.”
“No, he really does. After all, you were his daddy for two years.”
“Good because I’ve missed him.” He leaned over the gearshift towards her. “I’ve missed him every moment of every day.” Her green eyes widened both at his proximity and the fact that they both knew he wasn’t talking about Beau anymore. The electricity crackled all around the two of them.
“You can follow me home.”
“Thank you.”
He waited until she was safely in her car and cranked up before he pulled out of the parking space. On the way to her house, his fingers drummed anxiously against the steering wheel. Even though it wasn’t more than ten minutes, he couldn’t seem to get there fast enough. Hope pulsed through him that she might finally forgive him and fully let him back into her life.
As he started to pull into the driveway, a yard sign caught his eye. Squinting in the darkness, he gasped at the recognition of the realty sign. The words For Sale sent a stake through his heart. Animosity overwrought the amorous feelings he had pulsing through him.
He screeched to stop barely off the road. His blood pounded in his ears as he clambered out of the car and slammed the door. He was at Emma’s side before she had time to close hers. “YOU’RE MOVING?”
Shrinking from his anger, she pressed herself against the car. “Yes,” she whispered.
Shame washed over him that his reaction had frightened her. “I’m sorry for shouting at you, but how could you not tell me?”
“I was going to,” she argued
“When? The day the moving van came? Christ, Emma, we’ve been together all night! I unveiled my heart and soul, yet you couldn’t manage to tell me this one little detail?”
“I’m sorry.”
He was afraid to ask the next question because deep down he already knew the answer. “And just where are you going?”
“I’m moving back home—to Ellijay. I’m going to live with Grammy and Granddaddy for a while until the house sells, and then I might find a place of my own close by them. They’re getting older. Granddaddy fell off a ladder a week ago and just had to have hip replacement surgery. They need me, but more importantly, I need them.”
He shook his head. “I won’t let you take my son from me!”
Emma’s green eyes narrowed into angry slits. “Don’t you dare threaten me like that! You know I would never keep you from Noah. Just because I don’t live here, doesn’t mean you won’t get to see him.”
“Ellijay is a f*cking hour and a half away! How will I get to see him when he’s that far from me? Are you going to put me on some visitation schedule? Like every other weekend or some bullshit?”
She rubbed her temples. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I just know I can’t stay here anymore. Alone.”
“Dammit, Emma, I can’t believe you could be so cold.”
She jerked her chin up and glared at him so hard that he took a step back. “You a*shole! How dare you accuse me of being cold! I’m not the one who cheated and ruined everything between us!”
“I didn’t sleep with her,” he protested.
Emma threw her hands up. “The fact you couldn’t get it up or I interrupted you is irrelevant to the point, Aidan! You brought some stranger into your home on the pretense of screwing me out of your heart and mind!”
He grimaced. “I’ve said it a million times in a million different ways that I’m sorry!”
“I know you have, but just like I told you back at O’Malley’s, I would work on forgiving you, and it’s going to take a hell of a lot of time. So don’t expect me to fall into your waiting arms like nothing ever happened any time soon. I had a life before you, and I’m going to have one after you!” She turned and stalked away.
“Em, wait!” When she kept on walking, he called, “Fine, you want even more grand gestures? Here’s another one.” He sank down onto his knees on the sidewalk.
When Emma whirled around, her eyes grew wide. “What are you doing?”
He gazed around them. “What the hell does it look like I’m doing? I’m on my knees—totally and completely begging you to forgive me.”
“Get up!” she hissed when a couple walking their dog paused to stare at them.
“Not until you forgive me.”
She growled in frustration. “I said it would take time, so quit being dramatic.”
He shrugged. “Fine, call me a Drama Queen. Call me any f*cking name in the book! Just get all the anger and hate out of your system, so you can work on forgiving me tonight.” He opened his arms wide. “I said it on cards, in text messages, and voicemails, and even in that fruity book of poetry I sent you. But now I’m going to say it to your face in case it’s the only other chance I have.”
Suddenly in that moment Aidan didn’t feel so sure of himself. He drew in a ragged breath. “I am sorry, Emma. I’m so sorry for breaking your heart. I’m sorry for being an utter prick and being afraid of my feelings for you. Most of all, I’m sorry for screwing up the perfect life we had by pushing you away and cheating on you.”
Emma’s face flushed with warmth as the woman on the sidewalk gasped. Aidan turned to her. “Yeah, that’s right. I’m one of the countless a*sholes who break women’s hearts. I couldn’t tell Emma I loved her, and I almost screwed another woman trying to push her away.” He smacked his palms hard against his chest. “But from the depths of my heart and soul, I’m so, so sorry!”
“Jesus dude, have you lost all your pride?” the man questioned, which caused the woman to punch him in the arm.
Aidan chuckled. “Yeah, I have. Because I’m willing to do whatever it takes to win her back,” he pointed to Emma and smiled at her.
When Emma strode over to him with a determined look, Aidan felt his hope rising. It quickly faded as she grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head up. “Get off my front walk this minute, or I’m going to call the cops!” She shook her head maniacally. “I can’t believe you just embarrassed me in front of my neighbors like that!”
“I thought you wanted a man who would say how he truly felt?”
She rolled her eyes. “This,” she said, motioning wildly to him, “is not what I had in mind.”
“Fine,” he said pulling himself off the ground. He leaned closer to her and cocked his eyebrows. “But can you honestly say you weren’t the tiniest bit impressed by that?”
The corners of her lips pulled up, and he could tell she was fighting not to smile. “Maybe a little.”
“Aha, I knew it!”
“Come on. Let’s go inside before you can be more of a twatwaffle tonight.”
He burst out laughing. “What did you just call me?”
“It’s one of Casey’s words.”
“Hmm, let me guess. It’s probably one of Casey’s words for me?”
She nodded as she unlocked the front door. “Yes, but with some stronger expletives along with it.”
“I figured as much.”
“Have a seat. I’ll go let Beau out of the basement.”
When Aidan eased down on the couch, a memory flashed in his mind of making love to Emma in the very same spot before they went to see her grandparents for the first time. He heard Beau long before he saw him racing around the corner.
“Hey boy!” he cried, rising up off the couch.
At the sight of Aidan, Beau went into full freak-out mode with his whole body wiggling while he whined and cried. He barreled into Aidan, knocking him back down onto the couch. Then he went to licking Aidan’s face, hands, and any other body part he could get his tongue on.
Emma laughed. “See, I told you he missed you.”
Beau barked a few times as if in agreement, and then went back to slurping his tongue over Aidan’s face. “Okay, boy, I missed you, too.” Aidan rubbed over Beau’s back and then patted his head.
“Now sit down, Beau, and be a good boy,” Emma instructed.
To Aidan’s surprise, Beau obediently slid down onto the floor and sat stock still for Aidan to pet him. “Damn, I can’t believe you’ve gotten him to obey.”
“It’s taken some time.”
“Did you take good care of Mommy while I was gone?” Aidan asked, scratching Beau’s ears. At her sharp intake of breath, he glanced up at her and winked.
“He’s been wonderful company. Especially at night,” she replied softly.
“I can imagine. The nights alone have been hell on me.”
Emma opened her mouth to say something, but then suddenly wagged her finger at Beau. “Stop that licking, or I’m going to put the cone of shame back on you.”
Aidan laughed as he patted Beau’s back. “Don’t be so uptight, Em. He’s just a dog. Let him lick himself if he wants to.”
She shook her head. “If he keeps licking like that, he’s going to cause an infection with his stitches from his surgery.”
“Surgery?” Aidan repeated lamely. “What happened to him?” When Emma didn’t respond, Aidan glanced up to see her flushing and ducking her head. Oh no. She couldn’t have gone there. She wouldn’t have done that. Taking Beau by the collar, he turned him slowly around. At the sight of his lost manhood, he sucked in a breath. “You had him fixed?”
Emma nibbled on her bottom lip. “The vet suggested it. He said it would help calm Beau down and make it easier for him to get acclimated when Noah’s born.”
Aidan rose off the floor. “Jesus, Em, first you wanted my balls on a skewer, and now you had to take my dog’s!”
“I never wanted your…balls!” she huffed in protest.
“Symbolically you did.”
She rolled her eyes. “But look how much calmer he already is.”
Aidan glanced at Beau. As much as he hated to admit it, he was way more relaxed. “Yeah, well, you should have consulted with me first. He’s my dog!”
She winced as if in pain. She took a few slow steps before easing down into the chair. “Whoa, wait a minute. Don’t walk away. We’re not through discussing this.”
“Em?” When she didn’t respond, he walked around the side of the chair. He squatted down in front of her. His heart jolted to a stop and restarted at the anguished expression etched on her face. “Em, what’s wrong?”
“I’m…cramping.” She closed her eyes, and her chest rose and fell in harsh breaths. “It hurts really bad.”
Fear crashed over Aidan’s head. “Come on. Let’s get you to the hospital.” Before she could protest, he took her hand and helped her out of the chair. She whimpered and clutched her abdomen. “I’ll carry you if you need me to,” he said.
“No, I can make it,” she replied.
He wrapped his arm around her waist to steady her. “Stay Beau,” he called over his shoulder. Beau whined, but reluctantly, he sat down in the foyer. When they started out the door, Emma froze. “My purse.”
“I’ll get it.” He whirled around and went to snatch it from its place on the floor. He then returned to Emma’s side to help her out of the door and down the porch steps. “You want to take your car since it’s closer? I can move mine.”
She shook her head. “No, no, yours is fine.”
“How’s the pain?”
“Intense,” she panted.
“Are you bleeding or do you think your water broke?”
“No, it’s just the contractions.”
A tiny flicker of relief filled him. “It’s going to be okay, Em. We’ll get you to the hospital, and whatever it is, they’ll fix it.”
His heart shattered when she stared up at him with eyes pooling with tears. “I hope so.”
“Have faith.”
He opened the car door and eased her down onto the seat. As soon as he shut her door, he sprinted over to the driver’s side. He climbed inside and cranked up. After pealing out into the street, he glanced over at Emma.
Her eyes were closed and her brows furrowed while she bit down on her lip. Taking one of his hands off the steering wheel he grabbed up one of hers. Her eyes flew open, and she stared over at him. “I’m here for you, Emma.”
“Thank you…I’m glad.” She squeezed his hand tight. Refusing to let go, she used her other hand to dig her phone out of her purse. She thrust it over at Aidan. “Call Casey,” she murmured.
Keeping one hand on the wheel, he used his other to scroll through Emma’s contacts. He braced himself for the wrath to come as his finger pressed dial. Casey answered on the third ring. “Hey Hot Mama, sorry I haven’t had a chance to call you back yet,” she said without a hello.
“Um, this is Aidan.”
A long pause came on the line. “What the hell are you doing with Em’s phone? Please don’t tell me you’ve done something truly insane to try to get her back? Because if you have, I will make sure that you go to jail for a long, long time where a very large and hairy man can make you his bitch!” she shrieked loud enough for even Emma to hear.
“Casey, listen to me. I haven’t kidnapped Emma. We’re on our way to the ER at Wellstar.”
Casey gasped. “Oh God, what’s wrong?”
Aidan glanced over at Emma whose eyes were once again pinched closed while her jaw was clenched in pain. “She’s having some contractions.”
“She’s not bleeding is she?”
“No, just the contractions.”
Aidan heard who he assumed was Nate talking in the background. “It sounds like a good sign that she isn’t bleeding. Nate thinks it might just be Braxton Hicks, but we’ll be there just as soon as we can.”
“Okay. Can you call Connor, too?”
Emma’s eyes flew open, and she looked at him in shock. Aidan figured she was amazed that he didn’t have to be told to do everything, and he could actually be considerate of her feelings.
“Yeah, sure.”
“Bye.”
Casey merely hung up, so Aidan cut the call off. “Anyone else you want me to call? Virginia?”
Emma shook her head. “I don’t want to worry Grammy yet in case it is something like Braxton Hicks.”
“Okay, if you’re sure.”
They made the rest of the drive in tense silence. After screeching into the hospital parking lot, Aidan wheeled up to the curb at the emergency room and killed the engine. When he got out and started over to Emma’s side, a security guard hustled over. “Sir, you can’t park there.”
“Look, my…” he trailed off when he realized he didn’t know what to call Emma. She certainly wasn’t his wife and their relationship status didn’t qualify as girlfriend either. “She’s,” he finally emphasized, “having early contractions, so I’m getting her inside. If you don’t like it, then tow my f*cking car!”
The security guard held up his hands. “Sorry sir. Once you get registered, please come out and move the car. A nice Mercedes like that will get knocked to hell at the impound lot.”
Aidan growled with frustration as he held his hand out to Emma. “Fine. But I’m not coming back out here until I know both she and my kid are okay!” With his free hand, he dug a hundred out of his wallet. “Watch it for me, okay?”
The guard looked left and right before he hastily snatched the money. “Yes, sir.”
Turning his attention back to Emma, he helped her out of the car. She grimaced as she stepped onto her feet. “Lean on me,” Aidan instructed as she took a tentative step onto the curb.
With one arm wrapped around her waist, Aidan led Emma through the mechanized double doors and into the ER lobby. She gripped his hand tighter and from the expression on her face, he could tell the pain was worse. “Just a little further, Em,” he said.
At the registration desk, he eased her down into a chair. When the clerk didn’t come up immediately, he banged his fist on the desk. “Excuse me, but she might be in preterm labor here!”
The receptionist nodded to a nurse. “We’ll go ahead and take her on back.”
“Thank you,” Aidan said.
A nurse came out of the doors with a wheelchair. Aidan helped Emma to her feet and then helped her over to sit down in the wheelchair. When he started to go back with them, the receptionist called to him. “You can’t go back until we have all of her medical information.”
“I’m already pre-registered here through my OB/GYN,” Emma muttered, through teeth gritted in pain.
“Then he’ll have to stay until we get the insurance information.”
Aidan stared helplessly at Emma as she handed him her purse. “My cards are in my wallet.”
He raced through the paperwork. Most of it he left blank, hoping they already had it since he didn’t know it. The irony wasn’t lost on him that Emma may be carrying his child, but he had no idea if she had ever had any major surgeries or childhood illnesses. Just as he started to punch the button to open up the doors, someone cleared his throat.
It was the security guard. “F*ck!” Aidan cried. Several people in the waiting room looked up at him. Digging his keys from the pocket, he sprinted past the security guard and to his waiting car. Tires squealed as he pulled around the entrance and back-tracked it to the available parking deck.
When he got back inside, he punched the button on the Authorized Personnel Only doors. His gaze spun desperately around the hallway of rooms. Feeling an odd sense of deja vu from earlier in the day, he was just about to flag down a nurse when Dr. Nadeen appeared before him, his face tense with worry. “She is in room five,” he said.
Although he hated to say it, Aidan mumbled, “Thank you.”
He threw open the door to find the curtain pulled. The sound of a baby’s heartbeat echoed off the walls. “Em?” he cried.
“I’m here.”
He raced forward, throwing the curtain aside. At the sight of Emma in stirrups and a doctor between her legs, he froze. “Aidan,” she urged, motioning him to her side. The insistent tone in her voice caused him to move quickly. He sidestepped the doctor and went to her side. He grabbed up her hand and squeezed.
“I’m sorry. I had to fill out all this paperwork and then go move my car.”
“It’s okay.”
He shook his head. “No, it’s not. You shouldn’t have had to be back here alone. You needed me.” He gazed down at her. “I needed to be with you.”
“You’re here now. That’s all that matters.”
Aidan couldn’t stop himself from leaning over and kissing her forehead. He would have to give the hospital props. They had been there barely twenty minutes, and Emma was already outfitted in a hospital gown and was being seen by a doctor. He couldn’t help but wonder if it was not only the seriousness of her condition, but also Dr. Nadeen that helped matters along.
The doctor, whose white coat had “Dr. Pendleton” embroidered in blue, rose off his stool. “You can come out of these now.” Emma eased her legs out of the stirrups as Dr. Pendleton slid the table back down for her. After he tossed his rubber gloves in the trash, he turned to face them. “Even though you were experiencing preterm labor, you’re not dilated, and your cervical plug is still intact.”
At what Aidan assumed was his blank expression, Dr. Pendleton said, “Those are good factors. I’m going to have a nurse come in and administer Turbutaline, which will stop the remaining contractions you’re experiencing. I’ll come back in and do an ultrasound to see how your baby looks. From his heartbeat, he seems to be a little agitated, but that could be from the uterine walls contracting.” He turned to go to the door. “Since you’re condition is now stable, I’ll be back in a little while to check on you.”
Aidan’s legs didn’t feel like they would support him any longer, so he collapsed into the chair by the bed. Relief washed over him. For the moment, it appeared that Noah was going to be okay, and in turn, Emma was as well.
“Thank you God,” Emma murmured.
A commotion came outside the door. “What the—”Aidan began before Casey and Connor burst inside the room.