“Don’t discount yourself, Felicity. You’re the owner, and you graduated from one of the best culinary schools in the country. Everyone knows you could work for any restaurant in the world you wanted.”
I snapped my mouth shut. She was right. I’d had offers before setting up in Liberty. But I didn’t want to just work for someone else, and I wanted to return home, to my roots. I didn’t want to live in Los Angeles or Las Vegas or even Paris. But I’d had offers. I just turned them down.
“Still, we come from two different worlds. He’s like super rich. He’s traveled the world with his career and lived in Africa for a bit. We have nothing in common.”
“Except you both have the hots for each other,” Leah said with a wink.
“I think he’s hot, yes. But it’s no different than a celebrity crush. He’s unattainable to me, and that’s why I like him.”
“Whatever you say, girl,” Leah said with a shrug and a knowing smile. “Whatever you say.”
Jeremiah
Damn. Why did she have to look so good? I stared up at the ceiling, my head spinning with thoughts of Felicity. Normally I only saw her in her work clothes; slacks and a plain top that left a lot to the imagination. But tonight, wow.
Her hair was down and falling over her shoulders, slightly messy and wavy. And that tank top showed off just a hint of cleavage. When she got up to use the restroom at some point, seeing her tight ass in those jeans gave me all kinds of bad ideas.
Like following her into the bathroom, pushing her up against the wall, and having my way with her.
Without even realizing it, I had my cock in my hand, stroking it. I pictured her pants being pulled down, her legs wrapped around my waist as I thrust inside of her.
She was so tiny compared to me, I could hold her up easily. And in my fantasy, I did. I plunged inside of her, fucking her up against the wall while she writhed around me.
I bet she’d be tight.
The idea of her pussy spasming around my cock sent shivers throughout my body. I closed my eyes and dove into the fantasy, imagining her cries of pleasure as I brought her to orgasm again and again.
I so badly wanted to make her come, to make her feel so fucking good.
I gripped my member tighter, imagining the spasming of her pussy as she came, her body holding onto mine for dear life.
I wanted to fill that sweet pussy with so much cum that it ran down her legs. I wanted to put a baby inside of her, to fill her belly with my seed.
Just the thought of her being pregnant with my child sent me over the top. A warmth covered my bare belly as I came, groaning as I pictured coming deep inside of her.
It took me a second to come back to reality. I had to clean up, but I was suddenly so tired. A lonliness crept in that often came after masturbating. Along with guilt.
She was twenty-eight, for fuck’s sake.
Twenty years younger than me.
She was an adult, obviously, and it was easy to forget the age difference in the midst of our flirting, but the fact was - I was an old man to her.
I wiped myself off with some Kleenex and tossed it in the trash can near my bed. I laid my head back down and closed my eyes, suddenly feeling sleeping. But my brain still wouldn’t shut off.
I was an old man. She had her whole life ahead of her - a family one day, if she wanted one. I remembered being like that too, thinking I had my entire life ahead of me - and I focused purely on my career. Not something I regretted necessarily, but a part of me wished I’d looked into starting a family sooner.
And perhaps, somehow avoided the likes of Gloria and Lana.
Ooo000ooo
“Good morning,” Felicity’s cheerful voice greeted me as she opened the door to the diner. Her smile was as warm as a bonfire on a cold Utah night. But the smile didn’t go all the way to her eyes, and I noticed it falter once I’d stepped inside.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything is fine,” she said, but her voice no longer had that cheerful lilt to it, the one she had almost every single day.
“You sure?” I turned on my heels, stopping her in her tracks. We were between some tables, and she was close enough that I could smell the light vanilla scent that clung to her skin.
Felicity sighed and pushed past me, rubbing against me as she passed by. She was trying hard not to look me in the eye as she walked toward the counter. I normally sat in the same booth, every day. But today, I was sitting at the counter.
She saw me sit down but didn’t say anything.
A voice called from the back, “Felicity, can you come here for a second?”
I saw the look of dread that crossed her face. She looked physically pained.
“I’ll be right back.”
I couldn’t make out most of what was said between her and who I believed to be Allison. I couldn’t make out the words, –but I could make out the frustration in the tone.
Felicity came back out and slammed her fists down on the counter.
“Sorry,” she said, once she realized what she’d done.
“No need to apologize. Sounds like a frustrating morning. Anything I can do to help?”
“No, I don’t think so. Not unless you're secretly a plumber on the side.”
“You know, just because I’m a doctor doesn’t mean I don’t have other skills. What’s going on?”
Felicity met my gaze, and even though she hesitated, she eventually told me.
“It appears we have tree roots growing through some of our pipes. Our toilets are backing up into the sink drains, and we can temporarily fix it, but it’s only going to get worse. So it looks like we may have to close for the day or for however long it takes to fix this issue. I can still take your order since everything is sanitary and operational for now, but we can’t stay open all day. No way.”
Allison came out from the back and turned the sign to closed on the front door. Tears welled up in Felicity’s eyes, but she wiped at her eyes, turning away so I couldn’t look at her.
“Well, I can’t personally help with that, but I know of a good plumber, and—”
“I can’t afford a plumber right now.”
Then, like that, the dam broke and she fell apart. Tears fell from her eyes, and she wasn’t fast enough with wiping them away. They were impossible to miss now. I pushed back my stool and walked over to her side of the counter.
I wasn’t sure it was appropriate, but I couldn’t let her cry like that. It killed me to see her hurting. I wrapped my arms around her, and for a brief second, she relaxed into me. My heart nearly jumped into my throat as I held onto her. But she pulled away a moment later, and we both stared awkwardly at the floor.
“I’m sorry, I—” We both said at the same time.
“No, you have nothing to be sorry about,” I said. “I should go back to my side of the counter, huh?”
“Yeah, probably should. Customers shouldn’t be back here.”
She still wouldn’t look at me.
“So what else is going on?”
She sighed. “Well, everything, honestly. I have an inspection coming up, and there’s just so much broken and other equipment needs to be updated, and I can’t afford it all. So it looks like we will have to shut our doors until I can figure something out.”
An idea popped into my head.
There she was - beautiful, smart, and talented.
I wanted a surrogate. She needed money. In my logical doctor’s brain, it sounded like a perfect solution. I didn’t really think it over, I just wanted to fix everything, so I spoke without much thinking.
“Can I ask you a weird question?”
“Sure, I guess.”
“Are you healthy? I mean, do you have any health issues?”
“What does that have to do with anything?” she asked, totally confused by the change in topic.
“I have a crazy proposition for you. It probably won’t happen, but— Well, I figured it’s worth bringing up since it could solve problems for both
of us.”
Felicity raised her chin and cocked her head to the side, curious. “Go on.”
I cleared my throat. “Well, I’m in the market for a surrogate. I’d like to have a child of my own and I'm already looking at paying around $30,000, at least, to an agency and since you could use the money, I thought—”
The expression on Felicity’s face was the first sign that I’d made a mistake. Her jaw dropped open and she couldn’t even look at me. Holding up a hand, she said, “Stop right there. You’re asking me to have your baby for money? Are you serious right now?”
“I mean, I was - I am, but obviously, it’s a crazy idea and—”
“You’re right, it's a crazy idea. Do you even realize what it means for a woman to go through pregnancy and have a baby? It’s not something that should be taken lightly.”
I didn’t want to tell her that ever since my mother mentioned the idea, I’d thought about it. Just not seriously since I’d been thinking of us as being together, and that was off the table for a myriad of reasons.
“Yeah, I know. I shouldn’t have said anything,” I said, shrugging and staring down at my hands. “Going through an agency was the original plan, I’ll go back to that.”
“Damn right you will,” she said.
She stormed off to the back, leaving me there alone. A second later, Allison came out with a confused look on her face. “I was training in the kitchen today, but I guess I’m back out on the floor,” she said sheepishly. “So give me a second to get everything set up here, and I can take your order.”
Allison walked over to the computer and typed in something, then she turned back to me with an ordering pad at the ready. Unlike Felicity, she didn’t know my usual.
And I had a feeling that Felicity wouldn’t be coming back out.
Damn. For a highly educated doctor, sometimes I really wasn’t very smart.
Felicity
I slammed the office door behind me, locking it and leaning against it.
Damn you, Abe. Why did you have to ask me something like that?
I’d always wanted children of my own one day. The idea of being pregnant and in love filled me with such happiness normally, but he had whittled it down to a business transaction.
Did he not understand what it would all entail?
But $30,000. In a town like Liberty, that was a lot of money.
It would cover all of my repairs.
It would help me get ahead.
But I’d have to have a baby that wouldn’t be mine. I would carry and nurture and fall in love with it and then have to give it away and not be part of its life. No fucking way.
For him to ask me something like that, when I was already feeling desperate, was low. Had it been anyone else, I would have been royally pissed. But it was Abe. I knew Abe didn’t mean to use the lowest point in my life to get what he wanted. Or at least I wanted to believe he wouldn’t.
To dangle a life changing amount of money in front of me like that, on a whim, seemed so out of character. I wanted to blame his lack of common sense. He was a smart man, but sometimes too logical. Too methodical.
I still wanted to believe that he merely wanted to help me. It was why I hated telling people my problems; everyone wanted to help - but I didn’t want their pity and handouts, and I didn’t want to owe anyone anything. And no matter what, in my experience, it felt like if I let someone do a favor for me, I’d owe them something eventually.
I sighed and wiped the tears from my eyes. There was no taking back what happened. Abe was a regular, I’d see him again. I couldn’t avoid him completely, not in a town as small as Liberty. Maybe I’d distance myself, make it clear that it wasn’t okay to ask such a thing.
Or was it?
Dammit.
He’d tempted me. His offer would change my life. And at least he was upfront at what it would cost me, even if the cost was something I deemed to be way too high.
There was a knock on the door.
“Felicity?” Allison’s soft voice spoke from the other side.
I turned and gripped the doorknob, opening the door slowly.
“Yes?”
“Since the restaurant is technically closed and Abe is the only one here, should I go back to training in the kitchen? Or do you want me to leave once he’s finished?”
Allison was a lot like me. She loved cooking, but her family couldn’t afford to send her to a culinary school. So I was training her in the kitchen myself, trying to help her out as best I could.
I opened the door wider. “Come inside. I want to talk to you.”
Her face blanched. “Am I in trouble? I’m sorry I was late the other day, I—”
“No, you’re not in trouble. I just need your advice on something,”
“You need my advice?” The young woman’s face lit up.
I took a seat at my desk. “Yes, just a hypothetical question for you. Can you shut the door behind you, please?”
Allison did as I asked, then took a seat across from me. Her face was eager and curious. God, she looked like a baby and there was only seven year’s difference between us. I wondered if I looked like a baby to Abe, and if so, how could he ask me such a question?
And why was I asking Allison such a question?
Because I didn’t want to alert my friends that anything was wrong, that’s why. I had no one else to ask, and I knew Allison’s situation -- she would be in a place that the money would change her life forever.
I cleared my throat. “Say someone approached you and offered you a lot of money - enough to pay for your culinary school, but you’d have to be a surrogate for them. Do you think that is something you could comfortably do?”
Allison seemed to ponder it for a second. “You mean have a baby for someone else?”
“Yes, exactly. Especially if it’s something you’ve always wanted for yourself. Say, you’ve always wanted to have kids, so the idea of being pregnant and having babies is very important to you.”
“Yes, I understand, I think,” she said. “And I’d agree to do it. I mean, depending on if they covered the medical costs and all that too, obviously, and that they were a good person, someone I trusted to raise the baby right.”
“You’d do it that easily?”
“Maybe not easily, but I think of it this way - while yes, it might be hard to give the child up, I’d be giving someone else a family that they’ve yearned for and get my college paid for, which would change my life. It would also put me in a better situation to have a family of my own one day, because currently, I don’t see being able to afford that on a server’s salary. No offense, you pay well and all, but—”
“None taken,” I said. “I understand completely. Kids are very expensive.”
“Exactly. But if I could get in a better place financially, I’d be able to start my own family one day. At least it would make it more likely, you know?”
I nodded. She spoke the thoughts I had myself. But I still couldn’t imagine just having a baby and giving it away. Especially not in such a small town where I’d have to see him or her very often while not being a part of their life.
But it would put me in a better place to have a family of my own one day, if I got the repairs and everything done here, this place made plenty of money - it just needed someone to invest in it. This would be my investment.
And Abe was a good man, I had no doubt.
“Thanks, Allison. And yes, feel free to continue training under Gavin. I’ll be out in a bit to train you as well.”
“Thanks, Felicity,” she said. “I really appreciate all your help. Hopefully one day I can work in your upscale restaurant too.”
I cringed. I’d spoken about that dream to her before, but it had felt so impossible.
But if I did this for Abe, maybe it would be possible, one day.
Allison scurried off, leaving me alone. But only for a few moments.
Another knock.
“Yes?”
“Sorry, it’s me again.”
“Come in.”
Allison popped in, an envelope in her hand.
“What’s that?”
“I don’t know, Dr. Hammond asked me to give it to you.”
She handed me the envelope and left. I stared down at it. Probably an apology note, I thought, ripping it open.
There was a note, but that wasn’t the first thing I saw.
No, my eyes fell on a check first.
For $50,000.
Written out to me.
“Jesus Christ,” I said, pulling open the note.
Felicity,
I was a fool, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that of you. You’re right, I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to help you, but that wasn’t the way to go about it. Please, accept this check as a donation to keep the diner up and running. This diner is important to the town, and I don’t think I could live without your cooking. There are no strings attached, consider it a gift.
Sincerely,
Abe
My heart jumped into my throat as I picked up the check.
Oh hell no, I thought. I jumped to my feet and rushed out my office and into the dining room. It was weird seeing the place empty at this time during the week. Usually it was packed, but today, there wasn’t a single person there.
Not even Abe.
Dammit, I cursed as I ran out the door and searched the street.
No sign of him or his car.
He really dropped a $50,000 check and left, just like that. But I wasn’t about to let him get away that easily.
Abe
My clinic was still closed for another hour, but I liked being there before we opened to the public. It gave me a chance to get caught up on paperwork, and to think. It allowed me to prepare for the day ahead.
I took a deep breath as I collapsed into my leather office chair. I was still cursing myself for screwing things up at the diner. I’d meant what I said in the letter - Liberty needed Smothered in Love. I needed it. I went there every day for the food, but also the company. The idea of not having anywhere to go like that sounded awful. We had a bakery and a coffee house, but no other greasy spoon diners within the city limits. You had to drive about fifteen minutes out to find anything else, and it wasn’t nearly as good, and the service was nothing compared to Smothered in Love.
Take a Mountain Man Home for Christmas: A Mountain Man Romance Christmas Collection Page 80