Page 45 of Miss Hap

“Then you were messing with me?”

Her look was so wounded I had no choice but to opt for the truth. “No, I do want kids. I’ve just never admitted it to anyone before. But I’m starting to question what kind of father I’d be.”

She stared at me for the longest time. “I think you’d make a really good dad.”

“How do you know?” I held my breath, hating the weight I was giving her response but powerless to keep myself from caring.

“Because you’re protective, loyal, and you like to take care of people. And you’re worried about it, which means you’d work every day to be the type of father a child would deserve.”

Hope bloomed in my chest.

“But it wouldn’t work for us,” she added.

“Why the hell not?”

“Because the appeal of using a donor is not having to split custody. I don’t want to alternate holidays and weekends. I want my kids full-time.”

“So would I. You could move in here, and we’d both have them full time.” I’d always been a man who was decisive, but this bordered on insanity.

Addison wasn’t often at a loss for words, but my offer had done it. She gaped like a goldfish until finally she stuttered, “But, but we’re not— I mean the sex was great, but we’re not in a relationship.”

I let her off my lap and stood up, pacing the room. My crazy idea was taking root and growing like a wildfire. “Don’t you see? That’s the best part. You and I are compatible, and we both want kids. We don’t have to worry about the other stuff getting in the way.”

“Since when are we compatible? And I’m talking about outside the bedroom.”

She had a point. “You don’t put up with my shit, and we both want the same thing. That’s half the battle with compatibility, so I think we could electively co-parent.”

“Electively co-parent?” she repeated as if testing the words.

“It means we’d live together, parent together, but not be in a romantic relationship.”

She chewed her bottom lip. “So you’d still see other people, and so would I?”

“Fuck no.” The expletive erupted from my lips. “The only reason I see women is for sex, and if we’re having it, why would I need it from anyone else?”

Her brow arched. “Gee sweet talker, how could a girl possibly say no?”

“You’re proving my point. We don’t have to worry about shit like sugar coating our words. It’s black and white between us without any of the messy relationship stuff. Unless you haven’t given up on finding true love?”

I wouldn’t cheat her of her dream if she held hope for love. But then she couldn’t be with me. I wasn’t about to have some other guy banging the mother of my children.

“No, I’ve determined the whole happily-ever-after gig isn’t in the cards for me.”

The sadness in her voice put some brakes on my runaway train. She was young, and she deserved the fairy tale. But I knew my limitations. I wasn’t the man to give it to her. “You should think about it. I’d be your partner when it comes to raising kids, but we wouldn’t be in love. We wouldn’t be romantic partners. We would never share a bedroom.”

With my history of violent nightmares, there was no way we could ever sleep together. I sighed. “A decision doesn’t need to be made tonight. You should think about it and come back to me with your questions. Meanwhile, I’ll go pick up the pill, so you don’t feel pressured into making a decision right away. After, I can take you home.”

She put her hands on her hips. “I definitely need to think about it, but could you at least feed me this time before I go home?”

My chuckle eased the knot in my chest. “Absolutely.”

ChapterTwenty-One

ADDISON

We didn’t speak again about the whole “let’s make babies together but not be romantic” plan for the rest of the evening. Not while we ate the dinner of Southwest chicken, black beans, and rice he cooked. Not while he drove us to the pharmacy and we went inside to get the Plan B pill. And not when he drove me home in my car, insisting he’d get an Uber back to his place after dropping me off.

Now here I was in my bedroom, pill up on the dresser staring at me the next morning like a ticking time bomb. The box indicated I needed to take it within seventy-two hours. Which meant I had sixty-one hours remaining to make a decision.

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