CHAPTER FIVE
Aidan’s chest tightened at the prospect of letting Emma out of his sight for even a second. They had come so far in the last few hours he was afraid it might all fade like a dream if they didn’t remain together. He was desperate for anything to keep her with him. A thought flashed in his mind, and he blurted, “Can I see Beau?”
Emma stared down at her lap. He could tell she was raging a battle within herself about whether to let him come over. “Please?” he pressed.
Her shoulders sagged, but she raised her head and smiled. “Of course. I mean, he does miss you.”
Aidan gave a bark of a laugh. “I doubt it. He chose you over me, didn’t he?” He was then assaulted with the painful memory of the night Emma caught him with Heather. The sight of Beau running after Emma, nudging her stomach and whining to go with her, cut through to his heart the same way it did that night. Shuddering, he forced a smile to his face. “I’m sure he’s too busy eating table scraps and lying around on your couch to miss me.”
“No, he really does. After all, you were his daddy for two years.”
“Good because I’ve missed him.” He leaned over the gearshift towards her. “I’ve missed him every moment of every day.” Her green eyes widened both at his proximity and the fact that they both knew he wasn’t talking about Beau anymore. The electricity crackled all around the two of them.
“You can follow me home.”
“Thank you.”
He waited until she was safely in her car and cranked up before he pulled out of the parking space. On the way to her house, his fingers drummed anxiously against the steering wheel. Even though it wasn’t more than ten minutes, he couldn’t seem to get there fast enough. Hope pulsed through him that she might finally forgive him and fully let him back into her life.
As he started to pull into the driveway, a yard sign caught his eye. Squinting in the darkness, he gasped at the recognition of the realty sign. The words For Sale sent a stake through his heart. Animosity overwrought the amorous feelings he had pulsing through him.
He screeched to stop barely off the road. His blood pounded in his ears as he clambered out of the car and slammed the door. He was at Emma’s side before she had time to close hers. “YOU’RE MOVING?”
Shrinking from his anger, she pressed herself against the car. “Yes,” she whispered.
Shame washed over him that his reaction had frightened her. “I’m sorry for shouting at you, but how could you not tell me?”
“I was going to,” she argued
“When? The day the moving van came? Christ, Emma, we’ve been together all night! I unveiled my heart and soul, yet you couldn’t manage to tell me this one little detail?”
“I’m sorry.”
He was afraid to ask the next question because deep down he already knew the answer. “And just where are you going?”
“I’m moving back home—to Ellijay. I’m going to live with Grammy and Granddaddy for a while until the house sells, and then I might find a place of my own close by them. They’re getting older. Granddaddy fell off a ladder a week ago and just had to have hip replacement surgery. They need me, but more importantly, I need them.”
He shook his head. “I won’t let you take my son from me!”
Emma’s green eyes narrowed into angry slits. “Don’t you dare threaten me like that! You know I would never keep you from Noah. Just because I don’t live here, doesn’t mean you won’t get to see him.”
“Ellijay is a fucking hour and a half away! How will I get to see him when he’s that far from me? Are you going to put me on some visitation schedule? Like every other weekend or some bullshit?”
She rubbed her temples. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I just know I can’t stay here anymore. Alone.”
“Dammit, Emma, I can’t believe you could be so cold.”
She jerked her chin up and glared at him so hard that he took a step back. “You asshole! How dare you accuse me of being cold! I’m not the one who cheated and ruined everything between us!”
“I didn’t sleep with her,” he protested.
Emma threw her hands up. “The fact you couldn’t get it up or I interrupted you is irrelevant to the point, Aidan! You brought some stranger into your home on the pretense of screwing me out of your heart and mind!”
He grimaced. “I’ve said it a million times in a million different ways that I’m sorry!”
“I know you have, but just like I told you back at O’Malley’s, I would work on forgiving you, and it’s going to take a hell of a lot of time. So don’t expect me to fall into your waiting arms like nothing ever happened any time soon. I had a life before you, and I’m going to have one after you!” She turned and stalked away.