Page 2

She slides a glass to me and holds hers up. "To the unlubed dildo of life. May she fuck someone else for a while."

I laugh and clink my glass to hers. "To the next six years being less shitty than the last."

I down my shot, licking a stray drop of tequila off my lip. Her eyes drop to my mouth and stay there, and my dick really fucking likes that.

She blinks a couple of times and then tears her eyes off my mouth.

“Six years?” Her face pinches before she knocks back her drink. “Damn. Sucks, doesn’t it? Mine was five.” She holds up her hand, fingers spread. “Five of my best, slut-era years wasted on a mediocre man and for what?” She laughs, but we both know whatever she’s about to say isn’t funny. “To find him balls-deep in some rando in my fucking bed.”

My fingers tighten around the edge of the bar. The urge to find this faceless asshole and break his goddamn everything is riding me way harder than it should, considering I don't even know her name.

"My wife had her tubes tied," I say. It’s the first time I’ve told anyone since I found out, and I don’t know why I’m telling her. But I keep going anyway. Once I start, I can’t seem to stop. "A year ago when she was supposed to be on a girls’ trip before we started trying to have a baby. She forgot to mention that she didn’t want fucking kids until today. When I told her I got us an appointment to see a fertility specialist tomorrow, she finally came clean.”

She whistles. “That’s some movie-villain type shit right there.” She stares at me. Her gaze softens, and I brace myself for the pity, but it never comes. Instead, she tosses her shot back and slams the glass down. "You know what? Fuck them."

"Fuck them," I agree, twisting on my barstool so I can see her better. My knees brush against her hip, but neither one of us moves away.

She drops her head onto her crossed arms on the bar, tracing a water ring with a painted fingernail. "The cheating is bad," she says. "Like, I’m awesome and if a guy wants to cheat on me, fuck him. You know?”

I nod.

“But that’s not even the worst part. Today was the day we were supposed to start trying to have a baby." She turns her head to the side so she’s looking up at me, and fuck. There’s so much hurt in her eyes. I feel it like it’s my own. "But now I have to start all over. It’s not like I can go on an app and put in my bio that my biological clock’s ticking away and I want a baby so bad I’d do just about anything to have one.” She snorts. “Could you imagine?”

My heart rate kicks up, and there’s an idea sparking to life somewhere under all the tequila in me right now.

“TMI, stranger, but I’m literally ovulating right now. It’s such a waste."

And that idea crystallizes between one heartbeat and the next. It sounds cliché, but it feels like the world stops spinning. Just screeches to a halt as this terrible idea of mine floods into me. Every cell. Every atom of my body.

This moment of pure fucking unhinged madness that somehow makes so much sense, I can’t think about anything else.

I’ve wanted a family my whole life. A loud house. Kids everywhere. The kind of home I grew up in—minus the kids everywhere since I’m an only child—and have missed since the day I left.

Until today, I thought Delia was how I’d get it.

But this woman wants a baby.

I want a baby.

And she’s fucking ovulating.

I eye her again, and my dick’s more than half hard at this point imagining all the things I could do to her that no sane man would say to a stranger.

The thoughts running through my head could easily get me a kick to the balls.

Plus, I'm technically still married, but fuck it. My wife killed this marriage the second she got her tubes tied behind my back.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm a free man even if the legal shit hasn’t been handled yet.

Shit, am I doing this?

My mouth waters, thinking about the possibility. This could go so, so badly, but I’m drunk enough not to care.

So, I quit thinking about it. Before common sense can crawl out from under all the tequila and stop me, I open my mouth and let my bad idea out into the world.

"I could give you a baby," I say, my voice rough as shit. I reach down and adjust myself, and her eyes follow. "Tonight. Right now."

CHAPTER 2