9. Aiden
9
AIDEN
“ O kay, hear me out?—”
“Don’t say strippers,” Trent said, interrupting my train of thought as I leaned back in my office chair, glancing out the window. Another April shower had finally let up, but the city was cast in dull, grey shadows. Honestly, I was ready for May flowers already.
“First of all,” I said. “I wasn’t about to say strippers. Second of all, what’s wrong with strippers? They’re a classic choice.”
“They’re tacky. And he’s already vetoed them himself.”
I hummed. We were attempting to nail down the details for Vincent’s bachelor party. “So now he’s too good for the escapades of our youth?”
“Pretty sure those were his exact words.”
“What did Paul suggest?”
“That we take him to Liberty National Golf Club and play a round. You know, personalized caddies. Gourmet breakfast on the course.”
“God, I hate golf.”
“Me too.”
“Why does Paul love it so much?”
“I’ve stopped trying to understand. I was gonna suggest we charter a yacht, cruise around Manhattan, and get in on some water sports.”
“I think it might still be a little cold for jet skiing and paddleboarding.”
“Probably.”
“Okay, how about this. We do a private whiskey tasting at the Flatiron Room. Then we’ll have dinner somewhere like Eleven Madison Park.”
“I like it. If he really wants to let loose, we could book in at LAVO. They do exclusive VIP tables with bottle service and private DJ performances.”
“You know what? Book it. We gotta send his bachelor days off in style.” Vincent could rally for one night on the town with the boys. “By the way, how’s Nana Dee doing?”
Trent sighed, his words as gloomy as the weather. “Well, she’s finally made an appointment with her doctor. But she still seems reluctant to actually find out what’s going on, which is driving me crazy.”
I stood, walked to the window, and leaned against the glass. “What’s her hang up? Is it a doctor thing? Does she not like them?”
“As people, she likes them fine. You know Nana Dee—she could make friends with a brick wall. No, honestly, I think it has more to do with what happened to my grandfather. She had to watch him go through his fight with cancer. It was pretty brutal. Sometimes, it felt like the treatments were harder on him than the actual cancer was. Losing him the way we did…I guess it sort of soured her view on medicine.”
“Guess she’s operating under the guise of ‘no news is good news,’” I said. If Dee never got around to getting diagnosed, she could avoid whatever the bad news might be. “Though I’m not sure how long she can put this off. If there’s a problem, I want to know now, before something worse happens.”
“Agreed. That’s why we have to encourage her to go. I’ve tried to reassure her, but every time I bring up the appointment, she just clams up.”
“We’ll get her there,” I said. “She can’t ignore all of us.”
Trent laughed. “She’ll sure as hell try. Anyway, I should let you get back to work. Thanks for checking in, man. I’ll make those reservations.”
“Sounds good.” I hung up, making a mental note to check in on Trent again soon. Planning a bachelor party was one thing, but figuring out what was going on with Nana Dee—that was something else. He needed to know he had us there for him. His parents were still alive, but they were awful—they’d be the opposite of helpful. And while he had a little brother, the kid was still in college. He couldn’t be much help. But Vincent, Dominic, Paul, and I…there was nothing we wouldn’t do for Trent, or for Nana Dee.
A distant rumble of thunder caught my attention, and I grimaced down at the cityscape, watching pedestrians scurry for cover like ants.
“Time to dust off your football jersey!”
I twisted, frowning as Cora barged through the door, notebook in hand.
“What are you doing in here?”
“We have to talk about the high school reunion,” she said.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I went over to the door she’d left open, sticking my head out. “Uh, Connie?”
“She’s on a break,” Cora said. “And people around here think you’re approachable, so let’s pretend that’s true.”
Pretend?
“I’m here to inform you that we—you and I—are now in charge of our high school reunion.”
“Umm…” That didn’t make any sense. “Since when?”
“Since Trish Baxter—you remember her? Class president the year between us? Anyway, she’s going on a three-week Caribbean cruise with her husband and dropped the preparations in our laps. Well, technically my lap. But it shouldn’t all be on me, so it’s our laps now.”
“What? No.”
“No?”
I gestured in her direction. “Whatever commitment this is, take me out of the equation.” Did she really think I had time to organize a reunion? I barely had the time to help with Vincent’s bachelor party, and I genuinely wanted to go to that. “I wasn’t even planning on turning up to this reunion.”
“Well, that sounds like a you-problem,” Cora said, “because not only will you be turning up, but you will also be helping me oversee the decorating and last-minute vendor coordination. Oh, and playing hosts if Trish doesn’t make it back in time.”
That sounded like a nightmare. I didn’t have time for inane high school bullshit. “Absolutely not.”
“Yes.”
“No. This reunion isn’t even a blip on my radar. It is so insignificant?—”
“Look,” she said, dropping her hands to her hips and staring me down. “This might not be a big deal to you, but it matters to other people, and I’m not going to let you get away with flaking out.”
“I’m not flaking out on anything because I was never involved in the first place!”
“When you ran for class president, you made a commitment to your peers, and that was supposed to mean something.”
I scoffed. “Are you serious? Do you even hear yourself right now? That was high school. Who cares?”
“You can’t just bail on commitments when it suits you,” she snapped. “They matter . You can’t just leave people hanging when something shinier comes along.”
What the hell was she talking about? “I never committed to this.” Pretty sure I immediately deleted the email when it came through my inbox.
“Uncle Aiden!” a voice cried as my office door flew open for a second time. A blur of purple sparkles hurled itself at me, and I collapsed back on the sofa as Hailey climbed into my lap, hanging off my neck. “Guess what!”
“Hailey, sweetheart, what are you doing here?” I asked, noticing Cora jolt out of the corner of my eye.
“Ms. Linny is sick!”
“Ms. Linny,” I repeated, racking my brain for who that was. “Your daycare teacher?”
“Uh-huh,” Hailey said, absolutely beaming. “So I get to come to work with daddy!”
Dominic raced in a moment later, looking haggard, his hair disheveled. He’d skipped a button on his dress shirt. “Hale, what did I say in the elevator?”
“We rode the elevator!” she said, tugging on me like I was a set of monkey bars.
“Sorry,” Dominic apologized. “She got away from me. Hailey, it’s rude to burst into Uncle Aiden’s office when he’s in a meeting.” He winked at Cora, silently mouthing like father like daughter .
“Oops,” Hailey said, sheepishly. “Sorry, Uncle Aiden.”
“That’s okay.”
Cora’s face was flushed a deep red that almost matched her hair. She’d always been a blusher, but she only got this red when she was embarrassed. But what about this would have rattled her? Unless she was ashamed a four-year-old could grasp the concept of apologizing for barging into my office better than she could.
Hailey hopped off my lap, dancing to the window to stare out at the city.
“Don’t touch anything,” Dominic called after her.
“So, sitter down?” I asked, gesturing to the missed button on his shirt.
“With the flu, apparently,” Dominic said, rearranging the buttons. “She could be off sick for the rest of the week.” He sighed. “I tried to message Amanda to work out childcare, but she unsurprisingly did not answer my texts.”
“Don’t worry. If it’s easier to work from home the rest of the week, do that.”
“Yeah, I might. Okay, Hailey, let’s let Uncle Aiden finish his meeting.”
“Can we go to the cafeteria?” she called, running over to take Dominic’s hand. “I’m hungry.”
“You just ate.”
“But I’m hungry again.”
I laughed. “Good luck with that.”
Dominic rolled his eyes as Hailey dragged him to the door. “If you need me, I’m apparently working from the cafeteria today.”
There was a long moment of silence once they were gone, then Cora cleared her throat. “So, uh…Hailey is Dominic’s daughter?”
“Yeah, that’s right.” She tucked her hair behind her ears, showing off the blush in her cheeks, and I wanted to reach out and stroke her cheekbone. God, get it together.
She shook her head. “He, um…He seems really stressed.”
“That’s an understatement. His ex is dragging out their custody battle,” I said. “I swear he looks more rundown with every passing week.”
“That’s rough,” Cora said softly, her words sympathetic.
“He’s obviously trying to spend as much time with Hailey as he can, you know, to keep her from feeling too much upheaval.”
“Right. That’s good.”
“But Amanda’s been threatening to sue for full custody if he doesn’t give into her demands about her divorce settlement.” Saying it out loud made me hate Dominic’s witch of an ex even more. The way Amanda used his love for Hailey to try and control him, to try to squeeze more money out of him, made me sick. This was exactly why love wasn’t worth the effort. All it did was hurt you in the end. I hated the way Dominic was suffering.
Cora winced. “That’s really horrible.”
“It sucks. I don’t even know what to say half the time or how to help him. He’s juggling all his responsibilities here and at home, keeping Hailey happy, talking to his lawyer every damn day…” And I couldn’t even find a few hours to help Cora with the reunion Trish had just dumped on her.
Now I was embarrassed.
“I get it,” Cora said. “That’s a lot to be dealing with, and Dominic needs your support right now. If you really can’t make time for the reunion, I understand. I can handle it on my own.”
I ran my hand down my face. “No, wait…”
She tilted her head, her expression hopeful. “It really shouldn’t be that much work if we’re both there,” she said hesitantly.
My hands dropped to my hips. “Tell me again what Trish said.”
“Everything’s booked and paid for,” Cora said, counting the points off on her fingers. “Trish already has volunteers to help with setup; we just need to be there to oversee the decorating and food delivery. And, if Trish doesn’t make it back from her cruise in time, we might have to spend a few minutes playing host at the event.”
“It does sound manageable,” I said. Cora stared at me, her bottom lip caught between her teeth in a horribly distracting way. She was close enough I could have counted her freckles. Did I want to do this? No. Did I have time? I supposed I could make time. “Fine. I will do my part.”
A smile bloomed across her face. “Good. Great! I haven’t been back home for a while. My mom will be ecstatic.”
“I haven’t been back in years,” I admitted. After my parents split when I was in college, my mom moved to Ohio to be closer to my grandparents. My dad hung around until he’d hit his thirty years with the paper mill and retired. Then he’d made the move to Manhattan. There hadn’t been any reason for me to go back. “Might be nice to visit the old place.”
Revisit some memories.
Cora was rambling again, talking logistics, but my mind was running back over some of those memories. High school. The football team. Cora. Especially Cora. As I looked at her now, I couldn’t help remembering what we used to get up to. A very vivid image surfaced—us tangled in the backseat of my pickup—and I swallowed hard, pushing it away.
That was a long time ago.
And we weren’t those kids anymore.
I rubbed my eyes, taking a break from staring at my emails. There were still a million things to do to get Elixir Free off the ground—besides the work Cora and her team were doing—and every time I responded to an email, five more appeared in my inbox. I leaned back in my chair, staring out across the city, wondering if I’d made a mistake agreeing to help with the reunion. I really didn’t have time for it. But it was too late now. I couldn’t back out on Cora. My phone buzzed, and I pulled it from my pocket, finding an all-caps text from Vincent.
IT’S HAPPENING!!?!?!!!
What’s happening?
THE BABY!
I perked up, replying so quickly the words were hardly legible at first. Thank god for autocorrect.
Holy shit! What can I do? What do you need?
Rally the guys. We’re already at the hospital. I’m gonna be a freaking dad!
What hospital?
Lenox Hill.
I grinned down at his response and dialed Trent immediately.
He picked up on the third ring. “If you try to sell me on the strippers one more time?—”
“No time for that,” I interrupted. “Baby’s coming.”
“What?”
“Piper’s in labor.”
“Oh!” Trent said. “That’s…Wait, did I miss a message in the group chat?”
“No. I just got a text from Vincent. They’re at Lenox Hill. Told him I’d rally the group. Can you get a hold of Paul and Chloe? I’m gonna go grab Dominic. He’s got Hailey here with him today, but that should be fine. Kids like hospitals, right?”
Trent laughed. “I mean…she’ll probably be bored as hell if this is a long labor. But I’ll see you guys there.”
“Yeah, see you soon.” I hung up, grabbed my things, and hurried out of my office, calling over my shoulder for Connie to push the rest of my meetings today. By the time I’d rounded up Dominic and Hailey and gotten us to the hospital, it was almost an hour later. We walked into the waiting room, Hailey running ahead with a CONGRATULATIONS balloon I doubted she’d want to hand over to the new baby when the time came.
“Uncle Trent!” she cried, running up to him. “Look at my balloon!”
“Wow! That is so cool!”
“Uh-huh,” she said, getting distracted by a TV mounted on the wall. It played some cartoon with dogs, and Hailey ran over, parking herself in a chair in front of it.
“Perfect,” Dominic said, watching her.
“How’s it going?” I asked Trent.
“Well,” he said. “Vincent keeps running out here to update me. So far, Piper’s eaten some ice chips and threatened to chop his balls off. That led to him terrorizing the nurses until they got the anesthesiologist up here to do the epidural.”
Dominic laughed. “This all sounds so familiar.”
It had been over four years since we’d rallied together for Hailey’s birth. I still remembered getting that three-in-the-morning phone call. At least this baby had the decency to wait until regular business hours. “Did they say how far along she is?” I asked.
Trent shrugged. “Like six centimeters?”
I had no idea what that meant in terms of timing. We glanced at Dominic—the only one who’d been paying attention when we’d gone through this before. “Hard to know,” he said. “Hailey came really quickly, remember? Amanda didn’t even have time for an epidural.”
I winced. Dominic was right.
“And this is Piper’s first,” Dominic continued. “Could be a couple hours. Could be much longer.”
A door flew open at the side of the waiting room. Vincent appeared, looking frazzled. He glanced around, spotting us. “Eight centimeters,” he yelled. “Eight!” He gave us a giddy little smile before disappearing back through the door.
“Okay then,” Dominic said. “I’d say this baby is showing up this afternoon.”
I chuckled. Vincent’s whole life was about to change, and I couldn’t have been happier for him.
“Did we miss it?”
I turned around, spotting Chloe practically dragging Paul down the hallway.
Trent shook his head. “Just in time, probably. Piper’s at eight centimeters.”
Chloe squealed and squeezed Paul’s hand before going over to say hi to Hailey. Over the next couple of hours, we paced the waiting room, talked about new, potentially baby-friendly ideas for Vincent’s bachelor party, and took turns entertaining Hailey until she passed out on a chair to the lullaby of a bunch of cartoon dogs serenading her on TV.
As we waited, groups came and went from the waiting room. Healthcare workers cut through on their way to and from their shifts. Proud parents emerged to update elated family members. Every time the door opened, my pulse skyrocketed. Geez, this wasn’t even my baby, and my heart was racing. I glanced over at Hailey, remembering how excited I’d been when she was born and how tiny she’d been in my hands when I’d held her for the first time.
Finally, the side door opened again, and Vincent stood there, clad in one of those disposable hospital gowns. He beamed, his eyes glassy. “I’m a dad,” he said, his voice thready, like he was on the verge of tears.
I jumped to my feet, walked over, and dragged him into a hug. “Congrats, man!” As soon as I pulled away, everyone else crowded around. Chloe gushed her congratulations, pulling Vincent into another hug.
“How’s Piper?” Trent asked, giving his shoulder a congratulatory shake.
Vincent stepped back and rubbed his face with both hands. “She’s good. She did so well. No complications.”
“That’s great news,” Paul said.
“Well…” Dominic said. “Are you gonna leave us in suspense? Or you gonna tell us what it is?”
“Oh, right!” Vincent laughed, blinking at us like the news had only now settled. “A girl. We had a baby girl.”
“I want to see the baby!” Hailey bellowed across the room, startling us since we hadn’t realized she’d woken up from her nap. She stood up on her chair, her hair stuck up in multiple different directions, the balloon now tied to her wrist.
“Me too!” Chloe said.
Vincent grinned. “Nurses said two at a time.”
Hailey jumped down from the chair and tore across the waiting room. “Me first!”