Cara nodded and read through the profile twice. “It doesn’t matter that she’s black,” she said quietly as she looked at the image and carefully considered the possibility of what she was doing. “In fact, in this particular case, I think that’s really a factor in her favor.”
She was being honest, though she stopped discussing it there. There were reasons in her mind why the color of Jamaica’s skin was of interest to her, and though those reasons would remain unspoken, they were the key variable in the decision that Cara made right there and then, on the spot.
“Why is she coming off the list this week?” Cara asked, beginning to worry that the young woman might not be interested in providing the service she needed so desperately.
The nurse explained offhandedly. “Well, it has to do with the fact that we set these young ladies up on a certain time frame. They are put into the system with a profile and an availability for a specific range of dates, and they can choose to be removed from the system at any time, but she hasn’t chosen to be taken off. It’s just that her time frame is running out. Some women will use their option to renew their time with us, and after we have reviewed their current health and suitability for the program, we put them back into the system again, but she hasn’t chosen to do that. From the looks of it here, she’s just going to let it run out. So, it’s possible that she might be open to agreeing to your contract and doing the work, and it’s also possible that she might turn you down and step away from the whole thing altogether, but as she is the last one on the list, and she is as of right now open and available for the service, I feel as though it might be in your best interest to choose her and hope for the best.” The nurse sounded ever hopeful, though her tone was laced with uncertainty and doubt.
“No one has ever chosen her to carry a child for them, so she hasn’t been through the process before, but it says here in the original notes that she was doing this for money as the main reason for her being in the program, so perhaps that might be a viable method of convincing her that she should take this position. Though I’ll be honest, I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t want to take this job.” She laughed nervously. “Heck, if I was fifteen years younger and physically able to do it, I’d take the job.” She laughed again, and Cara was silent in response.
A moment later, she spoke with a friendly and almost coy tone. “You know what, she’s the best option we’ve come across so far. I’d be so grateful if you would be willing to give me her contact information. I’d like to give her a call and meet with her. I want to interview her for the position and see if we are both a good fit for each other. If we are, we will go through your company to do this procedure.”
The nurse’s tone brightened and she seemed to be immediately encouraged. “Yes! Goodness yes, of course I’d be so glad to help you and give you her information. You just call her; I’m emailing her info to you right now as I speak…” Her fingers tapped on the keyboard in front of her. “And then let me know how it works out. Let me know if there is anything at all that I can do to help you. I am here to help you and make this happen! I’m only a phone call away.”
There was the slightest tone of desperation in her voice and Cara heard it and knew exactly what it was. “Of course, and thank you so much. Oh! It looks like your email has come through, and yes, there’s Jamaica’s information. I’ll call her as soon as I hang up with you. Now, if this goes through and she’s the right one for this job, I’ll be sending you all of our thanks and a gift of gratitude for all of your time and efforts. I do appreciate all that you did, and I know you bent the rules for me a little. Henry and I appreciate that. We always show our gratitude generously when we are well served and supported.
The nurse thanked her and Cara got off the phone call quickly, and stared at the photograph of Jamaica as she dialed the young woman’s phone number, hoping that she would be the one to take the job.
Chapter3
The phone rang three times before it was answered, and when it was, Cara heard the young woman’s soft voice come over the line with a genuine warmth and sweetness.
“Hello?” she asked curiously.
“Is this Jamaica Franklin, please?” Cara asked, her fingers tightening somewhat around the phone in her hand.
“Yes, how can I help you?” she asked pleasantly.
“Jamaica, my name is Cara Landers. I was given your phone number by the fertility clinic where you have an open and operating profile at this time. I understand from them that your profile is about to run out, but it is still active right now and I wanted to reach out to you because I represent someone who is in need of your services, if that’s possible. We are hoping to have a family, and you are the most perfect fit for our needs out of everyone in the catalogue of surrogate mothers in the entire facility. You are our first choice to help provide us with a family. What I’d like to do is meet with you, tomorrow if it’s at all possible, and discuss the situation with you. We would like to make you an offer and see if we can come to agreeable terms and make this happen.” Cara was friendly and open, but serious as she spoke.
Jamaica was astounded, and Cara could hear it in her voice. “Wow… this is… this is such a surprise. Such an out of the blue surprise. I wasn’t even sure that I was still in their system. I thought I was out of it this month, to be honest,” she began, and Cara’s eyes widened some as she felt like the girl might be slipping through her fingers.
“Well, you’re right, you are scheduled to come out of their system, but not until next week. I realize that this is coming to you out of left field and right at the end of your time with the company, but you really are our first choice, and for us in this matter time is of the utmost importance. If you’d be at least willing to talk with me about it at a meeting tomorrow, I would be so glad to explain and to make you an offer that I am most certain would be the best offer you are ever likely to receive in your life. I want you to understand that there is a great deal of money that will be given to you should this work out. I am just asking that you meet with me initially to discuss it, so that we can determine if this will work. Please consider it carefully.” Cara pursed her lips together and stared hard at the photograph of Jamaica, willing her with everything in her to say yes and agree to the meeting. She knew that she could be much more convincing in person, especially with Henry’s checkbook there beneath her pen. He was a billionaire and while she didn’t have carte blanche with his fortune, she did have a considerable allowance of workable funds from which she could draw upon for anything he needed.
There was a long silence on the other end of the line, and Cara listened closely, waiting to hear what Jamaica’s response would be, and knowing that she was still on the line because she could hear music playing in the background.
“Well,” Jamaica sighed, “I’ll be honest, I entered that program while I was in my early twenties, in fact, I think I was twenty when I signed up for it, and the only reason I ever even signed up for it was the money. It was a way for me to pay my way through college. I haven’t ever been contacted for a situation where I might carry a child… It sort of fell to the back burner, and I was just going to let it go. I’ve finished school and I now work full time, so the elements in my life have changed, and I am not entirely sure that this would be the right decision for me at this time.” The uncertainty in her voice was clear.
Cara drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Please, Jamaica, I want you to consider this carefully. There’s really so much at stake here for the future. It’s incredibly important that we find the right person for this job, and that it is handled right away. The timing on this is crucial, and it’s worth a great deal to us. In fact, if you were to meet with me and it went well and we both agreed on it, I would say that the value on it would be worth five hundred thousand dollars, which would be given to you for your time and service in helping us to create a family.”
She stopped speaking and waited again. It was one of the single most important rules in sales and selling, which w
as essentially what she was doing. She was selling the idea and the position to the one woman she had found who she felt would be best suited for the purpose of doing it, and then leaving.
There was a gasp at the other end of the phone when Cara spoke the amount of money that was to be paid out. There was silence following the gasp, but Cara knew that she had struck a nerve. The nurse had told her that money had once been the most important factor to Jamaica, and it sounded as if that might still be the case for the young woman.
“Five hundred….” Jamaica repeated in a breathless whisper.
“Five hundred thousand. This is the most important thing we will ever do, creating this family, and we truly believe that you are exactly the right person to help us make that happen. I have reviewed your profile at the fertility clinic, and I can promise you that we are confident that no one else would be quite as good a fit for this as you would be. Will you please meet with me tomorrow? I know it’s sudden, but that will give you the night tonight to sleep on it and think about it, and then we can meet tomorrow and talk about the details of what we are looking for, what we expect, and what we can and will give you, and you will have time to think of any questions that you might have. What do you say, will you please meet with me tomorrow? It would only be to talk about it. Keep that in mind.” Cara’s soft voice was reassuring. She gazed into the digital replication of Jamaica’s eyes on her computer monitor and with everything in her, she silently wished that the girl would say yes.
There was a long sigh that sounded at the other end of the phone. “Okay. You have made some excellent points. It is something that I do want to give some thought to tonight. I realize that I’m still on the list of available potential mothers or carriers, but I have never even been contacted for a proposal for carrying a baby before, and I really thought that it was about to die out and this wasn’t going to ever come up, so I was just going to let it go. I wasn’t really prepared to get this call or this request. So, I do need to think about it tonight as you said, but I can meet with you tomorrow to discuss this. I can come and at least talk it over with you. That shouldn’t be an issue at all.”
“Wonderful, if you could please give me your contact information, I would be glad to send you a location where we could meet, and you can let me know a time, and we’ll do it,” Cara said, pushing again for the meeting.
Jamaica agreed and gave Cara her information, telling her that she would see her the next day. Their call ended and Cara heaved a loud sigh and leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes and hoping that Jamaica would in fact do everything that she wanted her to do.
***
The sun was bright in Seattle the next morning, and Jamaica loved the feel of it on her face as she sat near one of the many windows in her classroom at Wentworth Academy. She was smiling at the young girl seated beside her; one of her students, a seven-year-old girl by the name of Annalee Watkins.
“Miss Franklin,” she asked, looking up at Jamaica with her wide child’s eyes and her bright little smile, “this triptych is the best art I’ve ever done!” She looked back down at her creation and beamed.
It was a threefold artistic piece comprised of framed watercolor paintings of animals in the wild. There was an elephant, a lion, and a giraffe. The study had been on capturing the essence of life in its most natural habitat, and while Annalee was easily Jamaica’s star student and didn’t need much help, she was always glad to get extra help and spend time working after school or before in order to get her work just right. It was important to her, and Jamaica loved to see such passion in her young students, particularly in a girl who she knew could go far with her art if she ever chose to take that path.
“I agree completely Annalee, this really is just about the best thing you’ve done. Your work has been getting consistently better, and I’m so proud of you! You learn fast, you adapt what you’ve learned to your imagination, and you just seem to grow so fast and so strong from that, every time you get a chance! This is wonderful. I’m so glad to have you in this class and to get a chance to teach you and share so much wonderful art with you.” Jamaica grinned at the young girl and Annalee seemed to glow under her encouragement.
“I want to be Just as good an artist as you are someday, when I grow up,” Annalee said admiringly as she looked over at one of the far walls of the classroom and gazed at a few large paintings that Jamaica had hanging on the wall. “You’re one of the best artists in the whole world! Someday, I want to be as good as you are. I’m going to work for it. It’ll happen. You’ll see.”
Jamaica nodded. “I know it will, but you must remember that artists are always growing as long as they continue to work at their craft; even me. I’m still growing and learning too, and I always will be, all of my life.”
Annalee frowned a little in confusion. “But you’re a teacher!” she stated in confusion. “How can you learn more?”
“We always learn, all of our lives. We never reach our full potential if we always have room to grow, and as long as we are alive, we have room to grow. No one is perfect, not even the old masters of art, not anyone dead or alive, or anyone in the whole history of the world. We keep on learning, all of us, every day of our lives, and we become better and better. So one day you won’t be as good as me, you’ll be as good as yourself… the best that you can be at that time of your life. Just like me, I’m the best I’ve ever been right now, but I’m still learning, I’m still growing, and as I learn more, then I’ll be even better then, which is better than now, and still the best I’ve ever been. Does that make sense?” she asked, searching the child’s eyes. She wasn’t sure if that much philosophy would sort itself out in the young girl’s mind.
Annalee nodded enthusiastically. “I get it! You keep learning, and you keep getting better, and you keep doing it all of your life, over and over, forever!”
“Well,” Jamaica laughed, “at least as long as I’m alive.” She stood up and smiled down at the girl and the three paintings before her on the table. “You are the best you’ve ever been right now too, and you’re also done with these three, so let’s go set them up in the display case in the hall and then you can head home for the day, okay?” She reached over and picked up two of the pieces, waiting for Annalee to take the third.
The little girl picked it up carefully and carried it with a gentle strength to the display case in the hallway where the two of them set the watercolor paintings up in a row together, and then shut the glass case door.
“Do you like how they look?” Jamaica asked her with an encouraging tone.
Annalee nodded blissfully. “I love it! I think they look great.” She reached her small arms around Jamaica and hugged her tightly, and then took a step back and looked up at her. “Thank you for helping me with them.”
“You are so welcome. I’m always glad to help you anytime,” Jamaica answered, hugging the small girl back. “Okay, you’re all set. We’ll see you tomorrow. Thank you for all of your hard work today Annalee!”
Annalee grinned and turned then, picking up her bag from near the classroom door, and then she turned and hurried down the hallway toward the front door. Jamaica watched her disappear down the hall, knowing that her father would be waiting for her outside.
“She is the cutest kid in your whole class,” came a female voice from just behind Jamaica’s shoulder. She turned then to see one of her close friends standing near her, arms crossed over her chest, smile on her face, her dark eyes bright with joy.
“Penny, she is also the most talented in the class. Cute yes… she’s adorable, but she’s also really talented. If that little girl decides to take her art seriously, she could really be successful one day. Get her work up in good galleries and things like that.” Jamaica gave one last smile to the empty hall that Annalee had just disappeared down, and then she turned to face her friend fully.
“She keeps telling me that she wants to be just like me one day. It’s important for me to be a good role model for her. She seems to be like a spong
e, soaking up everything I say and do. Today she asked me if I was married, and I told her no, but that I want to be someday, and she said that she is going to grow up to be just like me. That’s a lot of pressure on me to get everything right and be the best person that I can be in front of her. Part of me hopes that I don’t fail, because I don’t want her to see that, but then the other part of me kind of hopes that someday she will see me fail, because then she’ll realize that I’m human, and that we all make mistakes and grow and learn, and live and die. She won’t have me up on such a high pedestal. I just hope if I do screw up in front of her, that it’s not too bad, and that it doesn’t destroy her faith in me.” Jamaica let out a small sigh and smiled warmly at her friend.
Penny was another teacher in the school at Wentworth Academy. They had both started at the same time and had become fast friends, relying on each other to learn the ropes and support one another as they settled into their jobs and made their way through each term at the school.
Penny grinned back at Jamaica. She was short and petite, pretty and an easy going, happy person. She was sometimes called cute, but she had done her best to outgrow that stigma, which was often brought on by the size of her small frame. She had shoulder length curly hair and a slightly rounder face with big brown eyes and a wide and friendly smile.
Her friend looked at her, and with a slightly raised brow, Penny looked slightly suspicious of the answer to the question that she asked. “How did the topic of marriage come up, Jami? Are you engaged? Is there something that you’re not telling me?”
The Billionaire's Twin Fever (MANHATTAN BACHELORS Book 1) Page 19