Page 133 of Bellini Bound

Sufficiently chastised, Sasha dropped his eyes to the floor. “Sorry, that’s my bad.”

When I peeked over at Enzo, he was typing away on his phone, giving no indication that he’d heard his brother-in-law stepping on a landmine. I suppose we could thank God for small favors because my husband would have likely pulled a gun on the poor man in front of his children. My hysterectomy would always be an extremely touchy subject.

Turning back to Gemma, I found that her hazel eyes—the perfect match to Enzo’s—had softened, and she offered me a smile. “A friend of ours has a contact with the Midwest’s premier fertility specialist, who happens to be located in Chicago, and they were able to score us a video consult this past week. He said I’m stretching the top end of the suggested age range, especially with the requirement that we wait until Carter turns one, but he agreed to work with us.”

My brows furrowed, and my confusion was audible. “I’m sorry, but what are you talking about?”

Sasha couldn’t contain his excitement, exclaiming, “She wants to be your surrogate!”

My jaw hit the floor, then I promptly pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

Stunned, I breathed out, “You’d do that for us?”

Gemma gazed lovingly at her two little boys. “For a long time, I didn’t think I wanted to have kids of my own.” She blew out a heavy breath. “Butto have that choice taken away from me? It’s not fair what happened to you, so I’m offering to help right a wrong.”

A shaky hand rose to cover my mouth as my vision grew blurry. “Gemma, this is too much.”

“You saved my brother’s life. Where I come from, that means I owe you one.” She winked.

“Wow. I don’t even know what to say . . .”

“It’ll be a few months before we can even consider beginning the process. And you’re the one who will have to go through all the steps for the egg retrieval process, which, according to my friend, is no picnic. You’ll also have to be prepared that it might not take the first time, requiring multiple transfers. So take some time, think about it, but if you decide it’s something you want, I’m willing to carry your baby.”

It was almost too much to process. Turning to Enzo, I asked him, “What do you have to say about all this?”

He looked up from his phone. “Huh?”

“Were you not paying attention?” I huffed.

A guilty expression flickered over his features. “Sorry.”

Annoyed, I demanded, “What in the world is more interesting on your phone than your sister offering to give us a baby?”

Hazel eyes widened in shock, and he whipped his head around to Gemma. “What?”

“The phone, Enzo. What’s on the phone?” I directed his attention back to me.

“Uh.” He cleared his throat before announcing, “Gio’s back.”