Summer Nights (Fool's Gold #8)(68)

Charlie nodded.

“Then you’re going to need sperm.” She motioned to the twins. “We already had that part taken care of.”

Several years ago, Pia’s friend Crystal had lost her husband in Iraq. The young couple, aware of what could happen to a soldier in a war zone, had prepared by storing several embryos. After her husband’s death, Crystal had decided to implant the embryos, only to find she was seriously ill herself. When she died two years ago, she’d left the embryos to Pia.

It had taken Pia all of fifteen minutes to realize she had to have her friend’s babies. Three embryos were implanted and two of them survived. Rosabel and Adelina had followed nine months later.

“I can get sperm,” Charlie told her. If not through a volunteer she knew, then through a sperm bank.

“Okay. Then they’ll harvest your eggs, about which I know very little and then fertilize them. Once you have a couple of viable embryos, they’ll put them back in and then you wait. Dr. Galloway handled it for me here in town.”

“I already go to her,” Charlie said.

“Good. Then I would say talk to her.” Pia tilted her head. “I have to ask. Are you sure you don’t want to just have sex with a yummy guy? It would be easier. And cheaper.”

“I have savings.”

Pia raised her eyebrows in a silent question.

Charlie didn’t want to go into her past yet another time. “There are reasons that the old-fashioned way doesn’t work for me,” she said instead.

“Enough said. Dr. Galloway will walk you through the procedure and then you’ll have the information. Once you’re actually pregnant, things should go along for you pretty much like they would if you’d done it the regular way.”

“Meaning if I weren’t a high-risk candidate I wouldn’t be doing this in vitro?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s right. I had the multiple birth thing, which could be an issue for you, as well. If they implant more than one embryo, it’s always a possibility.”

Charlie glanced at the twins playing happily together. Two kids? She wasn’t sure how she would make that work, but she could figure out a way. It would be worth it. She needed to belong, to give her heart. Hell, having a baby was biological. Why should she have to fight the need?

“Thanks for the information,” she said. “I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome. And hey, if you want to get in some practice by babysitting, that would be great, too.”

“So you and Raoul can have an evening out together?”

Pia grinned. “Of course.”

“I may take you up on that. Would I have to stand in line?”

“There are a lot of women in Fool’s Gold who do love to babysit. Peter complains he has too many grandmothers. Not that he objects when they show up with cookies.”

Charlie knew she would get the same kind of support from the community.

“What’s going to happen when you and Raoul want to have one of your own? Are you going to be able to handle four kids and your job?”

Pia slumped back against the sofa. “No, and believe me I’m very aware of the problem. The marketing department at the college has been great about giving students credit when they come work for me. They need three units of actual experience to graduate and I’m now an easy way to get that. So I have two or three interns at any given time. But if I have another baby, there’s no way I can be responsible for the town’s festivals. We’d have to hire someone else.”

Charlie wanted to say she couldn’t imagine another person in charge. That it had been Pia the past eight or nine years and that it should always be Pia. But that was unrealistic. Things changed. Look at her. A year ago she would have said she was perfectly happy being on her own. Now she was seriously considering starting a family.

“You don’t have to decide today,” she told Pia, but speaking as much to herself.

“I don’t. And I won’t. So there.”

Pia laughed. The twins both turned toward the sound, their expressions delighted.

“Mama!” Rosabel said, holding out her arms.

“Duty calls.” Pia rose and collected her daughter. When Adelina also raised her arms, Pia turned to Charlie. “Can you get her?”

Charlie picked up the toddler and held her close. Adelina smiled at her. Chubby fingers reached for Charlie’s short hair and hung on.

“Not letting me go, huh, kid?” Charlie asked.

Adelina laughed.

The sound cut through her, making her happy and sad at the same time. Happy to be with the little girl and sad about the journey she would have to take to get a child of her own.

But it would be worth it, she promised herself.

* * *

“THE DISCO BALL IS a nice touch,” Annabelle said, staring up at the slow-moving silver ball.

“I found it at a garage sale,” Jo told her. “It seemed perfect for the party room.”

“Not the banquet room?”

“I thought party room sounded better.”

“It does.”

Annabelle glanced around at the big room. Jo had leased the space next to her bar. Her future plans were to break out a wall and expand the bar itself. For now, she’d cut in a doorway that led to stairs. On the second level was the party room. A big, open area with a view of the town and the mountains beyond. There was a bar in the back, a small stage, a great sound system and plenty of tables and chairs. Rumor had it one of the walls was really a false front, with a big TV behind it, but tonight it was covered up. The bridal shower would provide its own entertainment.