Page 39 of Delivery After Dark
“It’s true.”
“Thirty-eight kinda snuck up on me. I’ll be freaking forty in two years. Like, WTF is that about?”
Chuckling, he said, “You’re rocking thirty-eight.”
“Time’s getting away from me, though.”
“What do you want to do that you haven’t done yet?”
“I expected to be a mother a long time ago, but that didn’t happen.”
“It still could.”
She gave him a comically withering look. “I’m getting old for that.”
“Nah. You’re a spring chicken. Anything is still possible if you have the will and the desire to make it happen.”
“My sister is having another baby. That might have to suffice for me.”
“It doesn’t have to.”
“Are you offering stud services?”
He sputtered as he laughed, which cracked her up, too. Then he took her hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. “I’d be happy to be your stud if I could help to make your dreams come true.”
She tugged her hand free, seeming annoyed all of a sudden.
“What?”
“Don’t say things like that. It’s too painful to even think about it.”
“I mean it. I’ve always wanted kids, too, and I’m not getting any younger either. Maybe you and I can make a go of it and have a couple of kids together.”
She stared at him as if he were certifiable.
Maybe he was.
“We just agreed to spend some time together while we’re both off, and you’ve got us making a go of it and having a couple of kids together?”
He shrugged. “Why not? What’ve we got to lose?”
“Um, well, our sanity, for one thing. You can’t just go having kids with someone you barely know.”
“I know you. We’ve been talking for months.”
“How do you know there isn’t stuff about me you don’t know and wouldn’t like?”
“I don’t know that, but I look forward to finding out everything there is to know.”
“You’re being serious about this?”
Linc released his seat belt and turned to face her. “Listen, I’ve dated a lot of women. Been on more first dates than any guy I know. I’ve had one real girlfriend, back at the academy, but we got stationed in different places, and that fell apart. Otherwise, nothing has ever stuck, and believe it or not, I thought I’d be married with a few kids by now, too. But that hasn’t happened. You know what has happened?”
“What?” she asked, seeming a little wide-eyed and breathless.
“I’ve finally found someone who interests me so much, I can never get enough of her company. I can’t wait to talk to her again, to see her again, to be with her. I think about her all the time. That’s never happened.”
“Whoever she is, you ought to do something about that.”
