And he could never be that person. Ever. So he watched her be that person. Be the person she never could have been if she had stayed under her father’s roof. Light and happy and filled with joy.

Still, that was one thing. It was quite another to be discussing who she was going to have a baby with.

“Well, it feels greedy,” she said. “You know, taking all the sex for myself.”

And now she was back to her more typical persona. And he had a feeling that she was back with a vengeance for a reason. Because of whatever had made her so uncomfortable only a moment before.

“I’m really okay with it,” he said.

“Well. Okay.”

“What was that about? I mean, you blushed. I can’t remember the last time I saw you blush, Sammy.”

“Seriously? I thought we were here to have a grown-up discussion about which man in this bar should get me pregnant. Not about what made me blush.”

“I didn’t know our friendship had boundaries. You know, given the fact that I am here in this bar hoping to help you find a man to get you pregnant. I would think that we can have this conversation, too.”

“It’s not... It’s not a big deal,” she said, waving a hand. “And, has nothing to do with our objective.”

“Orgasms made you uncomfortable.”

The pinkness returned to her cheeks. He took a sip of his beer, long and slow, because he was enjoying having the control of the situation. It was honestly so difficult to get Sammy to react to anything, that having the upper hand here was somewhat enjoyable. And he knew it had nothing to do with why they were here, but he couldn’t help but stop and enjoy it.

“Not uncomfortable,” she said. “It’s just...it has nothing to do with this.”

“You want to make the baby the old-fashioned way. You want a connection. I assume somewhere in there pleasure is important.”

“It’s nice to be close to someone,” she said. “It doesn’t matter... It doesn’t matter.”

“Seriously?”

She shifted. “No. It doesn’t matter.”

He couldn’t quite wrap his head around what Sammy was saying. “Orgasms don’t matter.”

“No,” she said. “They don’t. And honestly the idea that they do is just... It just puts pressure on people. I don’t need that kind of pressure.”

“What do you mean pressure? It’s not something that you should have to worry about. The guy that you’re with should... He should take care of that. He should make you feel at ease. He should make you feel good.”

He couldn’t believe that he was having this conversation with her. Like some kind of unholy sex talk. The kind he’d been forced to give to his siblings, but worse, because it wasn’t just about basic bodily function but about...everything else.

“It’s just that that isn’t a goal for me when I’m with a man.”

Anger poured through him, unchecked and unexamined. There were just too many aspects of this that bothered him to be able to apply a label to any one piece of it.