Page 34 of Her Cowboy Baby Daddy
The silence that followed made Hayley shift her weight awkwardly as she watched Spence digest her bald statement.
“Alone?” he finally said.
“Yes.” She lifted her chin, refusing to give her inner shyness the upper hand.
“That’s a huge undertaking. I mean, alone and all.”
“Lots of people do it. Women and men. I have my reasons and I have the resources to raise a child.”
And didn’t she sound defensive? She cleared her throat and focused on the fingers she’d been twisting together until she realized what she was doing. She carefully placed her hands on her thighs, spreading the fingers in an effort to relax them. “I know what I want, Spence.”
“I think you’ll be a great mom.”
“Thank you.” Hayley’s gaze jerked sideways at the sound of something hitting the barn. They exchanged a look, then went to the door. Huge hailstones clattered to the ground.
“I’ll open the bay door,” she said. “Get your truck inside.”
She didn’t have to say it twice. Spence darted outside, wincing as the hailstones pelted him. He jumped into his rig, had it in gear almost as soon as the engine turned over, and drove it into the barn. Hayley swung the door closed as he turned off the engine, then got out to check for damage.
There were some small dents and dimples in the hood, but in Hayley’s opinion, nothing he couldn’t knock out. He was lucky, judging from the sounds of the hail pounding on the roof, not to have lost a windshield. She was very thankful that she always parked her truck under a roof and hoped the tractors would be okay.
He turned to face her. “So, where were we?”
“I was about to ask if you would consider being the father of my child.”
The words sounded starker stated aloud than they had in her head, and Spence looked like he’d been struck by a freeze ray.
“In a medical way,” she blurted. He continued to stare at her as if she’d grown horns. “I’m not looking for anything other than...” Her voice trailed.
“Sperm?”
She lifted her chin, wondering how she’d lost control so quickly. Perhaps because of the subject matter. “I want to know the donor, but... that’s it. There’d be no—”
“Yeah. I get it.” He glanced down, as if trying to regain equilibrium. “That’s a helluva ask, Hayley.”
She felt her cheeks light on fire, but he continued before she could form a reply, raising those cool blue eyes and locking on her gaze before saying, “We would enter into a... partnership?”
She cleared her throat and her voice sounded remarkably normal as she said, “It would be a partnership until I get pregnant.”
“Then...”
“That’s it. I take it from there.”
“I wouldn’t be involved in the pregnancy, or share custody or anything?”
“I’d like my child to know who their father is. That’s the point of a known donor. Medical history, like that. Also, kids wonder, and I want to have an answer, but I would have sole custody.”
“But I’d have a kid.”
Hayley sensed thenocoming hard and fast, and felt the need to backtrack before it struck. In other words, she began to panic, something she’d promised herself she would not do.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea, Spence.”
He tilted his head as he regarded her. “You caught me off guard. I mean... short of a marriage proposal—”
“I get it,” Hayley said. She got to her feet and clapped her hands together. “Moving on.”
“I’m not sure I can,” he muttered.
