The Proposition (25 page)

“Emma!” someone called. When she threw a
glance over her shoulder, her cousin Dave waved.

“One second. I’ll be right back.”

Aidan reluctantly let go of Emma’s hand.
Frankly, he wanted to be a downright pansy and run after her. The
last thing in the world he wanted was to be left with the old man.
He shifted uncomfortably on his feet, wiping the sheen of sweat off
his face with the back of his hand.

Earl spit out a stream of tobacco juice. “So
you plannin’ on stickin’ around after the baby is born?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You gonna help out with raisin’ it?”

“Well, we haven’t really worked all that out
yet.” As Earl’s expression darkened even more, Aidan quickly
replied, “But I’m going to try. Honest, I am.”

Earl’s eyes narrowed. “What about marryin’
her?”

Aidan felt like he’d been kicked in the
balls. He fought to catch his breath.
Shit, if I answer this
question wrong, this dude is seriously going to kill me.
His
mouth ran dry, and he licked his lips.
Is it getting darker out
here, or am
I’m going to pass out
?

“Son, you didn’t answer my question. Are you
gonna marry my Emmie Lou or not?”

“Granddaddy!” Emma cried, her eyes wide with
horror. Aidan wheezed in relief that he was momentarily off the
hook.

“What darlin’? It’s an honest question.”

Emma flushed red from her cheeks down to her
neck. Even her bare shoulders were tinged. “No, it isn’t. Aidan and
I are comfortable with the arrangement we have. If we get ready to
change anything, we’ll let you know, but until then, we don’t want
to feel any pressure, okay?” When her gaze flickered over to
Aidan’s to see if he was okay with her answer, he nodded.

Earl kissed the top of Emma’s head. “Fine,
Baby Girl. I won’t mention it again.” He gave Aidan one last
smoldering look of disgust before strolling away.

“He’s just messing with you,” Emma said. When
he didn’t reply, Emma reached over and rubbed his arm. “You aren’t
really afraid of him, are you?”

He glanced back at Earl. Surrounded by four
of his grandsons, he sat whittling on a stick. The long blade of
his knife gleamed in the sunlight causing Aidan to shudder. “Hell
yes, I am! I know he seems like your sweet little grandfather, but
the man could
end
me if he wanted, probably with his bare
hands. And I’m sure your uncles and cousins wouldn’t mind helping
him bury me in a shallow grave.”

The corners of Emma’s lips turned up. “You
aren’t serious?”

He snorted. “Frankly, I’m a little scared to
go to sleep tonight for fear he’ll sneak in my room and whittle my
dick off for getting you pregnant.”

“That would be a tragic loss now wouldn’t
it?”

“Oh yes, it would.”

Emma giggled. “It’s not just about me being
his only daughter’s child or his baby granddaughter or the typical
grandfatherly/fatherly protecting me from the Big Bad Wolf aka men
stealing my virtue.” Her amused expression turned dark. “He’s
taking my pregnancy a little harder than Grammy because he’s
old-fashioned. Being a deacon at his church, he’s never going to be
able to accept that I’m bringing a ‘bastard’, so to speak, into the
world.”

Aidan sucked in a sharp breath and narrowed
his eyes. “He actually said that to you?”

“Not in those exact terms, but yes.”

“That’s a hell of a way to think about his
great-grandchild.”

“Yeah, well, your father felt the same way.
Remember how he wanted to give the baby his name?”

“That’s true,” Aidan relented.

The clanging of a bell interrupted them.
Aidan whirled around to see Virginia holding an old cowbell. She
grinned. “All right everybody! Dinner time!” she shouted, motioning
towards the barn.

“Hungry?” Emma asked.

“Famished.” He grinned and draped his arm
over her shoulder. “I worked up quite an appetite this
afternoon.”

Her mouth dropped open before she elbowed him
in the gut. “You’re terrible!”

“You know you love me,” he teased.

When she stiffened slightly, he knew he had
said the wrong thing. His loaded words had a different connotation
than what he intended. Quickly, he tried recovering. “I mean,
what’s there not to love about a foul mouthed pervert who is always
looking for the sexual innuendo in life, right?”

“Exactly,” she replied, with a grin.

Aidan’s couldn’t stop his jaw from dropping
when they reached the barn. The outside rustic appearance was quite
deceiving when it came to the inside. All the stalls had been
cleared out to leave one giant room. There were ten to twenty round
tables set up with folding chairs. In the center of the room, a
small, wooden stage rose from the ground where several guys were
tuning their instruments.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Emma asked.

“I had no idea you guys took it this
serious.”

“Yep. There’s even a small kitchen in the
back, too.” She giggled at what he assumed was his bewildered
expressions. “With as much extended family as I have, we needed a
place where we can all get together.”

“Jesus, I don’t think I even know this many
people, least of all be related to them,” he mused, as she steered
him toward the food table.

“Trust me, by the end of the night, they’ll
consider you family. I like to think of us as the family in
My
Big Fat Greek Wedding
, except we’re Southern.”

Aidan wasn’t sure if that was really such a
bad thing. Everyone had been so welcoming and friendly to him—even
with him technically being the asshole who had knocked Emma up and
not married her.

After fixing teeming plates of BBQ along with
mouthwatering sides, Emma led him to an empty table. When he bit
into his sandwich, he moaned. “Oh.My.God. This is delicious!”

Emma smiled. “The sauce is Grammy’s own
recipe.”

“Really? She could seriously sell bottle and
sell it. It’s ten times better than most of the BBQ joints in
Atlanta.”

“You’ll have to tell her that. It’ll make her
day.”

“I’ll be happy to.”

An elderly man shuffled up to the table.
“This seat taken, Em?”

“No, Uncle Pete. We were saving it just for
you and Aunt Ella.”

Pete smiled broadly at Emma before giving her
a hug. Aidan couldn’t help reveling in the effect she seemed to
have on everyone up here. She was always charming to everyone back
in Atlanta, but there was something almost angelic about her up
here.

More people crowded inside the barn, and the
band started playing. Aidan had just polished off his second plate
of BBQ and was debating a third when Earl sauntered up to him.
Aidan warily eyed the Mason jar in Earl’s hand that was filled with
clear liquid.

“Ever had any homebrew, City Boy?” he
asked.

“Granddaddy, his name is Aidan,” Emma
hissed.

“Excuse me. You ever had any homebrew,
Aidan
?”

“No sir, I don’t believe I have.”

Earl thrust out the Mason jar. “Why don’t you
try a little?”

“Is that a trick question, sir?”

“Whaddya mean?”

Aidan sucked in a ragged breath before he
spoke. “Well, it’s just Emma told me about you being a very
religious man, so I wouldn’t imagine you do a lot of drinking. If I
accept, you’ll think me a drunkard who doesn’t deserve to date your
granddaughter. On the other hand, if you do enjoy a drink once in
awhile and I refuse, then you’re going to consider me a sissified
city boy. Right?”

Earl stared Aidan down. Finally, a wide grin
broke on his face. He thumped Aidan heartily on the back. “I like
your way of thinking.” Without breaking Aidan’s gaze, he brought
the Mason jar to his lips and took a long gulp. “A little sip of
spirits never hurt anyone.”

Aidan laughed as he took the moonshine from
Earl. The moment the liquid entered his mouth it burned a fiery
stream of torment down his throat and into his stomach. With Earl
watching him expectantly, he did his best to fight his watering
eyes and the urge to choke and hack. “Good stuff,” he replied,
mustering the manliest voice he could. He quickly passed the jar
back before he could be expected to drink anymore.

With a chuckle, Earl turned to Emma. “Maybe
he’s a keeper after all, Emmie Lou.”

She widened her eyes as Earl walked off. “I
can’t believe you’ve managed to win him over, especially so fast.
It took Travis ages not to get a death glare 24/7, and we’d known
each other our whole lives.”

Aidan smirked at her. “After everything we’ve
been through, I can’t believe you doubted my ability to charm the
pants off your grandfather.” He leaned over and whispered in her
ear. “Let’s not forget all the times I’ve managed to charm the
panties off of you.”

Playfully, she pushed him back. “You seem to
forget the first time you tried to play Marketing McDreamy with me
at the Christmas Party, and I said absolutely and totally not.”

Aidan chuckled. “That’s the truth. Worst
rejection of my life.”

“I doubt that.”

“Trust me, babe. It was.”

She couldn’t hide the surprise on her face.
To change the subject, she said, “Would you go get us some
dessert?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Still hungry?”

She laughed. “Asks the man who ate two plates
of BBQ to my one.”

“All right. I’ll go get you something
sweet.”

She kissed his cheek. “The baby and I thank
you for it.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re going to milk this
pregnancy thing for everything it’s worth, aren’t you?”

“Damn straight,” she replied.

Chuckling, he rose out of his chair.
“Anything specific you’d like?”

“Maybe a little sampling of everything?”

He gave her a mini-salute. “Yes, ma’am.”

After hitting up the desserts in a major way,
Aidan started back to the table with two plates filled to the brim.
When he got there, Emma held a tiny infant in her arms while
chatting up a young couple. “Oh, Aidan, these are my cousins Stacy
and Mark.” She glanced down at the baby in her arms and a broad
grin stretched on her face. “And this is my namesake, Emma
Kate.”

“You’re kidding.”

Stacy smiled. “Well, Emma Katherine was our
great-grandmother’s name, but I couldn’t imagine a sweeter person
to name my baby after than Em.”

“Neither could I,” Aidan replied, winking at
Emma.

“Come on, hon, we better go get a plate
before all the food is gone,” Mark suggested.

When Stacy reached for the baby, Emma shook
her head. “I can watch her while you guys eat.”

“Really?”

“Of course. It’ll be good practice.”

Mark chuckled. “Wow, I don’t think we’ve had
a baby free meal in the six weeks since Emma Kate was born.”;

“Thanks, Em,” Stacy replied.

Aidan eased down beside Emma as Mark and
Stacy walked off. Her appetite seemed to have evaporated with the
baby’s appearance. So he started working his way through his plate
of sweets as Emma cooed at the baby. “Isn’t she beautiful?” she
asked.

Aidan cut his eyes over to the infant swathed
in pink from head to toe. “She’s almost as beautiful as her
namesake.”

Emma laughed. “Aren’t you the charmer?”

When he had overloaded himself with sugar, he
pushed his plate away. Emma leaned over, holding the baby out to
him. “Want to take her for awhile?”

“So you can eat?”

“No, I just thought you might like to be
around a little girl for once. You only have younger nephews.”

Aidan eyed Emma Kate warily. She was so tiny
and fragile compared to Mason’s bulk. He was afraid he might break
her somehow. “Seriously, Em, I don’t know anything about little
girls.”

“And we could just as easily be having a
girl.” She then handed Emma Kate over to him. Reluctantly, he
nestled her in the crook of his arm. Her eyes fluttered open, and
she stared up at him. Her face began to crumple, and she looked
like at any minute she was going to scream.

“Shit! I’ve pissed her off!” Aidan
moaned.

Emma laughed. “No, you haven’t. Just rock her
a little and put her pacifier in.”

Aidan fumbled for the bib where the pacifier
was attached. When Emma Kate opened her mouth to cry, he popped it
in. Immediately, she started sucking on it and calmed down. He
swayed his arms back and forth, and within a few minutes, her eyes
grew heavy. When she was asleep, Aidan glanced over at Emma. He
couldn’t fight the proud grin that stretched on his face.

“You’re a natural,” Emma replied.

“I don’t know about that.”

Mark and Stacy came back to the table with
their food. “Good for you, bud. You know, preparing for the
future,” Mark said, motioning to Emma Kate in Aidan’s arms. “I’d
barely been around a kid before I had mine.”

“Well, I’m lucky to have lots of nieces and
nephews.” He shifted Emma Kate in his arms. “And from them, I know
enough about dirty diapers that I’m pretty sure she’s soaked
through.”

Mark groaned. “Fabulous.”

Emma rose out of her chair. “No, no. I’ll go
change her.” Aidan happily gave her the baby before glancing down
to see if he was wet as well.

Stacy handed Emma the diaper bag with a grin.
“You’re the best, cuz.”

“No problem.”

As Aidan watched Emma’s retreating form, a
piercing giggle erupted in his ear. “Hey, handsome, I’m Mary. You
wanna dance?”

Aidan turned around to see a girl—a very
gorgeous girl, but a teenage one at that, beaming at him. “Um, I
don’t think so.”

Her ruby red lips puckered in a pout. “Why
not?”

“First of all, I’m here with Emma, and
second, I think I’m a little too old for you.”

“I’m nineteen. Besides, Emma is my cousin.
She won’t mind.”

Aidan fought the urge to say
Like hell she
wouldn’t
! Even pregnant, Emma had enough hellcat in her to
knock Mary into next Tuesday for flirting with him. With an
exasperated sigh, he held his hands up. “Look, it’s really nice of
you to ask, but really, I have to say no.”