Page 12 of Somebody To Love

“I want—no, I need this baby and I want them to have the very best start in life. That means giving them the very best genes I can. I don’t trust the donors in the books the doctor gave me. I don’t know those men. Sure, they look great on paper. All their tests come out healthy, but I don’t know who they are as people.”

She placed a soft hand on his chest, right over his heart. Could she feel how hard it was pounding? Had it ever stopped its frantic thundering since rushing over here earlier?

“I know who you are, inside. I know you’re not only strong and healthy, but good and kind. You have the very best inside of you and I want to give that to my baby.”

Wow. He didn’t think anyone had ever said anything so nice to him. Or strange.

“I know this is a lot to think about.”

“Understatement of the year.”

She ignored his muttering. “Take your time to think it over. You’ll need to drop off a sample for testing beforehand and then we’ll have to coordinate with my ovulation cycle. If you agree, that is.”

“Right, um, yeah, okay. That makes sense, I guess.”

Only it didn’t make sense. None of this made any damn sense.

Coordinate with her cycle? Was it weird to know when his best friend was ovulating? Had he ever known when a woman was ovulating?

This whole situation was weird. He’d rushed over here tonight, expecting to find Penny in crisis. Another death in the family, career trouble, hell, even trouble with a guy—though he knew she hadn’t dated anyone seriously since Lance. Being asked to supply the other half of a DNA strand so she could be a mom was the very last thing he’d ever expected her to need his help with.

But she did need his help, and he’d never turned her away.

Still, this was…huge. This wasn’t protecting her from school bullies, giving her advice on running her own business, or helping her search the entire town in vain for a lost dog. This was a big, colossal, life altering favor. One he didn’t know if he could do. Even if it had sort of been his idea in the first place. But he hadn’t thought she was serious enough to take him up on it.

He should have known better. This was Penny. Of course she had been serious about it. She was always serious about important stuff and having a baby was probably the most important thing in the world to her. He knew that. Then why had he opened his big mouth that day in the sandwich shop?

Because he’d do anything to help his best friend. That’s why. But could he do this?

“So…you’ll think about it?”

He glanced into her face, dark reddish-brown freckles standing out against her stark, pale skin. Big hazel eyes filled with hope and worry. Damn, he hated seeing the worry there. He couldn’t stand seeing Penny upset. Truthfully, he hated when anyone was upset, but Penny’s distress cut him to the bone. He couldn’t disappoint her. Not tonight, not after she’d laid herself out there like that. He knew what she was asking of him had to be hard for her. It’d be hard for anyone, but Penny didn’t like to bare herself to people, even him. She kept a lot of her feelings and desires locked away. He got to see more than most, being her best friend, but she was still hesitant to let people in.

“Yeah, I’ll think about it.”

Pink lips turned up as a huge smile graced her face, happiness lighting her up from the inside out. Throwing her arms around him, she squeezed. “Oh, thank you, BJ. I promise I’m not asking you for anything but your sperm.”

Did she have to keep saying that word? It sounded strange and out of place between them. But he’d made the lines of tension leave her face and her fingers had stopped their tapping. Hugging her back, he kissed the top of her head; grateful he made her feel better. Even if he was the one with a stomach full of rocks now.

Better him than her. Always.

“Um, I gotta go. I kind of left Ace and Del in the middle of a batch run.”

“Oh shoot,” she pulled out of his embrace, nose scrunching. “I’m sorry. I should have realized you’d be busy.”

“Never too busy for you.”

And that was the truth. The distillery was important to him and his family, but they all knew when it came down to it, family always held higher priority. And Penny had been like a part of the Jackson family for years now.

He headed out her door, waving as he closed it behind him, shutting out the weirdest moment he’d ever had in his life. As he headed back to Jacks, he replayed her request in his head over and over again, still trying to come to grips with it. He had no idea what to do. All he knew was Penny wanted something. Something she’d wanted for ages. Something within his power to give her. He’d never hesitated to do anything to make her happy before, but this…

For once in his life, he had absolutely no fucking clue what to do.

CHAPTER 7

BJ sat at the table in the back of the distillery they used for meetings, staring at the dark brown liquor in the glass tumbler sitting in front of him. They distilled gin and vodka, but about a year ago they started getting into whiskey. Small batch was simple enough. They had to buy another still since vodka stills had to be twice the height of whiskey stills. They didn’t age them in the barrels for as long as the big whiskey distillers did, but customers seemed to like Jacks Moonshine Whiskey well enough.

Normally he drank gin, but the wildness of tonight’s events called for whiskey. The smooth amber liquid would calm his racing mind and ease the raging tornado inside him. To do that, he’d have to drink it first. Since pouring the taster half an hour ago, all he’d done was stare. His mind overwhelmed with the knowledge dropped on him a few hours ago at Penny’s. He hadn’t been able to shut his brain off and lift the damn thing to his lips.

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