Why was I talking to myself as if I was trying to reassure myself that I was happy being alone? I had been alone for a while, as Laura had been my last serious relationship. I didn’t need anybody else. I was used to this. I was good at it. Even though I knew that my mother and probably my sisters kept looking at me, wondering when I was going to settle down. I didn’t see that happening any time soon.
We finished up the job for the day, and I left Timothy and Kennedy working on the final setups that we would complete tomorrow. We had other projects scheduled for the afternoon, so I felt comfortable giving them the responsibility.
After lunch, I had a break in my schedule, which meant I had planning and meetings if I wanted, or I could take a break if I wanted. Sometimes I scheduled that for myself, and usually, I filled it with more work. I couldn’t help it, I was good at what I did, and I liked it.
I headed home, took a quick shower, pulled on a new pair of jeans and a T-shirt. We weren’t going to somewhere fancy, and I wanted to be comfortable. I put different boots on this time, not my stained work boots, and called that dressing up.
The café we were meeting at was only down the block from my house, so I walked, enjoying the fresh air. I worked outdoors every day, my skin a little tanner than my twin’s these days since Beckett tended to work more inside buildings, since he had Clay working for him on the outside.
I turned the corner and crossed the street to where the café stood.
Laura and Michelle were already there, their heads bent low as they spoke to one another, their hands clasped together. They were on the other corner of the outside patio, one of the more private areas, where we wouldn’t be overheard by people passing or even other restaurant-goers. I frowned, since that wasn’t our usual table, and since there didn’t seem to be a lot of people around, they must have asked for it on purpose.
From the look on Laura’s face, something was wrong.
Dread coiled in my belly, and I nodded at the hostess before I pointed towards the corner. The hostess gave me a small smile, and I made my way back to the corner where Laura and Michelle were.
“Hey there,” I said, my voice soft.
Laura looked up at me and smiled so brightly I knew it was fake. She stood up quickly and held out her arms. “Benjamin,” she whispered, and wrapped her arms around my waist. I hugged her close and took a deep breath.
“What’s wrong?”
She looked up at me then and gave out a small laugh, and Michelle shook her head. Laura pulled back and gave Michelle a look, and Michelle just sighed. “I told you he’d figure it out.”
“No, you told me he’d get all stressed because we looked stressed.”
“What the hell’s going on, girls?” I asked, looking between them.
“Nothing’s wrong. We’re just nervous. We’re fine. We’re healthy.” Laura gave Michelle a small secret smile that confused me. “We’re really healthy.”
“Talk to me,” I said, looking between them. “Seriously.”
“Take a seat. We already ordered you a Reuben.”
“It scares me how much you guys know me sometimes,” I said as I took a seat across from Michelle and next to Laura. The two of them held hands, and I took a sip of my water, frowning.
“Explain to me exactly what’s going on.” I gave them each pointed looks.
“Well, we wanted you to eat and enjoy yourself first before we had a discussion, but maybe we should just let it all out.”
At that moment, the waiter came by, dropped off a club sandwich split into two, and a chef’s salad divided in two between the two women, and then a Reuben and french fries in front of me.
“Can I get you anything other than water to drink, sir?” the waiter asked.
I shook my head. “This is great. The girls know me.”
“We hope so,” Laura muttered under her breath, and I frowned again, looking at them.
The waiter gave a slight nod, a smile on his face before he went back into the building.
“I’m afraid to eat.”
“Don’t. You know this is our favorite meal.”
“You guys share your food like a little old couple. I love it.”
“Do not call us old, Benjamin Montgomery,” Laura said sweetly, even though her eyes were daggers.
I snorted and bit into a fry. “Well, you act like you’ve been married for fifty years.”
“Sometimes it feels like it.” The two of them squeezed each other’s hands and looked at each other before letting out a breath.
“Talk to me.”
“Okay, okay.”
“Well, we have been together for a while now.”
“Yes,” I said, after she paused for a bit.
“Together enough that we’re ready to start the next phase of our life,” Michelle said, her eyes brimming with tears. I took a deep sip of my water before I set the glass down and looked between the two of them.
“You sure you’re both okay?”
Laura nodded. “Yes. Just nervous.” She let out a breath. “Michelle and I want a baby.”
I grinned, leaning forward as happiness shot through me at the news. “Seriously? That’s amazing. You guys are going to be great moms.”
“I hope so,” Michelle said as she looked at Laura with such love in her gaze, something twinged inside of me. Not jealousy for them, because I didn’t love Laura like that, but maybe because I had never loved anyone like that. But this wasn’t about me.
“I’m so happy for you guys. Hell, can I be an uncle? I want to be an uncle. I mean, I’m going to have tons of nieces and nephews, but I feel like your kid’s going to need an uncle.”
The two of them gave each other a look before looking at me again, and something clicked. “You’re not asking me to be an uncle, are you?” I whispered.
“No,” Laura said, but she rolled her shoulders back, something that she did every time that she was stressed out and needed to get it out there. “We need a donor. While we could go to a bank and get someone anonymous and have it work out perfectly, we wondered if there was a way we could have you help us. We would love for our child to have the genes of someone that we know, love, and cherish. I know this sounds weird and odd, but it feels like you’re part of our family already, and it just seems right. If it doesn’t seem right at all, we can walk away and just pretend we never had this talk.” She was rambling. I just blinked, the hollow sound in my head ringing.
“You want my…you want my…” my voice trailed off.
Michelle let out a breath. “We want your sperm. Sorry for laying it all out there, but we want your sperm. We realize that it’s an odd question to ask, and something very deeply personal, and maybe the idea of going to a bank where it would just be random and anonymous would be better, but we want to know who’s part of our family. And we already consider you part of it. I mean, you accepted me with open arms even as you introduced me to your ex. We’re a peculiar bunch, and we love you.”
Laura nodded. “We love you very much.”
“I don’t…Why me?” I asked again.
“We just told you,” Laura answered with an awkward laugh. “We love you. We like you. The idea that the Montgomerys would be truly taking over the world if we increased the bunch, we feel like we want you to be part of this, in a bizarre way. And now that I’m saying this out loud, it sounds like we’re trying to be a poly-romance, and we aren’t.”