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Grady (The McCade Dragon #3)(7)

By:Kathi S. Barton
 
Harper showed up on the day that had been set up, dressed in her jeans and T-shirt, just daring her sister to say something. She had been surprised at first, then leery, when both of them had been nice to her, almost pleasant, as well as not demanding.
 
Winnie wasn't really a nice person, even on her best days. And she'd never even tried to be close to Harper when they were growing up. After their mom had been killed, Winnie had simply tossed her aside and moved on with her life as if she'd not had a sister, much less one that needed family in her life.  
 
So there she'd been in their picture perfect apartment in their near perfect neighborhood, wondering what the fuck she'd been invited there for. Then, after having a dinner that was catered for three people, they retired to the living room. Harper waited for them to get on with whatever they had on their minds.
 
They were planning on having a child, Winnie explained. But they were just too busy, their lives just too perfect, to take the time out now to make one, and they thought that she should help them.
 
"Help you? I don't know if you know this or not, Winnie, but it takes a male and a female to have a child. And even if I had a male in my life, I have absolutely no idea how I'm supposed to help you two have a kid." Harper wasn't sure what they thought she could have done for them … she'd known less about babies then than the very little that she knew now. Winnie just waved her off.
 
"Oh, but you will. You see, Jake has this partnership coming up. I have my career going the way I want it. Everything is just perfect, as you can see. We just want a child of our own to show off, but not all the messy work to get there." Harper asked her how messy she thought a kid would be after it was actually born. "Oh, we'll have nannies for that. And help. But with our lifestyle, we don't have time for being pregnant. That's why we wanted to talk to you. To tell you how you're going to do this for us."
 
Harper was younger than Winnie by almost five years. But there always seemed to be decades between them, both in life and years. Harper sat there, on their expensive couch in their equally expensive room, and tried to think what the fuck her sister was talking about. How she was going to do what, her mind kept rolling around. But Winnie seemed to think that Harper understood as she sat across from her, smiling and nodding her head.
 
"I don't understand what this has to do with me, nor how you expect me to help you. Just adopt if you don't have time to be pregnant. People do it all the time Though I have to say, I doubt you'll have any more time than you think you do now for a kid. Friends of mine, even with live in help, are constantly exhausted." Harper had nearly laughed at the expression on Jake's face when she said that to him. "There are hundreds of children out there that you can mold into whatever shape you want them. Including people like you two are."
 
"No, that won't work for us. We've talked it over, and we don't want someone else's issues or problems. We want a child of our own. One we help create. Or you create for us." Harper had looked at Jake and then back at her sister, still not understanding. "It's not like you have a real job or anything, Harper. And we'd pay you. Besides, your body can take this better than mine, what with all that extra fat you have on you. I've worked hard at looking like this, and I don't want to mess with my money maker."
 
Harper tried her best not to let the fact that her sister still thought she was lazy and didn't work because she didn't have a boss hurt her. Nor did she let her see how painful her words were, about not just her body but how it mattered little to her that Harper was happy with herself. Harper didn't wear fancy dresses or high heels. But she worked hard as an artist and Winnie didn't understand, even after showing her sister her praise in the international newspaper, that she was just as important as they were.
 
Harper's mind seemed to freeze up when it occurred to her what it was that Winnie wanted. There wasn't any way that she expected her to.... Surely she didn't mean for her to sleep with her husband and get pregnant. Just so they could have this perfect little being to make in an image just like them. No, her mind told her, that couldn't be what they wanted.
 
 
 
        
          
        
         
 
"Pay me for what? To find you a child?" Harper was positive that she was misunderstanding them. Or at least she hoped she was. When Winnie accused her of being obtuse, Harper had had enough. "Perhaps you can explain this to me. Tell me what it is you want to pay me to do for you. Not that I'm going to do it, mind you, but you can explain it."