A Daddy for the Midwife’s Twins?
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Tina Beckett
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PROLOGUE
EOIN MULVEY HELD the envelope in his hand. He didn’t open it...already knew the words inside by heart. It was the twentieth such envelope he’d received. One for every year since his diagnosis when he’d been eighteen years old. And every year he had a choice—continue storage or sign the paperwork to discontinue it altogether.
At thirty-eight, Eoin was pretty sure he wasn’t going to suddenly get the urge to have biological children of his own. And since he didn’t seem to have the best track record in the relationship department, why should he think he’d be any better at being a father?
He’d mentally given himself until he was forty to decide one way or the other. But that deadline was rapidly approaching. Would two more years really make that much of a difference in his life? More importantly, was it what he wanted?
He’d thought it was when he and his girlfriend, Lucy, had met and gotten together. But then she’d pressured him to make that decision last year, just before their breakup—saying if he wanted children now was the time. But suddenly he hadn’t felt ready. And it looked like now that that had been the right choice. Because they’d called it quits less than two months later. Not necessarily over the banked sperm, but it sure hadn’t won him any points.
Going over to his stack of mail that was his “take care of later” pile, he tossed the envelope onto the top. He was pretty sure it was just going to end up being shredded and thrown in the trash, but he’d give himself a day or two to decide whether or not to take action. He could donate the sperm, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to do that either. He’d always thought that someday he’d be a father, that someday he’d know when the time was right to have kids of his own.
But when Lucy had tried to insist, something had held him back. Maybe it was the thought of being somehow tied to the same woman for the rest of his life. And if he’d agreed to have a baby with her, that was exactly what would have happened. Because he would never abandon his own child.
It was a moot point because they hadn’t pursued that path. So for now, he would simply continue to help deliver other peoples’ babies and live that joy vicariously through them.
It was enough. It had to be. Because, at the moment, he saw no other viable options.
