Maybe more so. She could see herself becoming friends with the other woman, had circumstances been different.
And spent that next two weeks training her brain to immediately switch to thoughts of Emily—whose embryo was trying to take root inside of her—anytime she found herself thinking of Jamie. After about ten days of no contact, thoughts of Jamie translated to thoughts of Emily.
Problem solved.
Chapter Nine
Jamie looked at eight houses over the next ten days. He’d had twice that many people going through his home. Every day it became more of an issue to him that he wasn’t finding anyplace that felt like home to him.
He had to have a place to go in the event that he got an offer. He was in the process of making a baby and had to have a home for it. His Realtor reminded him that he could take his house off the market and just stay there, but that wasn’t an option he wanted to consider. He’d never liked the floor plan of the place. The vaulted ceilings with the upstairs looking down over the living area, made the place feel more like a party house than a home. The house was always too cold upstairs in the winter and too warm in the summer. And when he and Emily had had the backyard surveyed for the pool they’d planned to put in, they’d found that due to city sewer lines, they couldn’t dig deeply enough in their backyard in the only area where a pool would have fit.
She’d loved the place. Thought, if nothing else, it would be a great investment. Turned out, it wasn’t even that. Due to recent ground settling that had cracked the foundation of a home in the neighborhood, all of the homes in their community had lost value. There was no danger to anyone living in here, but there was the possibility that a homeowner would have the added expense of having to have the home raised and the foundation repaired.
He wasn’t going to start a family and then, with single dad duties, also take on moving into a new home. A father provided a home for his children. Gave the child a room that he could grow up in, move away from, and then come back to.
Like Christine’s. The place just made you want to walk in the door and stay. Every home he looked at in their exclusive small town failed the “Christine’s home” test. It wasn’t until his Realtor, after a third frustrating foray out to look at houses, asked him to be more specific in exactly what he wanted that he even realized he’d had a standard.
He was just getting off the phone with the man, finalizing a plan to see three more properties that afternoon, as he pulled into the parking lot of the office building across from the private offices of Christine’s ob-gyn.
As though programmed, his gaze immediately searched for her car. Found it parked toward the back of the lot.
Leaving closer spots for those who needed them, he’d guess. He hadn’t known the woman long, but could already list several facts that told him she put others’ needs in front of her own. The clinic. Her volunteer work. Having his baby.
She wasn’t a surrogate who’d put herself on a list. She was doing a favor for him and Emily. On his request.
In deference to the importance of the occasion, he’d put on blue pants with a white polo shirt, instead of jeans or shorts and was glad he’d done so when he caught his first glimpse of Christine. The long, colorful, flowing skirt she had on with a short-sleeved T-shirt would have made him feel underdressed. Every time he’d seen her, even in her home on Sunday, she’d been dressed as though on her way out to some kind of classy lunch with friends at an expensive restaurant.
The outpouring of warmth he felt toward her as he entered the building and saw her standing there by the elevator shook him a bit.
As did his sudden desire to have her standing there because she’d been waiting for him. Not the elevator.
“You ready for this?” He purposely kept his greeting casual as he approached. She’d made it pretty clear she wanted nothing to do with him other than that which was dictated by their contract.
Since that was all that he wanted, too, all that he needed, all that he’d agreed to, he had no problem with adhering to her stipulations.
“Jamie, hi!” Her smile, when she saw him, wasn’t at all casual. At least its effect on him wasn’t.
But then, getting ready to find out whether or not he was a father in the making, had him a bit flummoxed.
That had to be all it was. He was about to find out if Emily’s baby was on the way.
The elevator bell dinged, the doors opened and they got in together. Both reached for the third floor button at the same time, bumping hands. She dropped hers.
Rather quickly, it seemed to him.
“So...” He held his hands down,
clasped in front of him, in the way men did when standing respectfully.
Her lips pressed together, she nodded.
He needed more than that. The contract gave him the right to know medical specifics. Not to know how she was holding up emotionally. Was she still sure she wanted to do this? Having regrets? Okay and ready to go?
Panicked?
“I haven’t heard from you so I’m guessing there’s been no news...”
Glancing toward the lights showing the movement past the third floor, she said, “I spotted a little bit yesterday.”