A Baby of Her Own. Brenda Novak

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СКАЧАТЬ a good person. This isn’t going to hurt anyone, Laney. It’s just a one-night stand—something that happens all the time with millions of people. You’ll go on your merry way, and he’ll go on his. No big deal.”

      “What if I don’t get pregnant?”

      “Then you might want to consider artificial insemination or simply wait and hope for the right person. But if you time it correctly, chances are good that it’ll work out.”

      Delaney rubbed her lip. “It’s just one night. No big deal…”

      “That’s what I said. People do it all the time.”

      “It’s not hurting anybody.”

      “What he doesn’t know can’t hurt him. It’s not like you’re ever going to go after him for child support or anything. And you’d take great care of the baby, right?”

      The baby. Her baby. A longing so powerful she could hardly speak clamped down on Delaney’s insides. “Of course I would.”

      “Then, that’s what matters. So there’s no problem.”

      “Right.” Delaney stared at her glass, thinking maybe she’d drunk too much because this whole thing was actually starting to seem plausible. But she wasn’t even finished her first margarita. “So who do I—you know?” she asked.

      “Anyone with the right equipment,” Rebecca responded. “Look around you. This place is filled with guys. Dexter’s right over there. He’s been trying to get lucky since the eighth grade.”

      “Dexter’s been trying to get lucky since before that,” Maxine announced, catching the tail end of the conversation as she appeared with Rebecca’s drink. “I remember him sneaking into the girls’ rest room at school and looking under the stalls at me when I was only in the fifth grade.”

      “Yeah, Dex has always been a little pervert,” Rebecca agreed. She paid for her drink, and Maxine hurried off to collect her next order.

      Delaney rolled her eyes. “Dex, Becky? That’s the best you can do? He’s dumber than a doornail—not the kind of genes I want to pass on to my baby. Besides, no one from around here is even a possibility. How much of a secret will it be if I sleep with Dex and then wind up pregnant?”

      Rebecca frowned. “Maybe you should sleep with several guys in the next few weeks, just to create some confusion.”

      “No way!”

      “I’m kidding,” her friend said, laughing her deep smoker’s laugh. “I think this is going to be hard enough for you to do the first time. Do-gooders typically don’t lie well, and, let’s face it, you don’t have a lot of experience with the seducing end of it, either.”

      “Which is all the more reason we’ll have to go out of town. Somewhere far away.”

      “How far?”

      “California, at least. Isn’t California the sex capital of the world?”

      “That’ll be expensive. What’s wrong with Boise?”

      “It’s only a two-hour drive from here!”

      “Exactly. It would save us plane fare, and it’d be just as good as going halfway across the country. Big-city valley people aren’t interested in small up-country towns like ours. What are the odds of running into Joe Schmoe Donor from Boise out here in Dundee?”

      Joe Schmoe Donor? Delaney liked the sound of that. Joe Schmoe created a generic, anonymous image, and donor carried with it the connotation of something freely given. She was only looking for a donor. Maybe she could do this, after all.

      “We don’t get Boise people up here very often,” she mused.

      “My point exactly. Boise is plenty far away. And even if you do run into your man later, here or anywhere else, he’ll be none the wiser.”

      “He might suspect if I’m pregnant at the time.”

      “Why would he? Why would he assume he’s the only one you’ve slept with? Heck, for all he knows you might’ve gotten married.”

      “O-ka-ay,” Delaney said, drawing the word out and feeling more eager to trust Rebecca on this than she probably should. “I’ll buy that.”

      “Good. So, are we going to do it?”

      A gust of cold air and a few flakes of snow blew into the Honky Tonk along with Billy Joe and Bobby West. Although they were brothers, they didn’t look much alike. Bobby was wiry and thin; Billy Joe was almost as big as a house. Like Rebecca, Delaney had known them since grade school. She’d grown up with the men in this town and doubted she’d suddenly find herself wildly attracted to one of them. If she waited for love to strike, she could spend the next fifty years alone.

      “Okay,” she said at last, straightening her spine. “We’re going to do it.”

      “We are?” Rebecca’s brows shot up.

      “Definitely.”

      Her friend looked skeptical. “I don’t believe you.”

      “Why? I can break the rules when I want to.” Delaney nervously tucked her shoulder-length brown hair behind her ears. “I’ve just never wanted to before.”

      “Then, let’s go.” Rebecca stood, gathered her cigarettes and lighter and slung her purse over her shoulder.

      “Tonight?” Delaney squeaked, terror seizing her heart and nearly sending her into cardiac arrest.

      “Why not?”

      “You haven’t finished your drink.”

      “Considering our agenda, I think I’d better leave the rest, don’t you?”

      She started toward the door, but Delaney called her back. “Wait! I’m—I—I just need a couple of days to get used to the idea,” she managed to say. “And…and…you talked about timing.”

      Rebecca propped one hand on her hip. “The timing is good. I know because we’ve been on the same cycle for the past few months.”

      “But—”

      “That’s what I thought,” she said with an exaggerated sigh. Piling her things on the table, she scraped her chair across the wooden floor and sat down again.

      “What?” Delaney demanded.

      “You’re not going to go through with this. It’s just a dream.”

      “I’ll do it!”

      “No, you won’t. We grew up two houses from each other. I’ve known you since I was seven, and you’ve never done anything wrong in your life. You’re like…you’re like Abraham Lincoln. Didn’t he walk some ungodly distance to return a penny? The store clerk probably thought he was an idiot.”

      “I wouldn’t walk very far to return a penny. I’d just leave an extra СКАЧАТЬ