Baby Be Mine(Spinsters & Casanovas Series Book 1)(38)

“Conference? Queenstown?” Clarice asked, not registering what Gracey had said.

“Clarice, my dear, are you getting any sleep at all? Where are you today? Off to La-la Land again?” Gracey asked.

This was the usual case for Clarice. If she had a certain thought in her mind, it showed right on her face. She had never been good at hiding emotions.

“Sorry, I was thinking about some things.”

“Mind telling me? I’m all ears.” Gracey loved hearing gossip from her colleague, but Clarice wasn’t ready to spill the news yet. Well, not to Gracey anyway. No matter how good the woman was, she was like a wildfire. Give her one small piece of bacon, and she’d turn it into a full-on roast pork.

“Ah, not at the moment. Still sorting stuff out. When I’m ready, I’ll let you know,” she said.

“Great, darling. I’ll be waiting, then. Now for this…” Gracey turned her attention back to the information at hand, which was the Dental Hygiene Conference being held in Queenstown, and all the representatives. “The representative of the Silverton Hotel wants a word with you about the conference.”

“Why would the representative of the Silverton Hotel want to talk to me? I’m only one of their guest speakers,” Clarice asked.

“Because you’re the all-time important guest speaker, that’s why. He said he needed to go over some stuff with you about the layout and things.”

“But the event is being held in Queenstown. Why am I going to the Silverton Hotel in Auckland, then?’

“Because they also own the Silverton Hotel in Queenstown and it’s exactly the same layout. Plus, it’s just to meet the representative.”

“Right, fine then. Where do I meet him?”

“At the Silverton Hotel,” Gracey told her again. “Dear, where has your head gone? It feels like we’re talking around the table here. Get back to Earth, dear.”

“Yes, Gracey. I’m sorry for being away with the fairies.”

“Well, I blocked you out for the afternoon so you could suss out all the details involving the conference. Happy?”

“Yes, happy, Gracey. Thank you,” she said, then walked into her surgery room with the patient’s files in her hand while her head was once again swimming with her baby thoughts.

The afternoon rolled around faster than Clarice could say cheese, and by one p.m. straight on the dot, she was at the entrance to the fertility clinic.

Nervous and palms sweating, she held on to the doorknob and drew forward. No backing down now, Clarice, she told herself. You are ready to become a mother. You are ready for this.

“What?” That was her first reaction when the consultant came back to her. “You mean to say I can’t even see the man that donates the sperm?” she asked when the consultant outlined their guidelines.

“Yes.”

“Why not? How do I know he looks nice if I can’t see his face?”

“I’m sorry. It’s part of our policy here. We value our donors’ privacy, so to show their pictures to potential clients would pose a risk to their lives.”

“I don’t understand how seeing the man would make me go out and kill him.”

“Well, let’s just say if you don’t like the look of your baby, you might feel differently.”

“I wouldn’t do that. Isn’t that why I asked to see his face first? If he’s handsome, then surely my child would be handsome too.”

“That’s not generally the case with babies.”