“My goodness,” her mother said again. “That’s just something else.”
Another long silence, and then her mother had more questions. “Did you just say his private secretary?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” she answered.
“Is he wealthy or something?” her mother asked with a curious tone.
“Yes, I guess he is, Mama. He’s paying me a pretty penny,” she admitted with a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“Is he now? And how pretty is that penny?” Mama asked, wanting all the details.
Jamaica took a deep breath and spoke clearly and slowly. “Five hundred thousand dollars.”
Her mother gasped into the phone and then cried out and Jamaica heard her cover her mouth. “My gawd…” her mother answered her. “How in the world is that even…?” There was another coo of surprise from her Mama. “Well I’ll be.”
There was more silence for a moment and then Mama came back with more questions. “So how much responsibility do you have for this? Are you just carrying these babies or are you helping to raise them or nurse them too?”
“No Mama,” Jamaica said with a wide smile. “I just carry them and deliver them. Then the babies go to their new home and that’s it for me. I’m free to go back to my life and I can do whatever I want to.”
“Hmm,” her Mama responded doubtfully. “You think you’re going to have a pregnancy with your own eggs, your own babies made by some man you never even met, and after carrying them around for nine months you think you’re going to give birth to them and then just let them go? Is that what you think?”
“Yeah, well, that is the plan, Mama.” Jamaica felt the butterflies in her stomach going crazy and the blood in her veins began to pulse more.
“I think you’re going to be in for a big surprise, baby,” her mother said sympathetically.
“A surprise? What are you talking about, Mama?” Jamaica felt her stomach clench hard and her heart begin to pound against her chest.
“I’m telling you that for a girl with a heart as big as yours, who feels as much love as you do, there is no way that you’re going to be able to just walk away from those babies. I don’t want to upset you or make you worry or anything, but I know my girl, and I know how much you love with all your heart, and I know that you love children, and I am telling you this. When you carry those little ones around for nine months, you’re not going to be able to let them go just like that. There’s no way, honey. There won’t be any way in the wide world that you can do that. I want you to be prepared for the fact that there’s a good chance that it might break your heart to let them go. Even on their very first day. It’s going to be one of the most difficult things you’ve ever done. I can tell you that right now, because I know my girl, and I know what it’s like to carry your baby within you and then give it life on the day of its birth.” Mama was speaking with kindness, but also with honesty.
Jamaica sighed and bit at her lower lip. “I can’t keep them, Mama, and there’s no way that I will be able to be part of their lives. Andre doesn’t want kids, ever, and he doesn’t want anything to do with these babies. He just wants me to do it, get the money, and be done with it. So, because he’s in my life, I can promise you that there’s no way at all that I’m going to have anything to do with the babies. Besides, the father of the little ones has other plans for raising them and that’s already all worked out. The agreement is to give him the babies when they are born and then walk away. That’s it. That’s all I’ll be doing and nothing more.”
“All right honey. If that’s what you believe, then that’s what we’ll say for now. Just remember what I said to you, and be prepared. I don’t want you hurt at all, and I feel like you might just be hurt bad if you get to the end of that pregnancy and you have to let those little ones go.” Mama sounded wise and sad.
“I know, Mama. I know you’re just worried. I don’t want you to worry about it. It’s going to be all right. I promise. I gave this a lot of thought. I’ve slept on it, and I’ve made the decision that it’s the right thing to do. I’m not worried about it, and you shouldn’t be either.” Jamaica tried to sound stronger than she felt.
“All right baby. You just keep the phone by you, and if you need anything, anything at all, you call me. I love you, baby. No matter what happens with this. I love you,” Mama said with all the feeling in her heart.
“I know Mama, and thank you. I love you, too.” Jamaica sighed happily. It was going to work out. It was all going to work out just fine. She was sure of it. She could feel it in her heart. Nothing could or would go wrong.
Chapter5
The amazement of what she had agreed to do stayed with Jamaica constantly in her waking hours, and even haunted her dreams in places. She hadn’t heard back from Andre at all since he had left her front porch after he agreed to let her do the job only because of the money, though she wasn’t at all concerned with his permission.
She had been disappointed to think that the pregnancy might affect their relationship as much as he said it would, and she didn’t know what would really happen with them on an intimate level, but she did know that when he said he wouldn’t be intimate with her while she was pregnant with another man’s child, he meant it. It gnawed at the back of her mind that she would not know how things would be between them until they happened, but that no matter what, it didn’t look good.
Jamaica tried to keep her attention and her focus on her classroom and students the following day, and Penny swung by the classroom for a few minutes at lunch to say hello to her and to plan where they were meeting up for their girls’ night out, drinking cocktails and guy hunting.
Jamaica felt like she was in a dream, almost floating through reality as everything around her seemed to buzz, but she did her best to remain as present as she could. She wondered if she was in some kind of shock over the decision that she had made.
The day seemed to fly by for her, and before she knew it, it was time to meet up with Penny. She had chosen a pretty, light blue dress that fell to her mid-thigh and danced somewhat loosely around her form. It had slender sleeves to the elbows and a scoop neckline. Jamaica had put her shoulder length hair up in a light twist at the back of her head and slipped on some silver earrings and a silver necklace. She wanted to look pretty without looking like she might be an option for anyone to take home. She was bait, as her friend had advised her, and that was all.
She was glad that she wasn’t out in the playing field any longer. She didn’t know how Penny did it, constantly on dating sites and in and out of bars or different places like that, looking for true love with a good man. It’s nearly impossible, Jamaica thought to herself. She hoped that Penny would be lucky and somehow find the love of her life, but she felt as if she was standing on the sidelines, watching in almost horror at the dating life.
Jamaica had met Andre at a friend’s party. They had been friends of his, and one of her other girlfriends had been chasing a guy that was going to the party. She had begged Jamaica to go to the party with her so she could see the guy, and Jamaica being the good wing woman she was, had gone to the party and she’d met Andre. Her friend’s attempt at chasing the guy she liked had fizzled out when he showed up with his own date, but they had stayed long enough while they were waiting for that guy to show up that Jamaica had met Andre, and she had enjoyed talking to him. He’d asked her out for coffee on the following day, and it had just evolved from there.
Some of Jamaica’s friends had been surprised that she had agreed to date Andre exclusively, and they had wondered at what it might be that connected them because her friends could see no common ground between them, but she had assured them that she and Andre got along and that it was fine being with him. It wasn’t the kind of passionate love that flowed from the pages of romance novels or glowed on the screens of romance movies, but it was all right, and though Jamaica’s friends had said in honest moments that they thought she was settling for less than what she deserved, she was sure that i
t would be okay.
At least she had been sure until she had heard him say that he didn’t want children. That, too, had been rattling around in her mind from the moment he had left her, and she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it or worrying about it. They hadn’t really discussed it at any length prior to that, and she had begun to wish that they had. Having a family was important to her, and it was a goal she wasn’t ready to let go of. It hadn’t been an option for her at any time. She had guessed that he would want a family too someday, and though she knew that they should have talked about it at some point, they never had, and now she was facing a pregnancy that would not be giving her a family, her own babies, and they would go to another home and she would never see them again, while she and her boyfriend would wind up never having children. That was, if she stayed with him.
It had become obvious to her that if having a family was so important to her, that she would have to let him go and find someone else to have a family with. She was going to have a tough choice ahead of her, and it wasn’t one that she was looking forward to in any way. She tried not to dwell on it too much, as she knew that no decisions would be made while she was carrying the babies for Henry Ellison anyway, but it still weighed at the back of her mind that she was going to have to make a decision at some point in time to come.
She walked into the bar and saw Penny sitting on a barstool with a martini in her hand. Penny waved and Jamaica walked over to her, feeling the eyes of men in the seats around her, as they gazed at her and caressed her body with their gazes. It seemed so strange to her that dating and mating was such a meat market. She didn’t like it at all.
Penny wrapped her arms around Jamaica in a warm and excited hug as Jamaica took a seat and told the bartender what she would be drinking. Penny bubbled happily, glad to see her.
“Thank you so much for coming out tonight! You look perfect! Just enough to help me draw them in, without being too serious about it. How are you doing?” She smiled blissfully at her friend.
Jamaica shrugged and thanked the bartender for her drink when he brought it. Lifting it to her lips, she took a long slow pull of it and set it back on the bar. “Well… that’s something we’re going to talk about tonight,” she began, and Penny raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Do you want to sit at a booth or table, or should we stay here?” Jamaica asked curiously as she looked around the room.
It was done in a contemporary style, and that kind of décor gave the place a little more sophistication than some of the run-down-looking bars Penny had visited when she had first taken it upon herself to go man hunting a couple of years before.
“No, we need to stay here at the bar. That makes us look approachable. Guys have to come up to order drinks here anyway, so that enables conversation. It’s easier for them than if we’re sitting at a table talking and they decide to come up to us and talk to us. There’s a greater risk to them that they might get sent away in front of everyone if we are at a table, but if we’re at the bar and we tell them off, no one would really notice because it would just look like they are up here for a drink. There’s a careful science to this.” She winked at Jamaica and sipped her cocktail, and then tilted her head a little bit.
“So what is it that we’re going to talk about?” she asked.
Jamaica sighed long and slow and gazed down into the glass in her hand for a moment. She smiled a little and laughed softly. Lifting it, she took a sip and then raised her eyes to look at her friend. “Well, I’ll say this. I won’t be able to have any more of these after this week.”
Penny stared at her. “What do you mean? What are you talking about? Why can’t you have any more of those after this week?”
“I’ll be pregnant, if everything goes well this week,” Jamaica answered her simply, with a soft chuckle.
Penny’s mouth fell full open. “Pregnant? How… what are you… are you pregnant now?”
Jamaica shook her head. “No, I know I’m not pregnant right now.”
“Then how…” she stared at Jamaica in confusion and concern. “Are you and Andre doing some kind of… I thought you said you two weren’t even talking about being engaged, let alone starting a family! How could you be talking about babies?” Penny shook her head, mystified.
“Andre and I aren’t talking about babies. As a matter of fact, we did just have that talk, and it didn’t go well. I guess I should have asked him sooner, but I didn’t and now I’m stuck in a weird place. He doesn’t want to have kids. Like… ever. You know I do want kids. I want a family. It’s been a dream of mine since I was a young girl, but I guess he and I never really talked about it seriously and I just assumed that he would want kids, and now I know that he doesn’t and he won’t. I will have some tough choices to make in the year ahead when it comes to him and our future together.” Jamaica sighed and took another sip of her drink.
Music played in the air around them and the gentle hum of conversation blended with the songs. Penny looked at her in consternation. “Well, if he doesn’t want to have kids, then how are you going to be pregnant later?”
Jamaica took a deep breath. There it was. There was the doorway to the discussion. “I accepted a job as a surrogate mother for a guy who wants kids but isn’t married. He’s going to pay me to have babies for him. I go in for the appointment this week. Artificial insemination.”
Penny stared at her for a moment and then burst out laughing and laughed until a couple of tears sipped from the corners of her eyes. “Oh my lord, you really had me going there for a minute. You looked so serious… I really thought that…” she managed to speak through her fit of laughter. She looked back at Jamaica and her laughter and mirth began to subside and fade, like a wave pulling away from the shoreline.
“You’re… you’re still serious about this…” she said quietly as she realized that Jamaica wasn’t kidding. “Oh my god. You’re serious about this. You’re not kidding. Oh my god…” her eyes grew wide and her hand flew to her mouth as she stared at Jamaica. “You’re going to carry some guy’s kid?”
“Kids. He wants a multiple birth,” Jamaica answered her quietly. “Yes, I am. It’s official.”
Penny gaped at her for a long moment, and finally shook her head. “Oh my god. I can’t believe that. I can’t even wrap my head around that. I know you’re serious now… but, how in the world did that even happen? Did you talk to Andre about this at all? What did he have to say about it?”
Jamaica sighed. “It happened because when I was twenty and in college, and trying to make money to pay off student loans and get by and things like that, I signed up for a surrogacy program at a fertility clinic. I thought it would be no big deal if I had a nine-month pregnancy during college and then didn’t keep the baby. I knew it would be good money, and I could pay off my debts and even be ahead, so I signed up for it. Well, I never got called for a case until now, and ironically, I was about to be taken off the availability list, this week in fact. I haven’t given the clinic any thought in years, but I guess the guy who was looking for someone to carry his children for him found my profile, or his secretary did, and they chose me, right before my contract with the clinic was up. I met with the secretary and we talked it all out and I took the job.”
Shaking her head slowly, Penny stared at her. “I can’t believe this. I really can’t. Wow.” She processed the concept for a few moments, and Jamaica waited until she was ready to talk about it before she said more.
“I did talk to Andre about it. He wasn’t happy at all. In fact, we got into a kind of fight about it, and it didn’t go so well. He only agreed to it because of the money that I’ll be making off it. But we also talked about having a family, and now I know that he doesn’t ever want one. That’s a huge issue for me because I do want kids. I’ve got some serious things to think about now, and I’ll have to think about them while I’m pregnant and having this other guy’s babies.” Jamaica picked her glass up and took another long sip of her drink.
Penny stared at her and
shook her head. “My god,” she said quietly. She turned away, thoughtful and quiet as she considered what she had heard. Then a long moment later, she looked back at Jamaica. “Well, as crazy as you might be for doing this, I just want you to know that I’m here for you, and I will be glad to help you with whatever you need… Going to doctor appointments or anything like that. I’ve got your back, but… wow. Why in the world would you ever say yes to it? Why did Andre say yes to it?”
“I said yes to it for two reasons. One, because the money was too good to pass up, and two, because I’m helping someone who can’t have a family on his own, by giving him the family he wants. That’s pretty big to me. That’s one of the greatest gifts that anyone could give.” She smiled, thinking of what that had come to mean to her. “Andre said no until he heard about the money, and then he said yes. So, we know what his reasons are.”
Penny frowned sharply. “Wait a minute… he’s just your boyfriend! He’s not your fiancé or your husband or anything. How does he even get a say about this or any interest in the money? He’s not going to get his hands on any of the money, right? I mean, you get pregnant, you carry those kids, and you get paid… Then that’s your money not his, and he has no right to a single dime, as far as I’m concerned. Right? Tell me that’s what you think… please.”
“That’s what I think, but if we are engaged, then I would feel like the money would be for both of us. I wouldn’t keep anything from him if we were getting married,” Jamaica said thoughtfully.
“But you aren’t engaged and you’re not getting married to him, at least no right now, so he’s not touching the money, I hope,” Penny replied adamantly. “So how much are we talking about anyway? Couple grand or something?”
“Five hundred thousand dollars,” Jamaica answered, enjoying seeing the expression of shock that overtook her friend’s face.
The Billionaire's Twin Fever (MANHATTAN BACHELORS Book 1) Page 22
