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“I thought pregnant women get super horny?” Luna teases her.

Courtney laughs. “That was true until about a week ago and then my body was like, nope. Don’t touch me. Don’t look at me. Just get this thing out!”

They laugh again.

“I have a good feeling about this,” Allora tells Luna. “I think you and Roger will make really pretty babies!”

Babies?!

What the hell is she talking about?

And who the fuck is Roger?!

Chapter Three

Luna

I’ve never enjoyed dating.

I like having a boyfriend and being in a relationship, but the early stages of dating where you ask all the questions and figure out if you really like someone? Not my thing. And I’ve done way too much of that over the years.

Luckily, after more than four months, Roger and I are past the awkward stuff. That’s why I’m going to talk to him about our future tonight. I’m a little nervous because I’m not sure he’ll be on board for what I have in mind but I’m not getting any younger.

It’s not that I’m old. Thirty-five isn’t old by most standards.

Except the one on my mind.

The one where my OBGYN told me my days for getting pregnant are numbered. That between being overweight, having PCOS/PMOS, and the fact that thirty-five is the age where even healthy women are considered geriatric when it comes to pregnancy, she thinks every year I wait will be that much more difficult for me.

That said, I have no intention of waiting to find the perfect guy. I’m perfectly capable of raising a child on my own, but I don’t want to. I’d like a partner, even if the relationship doesn’t work out and we become nothing more than co-parents. I want my child to grow up with both a mom and a dad. I also have a support network now, which is part of what swayed my decision to do this now.

Due to the growing number of children in our circle at Shadow Security, Daniil and Courtney are planning to start on-site daycare in the fall. So the baby can be in the building while I work. There’s also a generous maternity leave plan in the works, though I’ll be the first to test it out since Courtney doesn’t really work for Shadow Security.

She and Daniil started it together, and she plans to participate now that they bought a helicopter and she’s a pilot, but on a day-to-day basis we don’t count on her for shifts.

I know nothing is ever as easy in practice as it is in theory, but I’ve spoken to Courtney about my plans and she’s promised they’ll make it work because they need me. No one else on the team has my coding skills. My hacking background. My expertise in cyber security. That’s why they hired me, despite my colorful past.

“Luna. There you are.” Roger’s voice is warm, his smile genuine when I walk up to the restaurant in Temecula, which is where we both live. He reaches out, hugs me with one arm and kisses me lightly, eyes raking over me. “You look…lovely.”

“Thank you.” I’m wearing my favorite hot pink summer dress with matching platform heels. My hair is also the same color, thanks to a visit to my stylist yesterday.

“Our table is ready. Shall we?” He holds out his arm, and I take it.

He’s old-fashioned that way, and I find it charming. He’s a bit older than I am, in his late forties, but we’ve talked about relationships, marriage, and those kinds of things, and seem to be on the same page for almost all of it.

We sit at a nice table overlooking the garden behind the restaurant and order a bottle of wine. He tells me about his day as we peruse the menus. There’s an osso Bucco that sounds amazing, as well as a chateaubriand that we’d have to share. I’m always a little self-conscious about what I eat in front of a man, even after all these months. I know, it’s a terrible stereotype, but I’m five eleven and over two hundred pounds.

I’m a big girl by today’s standards, and men can be jerks. Roger has never said or done anything to make me self-conscious about my weight but we don’t usually go out to nice restaurants like this, with multiple courses, a breadbasket, and potentially all the bells and whistles.

“Would you want to share the chateaubriand?” I ask him.

He smiles and nods. “That sounds great.”

The waiter comes over and we order an appetizer and our meal. Then he continues telling me about his day at work. He’s a civil engineer, and though I find his work boring, I feign interest because I figure he feels the same way when I talk about my work.

Also, because I want him to consider me someone who’d make a good life partner. To want to start something more serious. To agree to start working on making a baby.

“What about your day?” he asks politely, after we’ve finished the stuffed fig appetizer we ordered. “Catch any bad guys?”