The Fertility Factor

“Who’s Rylyn?”

“The one with the pink lunch box at school.”

“Oh, okay.” Rylyn, a kindergarten classmate, was a dimpled redhead with freckles.

“When they like you, they smile a lot.”

Derek grinned. Was he really getting advice from his five-year-old son?

“And you smiled at her a lot, too.”

“We work together, Joey. Lara is my nurse.”

“Couldn’t she be your girlfriend?”

“I don’t think so.” No, she couldn’t. He knew she couldn’t be. Lara Mancini wanted everything he was rejecting—promises, commitment, love, marriage and children. Derek tightened his hand on his son’s. Joey had gone through everything that Derek had promised himself no child of his ever would. He’d never do that to another child.

“Daddy, you’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?”

“I’m talking to you, and you’re not listening.” Joey frowned. “In school, you get your name on the board if you do that.”

Derek pulled a silly face and whacked the side of his head. “Me? I did that. Again?” As Joey laughed at him, Derek dropped to his haunches. “Climb aboard.”

Joey placed one arm around Derek’s neck and gripped his shirt at the shoulder with his other hand. “Couldn’t she be?” he asked, straddling Derek’s back for a piggyback ride.

Derek paused in walking the bike and unhooked the water bottle from behind the seat to offer Joey a drink.

“I was thirsty.” He gulped a mouthful of water, then handed Derek the water bottle.

“Joey, what is this about?” Derek asked and took a hearty swallow of the water.

“You have to like her to make a baby, don’t you?”

The water spewed out of his mouth. “What? Who said anything about babies?” He’d have a long talk with his ex-wife if she was putting this stuff in Joey’s head.

“Rylyn said I need to be a big brother. Everyone in my class is having a baby.”

Rylyn again. “They are?”

“Even the turtle. They lay eggs. Mrs. Wolken has a big egg in her.”

Mrs. Wolken was a kindergarten teacher in her last trimester. “She doesn’t have an egg in her. She has a baby.”

“Uh-huh. A baby is inside an egg.”

They’d talk tonight at bedtime. Now wasn’t the time to have a discussion about the birds and bees. “Let’s get home. Dorothy is making your favorite cookies,” he said about Dorothy Donaldson, housekeeper, nanny, good friend. She wore a lot of hats for them. “She’s waiting for you to help.”

Joey leaned close and whispered in his ear. “Chocolate chip?”

“Aren’t they your favorite?”

“Uh-huh.” He hugged Derek’s neck tighter. “I like Lara,” he added.

So did he. She revved his motor, especially today in that outfit. Possibly he was thinking so much about her because she’d looked different today. Classy. Sexy.

Chapter Two

E ven when Lara was in an annoyed mood, Manhattan Multiple’s warm blue interior calmed her. Hot from her walk to the center, she welcomed the coolness in the air-conditioned center’s reception area.

Josie sat on a chair behind the front desk. At Lara’s entrance, she signaled to her. “I wanted to tell you more at lunch,” she whispered. “But I didn’t want to say anything in front of Carrie and be a source of gossip.” She looked up as a middle-aged woman with salt-and-pepper hair passed by.

Along with Josie, Lara said hello.

“A new doctor. A perinatologist, like Dr. Cross.” Josie glanced away to smile when another employee, Allison Baker, also passed by them. In her mid-twenties, she was thin, with chin-length auburn-colored hair. Lara thought of her as rather sweet, maybe a touch too prim. Josie, who stood several inches shorter than Allison, had become a good friend of hers in a short amount of time. “She’s in love,” Josie said.

Lara smiled. “She told you?”

“No, you can tell,” Josie said, nodding her head. Overhead lights highlighted the blond streaks threaded through brown strands. “She met someone last month. That’s what you need.”

“What do I need?” Lara asked.

“A handsome stranger.”

Lara knew a man who suited her just fine. “Is that what you wanted to talk about?”

“No.” Josie hunched forward. “Eloise received e-mail from the mayor. She was really upset. I mean really.”

Lara assumed Josie heard that from Allison Baker, Eloise’s personal assistant.

“No one knows what he wrote, but Eloise is usually so calm and sweet. Whatever he said disturbed her.”

Mentally Lara shook her head. She found it hard to believe that Mayor Bill Harper was going out of his way to make Eloise’s life miserable. Lara liked the mayor, believed he was an honest, straightforward man.

“Interesting, isn’t it?” Josie asked.

“Could be.” Lara refrained from saying more when she didn’t know all the facts. “I’ll talk to you later.”

Getting time to do anything became an impossibility. Busy all day, Lara ushered one of the last patients of the day to the door. “Won’t be long now,” she said to the woman, who carried a burden that made her every step slow and labored. But the woman was fortunate. For someone carrying multiple babies, she’d had a relatively normal pregnancy—no morning sickness, no gestation diabetes.

The woman released a short laugh. “I’m looking forward to seeing my feet. I suppose everyone says that.”

Lara nodded. Most pregnant women made a similar complaint. She would love to have the problem. If she ever got pregnant, she’d relish every single moment, including the ones that made her feel lousy. Because she was still troubled about Gena’s news, she’d struggled with smiles all day. Though she had a dozen things to do after work, including laundry, she decided to relax with a book and a glass of wine after she got home.

The workday stretched longer than she’d expected. Everyone had left long ago, and she was still there. So was Derek. The woman in the examining room had complained about heavy discharge since her babies’ birth. An erosion of the cervix, an occasional problem following delivery, had required an in-office procedure. Derek had cauterized the cervical area with no discomfort to the woman. While the patient dressed to leave, Lara enjoyed spending the time with the woman’s twins.

“They’re staying even.” Lara commented to the woman when she emerged from the examining room to leave.