The Proposal (The Proposition #2)(15)

He gazed up at her through his long lashes. “But too stubborn to admit it, right?”

She swallowed her bite of salad. “You never can admit what you should,” she said softly.

“I know,” he grumbled, as he snatched the last slice of bread.

She sighed. “I meant what I said about you needing to shape up. You have to take care of yourself. I don’t like the excessive drinking—it worries me for your health and safety. Regardless of what we are or aren’t, you’re still going to be a father. I can’t have a drunk in my--” she paused. “I mean, in our baby’s life.”

His tortured gaze held hers as he chewed. “So I can still be in Noah’s life, just not yours?”

Not knowing how to respond, she pushed her salad around with her fork. “Em?” Aidan pressed.

“I would never keep you away from Noah if you truly wanted to be a part of his life.”

Jenny interrupted them by bringing their plates. “Everything okay so far?”

Emma forced a smile at the almost loaded meaning of the question. “It’s delicious thank you.”

“I’d like some more bread,” Aidan said.

Jenny nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”

They fell into silence again. “You need to eat your salad,” Aidan finally said.

“Oh, so now you’re telling me to eat?”

“You’re supposed to be eating a lot of green, leafy vegetables for the folic acid.”

She arched her brows in surprise. “And just how do you know that?”

Through a mouthful of baked potato, he said, “What to Expect While You’re Expecting.”

Her heartbeat thundered in her chest so loud she was sure he could hear it. “You actually read the book I gave you?”

He bobbed his head as he shoveled in a bite of steak. “Read some others too,” he muttered between chewing.

She stared at him in disbelief. When he finally looked at her and not his plate, he grinned. “So eat your salad.”

Pursing her lips, she glared at him for a moment before picking up her fork. Once she filled her mouth with an enormous bite of lettuce, she mumbled, “Happy?”

“Mmm, hmm. Eat your steak too. Noah needs his protein.”

Emma snorted exasperatedly but did as she was told. When she cleaned her salad plate, Aidan clapped for her. She laughed in spite of herself. “I don’t think two people have ever been so obsessed with one meal,” she mused.

“I guess we both benefit from having someone take care of us.”

“Maybe,” she murmured.

After pushing his empty plate out of the way, Aidan’s expression grew grave. “I need to tell you the truth about what happened with Amy.”

“I already know.” At Aidan’s puzzled expression, she replied, “Becky told me about how you tried for a year to get her back. How you became an alcoholic…had to go to therapy. It really doesn’t affect us.”

Aidan cringed. “Yeah, well, that’s only half of the story.”

A chill ran over Emma, causing her to shudder. “What do you mean?”

“Only Amy, Pop, and I know the real truth.” He downed the rest of his beer and shook the bottle at the waitress as she passed by.

“So tell me,” Emma prompted.

“After all of our years together, Amy was desperate for us to get married.” He drew in a ragged breath. “She was so desperate that she went as far as to try to trap me into marrying her.”

The world tilted and spun around Emma. “You mean…”

“Yes, she was pregnant.”

Her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God.”

“The second time we got back together we weren’t swimming competitively, so she started broaching the subject of not doing double the contraception anymore. After awhile, she finally wore me down. She was on birth control, so I figured that was enough. I stopped using condoms.”

Emma arched her eyebrows at his admission. “You told me I was the first woman you’d ever been inside of without a condom.”

He scowled at her. “Yeah, well, excuse me if I thought it would have totally f**ked up the moment by admitting that after going off condoms just twice, my ex-girlfriend got pregnant.” He gave a bark of a laugh at Emma’s gasp. “Yeah, I’m pretty potent, huh? That’s how I knew I would be a good candidate to knock you up.”

“That’s a disgusting way of putting it,” Emma hissed.

Aidan’s expression softened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.”

“Anyway, so Amy got pregnant on birth control?”

A bitter smile then twisted on his face. “Oh no. An accidental pregnancy? That would have been easy to forgive. After all, the f**king directions on the box even admit it’s only 98% effective.” His fingers ripped at the label on his beer. “Nope. A year into us being back together and me running like hell from any commitment, she stopped taking her birth control without my knowledge.”

“Oh Aidan,” Emma murmured. She didn’t know what else to say. “So you’re trying to tell me you have a child out there somewhere?”

The angry expression drained off his face and was replaced by one of absolute sorrow. “I wish that were the case.”