Page 11 of Somebody To Love

“Right, okay, no sitting. Um, I…kind of need…oh! How rude of me. I haven’t offered you a drink, or are you hungry? I bet you’re hungry. I can make you a sandwich. I got those bread and butter pickles you like and—”

“Penny!” The woman was killing him. He reached out, grabbing her wrist in a firm, yet soft grip before she could turn tail and run off to the kitchen. Tugging on her arm, he gently pulled her to him. “I don’t need anything except for you to tell me what’s wrong.”

She tucked her chin into her chest, refusing to look him in the eye. “Nothing is wrong.”

“Bullshit.”

At that, her face rose. He rarely swore around her, but he was done playing or whatever the hell they were doing. Something had been bothering her for days. He knew it, knew her. He’d tried to let it go, allow her to come to him in her own time, but he was tired of waiting. Tired of her almost coming out with it, then retreating into herself. They were friends, dammit, best friends. She didn’t get to hide her problems. Not from him. Not when he could help.

“Please.” He brought his hands up, cupping her face, stroking the soft skin in a soothing manner. “Tell me what you need.”

“I need your sperm.”

His hands fell from her face. Shock dropping his hold. Hazel eyes grew impossibly wide as she blurted out words he’d never imagined coming from her lips. His brain tried to come up with something, anything, but surely, he’d misheard her. Penny couldn’t have possibly asked him for his sperm. Had she?

“I…what?”

A loud groan left her pink lips. Stepping out of his touch, she brought up her own hands to cover her face. He thought he heard her let out a muffled scream, but he couldn’t be sure of anything his ears were hearing tonight.

Dropping her hands, she turned and paced back and forth across the living room floor. “Okay, remember a while ago when we were talking about me wanting to be a mom, but being too socially awkward to attract any kind of decent man—”

“You mean you being awesome and the entire male species being too stupid to realize it?” Ableists fucks. He knew a lot of Penny’s relationship woes came from her partners not bothering to understand autism or even trying to learn more about it.

She waved away his sentiment, continuing, “Anyway, I was remembering your offer and—”

“Wait, wait, what offer?”

She stopped pacing and turned to face him. “Remember, we were talking about how adoption wouldn’t work, and you suggested I use, um, some guy’s stuff and then said I could even have yours?”

His jaw literally dropped. He would even swear he heard it crack. “Penny…I was…I didn’t mean...I didn’t realize you were serious about it.”

She lifted her chin. “Well, I am, and I really want the second set of DNA to come from you.”

He’d sampled too much of the latest gin batch and was currently passed out in the office having a wild, booze induced dream. That could be the only explanation for what was currently going on because there was no way he stood here, in the middle of Penny’s apartment, talking about her need for his sperm. Nope. No way in hell. This was all some weird, messed up gin fever, and he’d be paying for it in the morning with a hangover from hell.

“You want to have a baby and you want my…” Oh, shit, he couldn’t say the word. Not again. Not to her. “Stuff to do it?”

“Yes.”

He bit down hard on the inside of his cheek. Ouch! The coppery taste of blood slid over his tongue.

Yup, he was definitely awake.

“You…want to have sex with me?”

Her nose wrinkled. “No! I just need you to make a deposit at my doctor’s office, then I will be artificially inseminated.”

Oh. Okay. That sounded easy. But damn, she didn’t have to seem disgusted by the thought of sleeping with him. It wasn’t like he was a hideous troll or anything. He knew some women didn’t like his long hair and beard, but others damn near ripped their panties right off the moment he took his wavy locks out of the confines of what his sister called his manbun. He’d gotten a few spontaneous proposals rafting down Clear Creek every summer.

He had no idea why it bothered him so much. It wasn’t like he wanted to have sex with Penny. They were friends. Still, the rejection stung. She didn’t have to act like sex with him would be worse than doing her taxes. A chore he knew she hated almost as much as all the reboots of their favorite childhood television shows.

“I’m not asking you to be my partner in this. I don’t want to marry you or have you pay any child support. I’m not looking for any of that. You can be as involved as you want. We can work out an agreement. Of course, I’d love it if you and your family were in the baby’s life. You all mean so much to me and that’s partially why I want you as a donor, but I’m not demanding anything of you. I just want a baby. My baby.”

She stepped closer until they were less than a foot apart, those soft hazel eyes revealing every emotion like they always did: sadness, hesitation, longing.

“I want this desperately, BJ.”

He knew that. One of the reasons her failed engagement had broken her up so much was because her and dickwad had talked about starting a family right away. Something Penny had been excited about. Perhaps even more excited than the wedding itself.

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