The Proposal (11 page)

“But why me?”

“Why not?”

“You do realize I’m six months pregnant right?”

“I’ll tell you the same thing I did Mr. Fitzgerald’s
son when he mentioned it.”

Emma’s cheeks burned at the mention of Aidan. She
didn’t even want to begin to imagine what the conversation had been like
between Patrick, Aidan, and Pesh. Her mortification was interrupted by Pesh
squeezing her hand. “The fact you’re pregnant has no bearing on how beautiful
you are outwardly or the kindness that radiates from within you.”

Unblinking and not breathing, she stared at him in
disbelief.  How was it possible that a handsome, successful, compassionate man
was interested in dating her when she was six months pregnant with another
man’s child? “Pesh, I’m very grateful for your flattering compliments, but my
life is so very complicated at the moment.”

“And I’m not helping matters with my amorous
declarations, am I?”

She gave him a sad smile. “You’ve been through so
much that you deserve true happiness. I have to be totally honest when I say I
just don’t know if I have anything to give you at the moment.”

Pesh tilted his head to one side in thought. “What
if we just tried getting to know one another as friends and see where it goes?
I know you’re not going to be able to get out and about much in the next few
weeks, so I could come and do house calls. You know, check your vitals.” He
momentarily grimaced. “That sounds completely stalkerish, doesn’t it?”

“No, I—”

“It’s been so long since I was in the dating game.
I’m sure I’m saying and doing everything that is a major turn-off.”

Emma gazed at his drop dead gorgeous face and
wondered how he could ever turn any woman off. “I would love to have you come
and check on me.”

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Really?”

She nodded. “I’m sure after a few days stuck inside,
I’d love the company as well as the medical expertise.”

A pleased smile cut across Pesh’s face. “I would
like that very much.”

“Me too.”

The pager on Pesh’s belt went off. “Guess that means
I better head out.” He rose up from the chair. “So I look forward to seeing you
sometime this week.”

“But how will you—”

Pesh held his hand up. “Mr. Fitzgerald has already
taken care of that.”

Emma rolled her eyes but smiled in spite of herself.
“Why am I not surprised?”

He laughed. He once again took her hand in his and
then brought it to his lips. “You better promise to take very good care of
yourself.”

Finding it hard to breathe, she could only murmur,
“I will.”

He then turned and went to the door. Just before he
slipped out of it, he gave her one last wave. Once she heard the door click
shut, her head fell back against the pillows. Shaking her head, she couldn’t
believe the insanity of the day’s events. If anyone had told her the day before
a gorgeous man would be asking to go on a date with her, she would have told
them they were out of their mind. The same could be said for everything that
had transpired at dinner with Aidan from his admission about Amy to his desire
for her forgiveness.

Exhausted from the day’s events, she closed her eyes
and tried to block out all of her out-of-control thoughts and fears.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Around three in the morning, Emma’s full bladder
woke her up. As she swung her legs out of the bed, she froze. Warmth spread
through her chest at the sight of Aidan fast asleep in the chair. Sometime
during the night he had come back so she wouldn’t have to stay by herself. Her
heartbeat accelerated at how much he truly cared for her. Any thoughts of Pesh
vanished from her mind as she sat on the bedside staring at Aidan.

His neck hung forward at a precarious angle, and she
knew he would have a terrible crick in it. She stood up on her wobbly legs and
leaned over him. “Aidan,” she murmured, bringing her hand to his cheek.

“Hmm?”

“Wake-up.”

His eyes snapped open, and he sprung up so fast he
almost lunged into her. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

She smiled. “I’m fine. I just needed to go to the
bathroom, and you were about to break your neck sleeping that way.”

Wincing, he rolled his shoulders. “You should get a
nurse to do a bed pan and stay off your feet.”

She snorted. “I’m not that helpless, thank you very
much.”

Amusement twinkled in his eyes. “Want me to carry
you?”

“Absolutely not! The last thing I need is my
soon-to-be caregiver to get a hernia from trying to lift me.”

“Em, you would not give me a hernia,” he replied.

“Whatever,” she murmured before padding into the
bathroom. After she finished and washed her hands, she came out to find Aidan
already asleep again and snoring slightly.

Shaking her head, she slipped back into bed. She
felt like she had barely closed her eyes when she felt someone’s breath warming
her cheek. “Em, wake-up sweetheart.”

Fluttering her eye-lids, she saw Aidan hovering over
her. “What time is it?”

“Six. I wanted to let you know I was going upstairs
to be with Pop before his surgery.”

“Okay. Tell him I love him, and I’m praying for
him.”

“I will.” He hesitated a moment before leaning over
to kiss the crown of her head. “I hate to leave you.”

“No, you need to be with your dad.”

“I’ll be back just as soon as I can.”

Emma nodded. When he turned for the door, she said,
“Aidan, wait.”

He whirled around with his eyebrows cocked, waiting
for her response. “I just wanted to say thank you for staying with me last
night. It really means a lot that you didn’t leave me alone.”

He smiled. “Although you don’t need to say thanks,
you’re more than welcome.”

When he closed the door behind him, Emma laid her
head back against the pillows. In no time she was asleep again until the
morning breakfast trays came rumbling around on their carts. Along with the
morning meal came another nurse to check her vital signs. Emma was forcing down
some of the hospital’s rubbery bacon and overcooked eggs when her hospital room
door swung open. “Morning sunshine!” Casey said, sweeping inside.

“Good morning.”

“I brought you something comfortable to go home
in…well, I guess I should have said something to go to the douchenozzle’s
place.”

Emma rolled her eyes. “How did it go last night?”

“Fine. I managed not to maim him or draw blood.”

“I’m glad to hear you didn’t cause any more physical
harm. Did you spare him emotionally as well?”

Casey grunted as she plopped down in the chair. “I
probably said five words to him tops.” Gazing around the room, she asked,
“Speaking of, where is the douchecanoe this morning?”

Emma grunted in frustration before replying, “He’s
with his sisters waiting to see how Patrick’s surgery goes.”

“Ah, I see.”

She had just opened her mouth to tell Casey about
Aidan staying the night when Pesh entered the room. “Morning. I just wanted to
check in to see how you were feeling before I started my shift.”

Emma bit down on her lip to keep from laughing at
Casey’s expression. Open-mouthed and wide-eyed, Casey drank in Pesh’s
appearance from his head down to his toes. When he glanced at her, he thrust
out his hand. “I’m Dr. Alpesh Nadeen.”

“C-Casey Turner,” she replied.

“She’s my best friend,” Emma informed him as Casey
kept staring.

“It’s very nice to meet you.” Side-stepping Casey,
he came to Emma’s side. “I’m hoping you won’t think it was completely
inappropriate, but I snuck a little peek at your chart this morning.”

“You’re a total stalker,” she teased.

Pesh grinned, causing dimples to appear in his
cheeks. “Well, with that said, everything looks good. I think once you take it
easy these next fourteen days, you’ll be fine for the rest of your pregnancy.”

“I hope so.”

“Have faith. It’s all going to be just fine.” Once
again his pager interrupted them. He glanced down at it and scowled. “Guess I
better get downstairs.”

“Thank you so much for coming by.”

He nodded. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow, and we’ll
iron out our dinner plans.”

“Dinner?”

He cocked his dark eyebrows at her. “You didn’t
think I would just come check your vitals and run out the door, now did you?”

Emma felt her cheeks warming at the insinuation.
“Well no, but—”

He held up a hand and smiled. “We’ll talk about it
later.” He turned to Casey. “Nice meeting you.”

“Yes, nice meeting you too,” she replied, her gaze
honing in on his ass as he walked out the door. Once they were alone, she
whirled back to Emma. “Holy shit, Em! You have precisely five seconds to fill
me in on who the hell Dr. McDreamy Bollywood is!”

Emma laughed and then she proceeded to tell Casey
everything. Once she was finished, Casey shook her head slowly back and forth.
“Wow…I mean…just
wow
.”

With a dreamy sigh, Emma said, “Tell me about it.”

“So are you going to give him a chance?”

Emma shrugged. “Maybe.”

“I think a man like that warrants a little more than
a ‘maybe’.” Casey gazed longingly at the door Pesh had only moments ago exited.
“I mean, incredibly good looks aside, the man is compassionate and caring…and
completely the opposite of the commitment-phobic dirt-bag.”

“I’m already too stressed, Case. I can’t throw in a
potential new man to the mix right now.” When Casey started to protest, Emma
shook her head. “Besides, I’m still not sure I’m ready to move on from Aidan.”

Casey rolled her eyes. “Seriously? You’re going to
let your feelings for the douchenozzle screw up a potentially amazing
soul-mate?”

“Aidan is the father of my child. I’ll always love
him for that fact alone, but there’s still so much between us.” At Casey’s
tight lipped expression, Emma said, “There’s no easy black and white here,
Case. It’s all grey. Besides what I still feel about him, his actions in the
last twenty-four hours are very endearing. He’s risking his job to take care of
me. He came back last night so I wouldn’t be alone. He’s begging and pleading
for my forgiveness. I can’t just ignore that.”

Casey’s shoulders drooped in defeat. “I just don’t
want to see you get hurt.”

“I know you don’t. And trust me, neither do I. But I
have to at least let him try and see this thing through, or I’ll always regret
it.”

Casey started to protest but was interrupted by
Emma’s phone buzzing. She glanced down at it. “Aidan’s on his way up.”

Casey wrinkled her nose. “I better get a move on, or
I’ll be late to work.”

“Hold down the fort for me while I’m gone.”

She grinned. “Will do. You just make sure to take
extra good care of yourself and Mr. Noah, so you can get back as soon as you
can.”

Emma smiled. “I sure will try.”

Casey leaned over and gave Emma a quick hug and a
kiss. “I’ll be over to see you soon.”

“Good.”

As Casey started out the door, Aidan breezed in. He
flinched and pushed himself as far away from her and her pocketbook as he
could. “Easy Big Papa, your boys are safe this morning.”

He sighed in relief. “I’m glad to hear it. They’re
still a bit traumatized from last night.”

Throwing a glance over her shoulder, Casey winked at
Emma. “Bye.”

Emma waved before turning her attention to Aidan.
“How’s Patrick?”

“Good,” Aidan replied.

Emma sighed in relief. “Thank God.”

“You’ll be happy to know the first thing he did when
he got back to his room was ask about you.”

Tears welled in Emma’s eyes. “Really?”

Aidan nodded. “He said to give you and Noah his love,
and he would be over to see you just as soon as he got sprung out.”

Emma laughed and wiped her eyes. “That’s so sweet.”

“Yes, sweetness runs in the Fitzgerald DNA,
especially with the males,” Aidan mused.

She shot him an exasperated look. “Isn’t it a little
early for you to be this cocky?”

Aidan chuckled as a nurse came into the room with
Emma’s discharge papers. Once she had signed everything, Aidan said, “Guess
that means we get to hit the road, huh?”

Emma nodded and started to get out of the bed. “As soon
as I change clothes and run a brush through my hair.”

Aidan’s brows furrowed. “Don’t stand too long while
you’re changing. Sit on the edge of the tub or the toilet seat.”

Emma huffed out an exasperated breath. “Are you
going to be this overprotective when we get to your house?”