nice. It made her feel good about herself. She liked that there was a way to feel close to someone without having to dig deep and spill all her darkest secrets.
And frankly, she enjoyed that she had the power to make men a little bit weak. To make them react to her. She’d never actually...well, she didn’t let go during sex. But it was enough that they did. That she could have her control while they lost theirs.
Anyway, there was something... Going to a doctor felt very intentional. Not that she wasn’t being intentional. But there was something slightly more...
You want to be able to blame it on fate. Meant to be or not.
Yeah, well. Maybe.
“All right,” Ryder said, flipping the eggs out of the pan and putting them onto a plate. “I’ll make you a deal, Sammy. You agree to stay here, and I will help you find a man to father your baby.”
* * *
OF ALL THE THINGS that he had ever offered to do for Sammy in the name of friendship this had to be the strangest one. But things had solidified for him when she had shown up at his house this morning on the same schedule that she always did. It was bacon day. And that meant that Sammy would be here early in the morning to cook for him. And tomorrow he would cook for her. It was a tradition that went back seventeen years. And it mattered to them. It mattered to her, and he could tell because she was here. Even though she was angry at him, she was here.
And it had hit him then that what he wanted more than anything was for things to stay the same. He had done the hard yards. He had sacrificed, dammit. And his life was finally in a place where he could call himself happy. Where he could say that he was content. Finally, he felt like things were coming together rather than falling apart.
But Sammy leaving... That was unacceptable. If she wanted to have a baby, she could damn well have a baby, but she could stay here.
He shoved the thought of her round and glowing and pregnant to one side. That didn’t matter. That wasn’t the mission. He would find her a guy and get her exactly what she wanted so that she would stay with him. He could do that. That was what he did. He fixed things. He could fix this.
“You’re going to help me find a baby daddy?”
“I am. Look, I know everybody in town. If you want to find somebody that you know a little bit more about, you want things to be personal.”
“So you’re going to act as my pimp?”
“Don’t say that,” he said.
“Well, I’m just saying, it’s a little bit weird.”
“You’re the one that has an aversion to donors.”
“Fair,” she said.
“Why do you, exactly?”
“I told you,” she said. “It’s clinical. And honestly... I want to know that the guy is a good guy. I don’t want to just guess. Anybody can put stats into paperwork and lie about who they are. And granted, I don’t really trust anyone enough to settle down with them and build a life with them, but knowing somebody... Their reputation, getting to talk to the people that know them...”
“Are we going to conduct interviews?”
“Would you?”
“I will do whatever the hell you want Sammy Marshall. Because that’s what I do.”
She stared at him with wide, doeish blue eyes. “I suppose you do. And...thank you. I guess.”
“Okay,” he said, taking the pan out from in front of her and dumping the bacon onto the plate beside the eggs. “What is your top criteria?”
“Don’t take all the bacon.” She grabbed another plate and divided the food up evenly. The two of them walked over to the long, empty dining table that still had some plates on it from the night before, and they shoved them down to the side.
“Criteria,” he said.
“Kind,” she said. “Probably... You know, kind of smart.”
Leave it to Sammy to try and make this somehow soft and sweet.
“Looks?” he pressed.
She laughed. “Looks don’t matter.”
He arched a brow.
“They don’t,” she said. “I mean, there are plenty of people who are awful and very good-looking.”
“Sure,” he said. “You’re going to sign up to sleep with a guy that isn’t good-looking, and also is going to be passing on half of that poor genetic material to your child.”
She sniffed. “I’m not comfortable evaluating somebody that way.”
“This is literally the best time to evaluate someone