Alpha Aidan's Rejection Chapter 97

TARA

　　Breakfast was on my lap an hour later, and I couldn't stop grinning like a child opening presents on Christmas morning. It wasn't anything too special, but it still tasted like a meal at a fancy restaurant.

　　And damn, Aidan looked delicious as hell, serving me breakfast in bed with his muscled bare chest and a devilish smile on his pretty face.

　　While having my meal, I pulled out one of the books I had DNF for so long that it had started to collect dust in the storage, and I dug back in.

　　I was still a little worried about how Aidan was going handle Nadia on his own for the whole day, but when Nadia came into my room at around thirty minutes to her school time, dressed up nicely with her lunchbox in Aidan's hand to say goodbye to me, all my worries melted.

　　"Are you excited to spend the day with Aidan? He'll bring you back, and we'll have dinner together."

　　Nadia seemed even more excited than I was about the new development as she nodded.

　　"Everyone at school will know I wasn't lying when I said my daddy was handsome."

　　My breath caught in my throat, my mouth falling open. Nadia was grinning obliviously, and Aidan was…well, Aidan was starstruck. Completely speechless.

　　Nadia just addressed Aidan as her Dad…and it didn't start today.

　　I recovered from my haze since it looked like Aidan wasn't going to be recovering anytime soon, and I spoke.

　　"Okay then, I'll see you later, okay? I love you," I said to Nadia, gesturing for her to come give me a kiss on the bed which she did.

　　Aidan finally snapped from his daughter-induced haze, and he approached me. Nadia was standing by the side, and Aidan crouched to where I was.

　　"Just a thought," he said, lifting his eyebrows in suggestion. "Just a thought…we could come pick you up by five, go back to the house together, and I'll make us dinner. We can have my chef's special, and make it a full day off. Hm? What do you think?"

　　I pretended to think, even though I knew my answer anyway. "Chef's special sounds tempting," I mused, inhaling a sharp breath. "Doesn't it, Nadia?" I asked, glancing between our little family, and Nadia nodded, obviously not knowing what the discussion was about. I finally spoke with an exaggerated nod. "I think we'll take Chef's special."

　　Aidan kissed me on the lips, dazzling me even with the little action, and he straightened, taking Nadia's tiny hand in one of his.

　　"Nap," Aidan warned, and I laughed.

　　I planned to sleep for at least half of the day, so I nodded. "Nap."

　　Aidan and Nadia were out the door in a second, and I heaved out a breath of fresh air.

　　How I loved the sound of…nothing!

　　I got back into my book, zoning out completely, and when I finally came up for air, I realized that I'd spent two hours reading.

　　I still couldn't believe that I was still in bed by this time of the day, but worried in the slightest about how my kid was faring because her Dad got her.

　　He got us.

　　Saying a quick prayer in my mind for Aidan, I got off the bed to freshen up.

　　I didn't snooze on my nap. As soon as my eyes started to tweak funny, I jumped under the covers.

　　As I had planned, I used up half of my time, sleeping.

　　When it was around an hour left for Aidan and Nadia to return, I began to anticipate them. I'd missed my two favorite people in the world.

　　To keep myself busy for the rest of the time, I packed a bag for myself, and one for Nadia.

　　My phone pinged with a message notification as I chucked the last set of sleepwear into Nadia's bag, and I pulled it out of my pocket with a smile, sure that it was Aidan texting me that they were on their way.

　　It wasn't Aidan, but that wasn't the reason why my heart tumbled to the floor of my stomach at all. It was the content of the message.

　　[AIDAN WILL NEVER BE YOURS!]

　　The number was unsaved, but we had been best friends for years…I knew her number off the top of my head up till now.

　　The number was Kayla's.

　　I had just ended the call from Aidan, and he said they were ten minutes away from the house. I didn't want to spend that time thinking about what Kayla's cryptic text meant, but one thing I thought about was how cruel Kayla was.

　　Feeling the need to check up on my mom and make sure that she was okay, and that Kayla was nowhere near my family—I had no idea why I thought of that—I decided to call her. Besides, we had barely spoken much in the past week when I was dealing with the mess from our pasts.

　　She picked up on the first ring, and her voice already did something to calm my unsettled heart. Her voice was low, but familiar, like a season of the year I missed, spreading over me like butter.

　　"Hi, Mama," I said, smiling into the speaker even though she could not see through the phone.

　　"My Tara," she said in reply, reminding me of the many nicknames she had for me during my childhood. Emotions gathered in my throat, both from reminiscing about those times and from being grateful that we could reunite after all these while. "How are things now?"

　　I hadn't mentioned that I had a bit of an issue with Aidan, but as a mother always would, Mom noticed, even if she didn't press about it when I refused to open up.

　　"Things are good. Better," I said, hoping that she would not worry about me. "How are you?"