#Babymaker (Baby Crazy 2)

“You’re pregnant, aren’t you?” she asked importantly. “Trust me, I can tell from a mile away. Fertility is our business after all.”

I couldn’t move for a moment. Oh my god. I’d been so dumb because of course that was why Chase wanted me. Sure, we hadn’t reached any type of agreement ever since that proposition a month ago, but things were certainly going according to his plan. I was sleeping in his bed night after night, having unprotected sex four five times a night sometimes. We wanted each other that bad.

Was that the cause of my glow? They often say that pregnant women have a halo around them, and I certainly looked like I was emitting light.

“No, no I’m not,” I said quickly. “I can’t be.”

Corrie shot me a puzzled look.

“You can’t as in you haven’t been having sex? Or have you been using the fertility treatments here?” she asked on a whisper. “You know, it’s okay if you have. We tell all our patients not to be embarrassed of needing a little help. Nature sometimes just needs a little push.”

I blushed furiously again because yes, I’d been using the services of Sunset Medical, but not in the way Corrie was speaking of right now. I was having unprotected sex with Sunset Medical’s handsome lead physician non-stop, and that’s why I might be in danger.

So many thoughts were running through my head in a blur that I tried to change the subject to take some of the focus off.

“Oh my god, your puppy’s so cute!” I squealed with fake verve, pointing to the screen saver on Corrie’s phone. “Is that a Malti-poo or just a regular Maltese?”

And that did the trick because dog owners can be as crazy as the parents of human babies.

“Don’t say ‘just a regular Maltese,’” Corrie scolded playfully. “There’s no such thing as a ‘regular’ Maltese. The breed was bred to be a companion to kings, and was even the royal dog of King Louis XV. So there’s no such thing as ‘regular.’ Sugar is pure-bred with a heart of gold. I spend hours brushing her fur every week,” said Corrie, staring with adoration at the bundle of fur on her screen.

I would have laughed at the ridiculousness if my heart hadn’t been pumping with a mixture of panic and happiness. Because was I pregnant? Had it happened? It’d only been a month since Chase and I took up, and yet even just once is enough right? At least that’s what they always warn you in junior high sex ed classes. You can get pregnant from just one session if you don’t use protection.

So I was desperate to get to the drugstore to buy a pregnancy test. Oh my god. What would I say to Dr. Roman if I were pregnant? Would he be happy? Would he be elated? After all, he was the one who’d propositioned me. So he’d be on Cloud Nine right?

But suddenly, I remembered the terms of his particular agreement, and a chill ran through my soul. Because Dr. Roman had been extremely business-like about the whole thing. He’d said that he would support me financially, yes, but that we would also be co-parents. Nothing more, nothing less. We weren’t going to be a loving family, not by a long shot. We would be parenting the baby together, but also apart, as two entities interested in the welfare of a child.

Oh god. A lump rose in my throat and tears sprang to my eyes. Fortunately, Corrie didn’t notice because she was now scrolling through pictures of her dog on her phone.

“Sugar,” she crooned. “Mommy misses you. Mommy will be home soon, don’t you worry.”

I used her distraction to slip away to the women’s restroom unnoticed. And once I shut the door, I looked at myself in the mirror. Oh god, the glow was definitely there, but there was also a sense of apprehension and even fear. Because what if Chase stuck to the terms of the fertility deal? What if my handsome doctor wanted to be a babymaker and nothing else? I would be devastated … because I’ve already lost my heart to the handsome man.

CHAPTER TEN

Connie

I sat in my small bathroom, absolutely dumbfounded. The pregnancy stick lay on the countertop with two blue stripes indicating that I was pregnant. In fact, it was the fifth test that I’d taken. I was definitely expecting a child.

On the one hand, I was elated. This was what I’d wanted a month ago when I went to Sunset Medical’s information session. In fact, I’d been the one who was pushy and insistent, dragging Ashley along on my quest to learn more. So why was I so scared all of a sudden? Was it the fact that I was still essentially financially unstable? Was it the fact that the father of my child was technically my boss’s boss, and I didn’t want to be a source of company gossip?