“Well, the alternative is actually dealing with a guy, rather than disembodied... That.”

“Sure,” she said. “Both have drawbacks, I suppose.”

He continued to look at her skeptically, and she took a breath and carried on. “Look, I’m not saying I wouldn’t use a doctor if I needed to, but in most cases nature has given us a built-in way to accomplish this and I feel like...why wouldn’t I try it that way first? It’s more connected and organic and...and I want that. The idea of going to the doctor to do it seems impersonal to me.”

“I don’t understand how sleeping with someone random is less of a big deal.”

“Sex isn’t that big of a deal,” she said.

He treated her to an arched brow. “Okay.”

His skepticism was noted. But in her experience sex was...well, it was nice. It made her feel good about herself. She liked that there was a way to feel close to someone without having to dig deep and spill all her darkest secrets.

And frankly, she enjoyed that she had the power to make men a little bit weak. To make them react to her. She’d never actually...well, she didn’t let go during sex. But it was enough that they did. That she could have her control while they lost theirs.

Anyway, there was something... Going to a doctor felt very intentional. Not that she wasn’t being intentional. But there was something slightly more...

You want to be able to blame it on fate. Meant to be or not.

Yeah, well. Maybe.

“All right,” Ryder said, flipping the eggs out of the pan and putting them onto a plate. “I’ll make you a deal, Sammy. You agree to stay here, and I will help you find a man to father your baby.”

* * *

OF ALL THE THINGS that he had ever offered to do for Sammy in the name of friendship this had to be the strangest one. But things had solidified for him when she had shown up at his house this morning on the same schedule that she always did. It was bacon day. And that meant that Sammy would be here early in the morning to cook for him. And tomorrow he would cook for her. It was a tradition that went back seventeen years. And it mattered to them. It mattered to her, and he could tell because she was here. Even though she was angry at him, she was here.

And it had hit him then that what he wanted more than anything was for things to stay the same. He had done the hard yards. He had sacrificed, dammit. And his life was finally in a place where he could call himself happy. Where he could say that he was content. Finally, he felt like things were coming together rather than falling apart.

But Sammy leaving... That was unacceptable. If she wanted to have a baby, she could damn well have a baby, but she could stay here.