Page 7 of Unexpecting

“But you say no dating, so how…?” Cooper wondered.

“I was thinking anonymous donor insemination,” I announced.

Dead silence met my words this time. J.B. was the first one to find his voice.

“Anonymous what?”

“Really?” Emma asked curiously. “Like at a sperm bank? I know someone who did that.”

“Casey, you can’t be serious?” Coop asked. “C’mon. There’s got to be another way.”

“Tell me how,” I challenged. “Right now that’s the only way I see it happening. It may not be my first choice, but unless I have an eager and fertile man drop into my lap with his biological clock already ringing, then…” I shrugged. “You feel like filling a Dixie cup for me?” I had to laugh at the expression on Cooper’s face.

“Uh, no, thanks. Really, no.”

“Don’t even think about asking me,” J.B. warned. I noticed he still didn’t look very happy about the direction the conversation had headed. I’d wait until later to explain how I came about my decision and tell him he had nothing to do with it.

“Are you sure there’s no ex-boyfriend who might be willing…” Emma’s question was drowned out by Cooper and J.B. laughing.

“Don’t even go there,” Cooper said.

“See? If I want a baby, what other choice do I have?” I looked to each of them to see if one had a great idea popping into their head.

“Sorry,” J.B. said rudely. “Have to say it—don’t have a baby. Seems pretty easy to me.”

“Unlike some, I happen to believe a baby is a good thing. Probably the best thing that could happen to me. The idea of not being a mother has never been an option,” I told him earnestly. “And I don’t want to wait for someone. I’m not getting any younger. If I have to wait around for the right guy, then who knows how long it will take? I came up with this idea, and it seems pretty good to me.”

“But isn’t there anyone you could use?” Emma wondered. “A friend, an ex-boyfriend… your brother-in-law? Any good man who would help you out?”

The name David Mason immediately popped into my mind, but I hadn’t seen him in years. I met David my first year at university, and we were together four years. While David was the best relationship I’d ever had, hanging the hopes of having a baby on a man I broke up with twelve years ago is too desperate even for me.

“I went through the list early this morning after I had this brain wave,” I told Emma instead, “and there’s no one I would feel comfortable enough asking. I mean it’s one thing to ask for some—you know—but then basically to tell him to get out of my life so I can do it alone? I’d probably end up losing a friend that way.”

“And you really want to do it alone?” Cooper asked skeptically.

“Well, no, but what choice do I have? Sure, I’d like the whole fairy tale, but at this point, I really doubt that’s going to happen. I’m thirty-five now. Even if I met the right guy tomorrow, I might still be looking at waiting a few years. I don’t have time to wait. And this is what I want—a baby. It’s what I want to do with my life, and so I’m going to go ahead with it.” There was a sudden silence as I scraped the last of the eggs off my plate. “I don’t expect any of you to get it,” I finished.

“I get it,” Emma told me wistfully. A little too wistfully for your average twenty-six-year-old, but before I could mention how she sounded, Coop came to stand beside her.

“Of course, we’re here for you,” he said firmly. “And we understand why you feel you need to do this.”

“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Emma said, sounding herself again. “You would make a terrific mother, and you’ve wanted it for as long as I’ve known you.”

“I’ve known her a lot longer, and lemme tell you, she never shuts up about it,” J. B. grumbled. “Are you sure this isn’t like one of your other hobbies?” His smile widened. “Like the knitting thing?”

“That was knitting,” I told him scornfully.

“Then what was rock climbing?” Cooper put in with a laugh. The teasing older brother was back. And when both of them get on my back… “Or making your own wine? The basement stank like rotten grapes for weeks. And didn’t you want to go back to school and get some degree in Russian history at one point?”

“My favourite was cardio-striptease,” J.B. laughed. “You honestly wanted Coop to put in a pole for you!”

“They were hobbies,” I told them as sternly as I could, despite J.B. practically rolling on the floor, no doubt picturing my attempt at pole dancing. “I was trying to better myself, exercise my mind and my body. And meet people,” I added. Meet men was what I didn’t say. I had some success with the rock climbing. Of course, there were no men in the cardio-striptease class, but I did improve my flexibility and my upper body strength during my little sojourn. “I know having a baby is much more serious than that.”

“Might be more fun if it was more like the stripper stuff,” J.B. muttered.

“And that’s why I would never ask you to be the father,” I told him snidely. “What do you think?” I asked Cooper. Despite his continual teasing, frequent lecturing, and prying into my personal life, Cooper’s opinion mattered a great deal to me.

“Doesn’t matter what we say,” Cooper shrugged. “If it’s important to you, then it’s important to us. We’ll deal with it.”

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