Officially Over It - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,71

used someone else’s?” I asked in surprise.

He shrugged. “The Fosters gave consent. As did the egg donor. If she was to perish, her harvested eggs would be donated.”

I had a feeling that the Fosters had no clue that they’d agreed to ‘donation’ but it worked for me now.

“I’m not sure they understood what Eerie and her family knew they were consenting to,” I admitted.

He shrugged and narrowed his eyes. “I sure the hell didn’t consent to her and her father making my life a living hell, either. But I did what I thought was best at the time.”

I shook my head in disbelief.

“I’m not sure if you realize it or not, but you just saved me a custody battle.” I paused. “I was set on not liking you. I was convinced that I was going to walk in here and dislike you immensely. Yet you’ve completely changed my mind, and you haven’t even tried that hard while doing it.”

Dr. Messings grinned. “That family was very hard to work with, and I’d hoped that if it ever came down to it, I wouldn’t have to work with them again.” He paused. “My daughter once again has cancer. We’re fighting it, but it looks to be winning at this point.” He narrowed his eyes. “You actually were a part of the calendar where the donations helped with a few treatments. Mr. October, correct?”

My brows rose. “Actually, yeah. Luckily, the hype has died down a bit. I haven’t been called Mr. October by anybody but you.”

His shoulders slumped a bit.

“When Ms. Foster came to me, she had the paperwork that I needed signed and notarized. Your signature was on the paperwork that granted access to the eggs. I apologize for not following up earlier. I only learned a few weeks ago when she called me in a flurry of apologies saying that the notarized copy that she’d had signed wasn’t actually signed by you. Then she threatened my job.” He looked apologetic all right.

Extremely apologetic.

Honestly, he looked defeated.

I could imagine if his daughter was going through yet another cancer treatment.

“I’m going to worry about Ms. Foster,” I admitted. “You’re not in any of my plans.”

He looked kind of sad there for a minute.

“I should be. What I did was illegal, and all I can say for myself is that I was a little distracted at the time, and all I could think about was how nice it was that the paperwork was done for me for once.” He shook his head. “I’ll never do that again, I can assure you.”

I looked around the office that I was standing in, then looked back at the man in the seat behind the rather large desk.

“Take care of yourself, Dr. Messings. And let us know if there’s anything we can do for your family,” I said softly.

Dr. Messings honestly looked quite stunned as I turned my back on him and walked out.

Nodding to his secretary, I went back to work, quite happy where my lunch hour had taken me.

Honestly, I’d been quite happy with quite a few of the places I’d been taken lately.

Granted, I sure wouldn’t have chosen to take the routes that I’d taken to get where I am today again, but they’d gotten me to a place in my life that I really loved.

Looking down at my watch, I realized I didn’t have enough time to get home and visit my little man—my little man that was being taken care of by Reggie, who’d taken six weeks maternity leave from her job.

Instead of visiting, I called.

She answered on the fifth ring.

“Hello?” she said breathlessly.

“Hey,” I said. “Why do you sound like you just sprinted to the phone?”

She continued to pant.

“I’m actually at the park running. I’m trying out the new jogging stroller we bought yesterday. This thing is awesome. And your son actually seems to be enjoying himself. He hasn’t closed his eyes for the entire hour that we’ve been here,” she gasped.

Elation poured through me at the thought of her out, bonding with my child.

“Which part of the trail are you at?” I questioned.

I didn’t have a second to make it home, but I did have a second to meet her at the end of a trail and get a kiss from my two favorite people.

“I’m just about to turn around at the halfway point. I can be at the trailhead in about twenty minutes.” She paused. “Why?”

“I just visited with the doctor that conceived Dare.” I grinned at how that sounded.