Page 9 of Somebody To Love

Since then, Penny really hadn’t dated anyone. He didn’t think her current problem was with a guy. Then again, she had been talking about wanting a baby and family a month ago. Maybe she’d been on the prowl for someone who was husband material. For some reason, that caused his gut to clench. Had she met a guy? No. She would have told him, right?

Great, now instead of listening to the important meeting he was supposed to be having with his siblings about their business, he was lost in thought on Penny and her possible new boyfriend upsetting her. He shook his head, clearing his mind to focus on the task at hand. He’d check in with Penny later and find out what was upsetting her and if it was a guy, he’d put on his ass kicking boots because no one hurt his best friend.

No one.

CHAPTER 5

Penny went through her notebook, checking to make sure she had every request her client made for the website she was designing for him. Just as she hit save, her cell went off. She grabbed it, putting the phone to her ear and answering without even glancing at the caller.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Brainiac. I need your help.”

“Hi Gwen.” Her older sister, probably calling because she messed up her computer again.

“I messed up my computer again.”

Called it.

“What’s going on?”

Her sister launched into the problem, which Penny solved in under two minutes by telling her sister to reboot the system.

“Thank you. I was about two minutes from chucking this damn thing into the wall. I swear when it freezes up like that, my heart stops. I was afraid I lost all the photos of the kids. I really need to print those things off and scrapbook them already.”

Gwen had been saying that for five years now. Her sister never printed off photos, just let them sit there in an ever-growing file on her hard drive taking up server space. Penny had offered to download an app onto her sister’s phone that would automatically print photo books for her, but Gwen said she enjoyed doing things the old-fashioned way.

Saying and doing were two very different things.

“Good, I see them all again. I am so glad I have a nerd for a sister. You’re like my very own personal geek patrol.”

The words struck a chord deep inside her. She knew she was a nerd, proud of it too. Nerds were in now. Well, maybe not actual nerds, but fun, sexy nerds like those computer hackers in all those crime shows BJ liked to watch. Fake nerds were in.

Too bad she was a real, hard-core, socially awkward, freckle-faced dork nerd.

But she wanted to be more.

So much more.

“Alison has a soccer game next Saturday. Are you coming?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.”

Her niece and nephew were the two cutest kids on the planet. Perhaps she was a little biased, but as an aunt, she felt that was her prerogative.

Gwen launched into the latest news on Alison and Collin. How they were doing in school, what sports they were participating in this year. She gushed over how cute Collin was when he asked a girl in his class to the eighth-grade dance.

She was proud of her niece and nephew, but the pang in her gut grew. The one that screamed for her own kid to gush about. To finally be the one to call her sister and talk about her child winning the science fair or getting the lead in the school play. Whatever her kid was into Penny would support it. Even if it was sports. Though, she couldn’t guarantee she’d be as loud as her sister at her kid’s games.

But to get what she craved, she had to pluck up the courage and ask for something from someone.

BJ…

His name whispered in her mind. She’d chickened out the last two times she saw him. Not anymore. She wanted a baby, and she wanted BJ to donate his sperm. To get what she wanted, she had to be brave and ask. No more shying away from it. Time to put on her big girl panties and do it.

Pulling the phone away from her ear, she put it on speaker and half listened to her sister while she typed out a text to BJ. Satisfied with her wording, she hit send.

“Ugh, now I have to make six fairy costumes for Alison’s school play in three weeks. I think I might cheat and grab some off the Internet. Do you think they’ll care?”

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