genuine smile of his, which I always adored—the one that revealed Cooper had a heart of gold before you even knew a thing about him. And to prove my point, he then added, “Hey, do you want to come down and spend a few weeks with us? Get your mind off things? Take a brief vacation?”
“Yeah, why don’t you?” Ricky asked. “You can do your god-awful running in the warmth of Florida instead of in New Jersey’s frigid hell that they call winter.” Ricky added a shudder for emphasis.
I giggled at the horror written on his face. “Thank you. I was actually considering that, but not as a vacation of sorts… more like a permanent situation.”
It took a few seconds for my comment to register. “Wait… you want to move to Florida?” my ex asked excitedly.
“I think I do.”
“That’s awesome! You can stay with us until you find a place.”
“Or we’ll put you up at a hotel if you prefer,” Ricky countered. “In case you want your privacy.”
“Ricky.” Cooper shoved into his shoulder.
“He’s right, Coop.” I didn’t take offense that it was Ricky who most definitely preferred their privacy. They were still newlyweds, after all. “Again, thank you. I decided to put my place up for sale and rent until I find something to buy.” I unexpectedly paused, finding it harder to get to my point now that it was time to.
Ricky picked up on it and reminded me of my admission. “So what’s the information you said you have for us?” he asked, bringing us back to my original comment.
“Well…” I watched their handsome faces wait for me to elaborate. My second pause was merely to prepare myself for the battle that I knew was about to occur. No doubt they would fight me on this, and I was ready for it. Without preamble, I blurted, “I want to be your surrogate.” Predictably, they both stared at me like I’d grown a third nipple on the tip of my nose. “I truly thought this through…” I pushed on. “Nothing you can say will change my mind. So please don’t try to, okay?” I allowed them to process my offer, sitting calmly on my end of the tethered connection via a cell phone… although they couldn’t see how frantically my foot jiggled from nerves.
“No way, Ree,” Cooper finally said, running a shaky hand through his hair. “We can’t let you do that. We won’t let you do that.”
And there it was. Quicker than I thought, but they played their hand right out of the gate. Prepared, I shook my head. “Yes, you can, and you will. I want to do this for you.”
“You’re a single beautiful woman who should be experiencing life and living for herself,” Ricky added. “Like finding a man who worships you the way you deserve.”
“I’m not interested in being worshipped.”
“Liar.”
“Okay, fine,” I conceded. “But that can wait. It’s only a blip of time in my life… a life I would be experiencing in the way that I want to. I dedicated myself to helping people, and this is an extension of that. I have nothing holding me in Jersey, and nothing preventing me from spending the next year helping you guys achieve your dream of having a family. It makes sense. You already have an egg donor. We all know the sperm isn’t an issue.” I rolled my eyes at Ricky’s cocky smirk. “The only thing missing is something that I can easily provide. I already went through a thorough physical and have all my medical records ready to be sent to a fertility specialist of your choosing.”
Shocked silence.
Plowing on, I added, “You’ve been stressing so much over this. It’s not as easy as you thought it could be, and I want to help you start your family.” I then took their silence as an opportunity to bust through the wall of doubts piling between us. “Look. I’ve made up my mind. I really want to do this for you. Please let me.”
“Ree, how can we possibly let you?” Cooper finally asked, becoming emotional. “You’re not lending us a car. It’s your fucking uterus, for God’s sake.”
“So? Is it easier to accept a stranger’s uterus than mine?” I countered. “Doesn’t it make more sense having someone you know take this journey with you? Someone who loves you both so much. Someone you know takes care of herself. Someone who is not in it for the money.”
“Regardless, it’ll be stress on your body. You need to take