Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 86632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 433(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
She stared blankly, like she wasn’t sure if she’d heard me right. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Evelyn can’t carry a child. So a few months ago, they asked me if I would carry their baby for them. I said yes last month, and this past Monday, they did the IVF.”
Dropping back in her seat, Aurora opened her mouth, then shut it. She opened it again, then closed it a second time.
“I know it’s a lot to process.”
“Let me understand this—Evelyn and Denny asked you to carry their baby because she can’t. Is the egg yours?”
“No! It’s hers. The baby is biologically theirs. I’m just the oven to cook the bun in.”
“Holy shit,” she whispered. “Brystol, that is a huge commitment! I mean, I feel bad she can’t have kids, but…” Her voice trailed off.
“You don’t think I should have done it?”
“No, I’m not saying that at all. I think it’s a beautiful thing you’re doing for them. But how will you feel when it’s time to give the baby up?”
“That’s exactly what’s bothering my mother. She doesn’t think I’ll be able to distance myself from it.”
“Do you think you will be?”
I shrugged. “I mean, it’s not my baby. And I want to help Evelyn and Denny have their child.”
“It’s a lot on your body.”
I took a sip of my drink then nodded. “I had to go through extensive medical testing and a psych eval. They asked me all kinds of questions. I’m not going to lie; at first, I freaked out. But after thinking about it and learning that Evelyn and Denny had been looking into strangers to be the surrogate, I knew I had to do it.”
“Who else knows?”
“Evelyn and Denny, of course. My parents, Gavin, and now you. I told Harper and Declan that they had asked me, but I haven’t told her that I agreed to do it.”
“You told Harper and Declan about it?”
I could see the hurt in her eyes, and I reached across the table, taking her hand in mine. “I know how much you worry, and I didn’t want you stressing about me while I tried to process all of this myself.”
She nodded. Then her eyes went wide. “What did Gavin say?”
I leaned back in my chair. “He’s totally on board with it now. I mean, I could tell he was shocked initially, and he had doubts, like I did. But he’s been very supportive.”
“Wow.”
“I know, it shook me too. Roger, on the other hand, wasn’t. He broke up with me.”
Her mouth dropped open. “What an ass. Did he say why?”
“He said he couldn’t understand why I’d get pregnant for the first time with someone else’s baby, and that he’d want to know any woman he was with was having his baby first.”
“I never did like that guy.”
“It’s for the best. We hardly saw each other anyway since he lives in Lake Placid. The other morning, he stopped by the toy shop to give me something I’d left in his car, and I doubt I’ll see him again. It wasn’t ever going to amount to anything.”
“Like you said, probably for the best, then. So, when will you find out if you’re pregnant, if they did the implant on Monday?”
“They do a blood test anywhere from ten to fourteen days after.”
She was quietly thoughtful for a moment. “So, the end of this week or the beginning of next?”
“Yep.”
“And if it doesn’t take?”
“We do another round of IVF.”
She let out a low whistle. “How are the meds you have to take?”
“They’re not too bad. We did a test run of everything before they did the implantation. All is good on that front.”
“That’s good news.”
We sat in silence a moment before I asked, “Would you have done it?”
Pressing her mouth into a tight line, she shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know if I would have or not. I mean, it’s a lot on your body. Your first pregnancy is someone else’s baby. The hormones, the sickness, the changes in your body. I’m not sure I could do that. But, then again, if you or Harper asked…I would probably say yes?” She shook her head. “Maybe…gosh…I just don’t know.”
I took another sip of the coffee—then gaped at it. “I know they said I can have limited coffee, but should I be drinking it at all? Am I already making bad choices?”
Aurora laughed. “I’m sure it’s okay. Now, if you were pouring whiskey into it, I’d say it wasn’t okay.”
Smiling, I felt a bit of the anxiety leave my body. It was nice to tell someone and talk about it like this. “I’m scared, Aurora. There’s so much I don’t know. What if I do something wrong and I lose the baby?”
She reached for my hand. “You’re not going to do anything wrong. Stressing about something you can’t control isn’t good for you or the baby…if there is one.”