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“I love you,” Rhett stated quietly against my damp hair, and I closed my eyes, trusting his embrace, his words, same as I did gravity to keep my feet firmly planted on the earth.
“You’re my rock,” I murmured against his warm skin what I’d told him hundreds of times over the years, “my knight in shining armor. No one has cared for my well-being like you do.”
He squeezed me tighter.
Maybe it was time to face the truth that no woman would ever fit between me and Rhett in the way I dreamed of.
My heart had been so set on finding someone happy like Archer and my own mother. Someone who would be content as a stay-at-home mom and take an active part in parenting alongside us. Giving our children sunshine and happiness that came from positive energy neither Rhett nor I possessed.
I couldn’t imagine raising children in a somber household, especially when one of the dads never really wanted kids to begin with, especially of his blood.
But it seemed I’d been left with no choice. Fate hadn’t intervened like she had when bringing Rhett into my life.
“Do you still have all that information you printed out on surrogacy?” I asked, my eyes closed and voice quiet.
Rhett’s soothing hand on my back stilled. “Yes.”
I released an unsteady exhale, setting my mind on a new course, one he had already mapped out and waited for my consent. “I’m thinking about plan B.”
Tension I hadn’t realized ran through him eased, relaxing his body along mine, hard muscle and soft skin I’d memorized by sight and feel from forehead to foot. “You’re sure?” he murmured, his tone soft.
No.
“Yeah.” My throat tightened.
Swallowing against the tears welling behind my clenched eyelids, I clung to Rhett harder and told myself it was time to face reality.
3
Rhett
Fucking finally.
We had invested so much of our time in creating the Missing Link app to find a mother for the children Ash wanted when an easier answer, the most direct course of action to achieve his dreams, only cost money.
Something we had plenty of.
Years earlier, I had suggested finding a surrogate mother for the offspring he dreamed about fathering to carry on the Blackwood name, but he wanted more. Someone, he claimed, to add to our lives, someone full of sunshine to balance his melancholy and my stoic nature.
I had no wish for kids, but I also didn’t need a woman coming between us unless she climaxed. That, I could handle. Even enjoyed immensely. Sharing Ash emotionally when he was the only one I sometimes allowed to see the real me?
Not so much.
But Ash owned my heart, and there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to help fulfill his dreams, especially about carrying out his father’s desire—hell, command—for grandsons.
Even if his bastard father didn’t deserve it. Jerry Blackwood didn’t outright portray homophobic tendencies, but I’d caught the disappointment in his eyes when Ash and I had sat down together with his parents back in high school to tell them we were dating.
In Jerry’s eyes, I wasn’t good enough for his Ash. I couldn’t personally give him what he hoped to get from his only surviving son.
But I’d tried in the one way I could with Missing Link.
“I’m sorry our idea didn’t work for you,” I murmured against his hair while hugging him close and sliding one of my legs between his.
His exhale heated my chest where he snuggled like always, and not for the first time, I wished he could burrow beneath my skin and take up permanent residence. “No you’re not.”
I wasn’t going to argue, engage in the way he wanted just to take his mind off the week ahead and the sure grief to unearth like it always did on the anniversary of Archer’s death.
“Tomorrow we can go over the surrogacy paperwork,” I said instead, focusing on the plan, the course of action to get the ball rolling. “We’ll take the next steps in making this happen. Together.”