The Proposition (31 page)

“Night!” she replied, waving.

Emma wrestled Beau to the car and got him
inside. “There’s no way I’m taking you to Daddy’s office. I guess I
better drop you off at home before I go see him.”

Beau whined at the prospect as they pulled
out of the parking lot. Since Aidan’s house was closer, she figured
she would take him there.

At the sight of Aidan’s car in the driveway,
Emma’s heart shuddered to a stop. The fact a silver Audi sat next
to it caused her lungs to constrict. She fought to breathe.
Thoughts flashed through her mind like a lightning storm.
He
said his meeting was running late. He’s supposed to still be at
work. He’s at home.

With shaky hands, she killed the engine and
opened the car door. Beau lunged out, but Emma didn’t even bother
holding his leash. Instead she focused on trying to put one foot in
front of the other up the sidewalk.

Using the key he’d given her, she pushed open
the front door. The living room was bathed in darkness except for
the muted lights from the chandelier. Aidan lounged on the couch
while a leggy brunette straddled his lap. He was still fully
clothed except his shirt was unbuttoned and untucked. The woman, on
the other hand, had stripped off her shirt, and her short skirt had
ridden up her thighs. Aidan’s hands were on her forearms as if he
was about to push her off of him.

For a few agonizing seconds, Emma could only
stare in disbelief. Blinking, she tried waking herself up from the
nightmare in front of her, but no matter how hard she tried, she
couldn’t. It was all too real. The man she loved and the father of
her child had stood her up on one of the most important days of her
life to screw another woman. A strangled cry erupted from her
lips.

At the noise behind them, Aidan startled.
When he saw Emma standing there, his eyes widened in horror, and he
sucked in a breath. “What are you doing here?” he demanded.

Tears pricked and stung her eyes, but Emma
gave a maniacal laugh. “What am
I
doing here? I think the
better question is what the hell are
you
doing?”

The sound of another voice caused the
brunette to whirl around. Her gaze trailed from Emma’s face down to
her swollen belly. A hiss erupted from her lips before she shook
her head. “I don’t fucking believe this.” She turned her head and
then her wrath on Aidan. “No wonder you couldn’t get it up! The
guilt of cheating on your pregnant wife must’ve really been eating
at you!”

“She’s not my wife…yet,” Aidan replied, his
voice hushed.

The brunette sent a stinging slap across
Aidan’s cheek, and Emma had to bite her lip not to thank her for
doing it. At that moment, she would have loved to have done far
worse physical harm to him. “I don’t care what she is! You’re a
fucking bastard!” She jerked herself off Aidan’s lap and snatched
up her shirt. After throwing it over her head, she grabbed her
heels and stalked towards Emma. The fury in her face melted a
little. “I’m really sorry. I heard at work he was a player, and I
wanted a play. I had no idea…” her voice trailed off as she glanced
at Emma’s stomach.

“Thank you,” Emma whispered as the woman
started on by. She jumped at the slamming of the front door. On
wobbly legs, she took a few step forwards, closing the gap between
her and Aidan. He rose up on the couch, fumbling with the buttons
on his shirt.

When she stood there, just staring, he
exhaled a ragged breath. “Say something.”

Emma raised her eyebrows at him. “And what
would you like me to say?”

“I don’t know…just anything to keep you from
looking at me like that.”

“Well, frankly, I think your female friend
said it best. You’re a fucking bastard!”

“I agree.”

“And that’s all you have to say for yourself?
Not that you’re sorry you valued the importance of today so little
you skipped out on the ultrasound to cheat on me?”

Aidan shook his head. “I didn’t sleep with
her.”

She threw her hands up in exasperation. “You
were going to before I interrupted you!”

“I swear to you I was not going to screw her.
I had just told her I couldn’t, and
that
she should leave. Jesus, you heard her yourself say I couldn’t get
it up!”

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better
about the fact you had some skank riding you when I walked in
here?”

“Look, I admit I fucked up. But I
am
sorry.”

“Oh, I guess you’re also sorry you lied to me
when you said you would change. God, I was so stupid to believe you
would treat me any different than Amy or the other women. I should
have realized this is who you are and what you do.”

“Emma, please, I am sorry!”

“Really? Do you honestly feel that or are
those just some words you think you can say to make things right
between us?” Her voice choked off with the sobs rising in her
throat. “Are you really and truly sorry you broke my heart?”

Aidan winced. “You have no idea what I’ve
been going through lately. I’m never going to be all that you need
me to be, Emma. And the pressure from trying just broke me.”

She didn’t bother wiping away the tears
streaming down her cheeks. “So what you’re saying is trying to have
a relationship with me drove you into the arms of another
woman?”

His expression became anguished. “No, that’s
not what I mean.” He shook his head wildly. “I’m fucking up what I
need to say and do. And you’re making this harder on me. I feel bad
enough for what I’ve done.”

“Harder on
you
?” she questioned, her
voice raising an octave. “How could this possibly be hard on you?
I’m the one who opened myself up to all this pain despite my better
judgment.” She ground the tears out of her eyes with her fist.

He took a step towards her, but she backed
away from him. “Don’t you dare touch me after your hands have been
all over that whore!”

“Emma, please don’t do this. I told you I was
sorry. I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to you.”

Without even thinking, Emma blurted, “Tell me
you love me.”

He stared at her, unblinking and unmoving.
“What?”

“You’ve been emotionally shut off from me
since the day I told you I loved you. So if you really mean it when
you say you’re sorry and you really don’t want me to go, then say
the words. Tell me you love me.”

At his hesitation, stabbing pain crisscrossed
through her chest. The silence echoed through her as loud as a
freight train. She shook her head. “That’s what I thought,” she
murmured.

Her hands went to the purse at her side, and
she fumbled for the DVD of the sonogram. Using all the hurt and
anger welling inside her, she chucked it at him. It smacked hard
against his chest, causing Aidan to wince. “Not that you’re even
interested, but that’s a video of your
son
. I can only hope
and pray he grows up to be nothing like his father!”

Sobbing, she turned and fled from the room.
Beau followed her out the door, howling and crying right along with
her. As she fumbled with her keys, Aidan called several times for
her to come back, but she refused. Then he started calling for
Beau.

“Go back, boy,” Emma instructed, pointing a
shaky finger to Aidan. She flung open the car door, but he still
wouldn’t leave her side.

“Dammit, Beau, I said come!” Aidan shouted,
stepping off the porch. He stalked over to them and tried dragging
Beau back by the collar.

But Beau jerked away. His nose nuzzled Emma’s
belly, and he whined. Emma met Aidan’s horrified glance. “Yeah,
that’s right. Your dog is even more loyal to me and your son than
you are!”

With a defeated look, Aidan hung his head and
released Beau’s collar. “Fine, take him.”

“Come on, boy. Get in the car,” Emma
instructed. Beau wagged his tail and eagerly hopped inside. Without
another look at Aidan, she slammed the door. Squealing out of the
driveway, she tried to keep her emotions in check. But it was no
use. She got half a block down the road before she had to pull
over. Tears blinded her eyes to where she couldn’t see in front of
her, and she couldn’t breathe from the sobs raging through her
chest.

A knock at her window caused her to jump.
Hope ricocheted through Emma that Aidan had come after her.
Glancing up, her heart fell.

Becky stood outside the car, peering
curiously at her. “Emma?”

Damn. She hadn’t even thought about the
prospect of ending up on Becky’s street. The last person she wanted
to see was one of Aidan’s sisters. Mortified, she wiped her eyes
with the back of her hand and tried to compose herself. Finally,
she pressed the button to roll down the window. “Hi,” she said,
meekly.

Becky sucked in a breath. “Oh God, he
didn’t?”

Tears once again filled Emma’s eyes. Unable
to speak, she merely bobbed her head.

“I’m so, so sorry. He loves you, sweetheart.
I know he does. The whole family knows it. He’s just being a stupid
asshole.”

Emma hiccupped between a sob. “Tell that to
him and the woman he was about to sleep with before I walked
in.”

Becky’s eyes widened. “I’m going to
kill
him,” she muttered through gritted teeth. She shook her
head. “And if I don’t, one of the other girls will. God forbid this
gets back to Pop.” Becky opened the car door. “Get out. You’re
coming inside with me.”

“No, I can’t. I’m a mess. What would I say to
the boys?”

“Tate’s got them at movies tonight. It’s just
me.”

When Emma continued to hesitate, Becky
crossed her arms over her chest. “Listen, you’re coming in the
house with me if I have to drag you myself.”

“I’m parked on the side of the street.”

“It’ll be fine.” Becky eyed Beau in the
backseat. “What are you doing with him?”

“He wouldn’t let me go.”

Becky snorted. “Whoever said men are dogs
missed the mark. Beau’s got true loyalty.”

Emma gave a half-hearted smile. “Tell me
about it.”

Becky pulled Emma out of her seat and wrapped
an arm around her waist. “Listen, we’re going to order in some
Chinese or pizza or whatever you and the baby want. Then I’m going
to call the girls. We’re going to have a strategy meeting about
Aidan.”

Emma threw up her hands. “And just what do
you hope to achieve? Hog tie him and force him to be with me? In
case you missed the memo, he doesn’t want me! He’s made that
abundantly clear not only by almost screwing another woman, but by
not being able to tell me he loves me.”

“It’s not like this is the first time he’s
done this, Em. Surely he’s told you about Amy?”

“Yeah, how he wouldn’t propose, and then she
caught him with another woman and broke up with him.”

“Did he also tell you how he spent the better
part of that year drunk and in and out of therapy because he had a
nervous breakdown over what he did to her?”

Emma gasped. “No, he didn’t.”

“Hmm, I guess he also managed to leave out
the part where he tried over and over again to get her to come back
to him, but she refused? He finally had to give up when she married
someone else.”

Emma could hardly believe her ears. Aidan had
lied to her about what had happened with Amy. He had never allowed
the true depth of his feelings for Amy to be known. “He never told
me any of that.”

“I know my brother. He did what he did to you
tonight to push you away, not because he wanted to screw another
woman. He self-sabotages himself every damn time!” She grunted in
frustration. “By the way he acts about relationships, you would
think he was raised in some dysfunctional home by crack-heads or
something.”

Emma leaned against the car and put her head
in her hands. “I don’t think I can handle all this!”

Becky pulled Emma’s hands away, and then
stared her in the eye. “You’ve got to decide right here and now if
you’re going to fight for him.”

“Me? Why the hell do I have to do the
fighting? He’s the one who fucked up royally!”

“I didn’t say he didn’t. But fighting for him
doesn’t mean you’re a doormat and go running back to his open arms,
Em. It means you’re willing to put up with whatever bullshit it
takes to get him to win you back.”

“You actually think he’s going to try?”

Becky grinned. “Oh yes. Tomorrow morning,
maybe even tonight, Aidan Fitzgerald is going to rue the day he
ever let you walk out of his life, and you’re going to get to enjoy
every minute of it!”

Aidan
sat in the pitch black living room for hours after Emma left. He
would reach for his phone to call her and then stop himself. He
would start to get up to go after her and then think himself a
fool.

No, he wasn’t what she needed. He could never
live up to her expectations of what a husband and father should be.
They were both better off. He had wanted a way out for the past
week, and he had found it.

But instead of feeling relief, he felt
misery.

Freedom from the choking and suffocating
emotions hadn’t come with Emma’s departure. Instead, they felt
tighter around him than ever before. Defeated, he rose off the
couch to grab a beer. His foot accidentally kicked the DVD case
across the room. He left it laying there as he headed into the
kitchen.

After snatching the six pack out of the
fridge, he started back into the living room. His eye caught the
plastic DVD case, and he stopped to pick it up. Tossing it on the
table, he turned on the TV and started flipping through the
channels.

It was after his third beer that the
curiosity finally got to him. He took the DVD out and put it in the
machine. The sound of the latest basketball game faded, and it was
replaced by a thump-thumping echoing through the room.

His son’s heartbeat.

Frozen, Aidan stared at the grainy image on
the television screen. The last time he had seen the baby it barely
resembled anything. It was a strange tadpole looking thing. Now its
features were prominent—its arms and legs flailed while its tiny
mouth fluttered open and shut.