Chapter 18

Chapter

Eighteen

DASH

Tuesday afternoon foundme outside in the garden trimming the rose bushes. I was on a video call with Lucy for her expertise.

“Right here?” I pointed to the spot just above the start of a new branch at the bottom of the bush. Keir had suggested we hire someone to tend to the roses, but I thought I could handle it myself. Imagine my surprise when I figured out I didn’t know where the hell to cut.

“That’s it. Also, cut away all the horizontal branches from the middle. So, are you boys any closer to giving me a grandchild?”

I chuckled as I went about pulling away the debris from the bush I’d just trimmed. “I’ll call you Granny if that will make you feel better.”

Lucy laughed. That was one of the things I loved about her. She was always so damn upbeat.

“Don’t you dare. So, how’s my son?”

“Perfect as always. He’s preparing for a funeral tomorrow, so I thought I’d get out here and clean up the garden since we’ll have people around. How’s Lenny?”

“He’s flying up to LA today. He has someone interested in the house up there. We’re considering moving to one of the golf course communities in the area. Lenny loves to play, and I’ve played a little, so I’m open to it. Will you tell Keir to call me tomorrow night? I ran across a few things that were David’s, and I think Keir might want them.”

“Sure, Lucy. If I have any more questions about⁠—”

“Dash, honey, you don’t need a reason to call me. Love you. Bye.”

We hung up, and I went back to work. Talking to Lucy reminded me of my late mother, whom I missed a lot. It was good to have a motherly influence in my life again.

A couple of hours later, Amelie came outside with a glass of lemonade for me. “It looks very nice. Why don’t you hire someone to do it?”

I chuckled. “I gotta have something to do with my time.” I took the glass from her and downed it in about three gulps. It was damn good.

“If you had babies, you wouldn’t have any free time.” She had a point there, though it would be worth it to have those beautiful faces I continued to dream about.

“True, but I’m not getting between you and Keir on this. Did you talk to Trent about your generous offer?” I took her hand, and we went to sit on one of the concrete benches in the memorial garden.

Amelie seemed hesitant to answer, so I added, “We appreciate and love you for it, but we don’t want to lose you as a member of our family because being around the baby will be too much for you.” I held her hand between mine, watching her face very carefully for any signs of distress.

A sweet smile bloomed on her pretty face. “Trent and I have talked about this many times. We’ve decided we don’t want children. Trent is worried his gift might be too much for a kid to handle, and his childhood wasn’t that great, with his Mormon parents believing he was a product of the devil. I’m fine with it being just the two of us for the rest of our lives. If Keir and you use my eggs, I’ll have given you the best gift I have to give. I’ve wondered what to give you for a wedding gift, and I’d like it to be my eggs.”

Her words tugged at my heart. “I think you and Trent would make fantastic parents. I’m kinda sad you guys aren’t planning for babies.”

“Don’t be. I’ve never seen myself as a mother, really. I didn’t have a great role model growing up. My mother treats me like I’m one of her society friends, not her daughter. Some of the people coming to our wedding think we’re sisters. No, I can’t see myself messing up a child the way my mom messed up with me.”

“It wouldn’t bother you that we’re raising a child that’s half yours, that they came from your egg?” That had been Keir’s biggest concern, which was warranted.

Amelie kissed my cheek. “That’s sweet, but it wouldn’t be my child. It would be Keir’s and yours. Think of me as a loving aunt, Dash. That’s all I want to be.”

Lake pulled into the funeral home parking lot. Amelie waved at her, so Lake came our way instead of entering the building. She was carrying a tote bag and had a bright smile.

“Here she is. How was class?” Amelie asked as she scooted me over so Lake could sit on my other side.

“Class was good. I checked out some books from the library on mortuary science for you. It’s not my cup of tea, but I look forward to working with you. We can collaborate when something difficult comes up and recreate the guest’s features to match the picture the family provides. I’ve been watching Keir work with wax and other mediums to achieve the proper structure and contours, and it’s fascinating,” Lake explained.

Amelie nodded. “Speaking of collaborations, why don’t you tell Dash what we’ve been discussing lately?”

Lake giggled. “Amelie explained she was going to offer you guys her eggs. She also mentioned you don’t have a surrogate yet. I’d love to volunteer to carry your baby if you haven’t picked someone.”

My eyes must have bugged out of my head at the news. There was no way they’d both just said they’d help us have a baby.

“What? You’d carry a baby or maybe two for us?” I must’ve heard wrong.

Lake nodded. “I didn’t hate being pregnant, Dash. I hate what my genetic code did to Jamie regarding her cancer, so I don’t believe I’ll have another child, but being your incubator would be fun.”

I fell off the bench backwards. “I don’t know what to say, ladies.” And I didn’t.

They each took a hand and helped me back up just as Keir came out of the funeral home in his scrubs and a pair of black clogs he wore in the mortuary. As he approached, I studied his easy stride and the smile on his face that did wonderful things to my heart and other parts of my body.

“You okay, love?”

He walked behind me and put his hands on my shoulders before kissing the top of my head. I took his hands and pulled him down to kiss his cheek.

“I’m fine. Just a little surprised. How’s it going? You think you’ll feel like going out for dinner this evening?”

“Sounds great.” He then turned to Lake. “You’ve got your work cut out for you on this one. Our guest was a drug addict, and he’s going to be buried in his soccer uniform with a full couch casket at the parents’ request. His legs and arms will need to be tended to, and we’ll have to work to blend a color to match his pigmentation.”

Lake smiled. “I’ll do my best. It’s sad his life ended in that fashion. How are his parents?”

Keir squeezed my shoulders. “His parents are heartbroken, as I’m sure you can imagine. It seems like maybe Brian got a little lost. I got the impression his father wasn’t exactly thrilled when Brian came out a bit ago, but I have a feeling Sergeant Eads will honor his son’s memory.”

I squeezed Keir’s hand on my shoulder in agreement. I hoped the man came around. I wasn’t looking forward to the funeral if the father was a homophobic asshole.

“Lake and Amelie would like to talk to you about something.” I stood from the bench and pulled his hand until he stepped over the bench and sat between them. I sat on the grass with my knees up, staring at Amelie and giving her a wink.

“I spoke to Trent about giving you guys some eggs, and he said he was supportive. He and I don’t want children of our own. Trent’s afraid he’ll pass his abilities onto his children, and it will be too much. His parents weren’t supportive of him, and he would never want to put that on a child. I’m fine without children. My parents weren’t good role models either, so we’re happy to be a family of two. We want to help you and Dash have children, Keir. I’ll sign any agreement you’d like that I won’t try to claim them as my children, and I’ll be an excellent aunt.”

Keir started to open his mouth when Lake spoke up, “And I’ll carry the babies. I loved being pregnant with Jamie, and I can’t pass on my genetic material by only being a surrogate. Amelie and I discussed this, and we want to do this for the two of you. You’re like—sniff—brothers to⁠—”

Hell, she started bawling, so I stood and walked over to hug her. Before I knew it, I was crying right next to her. I glanced at Amelie, who had also melted down. Keir, the strongest man I knew, had tears sliding down his cheeks as well.

For a full five minutes, we all cried. I wasn’t sure why the others were crying, but I was crying because I was so fucking grateful for their offers. It took genuinely good people to be so generous of spirit to offer something there was no way to assign a monetary value to.

It was a beautiful thing.

Later that night,Keir and I were watching a comedy show on television in the living room upstairs after foregoing dinner out and ordering a pizza. I wasn’t paying attention to the show because the idea of having kids with Amelie’s eggs and Lake as the surrogate was all I could think about.

Keir laughed at something on TV, and I snapped out of my baby fog. I couldn’t forget the memory of the scene Michael the Archangel had shown me. Everything about it was perfect for us.

“What’s on your mind?” Keir turned to me and buried his face in my neck as a commercial for little blue pills began playing.

“Not those. We don’t need those.” I tried to joke to divert his attention.

“Thank heaven, but I won’t rule it out forever. Anyway...”

I chuckled, wrapping my arm around his shoulders and kissing his neck. “I think we’ll be just fine, Dearly.”

“You think we should take them up on their offer?” The hesitation in his voice had me moving to see his face.

“I do. Look, it’s not going to happen immediately. I did some research. Lake will have the heavier load, but Amelie will have to undergo hormone injections for a few weeks. Poor Trent will have to endure her mood swings, but after the retrieval, she’ll be back to normal soon. Lake has the fertilized eggs implanted, which is a bit invasive, but everything I’ve read says it isn’t painful.”

Keir nodded. “So you think we’re ready?”

“Yeah, I do. If this fight happens anytime soon, we send everyone we love on a cruise, and we handle this shit here. I’m confident we’ll be able to take care of Nyx, and then we’ll have a baby on the way. How exciting will that be?”

Keir’s handsome face split into a huge grin. “Okay. You’ve talked me into it. How about we tell them tomorrow after the funeral? We can take everyone out for dinner since we didn’t go tonight.”

“Sounds good to me, Dearly. Should we skip this and make one more attempt at getting you pregnant?” Keir laughed before he stood and pulled me up from the couch.

Yeah, no blue pills for us.