With his signature cocky grin, Aidan held the door to O’Malley’s open for her. “Let me guess. Since you’re with me, you won’t have to worry about a bunch of drunken ass**les hitting on you.”
“Exactly. Well, maybe just one drunken ass**le.” She glanced up at him. “Depending on how much you drink.”
Aidan’s eyes widened before he laughed. “I’ll try to watch myself.”
A young blonde stood at the hostess stand. She beamed at the sight of Aidan and adjusted her shirt to give him a better view of her cle**age. He rewarded her efforts with a smile. “Can we get a booth, Jenny?”
“Sure, Aidan. Follow me.”
As Jenny sashayed her h*ps in front of them, Emma rolled her eyes at Aidan to which he winked in response. Jenny sat them at a dimly lit table in the back of the bar. She handed them a menu, and then stared directly at Aidan. “See ya later!”
He gave a brief wave and then turned his attention to the menu. Feeling Emma’s heated gaze, he looked back up. “What?”
“Nothing,” she murmured.
“If your nothing is about Jenny, I told you I came here a lot.”
“I didn’t say anything,” she countered.
“You didn’t have to. The death glare you were giving me was enough.” He smirked at her. “Since I know you want to ask, Jenny is not one of my conquests, and I’ve never seen her anywhere outside of O’Malley’s. Besides, her dad owns this place, and he wouldn’t hesitate to kick my ass!”
For some reason, Emma found that statement comforting. Still, she managed to keep her best poker face on and shrugged her shoulders. “It’s none of my business.”
He only chuckled as a waiter came up the table. “What can I get you two this evening?”
Aidan nodded at Emma. “I’ll have a margarita on the rocks with no salt, please,” she said.
“Heineken in a bottle.”
The waiter jotted their order down on a napkin and then headed over to the bar. Emma rested her elbows onto the table and put her head in her hands. A long, exasperated sigh escaped her lips.
“Bad day, huh?”
She raised her head, and a sad smile flickered on her face. “Not one of my best. I really can’t blame Connor for the worst of it either. It was already shot to hell giving Therese a baby shower.”
“Your boss?” he asked, and Emma nodded. The waiter returned with their drinks. Emma took a dainty swig of her margarita while Aidan pulled a hearty gulp from his bottle. An anxious feeling came over her at his curious expression, and she feared he was about to ask a pretty loaded question.
“What was so wrong about the baby shower? Someone get shitfaced on spiked punch and not want to play one of the silly games like Guess What’s in the Diaper?”
Okay, so that wasn’t the question she was expecting. “How in the world do you know what goes on at baby shower?”
He grimaced. “I have four older sisters. Trust me, I’ve spent some time in baby shower hell.”
Emma grinned. “I guess you have.”
“So what happened?” he prodded.
With a shrug, she replied, “Nothing really. It was just harder than I thought it was going to be.”
“Because you want a baby of your own?”
She gasped and almost knocked her margarita over. “Wait, how could you…?”
“Connor told me.”
Emma widened her eyes as a warm flush danced over her cheeks and neck. “H-He did? W-What else did he say?”
Aidan took another swig before he answered. “That he was supposed to father your baby, but he backed out.”
Even though she’d only had one sip of her drink, the room tilted and spun around her. She shook her head, trying to shake herself free of the nightmare turn the conversation had taken. This couldn’t be happening. “I’m going to kill him!”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“Are you kidding me?” Emma’s voice shot up an octave. “It was bad enough when he was texting and calling all the time. Now he’s shown up at my work to harass me. But worst of all, he told you, of all people, the most private detail of my personal life!”
Aidan leaned forward, bumping his elbows against hers. “Me of all people…what’s that supposed to mean?”
Emma ducked her head. “Nothing.”
“Oh no. You’re not getting off so easy.”
“It’s just with the type of man you are, you can’t possibly understand my problems or my desires.”
Aidan snorted. “Let me guess. Because of my alleged womanizing reputation, I can’t fathom what it must be like for you to want to be a mother so bad you’d get your g*y best friend to knock you up?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Then tell me.”
Emma leaned over to where their faces were only inches apart. “Since you think you know everything, tell me if you understand this. Have you ever wanted something so bad you think you’d die if you didn’t have it? That the mere thought of it keeps you up at night. You can’t sleep, you can’t eat, you can’t drink. You are so consumed by that desire nothing else matters, and you’re not sure life is worth living if you can’t have it.” Bitter tears stung her eyes, and she bit down on her lip to keep from sobbing right in front of him.
While Aidan remained silent, Emma shook her head and leaned back in her chair. “See? I rest my case. A man like you can’t possibly understand what wanting a baby feels like for me.”