Modern Arrangements: Complete Trilogy (Modern Arrangements #1-3) (66 page)

I walked over, picked them up, and
looked at it. It was a picture of Demitri and me on a sidewalk, his arms around
my waist and him leaning in to me. It looked inappropriate, but I knew when
this was from. I recognized the restaurant in the background.

"Aidan this…" he cut me off.

"Look at the others." He
growled.

I narrowed my eyes at him and grabbed
the other photos. I looked at them, my arms wrapped around his neck, and the
last with me looking back winking at him.

"This is…"

"Just tell me when you met with him,
Lilli!" Aidan smacked his hand on the desk. "Was it while we
were….you know…during that time." His eyes were fixated on me with anger.

I threw the pictures in his face,
causing him to flinch back in his chair.

"How dare you!" I crossed my
arms over my chest. "You fuck another woman and possibly have some bastard
child out there somewhere, yet you are going to look at these photos of an
innocent encounter made to look bad and make accusations of me? Fuck you,
Aidan!"

"Just tell me when!"

"When I was at lunch with Viola
before the twin’s birthday." Aidan blinked at me rapidly with confusion.
"You can call her right now if you would like to confirm it."

I leaned over his desk seductively.

"Viola and I like to have
threesomes with other men when you and Liam think we are doing foundation work.
Asshole!" I shouted the last word and walked out of the study.

I got to our bedroom, yanked off my damn
heels and threw them harshly into the closet. Basically ripping at my clothes
to get the shit off of me, I tossed everything onto the closet floor and
slipped into some yoga pants and a t-shirt. I now had some pent up anger that I
needed to work off. I headed to the gym after I kissed the napping twins.

I had been running for about thirty
minutes when I felt Aidan behind me. I stopped running and panted.

"What?" I groaned.

"I-I’m sorry." He mumbled out.

"So, you called Viola to ‘check up
on my story’ I see." I spat at him and stepped down from the treadmill.

"No, I didn’t…"

"So, what are you having me
followed or something?" I turned on him fiercely. "Do you have a
private investigator watching me?!"

He shook his head. "No, no, no. I
don’t. I am not doing that."

"Then, why the photos?" I felt
the confusion contort my face.

"I found them in my office today,
at AIS. They were in a large white envelope on my desk." His head was
down.

"Oh." I was still standing in
a defensive position. "You really don’t trust me?" I asked in almost
a hushed tone.

His head shot up. "No, I do. I
just…" he sighed heavily "I know what Demitri was to you and it just—"

"And what exactly was he,
Aidan?" I raised an eyebrow.

I watched him swallow hard. "A, um,
hook up." He looked at me from under his lashes.

I laughed loudly.

"Jesus, Aidan!" I threw my
hands in the air. "Demitri was a friend. Yes, we slept together, but it
wasn’t like a serious relationship. It was two friends with the benefit of
getting close once in a while." I stepped toward him. "Do you believe
for one second that my past relationship with Demitri compares at all to what
we have?"

He shook his head. "I’m sorry. I
just hate the thought of you with him. Fuck, the thought of you with anyone
else is enough to drive me over the edge. I couldn’t imagine if you…"

I grabbed his face. "I
wouldn’t!" Holding his face with both of my hands, I continued. "I
don’t want that. I want this, us."

He crashed his lips to mine.

Fall arrived and the weather was still
latching on to some of its warmth. I had hoped that the weather would stay
decent for Halloween and, luckily, it did. The twins were dressed up as Raggedy
Ann and Andy, looking ridiculously adorable.

Aidan made sure that he was home so that
we could take them to visit family before heading to an orchard out toward the
Hamptons. Everyone was going. Jason and Maggie were dressed as vampires. Abby dressed
as Dorothy and Ryan was Toto, it was adorable. Jimmy was dressed as a pumpkin,
completely stuffed to look like a fat pumpkin.

James and Aidan were lining a wagon with
blankets for the kids while Elora and I grabbed extra jackets and one diaper
bag of necessities. They would start off walking around with us, but would eventually
get tired.

The orchard was decorated for Halloween.
They had a corn maze that we all walked through, a small play area filled with
hay for kids to climb through, some old cement tunnels and a swing set. There
were large wooden cutouts like you would see at a fair, where you stick your
face through the hole for pictures. One was a farmer and his wife, which we all
took turns standing behind. Then there was a cat and a pumpkin, a ghost and a
witch.

Little stands paraded the area, offering
popcorn, fire roasted apples with caramel to dip them in, apple cider, hot
dogs, fresh French fries, homemade pies and cookies. It was definitely a day
for fattening food and treats.

As I watched the little ones play in the
straw pile, Aidan arrived with French fries and apple cider. He straddled the
bench and I scooted close to him, my right leg over his so that his chest was
against my right side. We sat laughing at the kids and eating fries.

Elora and James returned from the trail
ride they went on and we all headed over to the hayride, grabbing Jason, Maggie
and Abby along the way.

After the hayride, we all sat down for
face painting. I made Aidan get a pumpkin face and James got a puppy dog. After
they were all made up, Elora and I refused to do it, laughing at the two of
them. Of course Aidan gave me the pout face and I sat down. When the face
painter was finished I was surprised at how quick it was, sure that he only
touched my cheek. Looking into the mirror that was next to me, I saw ‘property
of Aidan Iverson’ in large, red letters on my cheek.

"You loser." I laughed out at
him and playfully smacked his chest. I grabbed a napkin.

"Ah, ah, ahhhh…it stays until we
get back." He smiled, proud of himself.

I grabbed the paintbrush from the table
next to me and put a large black L on his forehead. Laughing, I took off and he
chased me until he caught up to me, tackling me into the mound of hay. Kids and
parent’s looked at us with amused looks on their faces.

"I love you." He said as he
leaned in and kissed me.

"I love you more." I said
after he pulled away.

"Not possible." He stated as
he stood up, offering me a hand.

Once everyone was exhausted and the kids
were all falling asleep in the wagon, we headed back to Viola’s family house in
the Hamptons. We spent the weekend there, just having a fun family get away.

Thanksgiving was upon us and we had
invited everyone to our house. It was Thanksgiving Eve when I heard footsteps
approaching the living room.

"Hey, should we have...?" I
looked up, thinking I would be looking at Aidan. It wasn’t.

"Lilli." Henry said in a low
tone.

Immediately I stood up. "What are
you doing here?" I hissed. "You need to leave immediately."

"Please, I…I wanted to apologize,
for everything." I could see tears on the edge of his eyes as he sniffed.

"Henry, what you did was so
manipulating and…"

"Unfair, stupid, heartless…"
he continued. I nodded. "I am so sorry, more so than I have ever been in
my life."

"Are you truly sorry for what you
did, or are you just sorry you got caught and lost your job?"

Henry looked at me with a sincerely hurt
expression.

"It’s true that I lost my job, but
that’s not what this is about. I’ve lost my family, my wife, my son,
daughter-in-law and grandson. I’ve lost my brother, Viola, Aidan and you. You
were all my family and I never truly realized how much it all meant till it was
gone."

He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

"I am forever sorry for what I did
to you and Aidan. I admit that I did it with, what I had thought, were good
intentions, but that doesn’t excuse how wrong I was."

"I don’t understand how you could
do something like this to Aidan. I mean, I get that I’m not your family, but
Aidan?" I shook my head lightly.

"I suppose that my jealousy of my
older brother, Aidan’s father, had carried over to him and it blinded my
ability to make better choices."

I furrowed my brow. "I forgive you,
but I cannot speak for everyone else."

"I know, but you are who I
should’ve apologized to first. Though, I will admit, I apologized to Anne
first. Not that she will speak with me."

I sighed. "Would you like to see
the twins?"

His face lit up a little and he nodded
with half a smile. I led the way.

We were both sitting and talking about
the whole situation while the twins played in front of us when Aidan appeared.

"What the hell is he doing
here?" I stood quickly, as did Henry.

"Aidan…" I moved toward him
and he wrapped his arm around me, pulling me behind him.

"Get away from my children."
He ordered and Henry immediately began to walk out of the room.

"Aidan, your uncle came to
apologize and I accepted…"

"How can you even talk to
him?" Aidan turned and grabbed onto my shoulders.

"I can’t handle the tension and the
separation in your family any more. You need your family."

"He is not my family." Aidan
glared at Henry who put his head down and walked out of the room.

"Aidan, it’s your choice to forgive
him or not. I’m not saying to forget, but it’s time to forgive. Let go of all
of that and move on." I kissed his lips lightly and pulled back. "I
have forgiven him, that’s my choice."

I walked back over to the twins who were
looking at us curiously. Aidan stood frozen for quite some time, seemingly
thinking things over. Then he joined the twins and me on the floor to build
castles out of blocks.

By Thanksgiving, I had invited Henry for
dinner. Aidan was still very ‘iffy’ with him, but agreed to let it all go. He
would never forget nor would he fully trust him again, but it was progress.
Henry understood.

When Christmas arrived, Henry and Anne
were on their way to reconciliation. Aidan and I forgiving him seemed to be the
starting point for Henry’s acceptance. Elora was still slightly cold with him,
but she could tell that James was happy to have his father back in his life. He
was his father after all. Henry was an amazing grandfather to Jimmy. It was an
amazing turn in his personality. I had never seen Henry interact with children
before, but he was great with him.

This Christmas brought us a six months
pregnant Phoebe. Since she was so tiny, her belly was all you could help but
notice on her. Phoebe wanted to be surprised, so they didn’t find out the sex.
She was positive though that it would be a girl. She had already decided that
her name would be Adeline Lee Emerson, Lee was Oscar’s middle name.

The New Year brought with it so many
changes. While some were difficult, more were amazing.

Maggie was accepted to Dartmouth. Jason
bought her a promise ring and with it the promises that they would make their
separation during college work. Abby was starting her junior year of high
school and was in the running to be valedictorian with the grade point average
that she was holding. Ryan had turned two and was a beautiful and bright little
boy that Liam and Viola treated as their own son.

Oscar proposed to Phoebe when she was
seven months pregnant. March came with the arrival of a beautiful, little
Adeline. Phoebe took to motherhood like she had been doing it all her life. She
had only been home for a month when she started working with Celia on the dress
fittings for the wedding. I was ridiculously jealous of how quickly she had
lost all of her weight.

Dixon and Celia’s wedding took place in
May. They married in the Central Park Gazebo with one hundred and fifty guests
in attendance. It was so beautiful and perfect for them. Celia had finished
college and was currently the top engineer for a car company. Dixon and Celia
were so perfect for each other, Dixon in a female dominated career as an RN with
his boisterous and welcoming personality while Celia worked in a male dominated
career as a car engineer with her stand-offish and bitchy personality. It was
like ying and yang.

Warm summer air rolled in with June and
I was excited to get the twins out of the house. Aidan had been expressing his
desire for more kids for a few months now. After much consideration and
relenting, I was in my second month of pregnancy and tired.

When I surprised Aidan with the news
that we were having another child, he rearranged his schedule for the rest of the
workweek and swept me away to the cottage he had given me for our first
anniversary. Our whole time there we stuck to the no clothing rule, applying it
to both of us. My legs were so sore when we returned, I planned on heading
straight to the welcoming jets in my bathtub.