Stonehill series collect.., p.115
Stonehill Series Collection, page 115
“This is where we part ways, little human nugget,” she said to Harris. She kissed his head and started to stand. Aiden was quick to take her arm and help her up as if she couldn’t manage it on her own.
She hated to admit it, but it was nice. And if they were a couple, she would have taken that as an indication of what a good husband and father would be someday in the future. But they weren’t a couple. They’d tried that once and it had sucked. The relationship hadn’t sucked. The ending had, and that had sucked bad enough that she wasn’t going to go through it again.
“Thanks.” She tried to say it casually, but it came out a little breathless. Mallory opened her arms, and the light that filled her eyes made a strange ache start in Meg’s chest. She’d been adamant for the last few months that babies and husbands were not in her future plans, but something in her mind shifted in that moment. Okay. Maybe. Someday. Eventually… It might be nice to have this.
Easing Harris back into Mallory’s arms, Meg couldn’t resist putting a kiss on her best friend’s head. “You’re an amazing mama,” she whispered. “Jessica and Harris are the luckiest kids in the world.”
Mallory smiled up at her. “Thanks.”
“Want me to start laundry or anything?”
“Nope. Mom and Marcus are coming over with dinner. She said she’d do a few loads then. Thank you for offering, though. I appreciate the help.”
“Did you give Aiden a shopping list?”
“I did. Make sure he gets exactly what’s on it. Please.”
Meg winked. “I’m on it. You just sit there and be beautiful. We got this.” She was slipping her feet back into her shoes when Aiden grabbed her coat and opened it for her. Damn it. He needed to stop being so nice and considerate. He was melting the sheet of ice she’d put around her heart, and that was making her feel vulnerable. She couldn’t be vulnerable where he was concerned.
As she zipped her coat, he put his on and dug his keys out of the pocket.
“Oh, no.” She held her keys up. “The last time you drove, I got stitches.”
Aiden rolled his eyes, but he grinned and dropped his keys back into his pocket. She giggled as she opened the door.
Aiden held up a box of cereal. “This?”
Meg shook her head and continued skimming the shelf. “This.” She showed him the front, pointing to the little label that touted the box didn’t contain any genetically modified ingredients. “Phil may try to snub his mother’s hippie lifestyle, but she got to him more than he knows. GMOs are a big no-no in the Martinson-Canton diet.”
Aiden grinned. “I guess there are worse things that someone could eliminate from their diet.”
“Remember that guy in your chem class who ate so much garlic the scent literally seeped from his pores?”
Aiden pushed the cart as they moved down the snack aisle. He didn’t want to think about how right this felt. Grocery shopping shouldn’t make a calm wash over him, but he suspected it wasn’t just the shopping. It was the normalcy of the morning. Seeing Meg nuzzling Harris. The way she’d whispered and smiled as she’d touched his face and kissed his head had sent an arrow right through his heart.
For a few seconds, he’d felt like he’d been dropped in an alternate world—a world where he hadn’t been a chickenshit bastard who ran out on the life he should have had. Every time he thought he’d reconciled with his bad choices, something kicked him in the shins and he remembered.
If he hadn’t left, he suspected that he and Meg wouldn’t have lasted anyway. She clearly hadn’t wanted the life she was setting herself up to have and wouldn’t have changed course if Aiden had stayed. Had he stayed, he wouldn’t have been broken down in the ways his residency in New York had humbled him. Things had unfolded like this for a reason. He accepted that. But then something as simple as seeing Meg smile would remind him that the only reason she wasn’t with him was because he was a damned fool.
“Earth to Aiden,” Meg sang.
He blinked a few times and shook his head. “Sorry. My mind wandered.”
“You don’t say.” She stopped walking and narrowed her eyes a little. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. You?”
“I’m good.” She grinned. “What’s going through your head?”
He couldn’t tell her that he’d, once again, been thinking of how things could have been. Instead, he said, “We should stop and pick up that gift certificate we talked about getting for Mal and Phil. I don’t want to forget.”
She looked at the almond milk and non-dairy yogurt in the cart. “Probably should have done that first.”
“Well, we can drop this off and then go back out.” He liked that idea. A perfectly valid excuse to spend more time with her.
“Yeah, we could do that.” She sounded doubtful.
“Unless you have somewhere else you need to be.”
She thought for a moment before shaking her head. “No, that will work. I’m supposed to take Jessica to a movie today, and I haven’t showered yet.”
“Well. After we pick up the gift certificate, you can run home and shower while I go to Kara’s to get Jessica. We’ll swing by to pick you up, and then we can take her to the movie.”
Meg stared at him. He’d probably just pushed a bit too hard. But then she smiled. “That’ll work. Nice thinking, Doc.”
Aiden smiled so wide his cheeks ached. “Of course, I guess that really depends on what movie you’re seeing…”
Meg snorted. “Too late. You’ve already committed.”
He let out a dramatic groan, but he didn’t care what movie they saw. He didn’t care if she and Jess picked out the cheesiest romantic comedy they could find playing in a theater. He was spending the day with Meg. That was all that mattered.
Chapter 7
Aiden was glad to be back in Stonehill for Christmas, but he had to admit he felt a bit disappointed by the holiday. When he was a kid, he waited all damn year to open presents. As an adult, it just wasn’t the same. Stevie disappeared upstairs to play video games. His father was watching a football game, and his mother was flipping through a magazine.
“Phil and Mallory invited me over today. I bought a present for Jessica. Want to go with me?”
Becca looked at him and her eyes seemed excited for a moment, but then she shook her head. “No, thank you.”
“Mom. Come with me.”
“Kara wouldn’t want me there.”
“How do you know?”
She returned her attention to an ad that was apparently for jeans but more like soft pornography. “She didn’t invite me.”
“It’s not her house. It’s Phil’s. Besides, I don’t even know if Kara and Harry will be there.”
“Well, Phil didn’t invite me.”
“He’s got his hands full of dirty diapers and bottles at the moment.”
“He invited you.”
Aiden realized then how frustrating he must have been as a teenager. “Okay, Mom. Suit yourself.” He started for the door but then stopped and faced her. “They’re our family. Kara is our family. And it’s Christmas Day. Maybe you could stop being mad at her for one day.”
“I’m not mad at her,” she snapped.
“If you say so.”
“Aiden,” she called. Slamming her magazine shut, she stood. “Wait.”
She left him standing there for several minutes before returning with two gift bags. One had a baby on the front, and the other was clearly geared toward a teen. She grabbed one of the ever-ready tin of holiday cookies that she handed out to neighbors and surprise visitors during the holidays. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s go.”
He decided to keep his sarcastic approval to himself. He guessed she had probably done that a hundred times or more as he grew up. He drove them to Phil’s house, but as they got closer, she fidgeted, appearing more and more nervous.
Finally, he put his hand on hers to stop her from picking at her nails. “Mom. She’s not going to body-slam you.”
“I just don’t want a fight. All we do is fight.”
“Do you remember how Stevie and I used to get into it? We’d just pick and pick at each other until one of us blew up. Remember?”
“Yes. It was so foolish.”
“You and Kara are grown-up versions of Stevie and me.”
She opened her mouth as she looked at him but then snapped her jaw shut.
“You intentionally try to set each other off like it’s a contest. So don’t. Don’t start with her, and if she starts with you, ignore it. Walk away. Don’t engage.” He parked on the street behind Harry’s car.
“She’s here,” his mom said flatly.
“Don’t. Engage.”
After rolling her eyes at him, she climbed from his car and gathered the gifts. She waited for him to lead the way. She muttered something about this being a big mistake as the door opened. But as soon as she spotted the little bundle in Mallory’s arms, she gasped and cooed.
Babies had that effect on his mother.
Mallory blinked with obvious surprise as Aiden stepped aside and let his mother go in first.
He lifted his hands. “Act casual,” he whispered.
She chuckled and pulled back the blanket so Becca could get a better look at Harris.
“Oh, honey, he’s perfect.”
“Thanks, Becca.”
Aiden led his mother into the house and put on a bright smile when Phil gave him the same “oh crap” look he’d gotten from Mallory. Kara stopped reading to her little girl to greet Aiden, and her eyes widened just a bit when she noticed Becca at his side.
“Hi, guys,” Kara said, almost managing to cover her shock. She glanced toward the door. “Where’s the rest of the crew?”
“Stevie’s playing games, and Dad was watching football.” Aiden put his arm around his mom’s shoulders. “We’re going to have to do.”
Harry subtly nudged his wife, and she asked, “Did you have a good Christmas, Bec?”
“It’s not over yet, Kare.”
Kara opened her mouth, obviously ready to say something snarky, but Aiden gave her a pathetic look and she forced a smile. “Very true.” Returning her attention to Mira, Kara started reading again.
Harry cleared his throat as he stood. “Here, Becca. Have a seat.”
The tension between the cousins was obvious, apparently even to Mira, because she curled up closer to her mother.
“Nice,” Phil whispered to Aiden.
“Let’s just hope it takes.”
“One step at a time.”
“Hey, Aiden,” Jessica said, running up to him. “Look at this!”
He skimmed the paper she showed him, but before he could fully grasp what it meant, she pulled it back.
“Mallory adopted me,” Jessica announced proudly. “She’s my mom now. Not just my stepmom but my real mom. Isn’t that cool?”
He glanced at Mallory rocking the baby and smiling widely.
“We kept it under wraps because we thought Jessica should be the first to know,” Phil explained.
“This was in my stocking this morning,” Jess said. “It’s the best Christmas ever.” She leaned close and whispered, “I’ve always wanted a mom. Mine left when I was a baby and never came back.”
“I’m really glad you got what you wanted, Jess.” He held his hand up and let her give him a high-five. As soon as she did, she darted off to show Becca. Aiden guessed a lot of people were going to see that letter before Jessica’s excitement wore off.
“That’s awesome, Mal,” he said.
She smiled even wider. “Thanks. We were really hoping to get it finalized before Harris was born, but we’re very happy everything was legal before Christmas.”
Looking around the room, from Mallory rocking Harris to Becca and Kara talking about raising kids, Aiden thought this was the most normal holiday he’d had in a very long time. He needed more of this. The only thing missing, besides his dad and brother, was Meg.
Meg tried to ignore the way her sister was judging her, but the moment she had walked into her parents’ house, Aya had lifted her chin at least two notches. However, when she focused on Meg’s forehead, what appeared to be genuine concern filled her eyes. “How did that happen?”
Meg touched her still-tender injury. “I was showing some houses to a client. The roads were icy. We slid into a ditch.”
“Meg,” she said, as if she were already exhausted from dealing with her sister. “You know you shouldn’t be driving in the snow. It scares you too much.”
“I wasn’t driving. He was.”
Aya widened her eyes. “You got in a car with a stranger. A male stranger?”
“And here we go,” Meg muttered. She’d literally been there for three minutes, and her sister was already getting ready to lecture her. If this were any other day, she’d snap to shut her up, but Meg was determined not to ruin Christmas. “All our clients have background checks, Aya.”
“He could have killed you. Have you forgotten what happened to Annie O’Connell?”
“Her name is Annie Callison now,” Meg said. “And since I work for her, I think it’s safe to say I have not forgotten.”
“She could have died.”
“We have security in place to try to prevent anything like that from happening again.”
Aya clearly wasn’t impressed. She put her hands on the dining room table and glared. “This job is dangerous.”
“So is yours. What happens if some spliced DNA gets into your system and you grow a third eye? Or turn into Spider-Man?”
“Stop being stupid,” Aya snapped.
“You stop being paranoid.”
“Your boss got shot, Meg. I’m not being paranoid.”
“Peter Parker started shooting webs out of his hands.”
Aya glared at her. Meg knew exactly how to get to her older sister, and she was doing it with a smile on her face. The downfall of being siblings was instinctively knowing how to piss the other off. Aya might be better than Meg at everything else, but she’d never outdo Meg in the area of deliberately pushing buttons.
“I’m trying to look out for you,” Aya stated. “Someone has to since you obviously can’t take care of yourself.”
That zinger stung a bit more than Meg wanted to admit. “I do just fine, thank you.”
“Not today,” Umi said to both her daughters. “It’s Christmas.” She looked over her shoulder. “Stop before you upset your father. None of us need to deal with his bad mood.”
Aya threw her hands up and left the room, headed toward the kitchen. Meg had intentionally arrived just in time to eat. She didn’t want to deal with her sister telling her all the ways she was cooking wrong.
“Hey,” Meg said before her mother scurried out too. “Why didn’t you tell Aya about my accident?”
Her mother put her hand on her hip. Though she was small and thin, she looked intimidating as hell as she stared at Meg with her mouth stretched in a tight line and her eyes narrowed. “You really think I want your father to know you were with that boy?”
Meg blinked a few times. “You mean Aiden?”
“He’s the reason you tossed your future away.”
Rolling her head back, Meg moaned. “Seriously?”
“You dropped out of medical school because of him.”
“No.” Meg met her mom’s determined stare with one of her own. “I dropped out of med school because I didn’t want to be a doctor.”
“Not today, Megumi. Don’t start this fight today.”
Snapping her mouth shut, she exhaled. She shouldn’t have told her mom that she’d been with Aiden. That was stupid, and she’d known it before she’d even said it. She had just been feeling so confused about him, and Mallory was busy with the new baby. She’d needed someone to talk to and had foolishly thought she could tell her mother. Her family couldn’t possibly understand. She knew better.
Dropping into a chair, she waited for her mom and sister to finish bringing food from the kitchen. As they served, Meg’s father joined them, barely acknowledging Meg. Aya, on the other hand, was quizzed about the trials and tribulations of DNA splicing. She wasn’t dating, had no plans to, but she was ready to move out of her apartment and buy a condo. She’d looked at a few already but hadn’t found one she liked.
“What?” Meg blurted out. “Why would you…” She looked at her mother as if she could somehow help her make sense of what she’d heard. “Aya, why would you let someone else show you condos? You could have come to me.”
“I went to a professional real estate agent, Meg,” Aya said.
Ouch. “Um. I’ve been a licensed agent for over two years now. I think most people would consider that being a professional.”
“He has over twenty years’ experience,” she said, as if that justified choosing someone else over her sister. “This is a serious decision for me, Meg. I have to go with an agent I can trust.”
Meg sat back, her mouth open and her eyes wide. “Oh. Gotcha. Someone you can trust.” She looked at her plate of half-eaten food and her stomach clenched. Letting her breath out slowly, she pushed down the angry words trying to escape her. Not today, her mom had told her. Not today.
“Not today,” she whispered as she stood. “Excuse me. I just realized I’m supposed to be somewhere else.”
“Sit,” her mom said. “Megumi. Sit.”
“Merry Christmas, Mom,” she said and headed for the door.
Meg left without looking back. She wasn’t lying; she did have other places to be, but Mallory and Phil weren’t expecting her for another hour or two. She swallowed down her emotions, refusing to let Aya’s choices hurt her, giving herself a much-needed pep talk the entire way.
However, when she noticed Aiden’s car parked outside, what was left of her spirits sank. Damn it. She didn’t need this. She didn’t need to see him. Not now. She considered driving by, but she had been invited to celebrate with her friends—who were more like family. And she did need to be with them right now. Aiden be damned.
However, she hadn’t expected to see his mother sitting next to Kara. Becca Howard had never been a big fan of Meg’s. She didn’t know why, but she had her suspicions. Aiden’s parents were old-fashioned, and Meg didn’t have to consider for very long that they didn’t approve of their son dating a girl from Japan.
