Her Motherhood Wish
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Tara Taylor Quinn
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HarlequinChapter One
The day started like any other. Thirty-six-year-old Woodrow Alexander—Wood to anyone who expected him to answer—rolled out from under the sheet and into a pair of lightweight pajama pants. He timed his movements in perfect tandem with Retro, his six-year-old blonde female Lab, who jumped off her side of the mattress, stretched and rounded the bed.
Retro, short for Retrospect, stood guard at the opened door to the bath attached to their quarters while Wood used the toilet. Then, side by side, the two of them left their suite and traipsed down the hall toward the kitchen, avoiding the living area and the closed door on the far side of it leading into the home’s other master suite. Elaina needed her sleep.
While Wood started the coffee maker, brewing a ten-cup pot of the dark Colombian blend he and his ex-wife both preferred, Retrospect let herself out the doggy door and into the yard beyond. Wood had put in the kiva fireplace at the pool that Elaina had wanted while they’d still been married. He’d built the outdoor kitchen space off to the left of that. Planted rosebushes. Built his workshop shed in the far back corner. And then, also to her specifications, he had left the rest of the yard natural. Some grass grew. He kept that mowed, but the rest of the space stood home to a lot of trees in random places, with roots that stuck up out of the hardened ground. He’d offered to clean it up for her. She’d said she liked it rugged.
He liked her happy.
By the time Retro was back indoors, he had food in her bowl and, his first mug of coffee in hand, padded barefoot back down the hall, past two closed doors, two offices—his and hers—glancing into the guest bedroom with attached bath that came after, and finally reaching his suite at the end of the hall.
Leaving his door cracked for Retro’s reentrance after her breakfast and another trip outside, Wood got in the shower. Shaved—Elaina had told Wood once, when she’d still been gloriously happy married to Peter, that he should try leaving a bit of whisker roughage on his face. He didn’t like the result. It itched. And then, dried and standing in front of the mirror, he ran a comb through his short but bushy blond hair. Thick curls had looked far better on Peter, his younger brother, than they did atop Wood’s rounder face.
Once dressed, Wood sat in the worn green armchair that had once been his father’s—a chair that was in his room partially because it matched nothing else in the house—and laced up his work boots before clipping his utility knife to his belt, dropping a couple of carpenter pencils into his shirt pocket and heading back out to the kitchen.
Retro hadn’t made it back into his room. Which meant the dog had followed Elaina back into her suite to watch over her as she showered that June Thursday morning. The golden Lab always slept with Wood, but the rest of the time she chose randomly which of the two of them to hang with.
Frying some bacon and mixing pancake batter, Wood got out bologna and bread to slap together a couple of sandwiches for lunch, adding bread to the running grocery list they kept on the fridge. Elaina’s toast plate was already in the dishwasher, her yogurt cup in the trash, but he knew she’d had both with her coffee while he’d showered. She always did. Every morning. Same thing. They had a system that allowed them to live separately while still occupying the same building.
He was just sitting down to eat when Retro bounded out from Elaina’s quarters, followed closely by the dark-haired beauty his brother had married. And then he had.
“I’m doing a double rotation today, so don’t worry if you don’t see my car,” she said, her satchel already on her shoulder over the white doctor’s lab coat and light blue scrubs she wore pretty much every day. Swallowing a big bite of syrupy pancake, Wood nodded. Told her he’d take care of the communal grocery list.
“Be safe,” she said, her keys already in hand as she headed for the door.
“What about your lunch?”
She kept her soft-sided cooler in the freezer. Loaded it every morning on her way out the door, either choosing leftovers or more yogurt and fruit. Which was about the only time he ever really saw her. When they’d divorced, neither had wanted to move, and she’d been unable to take on the cost of a house alone, so he’d built a small entryway and installed an outside door to the far side of Elaina’s suite, allowing her to come and go without interrupting him.
Or without him knowing her every move.
“I’m buying lunch today.”
For years he’d suggested she do so. For years she’d refused to spend the money. His money, back then.
Now, in her second-to-last year of her residency as a nuclear radiologist, she was earning a pretty decent salary. Things were changing.
“Be safe, Wood,” she said again, her hand on the door.
“Be safe,” he said in return.
Their mantra. It was like they couldn’t leave each other’s presence without the words spilling out of them. A direct result of the grief they shared.
Breakfast done, he rinsed his dishes, took a couple of seconds to give Retro a bit of a rubdown, then grabbed his lunch and headed out. He didn’t have far to go. Less than five miles to the luxury apartment complex going up not far from the new Oceanfront Medical complex. Still, it didn’t look good if the framing-crew supervisor showed up to the job late.
He was a mile out, and twenty minutes early, when his phone rang. Someone calling off for the day, most likely. He glanced at the number showing up on his dash. Not one he recognized. All of his guys would show up in his contact list by name. As would his boss, the general contractor on the project. He let the call go to voice mail.
One unknown caller starting out with “Mr. Alexander? This is the police...” was the only scary call he ever planned to answer in his lifetime. His phone dinged to indicate he had received a new message.
He waited until his truck was parked along the back of the temporary fence marking the crew parking lot before listening to the voice mail. The Parent Portal—a fertility clinic that, while located right there in little Marie Cove, was making a name for itself—needed him to call.
Stupidly, relief swept through him. Elaina was okay. He had no one else to lose. Figuring the call had something to do with Peter, who’d done much of his gynecological residency at the clinic, he dialed, sat back and watched as one truck and then, a few seconds later, another slowed and pulled onto the lot. His men. Hand-chosen by him. Arriving for another day of sweating it out under California’s June sunshine as they nailed the thousands of two-by-fours and four-by-sixes to frame the current project.
“Mr. Alexander? This is Christine Elliott, managing director of the Parent Portal...”
The woman didn’t bother with hello. Had apparently recognized him on her caller ID. He’d had no idea the number she’d left had been to her private phone. He’d been expecting to speak with a receptionist.
“Thank you for calling back so expediently,” she said. “I’ll be as brief as possible.”
She’d said it was important. Figured they were going to honor his brother posthumously for all of the volunteer hours he’d put in, beyond residency requirements, when the clinic had just been getting up and running. He’d let Elaina know and have her call the clinic. It was her the clinic would need to speak with.
The fourth truck pulled in. Two more and he’d be set for the day. He still hadn’t said a word. The woman just continued talking.
“I have a request for contact, and the matter is urgent...”
He’d been watching a couple of workers get out of their trucks... One punched the other on the shoulder and laughed. Brothers. Wood’s gut lurched.
“A request for contact?” He wasn’t sure he’d heard her right.
“From your sperm recipient...”
Turning away so that the parking lot was no longer in view, he shook his head. “What now?”
“Your sperm donation was used four months ago, Mr. Alexander, and fertilization was successful. The recipient is currently four months pregnant and needs to speak with you.”
His sperm. It took a few seconds for him to even figure out what she was talking about. To remember years back—when his brother had first started at the clinic. They’d needed sperm donors, and Peter had hit Wood up. Always willing to help his younger brother, to support him, Wood had been fine with the donation—not so much with the pounds of paperwork he’d had to fill out. Most particularly when it came to education and occupation.
“I quit high school when my mom died so that I could go to work and support my brother,” he said now, as much to himself as to the managing whatever she was. “No one was ever going to choose me as her donor.”
He had to make that clear. So she could find the guy she really needed. And then it occurred to him. “Unless...are you looking for Peter?” Surely she knew his brother was gone? Peter had no longer been working at the clinic—had, in fact, been out with Elaina, celebrating having just received his medical license and the practice he’d just joined, when their car had been hit head-on by a drunk driver...
Still, it seemed like everyone in Marie Cove had heard about the crash. Particularly in the medical community.
“No, we’re beyond careful with our record keeping, and the frozen sperm was most definitely that of Woodrow Alexander, not Peter. Although, I have to say, I was so incredibly sorry to hear about your brother’s death. I was at the funeral...”
Wood wouldn’t have known her from Adam. And couldn’t say half of who was there. He’d been too busy dealing with Elaina’s grief—and pain—as he’d kept a hand on her wheelchair at all times and prayed that nothing happened to her until he could deliver her safely back to the hospital, which she should never have left in the first place. His own despair... Well, Wood had handled that in private. Over time. With more than a few bottles of whiskey. Until, more than a year later, he’d thrown out the last one, half-full, and never touched the stuff again.
“I’m still having a hard time believing someone would choose a high school dropout for her sperm donor when she has doctors to choose from,” he said, bringing himself—and her—back to the present.
“Your family’s health history is excellent, you’re a tall and blue-eyed blond, and your essay was...remarkable,” Christine said.
He’d forgotten about the essay—an exposition of why he was donating sperm. Sort of remembered writing about his brother. He’d been so proud of him—like Peter had been his son, rather than just the runt that had been three years younger than him and always tagging along.
“Blue-eyed blonds are chosen more than any other combination,” Christine said softly, almost as though she knew Wood needed a minute to catch up.
“So, you’re telling me I’ve got biological kids walking around someplace?” He’d really given it little thought. Had been certain that Peter wasn’t seeing him for who he really was when he’d been certain that Wood’s sperm would be recipient-worthy.
“Not yet. It’s only been used this one time.”
Deflating before he’d even really begun to inflate, Wood tapped the steering wheel. That made more sense.
“So...who is this woman who chose a dropout over a doctor?” he asked, feeling kind of bad for the kid of such a choice maker.
“Her name is Cassie Thompson. She’s given me permission to give you her direct number. I can also have her call you, or the two of you can have a supervised meeting here at the clinic, if you’d prefer.”
There was no fourth option—opting out. That was part of what made the Parent Portal so unique, as he recalled. Donors and recipients both reserved the right to have contact with the other if ever a need or desire arose. The clinic acknowledged that sperm was more than just biology. That human needs and emotions could come to play at some point—hence the contact requirement. It was all tied up in a nice legal bundle, which had been a part of the mound of paperwork he’d been required to get through in the process of doing his little brother a favor.
“Can I ask why she wants to meet me?” He’d gone over every page of the contract he’d signed. Understood every word before he’d signed it. And then promptly dismissed the details as irrelevant.
“That’s for her to disclose.” Christine sounded more formal now. “I can only tell you that it’s a matter of some urgency.”
“You’re sure she’s pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“And that the baby is mine.”
“Biologically formed from your sperm, yes.”
Right. Right. He got the designation. He might be less schooled than a lot of people, but he was not a stupid man.
“Then please give her my number,” he said. And then added. “But please tell her to call between six and ten tonight, if that’s possible. After five, at any rate.”
No way was he having a conversation about his sperm at work. Nor was he going to miss a day of it. He hadn’t, ever, and wasn’t going to start.
But that didn’t stop him from thinking about the damned situation all day long. He might not vividly recall everything he’d documented in that file of his, but he knew for certain he’d been completely honest. That was how he rolled.
So, what, had she missed the education part? The career page? Was she hoping to find out he’d made more of himself in the time since he’d allowed his little fish to be frozen?
Maybe she just wanted to get a firsthand, in-person peek at what her kid could turn out to look like.
Yeah, and that didn’t sound like an urgent matter.
More likely the woman was having second thoughts now that she was really pregnant. Though what she thought he could do about that, he didn’t know.
Nah, no one would spend all that money, put herself through the insemination process, just to change her mind.
As the afternoon wore on, he wondered what she looked like. Who she was.
Wondered if she’d be anywhere near the strong but still gentle and loving mother who’d given birth to him and Peter. Raising two headstrong boys on her own after their father died of a heart attack when Wood was five.
By quitting time, he’d run out of distractions. She’d be calling soon about an urgent matter. And he hoped to God it wasn’t to tell him that there was something wrong with her baby.
That his sperm had given her a less-than-healthy child.
Because he had no idea how to fix something like that.
