7. Ross
ROSS
I drum my fingers on the table in front of me. It doesn’t matter how many times James and Cole tried to convince me this was a good idea, I still can’t find it in myself to believe it.
“She’s going to be pissed,” I mutter, cutting through the silence in the fertility clinic meeting room.
Cole glances around at me, shaking his head. “Keep it down,” he shoots back. “I don’t want her to hear you.”
“She’s not going to be able to hear anything any of us say when she realizes that we’re the ones who brought her here,” I retort. “You think she’s going to just sit down and talk with us, when she figures out that we’re the ones behind this?”
“You make it sound like we’re doing something wrong,” James replies, his voice even. “You think we should call this off?”
“We’re not calling it off,” Cole replies firmly. “She was the one who wanted to arrange this meeting with us, least we can do is hear her out.”
“Hear her out?” I reply, incredulous. “She’s the one who’s going to need to hear us out, if she doesn’t walk out the second she realizes that—”
And then, before I can say another word, the door opens before us.
And there she is.
Millie.
It feels like a lifetime since the last time I laid eyes on her, but I still feel that same jolt of attraction, that same rush of desire that threatens to throw everything inside me off-balance.
Her light brown hair is pulled back into a ponytail, her brown eyes fixed on mine.
Her hands are clenched at her sides as she stands there trying to take in what she’s seeing right now.
I can’t blame her for not knowing how to react. I don’t know if I would, if I were in her position. We are no doubt the last people she expected to see right now, and the way the blood drains from her face confirms it for me.
Her eyes dart between us, like she’s waiting for us to say something, the four of us in a standoff where none of us is willing to shoot.
“Millie—” James starts.
“I’m leaving.” She turns around at once, just as I thought she would.
Cole springs to his feet to put himself between her and the door. “We just want to talk,” he tells her, trying to soothe her into sticking around a little longer, but her face twists up and she lets out what sounds like an attempted snort of laughter.
“You want to talk?” she exclaims. “You think that I came here to talk—to talk to the three of you?”
She casts another glance at James and me, and I feel that crackle of tension in the air—not just because of how pissed she is, but as the memories of that night we spent together fill the room.
I can still recall how it felt to be inside her, and judging by the way she’s glaring at me right now, I’d say she can recall it with just as much clarity.
“The agency said that you wanted a meeting with us,” James tells her.
She rolls her eyes skyward. “Yeah, I thought I was meeting with some couple who needed help getting pregnant, not the three of you!” she exclaims. “You think I would have come here if I had known…?”
“No,” Cole admits finally. “And you didn’t come here because of that. You came here because there was something in that offer we made you that appealed to you. And I don’t think you want to walk out of that door without figuring out if it’s worth it.”
She falls silent for a moment, her lip twisting up as she chews on it nervously.
Cole has a point. I’m pretty sure I can guess what it is that twisted her arm—the amount of money that we put down to pay her for her time. I don’t like the thought of her having to sit here because of some financial obligation, but finally, something in her face softens, and she takes a seat.
“Fine,” she mutters, staring down at a whorl on the wood of the table below. “So, tell me. What the fuck is going on here?”
I almost laugh at how blunt she is, not bothering to hold back. I shouldn’t expect anything different from her. After all, not many women out there would be able to handle three guys in one night, but she made it look downright easy.
Cole runs a hand through his hair, clearly glad to have wrested back some control of the room. “You read through the contracts we sent over?”
“Every word. I read them again this morning, in fact.”
“Good,” he replies with a nod. “So, you know what we’ve reached out to you for—”
“Well, I don’t really get that part,” she shoots back. “Why would the three of you want children? You don’t have wives of your own?”
There’s a mutter around the table as we each admit that we don’t. Millie looks surprised.
Is it really that much of a shock, knowing how much we’ve poured into this place, that our personal lives have fallen by the wayside as a result? I almost want to ask her, but I think better of it.
“And so you’re doing this…”
“Together,” James fills in for her. “Yeah. Yeah, we are.”
“And we figured, with everything we have here,” Cole continues, “that we would be able to make this process as easy as we could. And that we would be able to find someone who could have our children, so that we can raise them together as siblings.”
She presses her fingertips into her temples, still not entirely sure to make of this crazy proposition.
I scan her face, trying to read into her expression, to make sense of just how it is that she feels about this.
Confusion, anger, and intrigue all mesh together in her eyes, and she glances to me, catching me staring.
“Yeah, but why would you want to do it with me?” she wonders aloud. “You said it yourself—you have all of this, you wouldn’t want to go with someone you know has done this before…?”
“We needed someone we could all agree on,” James replies. “And trust me, you’re the only girl who’s ever been able to handle all three of us.”
Her cheeks suddenly flush a bright pink, and she looks away, shifting in her seat. Her reaction is visceral, impossible to ignore, but I can’t help but feel charmed by it. There’s something about her when she’s nervous, despite the circumstances, that makes it hard for me to think of much else.
“Well, that aside,” she replies. “Does Matt know about any of this? I mean, about anything that’s happened between us…”
“No,” Cole replies bluntly. “No way.”
“So what would we do about that part?” she points out.
“That comes after you decide whether or not you want to do this.”
She pauses again. “No, but the issue with Matt is part of it,” she protests. “He’s my brother. And if he found out about this—”
“Then he would know that you’re going to be getting the very best medical care in the world,” I add. “And that we’re going to be paying you exactly what you deserve.”
“He would be pissed, you know.”
“He’d get over it,” James replies with confidence. “He’s never been one to hold a grudge.”
“You don’t think your best friend would take issue with you impregnating his little sister?” she points out, raising her eyebrows.
“You make it sound like we’re going to be dating you,” Cole remarks. “It’s a procedure, that’s all. Something that we would use to get what we want while you make the money you deserve.”
I can see that she’s starting to shift on it slightly now, her mind beginning to tick over the possibilities.
The money we’re offering her, it’s way above the usual price for this kind of work, but I would double it before I questioned it.
I know it’s a huge undertaking, especially a pregnancy with potential multiples like we’re hoping for, and I don’t want her to feel for a second like we don’t appreciate everything she’s doing for us.
“One year,” she mutters. “That’s how long the contract is supposed to last, isn’t it?”
“All things going to plan, yes,” Cole replies.
“And then I’m done? I mean, I don’t have to be involved in the care of the babies, I don’t have to stay involved with the three of you…”
“You can just take the money and run,” James assures her, flashing her a grin.
Her lips part slightly as she smiles back, the first genuine one I’ve seen from her since she stepped through that door.
“I didn’t mean that,” she protests slightly, but it’s clear, on some level, that she did.
I tap my fingers in a tuneless pattern on the table. I don’t know how I feel about that. I mean, I could be looking at the mother of my children right now—I would want her to be a part of my life, if only so we could keep up with her in the years that followed…
“I know we’re asking for something huge,” Cole assures her. “And I can tell that you’re nervous. But I promise you, if this is something you decide to go through with, then we’ll do everything in our power to make sure this is the easiest, most comfortable pregnancy anyone has ever been through.”
“You have my word on that too,” James agrees.
I nod as well. I feel like I don’t need to say it out loud; she already knows just how much I care for her, even after all this time.
She looks down at her hands for a moment, calculating the pros and cons of accepting an offer as enormous as this one.
It would change her life, no doubt about it—two million dollars, no matter who you are in the world, is the kind of money that can give you the chance to start over, to begin again when everything feels like it has fallen apart.
But then, the pregnancy will change her body for life, and going through childbirth is not exactly something that can be taken on lightly either.
“Jesus,” she mutters, putting her head in her hands for a moment. “I…I’ll do it.”
The three of us just sit there for a moment, none of us sure how to react, or even if we should. It’s like, if one of us speaks, we risk breaking this moment between us and sending it crashing to the ground before it can become solid.
But then Millie looks up, glancing around as though she’s concerned about our lack of response. “Did you hear me? I said I’ll do it.”
“Holy shit,” Cole mutters, and he springs to his feet. “Holy shit, Millie. You mean that?”
“Yes, I mean that,” she replies, managing another smile, though this one looks a little less strained than the one before.
“I know it might sound crazy, but…” She shakes her head.
“That money would make everything better,” she confesses.
“And if I could earn it while I helped you guys make yourselves a family, even better, right?”
James is on his feet now too, and he goes around the table to embrace her.
For my part, all I can do is sit here as I try to take it in.
Holy fucking hell. This is actually happening.
I didn’t believe, in a million years, that she would even consider saying yes.
But here she is, sitting in front of us, telling us that she wants to go through with it. I can hardly believe what I’m hearing.
I’m going to be a father.
It hits me like a ton of bricks in the best way possible, the shock of that revelation. It’s something I’ve wanted for so long, something I’ve never even really allowed myself to contend with the possibility of. But here I am, sitting opposite the woman who has just agreed to carry my children.
And as she looks up at me from under James’s arm, I can see a look of slight concern on her face—clearly waiting for some kind of reaction, something to confirm that I’m as on board with this as the rest of them.
I get up and go to her, and pull her into my arms. And as I breathe in the scent of her, I realize that this is exactly what I wanted. What I hardly even allowed myself to think might be a possibility, it’s now unfolding right here in front of me.
With the woman who has been living rent-free in my mind for the better part of the last decade.