Page 30 of Breaking the Ice

“No. His job is kinda creepy. You shouldn’t project what he does into who he is.”

“Project?” Samantha’s eyes almost bugged right out of her head. “If someone had asked me to draw a picture of an undertaker, I would have drawn Vincent.”

“But I guess the question is… does he kiss like an undertaker?”

Samantha narrowed her eyes at his poorly disguised amusement. “This is not funny.”

He cleared his throat and attempted to look serious. “Of course not.”

“I didn’t kiss him,” she said finally when Nick continued to stare at her and then raised his eyebrow in hisI’m waitingway.

“Oh, poor Vincent.” He wagged a finger at her. “That’s discriminatory.”

“It is not!”

“You kissed all the other ones.”

“I did not. I didn’t kiss intellectual giant. Besides… you haven’t met Vincent. Blind Freddy wouldn’t kiss Vincent.”

“You kissed Colin of the incredibly white teeth. When you didn’t want to.”

“Blind Freddy would have kissed Colin.”

“What if Vincent had made your eggs want to get up and dance?”

“Vincent would be more likely to put them into cryogenic deep freeze.”

Nick laughed and it echoed around the store, pushing into every dark corner of the back room. Why couldn’t she meet someone like him? Someonenormal. Who wanted to have babies. Surely there were still men out there like that in the world?

“I think it’s time you personally vetted the men your brothers think are suitable. I want someone halfway decent, Nick. I’m getting older every day. My eggs are dying as we speak.”

“Have you ever thought that you’re just maybe being too fussy? There seems to have been something wrong with every one of them. Let’s see.” He held up his hand and ticked them off as he went. “We’ve had freaky white teeth guy. Boring as bat shitguy. Too short guy. Too tall guy. Needed to be medicated guy. Wouldn’t shut-up guy. Intellectual giant guy. And Vincent the creepy guy.”

Samantha winced. She sounded like a total flake. Or a snob. “Look, I’m not after an Idris Elba or a Chris Hemsworth. I just want an ordinary decent guy who wants to have babies.”

“Anyof those men would qualify, Sam. So what’s the problem?”

He was right. On the surface they were all excellent candidates. So whatwasthe problem? There was no…spark. Was it so wrong to want that? If she was going to let her eggs and his swimmers get intimately acquainted then couldn’t there at least be some lust involved?

“I guess I want to have the wow factor,” she admitted.

“Sam…” He leaned in a little, grabbing her whole attention. “That’s not something you can orchestrate. Maybe if you stop trying to force it?”

Samantha stared into Nick’s eyes. His beautiful brown eyes. Now,hewould make gorgeous babies. “No.” She shook her head and moved back out of the intoxicating presence of his personal space. “I haven’t got time for my moon to be in Capricorn or whatever the hell it’s going to take to meet eyes across a crowded room.”

“I bet it’ll be worth the wait though.”

Samantha sighed. “You don’t understand.”

“Try me.”

Nick was unprepared for the sudden glower of heat in her glare as she folded her arms. “It’s okay for you,” she muttered. “You travel from city to city with your damn hockey stick, you stay infive-star hotels and get into all the swanky nightclubs. And that’s fine because you love that life and settling down isn’t something that even enters your head.”

“Pretty much.”

“Right. Same. Until I saw Gary with his pregnant fiancée and it was like life knocked me over the head with my biological clock. Even worse, now I’ve got so much more time on my hands I’m actually warming to the idea of motherhood. My eggs are cheeping like hungry chicks waiting for their mother to return to the nest. It’s kind of loud inside me at the moment.”

“Crowded too.”

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