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She’d been his best friend since first grade. The one person he’d let see his fear when his father had tried to commit suicide. The only girl who’d listened when he went on and on about his goals and who’d talked sense into him when doubts took hold.
In high school, girlfriends came and went, but Ming was always there. Smart and funny, her almond-shaped eyes glowing with laughter. She provided emotional support without complicating their relationship with exasperating expectations. If he canceled plans with her she never pouted or ranted. She never protested when he got caught up working on car engines or shooting hoops with his buddies and forgot to call her. And more often than not, her sagacity kept Jason grounded.
She would have made the perfect girlfriend if he’d been willing to ruin their twenty-five-year friendship for a few months of romance. Because eventually his eye would wander and she’d be left as another casualty of his carefully guarded heart.
He studied her beautiful oval face. “Why me?”
Below inscrutable black eyes, her full lips kicked up at the corners. “You’re the perfect choice.”
The uneasy buzz resumed in the back of his mind. Was she looking to change their relationship in some way? Link herself to him with a child? He never intended to marry. Ming knew that. Accepted it. Hadn’t she?
“How so?”
“Because you’re my best friend. I know everything about you. Something about having a stranger’s child makes me uncomfortable.” She sighed. “Besides, I’m perfectly comfortable being a single parent. You are a dedicated bachelor. You won’t have a crisis of conscience and demand your parental rights. It’s perfect.”
“Perfect,” he echoed, reasoning no matter what she claimed, a child they created together would connect them in a way that went way beyond friendship.
“You’re right. I don’t want marriage or kids. But fathering your child …” Something rumbled in his subconscious, warning him to stop asking questions. She’d decided against asking him to help her get pregnant. He should leave it at that.
“Don’t say it that way. You’re making it too complicated. We’ve been friends forever. I don’t want anything to change our relationship.”
Too late for that. “Things between us changed the minute you started dating Evan.”
Jason hadn’t welcomed the news. In fact, he’d been quite displeased, which was something he’d had no right to feel. If she was nothing more than his friend, he should have been happy that she and Evan had found each other.
“I know. In the beginning it was awkward, but I never would have gone out with him if you hadn’t given me your blessing.”
What other choice did he have? It wasn’t as if he intended to claim her as anything other than a friend. But such rational thinking hadn’t stood him in good stead the first time he’d seen his brother kiss her.
“You didn’t need my blessing. If you wanted to date Evan, that was your business.” And he’d backed off. Unfortunately, distance had lent him perspective. He’d begun to see her not only as his longtime friend, but also as a desirable woman. “But let’s get back to why you changed your mind about wanting me.”
“I didn’t want you,” she corrected, one side of her mouth twitching. “Just a few of your strongest swimmers.”
She wanted to make light of it, but Jason wasn’t ready to oblige her. “Okay, how come you changed your mind about wanting my swimmers?”
She stared straight ahead and played with the Yorkie’s ears, sending the dog into a state of bliss. “Because we’d have to keep it a secret. If anyone found out what we’d done, it would cause all sorts of hard feelings.”
Not anyone. Evan. She’d been hurt by his brother, yet she’d taken Evan’s feelings into consideration when making such an important decision. She’d deserved better than his brother.
“What if we didn’t keep it a secret? My dad would be thrilled that one of his sons made him a grandfather,” Jason prompted.
“But he’d also expect you to be a father.” Her eyes soft with understanding, she said, “I wouldn’t ask that of you.”
He resented her assumption that he wouldn’t want to be involved. Granted, until ten minutes earlier he’d never considered being a parent, but suddenly Jason didn’t like the idea that his child would never know him as his father. “I don’t suppose I can talk you out of this.”
“My mind is set. I’m going to have babies.”
“Babies?” He ejected the word and followed it up with a muttered curse. “I thought it was a baby. Now you’re fielding a baseball team?”
A goofy snort of laughter escaped her. Unattractive on ninety-nine percent of women, the sound was adorable erupting from her long, thin nose. It probably helped that her jet-black eyes glittered with mischief, inviting him to join in her amusement.
“What’s so funny?” he demanded.
She shook her head, the action causing the ebony curtains of hair framing her exotic Asian features to sway like a group of Latin dancers doing a rumba. “You should see the look on your face.”
He suppressed a growl. There was not one damn thing about this that was funny. “I thought this was a one-time deal.”
“It is, but you never know what you’re going to get when you go in vitro. I might have triplets.”
Jason’s thoughts whirled. “Triplets?” Damn. He hadn’t adjusted to the idea of one child. Suddenly there were three?
“It’s possible.” Her gaze turned inward. A tranquil half smile curved her lips.
For a couple, triplets would be hard. How was she going to handle three babies as a single mom?
Images paraded through his head. Ming’s mysterious smile as she placed his hand on her round belly. Her eyes sparkling as she settled the baby in his arms for the first time. The way the pictures appealed to him triggered alarm bells. After his father’s suicide attempt, he’d closed himself off to being a husband and a father. Not once in the years since had he questioned his decision.
Ming glanced at the silver watch on her delicate wrist. “I’ve got seven minutes to get upstairs or I’ll be late for my next appointment.”
“We need to talk about this more.”
“It’ll have to be later.” She gathered Muffin and exited the car.
“When later?”
But she’d shut the door and was heading away, sleek and sexy in form-fitting black pants and a sleeveless knit top that showed off her toned arms.
Appreciation slammed into his gut.
Uninvited.
Unnerving.
Cursing beneath his breath, Jason shut off the engine, got out of the car and headed for the front door, but he wasn’t fast enough to catch her before she crossed the building’s threshold.
Four-inch heels clicking on the tile lobby floor, she headed toward the elevator. With his longer legs, Jason had little trouble keeping pace. He reached the elevator ahead of her and put his hand over the up button to keep her from hitting it.
“The Camaro will get towed if you leave it there.”
He barely registered her words. “Let’s have dinner.”
A ding sounded and the doors before them opened. She barely waited for the elevator to empty before stepping forward.
“I already have plans.”
“With whom?”
She shook her head. “Since when are you so curious about my social life?”
Since her engagement had broken off.
On the third floor, they passed a door marked Dr. Terrance Kincaid, DDS, and Dr. Ming Campbell, DDS. Another ten feet and they came to an unmarked door that she unlocked and breezed through.
One of the dental assistants hovered outside Ming’s office. “Oh, good, you’re here. I’ll get your next patient.”
Ming set down Muffin, and the Yorkie bounded through the hallway toward the waiting room. She headed into her office and returned wearing a white lab coat. When she started past him, Jason caught her arm.
“You can’t do this alone.” Whether he meant get pregnant or raise a child, he wasn’t sure.
Her gentle smile was meant to relieve him of all obligations. “I’ll be fine.”
“I don’t doubt that.” But he couldn’t shake the sense that she needed him.
A thirteen-year-old boy appeared in the hallway and waved to her.
“Hello, Billy,” she called. “How did your baseball tournament go last month?”
“Great. Our team won every game.”
“I’d expect nothing else with a fabulous pitcher like you on the mound. I’ll see you in a couple minutes.”
As often as Jason had seen her at work, he never stopped being amazed that she could summon a detail for any of her two hundred clients that made the child feel less like a patient and more like a friend.
“I’ll call you tomorrow.” Without waiting for him to respond, she followed Billy to the treatment area.
Reluctant to leave, Jason stared after her until she disappeared. Impatience and concern urged him to hound her until he was satisfied he knew all her plans, but he knew how he’d feel if she’d cornered him at work.
Instead, he returned to the parking lot. The Camaro remained at the curb where he’d left it. Donning his shades, he slid behind the wheel and started the powerful engine.
Two
When Ming returned to her office after her last appointment, she found her sister sitting cross-legged on the floor, a laptop balanced on her thighs.
“There are three chairs in the room. You should use one.”
“I like sitting on the ground.” With her short, spiky hair and fondness for natural fibers and loose-fitting clothes, Lily looked more than an environmental activist than a top software engineer. “It lets me feel connected to the earth.”
“We’re three stories up in a concrete building.”
Lily gave her a “whatever” shoulder shrug and closed the laptop. “I stopped by to tell you I’m heading out really early tomorrow morning.”
“Where to this time?”
For the past five years, her sister had been leading a team of consultants involved with transitioning their company’s various divisions to a single software system. Since the branches were all over the country, she traveled forty weeks out of the year. The rest of the time, she stayed rent-free in Ming’s spare bedroom.
“Portland.”
“How long?”
“They offered me a permanent position.”
Her sister’s announcement came as an unwelcome surprise. “Did you say yes?”
“Not yet. I want to see if I like Portland first. But I gotta tell you, I’m sick of all the traveling. It would be nice to buy a place and get some appliances. I want a juicer.”
Lily had this whole “a healthy body equals a healthy mind” mentality. She made all sorts of disgusting green concoctions that smelled awful and tasted like a decomposing marsh. Ming’s eyes watered just thinking about them. She preferred to jump-start her day with massive doses of caffeine.
“You won’t get bored being stuck in one city?”
“I’m ready to settle down.”
“And you can’t settle down in Houston?”
“I want to meet a guy I can get serious about.”
“And you have to go all the way to Portland to find one?” Ming wondered what was really going on with her sister.
Lily slipped her laptop into its protective sleeve. “I need a change.”
“You’re not going to stick around and be an auntie?” She’d hoped once Lily held the baby and saw how happy Ming was as a mom, her sister could finally get why Ming was willing to risk their mother’s wrath about her decision.
“I think it’s better if I don’t.”
As close as the sisters were, they’d done nothing but argue since Ming had divulged her intention of becoming a single mom. Her sister’s negative reaction had come as a complete surprise. And on the heels of her broken engagement, Ming was feeling alone and blue.
“I wish I could make you understand how much this means to me.”
“Look, I get it. You’ve always wanted children. I just think that a kid needs both a mother and a father.”
Ming’s confidence waned beneath her sister’s criticism. Despite her free-spirited style and reluctance to be tied down, Lily was a lot more traditional than Ming when it came to family. Last night, when Ming had told her sister she was going to talk to Jason today, Lily had accused Ming of being selfish.
But was she? Raising a child without a father didn’t necessarily mean that the child would have problems. Children needed love and boundaries. She could provide both.
It wasn’t fair for Lily to push her opinions on Ming. She hadn’t made her decision overnight. She’d spent months and months talking to single moms, weighing the pros and cons, and using her head, not her emotions, to make up her mind about raising a child on her own. Of course, when it came right down to it, her longing to be a mother was a strong, biological urge that was hard to ignore.
Ming slipped out of her lab coat and hung it on the back of her office door. “Have you told Mom about the job offer?”
“No.” Lily countered. “Have you told her what you’re going to do?”
“I was planning to on Friday. We’re having dinner, just the two of us.” Ming arched an eyebrow. “Unless you’d like to head over there now so we can both share our news. Maybe with two of us to yell at, we’ll each get half a tongue lashing.”
“As much as I would love to be there to see the look on Mom’s face when she finds out you’re going to have a baby without a husband, I’m not ready to talk about my plans. Not until I’m completely sure.”
It sounded as if Lily wasn’t one hundred percent sold on moving away. Ming kept relief off her face and clung to the hope that her sister would find that Portland wasn’t to her liking.
“Will I see you at home later?”
Lily shook her head. “Got plans.”
