Page 21 of Married to Number 22
“Oh, my God.” She drops back down onto her heels, leaning around Aiden and hissing at Matt. “My baby has a girlfriend?” She turns her glare to Aiden. “Youhave a girlfriend and you haven’t told me?”
Seriously. Fuck. My. Life.
This can’t be happening.
“Right,” Carrie says, taking charge and, thankfully, finally putting me out of my misery. She reaches for her mother. “We’ve done the surprise part. Now we need to go back out to the living room and wait for them to?—”
Kathy swats at Aiden’s chest. “You have a girlfriend and her underwear is on the floor and we haven’t even met her yet!”
I bite back a groan, clutch the blankets even more tightly to my chest, know that my cheeks have gone fire engine red.
Please, universe. Please just help me disappear.
Just this once.
“Mom,” Aiden says, bending and—thank fuck—scooping up my bra and underwear, stuffing them into the pocket of his sweats. “Look. There’s a lot happening right now?—”
That’s the understatement of the fucking year, isn’t it?
“—but I need you to take a breath and walk back out to the living room. Make yourself a cup of coffee. Hell, have a beer if you need one to chill the fuck out?—”
“Aiden,” Matt says quietly. “Language.”
“I will watch my language,” Aiden replies, just as quietly, but with a lot more deadly intent and something inside me softens at the protective note in his voice, unfurling dangerously, “when you get the fuck out of my bedroom and away from my fucking woman.”
The air goes taut.
Matt’s chest puffs up.
Kathy’s gasps.
Thankfully Carrie and the others have my—or their brother’s, I suppose—back.
Carrie steps forward, snags her mother’s arm, drawing Kathy out of the open doorway and in the direction of the living room.
Ralph and Dave position themselves on opposite sides of Matt. “Come on, Dad,” Ralph mutters. “Let’s wait out front for Aiden, okay?”
Matt’s eyes narrow but then they slide to me, still frozen and under blankets, the material clutched tightly beneath my chin.
“Dad,” Dave presses.
He turns away, but maybe his expression softens as he starts to rotate, maybe there’s a hint of sympathy beneath that tough, hockey dad exterior.
Maybe.
Because the next moment, he’s gone, ushered out by Ralph and Dave.
Leaving Aiden and me alone.
“A girlfriend!” I hear echo down the hall. “How can he have a girlfriend and I don’t even know her!”
Fuck.
We’re alone, yes.
And yet, still without a lick of privacy.
Nine
