The Hollow Page 0,65

up, Sage?"

"If you're busy, we can talk about this tonight. Maybe have a drink."

She was nervous, Fox noted, and Sage was rarely nervous. "I've got time."

"Well, the thing is, Fox." She tapped her fingers on the can as she wandered around the room. "The thing is, Paula and I have decided to have a baby."

"That's great. That's terrific. How do you guys do that? Do you call Rent-a-Penis? Sperm R Us?"

"Don't be an ass."

"Sorry, there are jokes here waiting to happen."

"Ha ha. We've thought about it a lot, talked it through. We actually think we'll want a couple of kids. And we decided, for the first one, Paula will get pregnant. I'll, you know, take round two."

"You'll be great parents." Reaching out, he gave her hair a quick tug. "The kids'll be lucky to have both of you."

"We want to be. We're sure as hell going to try to be. To take the first step, we need a donor." She turned back, faced him. "We want it to be you."

"Sorry, what? What?" The Coke, fortunately not yet opened, slipped right out of his hands.

"I know it's big, and strange." Smoothly, she bent to retrieve his Coke and hand it to him while he simply goggled at her. "And we won't hold it against you if you say no."

"Why? I mean, lame jokes aside, there are, like banks for this kind of thing. You can make a withdrawal."

"And there are very good places, where donors are very well screened, and you can select specific qualities. That's an option, but far from our first. You and I are the same blood, Fox, the same gene pool. The baby, the baby would be more ours because of that."

"Um, Ridge? He's already proven himself in this department."

"Which is one of the reasons I don't feel right asking him. And, while I love him like crazy, both Paula and I zeroed in on you. Our Ridge is a dreamer, an artist, a beautiful soul. You're a doer, Fox. You're always going to try to do the right thing, but you get things done. And you and I are closer personality-wise, physically, too. Same coloring." She tugged on her hair herself now. "I went red, but under the dye, my hair's the same color as yours."

He was, he realized, still stuck back on the term donor. "I'm a little weirded out here, Sage."

"I bet. I'm going to ask you to think about it. Don't say yes or no yet because it's a lot to think about. After you do, if it's no, we'll understand. I haven't said anything to anyone else in the family, so there's no pressure there."

"Appreciate it. Listen, I'm oddly flattered that you and Paula would, ah... want me to sub for you. I'll think about it."

"Thanks." She pressed her cheek to his. "I'll see you at lunch."

When she left he stared down at the Coke in his hand, then crossed over and put it back in his little fridge. He didn't think he needed any more stimulation. One thing at a time, he decided, and went out to Layla.

"Okay," he said.

"Your sister was very friendly, positively breezy. She behaved as if she hadn't heard me announce I was going to have sex with her brother."

"It's probably that natural act, celebration of human expression thing. And she had stuff on her mind."

"I'm a grown woman. I'm a single, healthy adult." In a gesture that smacked of defiance, she shook back her hair. "So I'm telling myself there's absolutely no cause for me to be embarrassed because... Is something wrong?"

"No. I don't know. It's been a really strange morning. It turns out..." How did he put this? "I told you my sister's gay, right?"

"It was mentioned."

"She and Paula, they've been together some years now. They're good together, really good together. And..." He paced to the window, back. "They want a baby."

"That's nice."

"They want me to provide the Y chromosome."

"Oh. Oh." Layla pursed her lips. "I guess you have had a strange morning. What did you say?"

"I don't remember, exactly, with all the going blind and deaf. I'm supposed to think about it. Which, of course, I'd have a hard time not."

"They both must think a great deal of you. Since you didn't say no, straight off, you must think a great deal of them."

"Right this minute, I can't think at all. Can we close the office and go have sex?"

"No."

"I was afraid of that."

"Your last appointment is at four thirty. We can go have