Page 131 of Begin Again, Part 2

Dave was already up, pottering about in the kitchen.

"Mr Anderson, aren't you late for work?" he asked, pointing at the gym bag.

"I have a family now, Dave," Liam said proudly. "I don't need to go into work early."

The butler nodded his approval. "The missus and the baby are doing wonders for you!"

"That they are!" he agreed, snatching an apple from the fruit bowl as he hauled his gym bag over his shoulder. "Make sure Eden eats something when she wakes up."

"How's the baby doing, sir?" James asked when Liam jumped into the car.

"He gave us quite a scare," Stephen added.

Between bites of his apple, Liam assured them Aiden was okay and much better than he was after their hospital visit.

"Is the missus okay?"

Liam paused and held James' gaze in the mirror. "Why do you ask?"

"She looked drained yesterday, that's all, and Dave mentioned she's been throwing up a lot."

"So?" Liam asked absently and scrolled through his phone to school himself on placental abruptions. Had he been paying attention, he would have noticed the knowing look the two men shared. But he spent half the ride to the gym trying to make sense of all the medical jargon, and all thousand links he clicked on told him the same thing. What Eden had gone through was so traumatic she and Aiden could have easily died, and her chances of getting another such abruption in a future pregnancy were astronomically high.

He sat back and stared outside the window, a pensive look in his eyes. Sure, he was open to the idea of more kids, but not at the expense of Eden's life. He had to be more responsible now.

"Let's stop at the pharmacy," Liam instructed his driver, making a snap decision, one he should have made from the beginning if he wasn't so driven by lust.

The two men offered to come in with him, but he refused, insisting he could easily find his way around the store. He knew exactly what he wanted and headed straight to the aisle, grabbing every flavour and colour. Next, he scanned through the OTC counter and snapped up an armload of medication for nausea and vomiting. If Eden didn't want to go to the doctor, he'd bring the pharmacy to her.

"Whoa!" The woman behind the cash register let out a low pitched whistle as she gawked at the boxes.

"Are you going to use all those?" she pointed at the condoms.

"Are you going to mind your business and ring me up, or should I go somewhere else?" Liam asked, pointing at the till.

"Sorry," she blushed and began to scan his stash. "It's just that—"

"No need to explain, Betty. Just do your job!"

"My name is not Betty!" she snapped.

"I know." Liam shrugged and flashed his black card, her eyes blazing with anger when she snatched it from him.

"Thank you." He threw her his megawatt smile and pranced off with his paper bag, pleased with the productive start to his day.

Chapter

Forty-One

UNFORTUNATE ONE PERCENT

After Liam headed to the gym, Eden couldn't fall back to sleep. She fired up her work laptop and caught up on her reports and emails. By the time Aiden woke up almost two hours later, she'd cleared her inbox, finished two of Liam's presentations, and sent her creative plan for Lydia's onboarding to the head of marketing.

Pleased with her work progress, Eden shut down her laptop, kicked off the covers, and padded to the nursery, where she found Aiden trying to escape from his crib.

"Aiden Clarke McBride!" she scolded him. "I've taught you better than that!"

Ordinarily, her son would have laughed and blown her a kiss or two. But today, he felt overly sensitive. He melted into a puddle of tears and wailed like Eden had stolen candy from him. She was about to scoop him up when a sweaty—and sexy as fuck—Liam sprung into the room. She scrunched her nose in mock disgust, asking, "Don't they have washrooms at your fancy gym?"

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