Modern Arrangements: Complete Trilogy (Modern Arrangements #1-3) (45 page)

He exhaled heavily.

"Becca and I...well...we, um, had a
fling."

"When?" I snapped.

His eyes came up to mine quickly.

"No, no, no...before you. She got
slightly...attached to me and even broke into my apartment, as well as my
grandfather's...erm...our home." I scowled at him. "We never pressed
charges. My Uncle Henry and I are the only ones who know about it. The Ball was
the first time I had seen her since then. I had hoped that she wouldn’t start...her
um...tendencies again."

I pulled my hand away and rolled over to
my side, away from him. "I need to be alone." I heard him shuffle out
of the room.

"Lilli?" I looked up to Dr. Munthers
with tears straining my face.

"I'm sorry that you had to witness—"

"Don't say another word." She
smiled kindly. "However, I need to finish your examination. I can come
back if you’d prefer?"

I shook my head.

"No, I want to get to my
father."

She continued on with the scan and the
other internal exams.

"Well, I would place you at roughly
two months pregnant and doing very well." She smiled down on me. "I
can discharge you. You need to start scheduling regular visits with your family
doc...or, um...I'll provide you with a list of highly referred OB/GYN's in New
York, okay?"

"Thank you," I wiped the tears
from my face.

"A nurse will be in to discharge
you soon." She got to the door and paused. "And don't be afraid to
call me if you have any questions, okay?"

I nodded and smiled at her before she
walked out of the room.

Mentally exhausted, I rolled to my side
and sobbed as everything ran through my head. Aidan's revelations made sense. But,
at the same time, I just didn't know for sure if I could trust him. He says he
loves me, but what if it is simply because now I hold the key to his precious
AIS? I was too exhausted to think any more about it and drifted into blackness.

Dixon and Phoebe appeared in my room
after I had been woken up by the nurse to be discharged. Dixon had the
wheelchair and Phoebe was gathering my bags. I hadn't seen or heard from Aidan
and, honestly, I preferred it this way, for now.

Once I was in the chair, Dixon wheeled
me to my father. He still had a small blue tint to his lips, but that was
normal. I remembered from last time. I stood, overcome with wanting to just be
a small girl again, I climbed into the bed and laid on my dad, crying into his
chest.

"Whhhatssss wronng?" His raspy
voice pulled me from my grief.

"Oh, daddy, don't talk. Just
rest." I cupped his cheek with my hand and smiled at him.

He started to open his mouth, but I
stopped him.

"When you are better and we are
home, okay?"

Though he looked at me with concern and
annoyance, he complied. I laid back down on his chest and he moved a hand to my
head. I squeezed onto him, hoping that I could draw strength from him.

Chapter Ten

Discovery

Lilli

I laid with Donald until I fell asleep,
just like when I was a little girl. Millie’s voice woke me from my restless
slumber. I groaned and rubbed the dried tears from my swollen eyes.

"Lilli?" She whispered and
patted my arm.

"Hmm?" I sat up.

"Um…you have a visitor." I
looked up at Millie and followed her gaze over my left shoulder.

There stood a disheveled Aidan. He
looked as bad as I felt. I felt my face instantly harden.

"I don’t want to talk to you right
now." I growled out low.

"Please, Lil…" I cut him off.

"Just go," I sighed out and
rubbed my stiff neck.

"Lilli," I looked up at Millie
who had a very motherly look on her face. "Go on now. Give the man a
chance to speak." She raised a brow at me as if she were daring me to
argue with her.

I huffed and got up, pushing past Aidan
as I walked out of the hospital room door. I didn’t stop. I continued until I
came across the waiting room that held the vending machines. Smiling at a
couple who were seated with magazines, snacks, and a couple of pillows, I
walked to the soda machine. After getting a bottle of root beer from the
machine, I turned to face Aidan.

"Well?" I took another sip.

"Lilli, I didn’t…" he turned
and looked at the couple who was trying to pretend that they weren’t listening
to our conversation. “I didn’t do what you are thinking. I would never do that,
ever. Why can’t you realize that?" Even in his hushed tone his voice was
intense.

"I don’t think that you would,
Aidan. It’s just…I mean, it’s just so convenient and, well, to be honest, I
don’t know if I should or if I can trust you." I sighed and sat down.
"Why didn’t you tell me before that you called the doctor about my
prescription? Why couldn’t you be upfront about it when you did it? And, then,
when I overheard you on the phone the other day. Now it just makes me
wonder." I put my head in my hands. "Trust and belief is not
something that I can give you right now."

"I’m sorry this happened. I’ve
already placed calls and have people looking into everything. Plus, the
hospital is making a report about the drug switch." I could hear the
sadness in his voice. "I know that you are angry, but I am too."

I looked at him about to get defensive.

Was he trying to say that he was angry
at me?

He saw the look on my face.

"Not with you, with me." Now I
was confused. Before I could ask what he meant, he continued. "I should’ve
been honest with you before all of this."

I shrugged.

"I guess it doesn’t really matter
about the pills…" I broke off when I saw his face. "What?"

"I was talking about telling you
that I love you." He turned his entire body to face me. "I am dead
serious, Lilli, I love…"

I groaned loudly and stood up.

"What?" he asked, sounding a
little annoyed.

"Just…just don’t say that." I
closed my eyes and rubbed my closed lids.

"Why shouldn’t I say it? I mean
it." He stood and his hands were on my upper arms tightly, pulling me
closer to him.

I opened my eyes.

"You may think that you love me,
Aidan, I don’t know, but you are not in love with me. We have an agreement and
that is…"

"Will you please stop trying to
discredit how I feel about you?" He wrapped his arms around my waist.

Pushing him away, I swallowed hard.

"Aidan, I don’t feel that way about
you." I lied. "I knew and so did you, that this was just an
arrangement. The newest development doesn’t change anything." I lied again
and wiped away the solitary tear that escaped my traitorous eye.

"You’re lying," he spit out
quickly. He sounded cocky, but there was a hint of anger and sadness to his
voice. He sighed. "When we get home we are going to…" I cut him off.

"I am not going ho…to your
house." I turned to look at him. He looked terrified.

"You—?"

"I am going to stay and take care
of Donald, until he is better." I cleared up the misunderstanding. "I
know that you need to get back to AIS, so I will be away for a while."

Aidan looked so sad that I almost wanted
to comfort him, but I held strong. If I comforted him then I would simply crack
into a million pieces. My father just had a heart transplant, I was hit by a
freaking truck and I found out that I was pregnant, that I had been drugged to
produce said pregnancy. And, the icing to top off the pregnancy cake, something
that I am not even sure how I feel about, I was pregnant with twins. My
emotions and my logical thinking were so wrapped up with each other that I
couldn’t stand to be in my own skin. Confusion, sadness, shock, fear, and panic
ripped through me in continuous waves. Trying to hold myself together was a full
time job right now.

"I understand," was all Aidan
said as he sat back down.

I took a deep breath and walked passed
him. Once I was out of the waiting room, I found the closest bathroom. Lurching
into the porcelain bowl, I emptied the contents of my stomach. I suddenly felt
exhausted and drained.

After washing off my face and rinsing
out my mouth, I walked back to my father’s room. Aidan was sitting in a corner
chair looking disheveled and somber. I climbed into the reclining chair next to
my father’s bed. The last thing I remember is feeling Aidan’s burning gaze.

Aidan returned to New York three days
after our conversation, though he called and texted regularly. Donald was moved
from Eastern Maine back to Winter Harbor hospital after a week. He spent two
more weeks at Winter Harbor hospital before he being released into homecare.

Whoever labeled it ‘morning sickness’
was definitely a moronic male. I was sick morning, noon and night. I was barely
able to hold down any type of solid food. At one point, Millie almost had a
doctor put me on an IV. Thankfully that didn’t happen.

Phoebe and Dixon had left after spending
a week in the hospital with me and Donald. Phoebe arrived in Winter Harbor when
we took Donald home from the hospital. I was happy to have her back, along with
the clothes that she brought for me. She was going to drive me to the hospital
so that I could finally get the approval to stop using the damn air cast and
have my head checked out, as well as for my OB checkup.

"So…" Phoebe kept her eyes on
the road.

"What, Phoebe?" I sighed.

"Do you really think it was
Aidan?" She sounded hesitant, as if she were worried that I would get mad
at her for bringing him or the topic up.

"I don’t know," I growled.
"We’ve been through this. I just…I don’t know if I can trust or believe
him. I mean…Ahgghh!" I put my head back on the seat.

"I’m sorry," Phoebe said
genuinely. "I don’t mean to be a pest, but, Lilli, you should have seen
him!" She kept moving her eyes from the road to me and then back.

"Keep your eyes on the road."
I instructed. "Seen him what?" I asked in a low tone.

"Oh my God, Lilli, when you were in
the ICU and he got there it was like he was going to explode. He was
functioning on pure adrenaline. And, then, when he found your room, he curled
up in the bed with you and started sobbing."

I looked at her a little shocked.

"Jesus, if he isn’t in love with you
then I don’t know what the hell you would call it." She was smiling
wistfully. "I was going to go in the room with him, but when I got to the
door and heard him, I felt like I was intruding."

"Well, I’m not saying that he
doesn’t care about me, Phoebe—"

"Fuck caring, he loves you. The way
he went off on the nurse who tried to kick him out of your room after visiting
hours is just another confirmation." Phoebe was now starting to lecture
me.

"He told off a nurse?" I
started twisting my fingers around in my lap.

"Hell yeah he did. Dixon had to
calm him down." She giggled. "He threatened to buy the hospital and
then he could do what he wanted!" She laughed and I spit out a laugh as
well.

"Okay, okay…I get that he has
feelings for me, but I just…I don’t know." I stared out the window during
the rest of the ride.

Phoebe, being so in tune with me from
our years of friendship, knew that I needed to think.

He was going to be meeting us at the
hospital today. He refused to miss the check up for my fracture, my head, and
for the baby, well, babies.

It was still surreal to think that I was
carrying two living beings in my small bump. Another surreal moment is when you
step out of the shower and, for the first time, your reflection reveals that
you are noticeably pregnant. Having grabbed a few pregnancy books from the
store to read in the hospital, I had read that twins would cause me to show
sooner than a single pregnancy. I had sighed at the thought when I read it and
cried into a towel when I first noticed it.

I still hadn’t been able to connect with
the pregnancy which made me feel guilty. There were women out there simply
trying to conceive one child without any luck at all and here I am reluctantly
pregnant with twins. I felt shitty for being so disconnected, but every time I
thought about it I couldn’t get passed all the lies.

When Phoebe pulled into the parking lot
I snapped out of my thoughts.

"You okay?" She asked as she
drove around the parking garage next to the hospital.

"Yeah," I breathed out.

Once parked, we headed into the
hospital. First stop was Dr. Sherman. When I stepped off of the elevator I was
a little surprised by the sight of Aidan leaning against the wall.

He didn’t look like himself; dark
circles under his eyes, stubble on his jaw and slumped shoulders. His eyes met
mine and it was like clouds breaking away for the sun to shine through.

"Lilli," he smiled widely and
walked over, quickly pulling me into his arms.

Phoebe giggled.

"I’ll wait out here for you."
She sat down in a waiting chair and pulled a magazine out of her oversized bag.

Pulling out of his embrace, I turned to
Phoebe. "You don’t have to stay out here. You can—"

"Get going. I’ll be here." She
dismissed me without looking away from her Vogue magazine.

I took a deep breath and headed down the
hospital corridor, Aidan close to my side.

"You look good."

"Thank you."

Aidan stopped in front of me and placed
his hand on my stomach.

"Lilli…" his eyes came alive,
"you can tell." He transformed before my eyes, back to the Aidan I
first met.

"Um..yeah. With twins you start to show
a little sooner." I shrugged and stood there uncomfortably. I wasn’t a big
fan of people pointing out just how big I was getting. Phoebe was a fan though.

Aidan removed his hand. Before I could
make a move to walk around him, he cupped my face and pressed his lips to mine.

"I love you," he whispered
against my lips. It felt so good, so natural, to feel him against my lips. My
hands had already found his shoulders before I realized it and pulled myself
away.

"I’m going to be late for my
appointment." I caught my breath and walked around him.

His fingers laced through mine as he
caught up to me. I glanced over at him, there was a huge smile on his face as
we walked toward the nurse’s desk. He was absolutely beautiful.

Once Doctor Sherman was finished, and
gave me the clearance to not use the air cast, he sent us on our way to Doctor Munthers.

"Lilli, Aidan, it is good to see
you again." She smiled as she entered the room.

"Hello," I said, sitting on
the large padded table in the God awful hospital gown.

"So, how have you been
feeling?" She looked at me.

"Oh, um, okay. I mean, the throwing
up seems to have finally settled into just early afternoon or if I smell
something disgusting." I shrugged and waited for the next question,
catching sight of Aidan in my peripheral vision. His brow was furrowed and the
light in his eyes was gone again.

"Any complaints or questions?"
She smiled at me.

"None that you can do anything
about," I laughed.

"Okay, well let’s get this going
then." She pulled on two latex gloves. "Can you lay back and bring
your bottom to the edge of the table?" She asked as she pulled my legs
into the stirrups. I did as she asked. Once she was done with the internal exam
she threw the gloves away.

Still lying on my back, but no longer in
the stirrups, she pulled back the gown and did the stomach measurements. I
heard a sharp intake of breath and turned to see Aidan staring at my stomach.

"Everything looks great," she
smiled down to me as she fumbled around in the pocket of her white coat.

She pulled out a small gray box with a
small piece attached to it, which looked like a microphone. Then I felt and
heard the gel squeezed onto my abdomen before she placed the small piece to my
stomach. She roamed around for a moment until the room filled with a whooshing
sound.