“So he left you? While you guys were trying for a baby?”
Dara looked up at him. “Apparently two years and four failed attempts gave him enough time to realize he preferred a woman with less money and more viable eggs than me. And as it happened, there was just such a pretty little lady who wouldn’t insult his masculinity working behind the front desk at the in vitro clinic.”
Matt’s eyes widened. Then narrowed. His lips pulled back across his teeth. “That son of a bitch. I will—”
“Don’t.” She touched his arm. “It’s done. It’s over.” She shook her head. “He’s already filed for divorce, and our attorneys are on it. Quite honestly, I’m just ready to move on.”
He held her gaze and slowly released his breath. “So, what happens now?” His eyebrow rose. “With the baby?”
“Well, he’s signed away any rights he has.”
Matt’s eyebrows climbed higher. “I’m assuming that’s why we’re having this conversation.” Suspicion laced his tone, and though it stung, she didn’t blame him.
“It is, but let me make it clear right now—I don’t want money. I have plenty of my own. This has nothing to do with money.”
The tension in his posture didn’t change.
She pushed her shoulders back. “I got pregnant with the understanding that I was bringing this baby into a two-parent home. Obviously that’s not the case now. But I do want a father in the picture. And since the baby is biologically yours, I…” She couldn’t look him in the eye anymore, so she dropped her gaze. “I wanted to give you that opportunity first. You don’t have to answer right now. And I totally understand if you need time to explain the situation to your wife, and—”
“Uh, no.” He waved a hand and shook his head. “I’m…not married.”
“You’re not? Oh.” She supposed that made sense—if he’d spent the last ten years working himself into the ground, his marriage probably hadn’t survived. Assuming he’d even gotten married. Had he ever been married? She glanced at him, and a lump rose in her throat. She tamped it down. Just hormones. Totally not the sudden realization of just how long it had been since she’d seen him, and how much of each other’s lives they’d missed.
And now she was asking him to be a dad to the baby he’d already fathered.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “This probably all sounds insane.”
“It’s, um, a little unexpected.” He cleared his throat. “I mean, I knew you’d eventually have kids who were biologically mine, but…”
“I know. I know. And I never saw myself in a situation where we’d need to have this conversation. You already did so much for me just by donating, and I feel terrible asking you for more.”
“Dara.” He finally cracked a smile that lit up his eyes too. He held her shoulders gently. “You don’t even have to ask. I donated for you back then for the same reason I’ll gladly be there now—you’re my friend. I care about you.”
Her throat ached and her eyes stung. “But after all the shit we—”
“Don’t.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him again. “It’s in the past. We shouldn’t have let it drag on as long as we did, but you’re here now.”
She wanted to believe it was really that simple, and that they would pick up where they left off and pull off this friendly co-parenting thing. But ten years was a long time, and they didn’t even know each other anymore. Throwing a baby into the mix wasn’t going to simplify anything.
Still, he hadn’t told her to get the fuck out of there. It was a start. Given how things had been going in her life lately, she’d take it.
“If you don’t want to tell your family,” she said softly, “I’ll understand.”
As he released her, Matt scowled. “I think my mom will be thrilled, to be honest. She’s been after me for grandkids for years. My sister too.”
Dara smirked. “You think she’s desperate enough that she’ll overlook the fact that you’re having one with me?”
He grimaced. “Well…”
“Beggars can’t be choosers, right?”
A laugh burst out of him. “True.” He chewed his lip. “We’ll just have to break the news to her carefully.”
“I’ll follow your lead. I haven’t even told my family yet.”
“Really?”
“Are you kidding?” She rolled her eyes. “My mom is still scandalized by the fact that I’m getting divorced again. A baby on the way might make her blow a gasket.”