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He looked confused enough that I believed him. Griff was many things, but a liar wasn’t one of them.

“Well apparently it didn’t take then, because somehow one of your super mutant sperm clawed its way past whatever the hell they cut inside your dick and made its way to find my last remaining egg.”

I shoved at his chest again. “I can’t believe you knocked me up, you asshole! Again!”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” he said mildly. “But I can’t say I’m sorry.”

He got a weird little smile on his face like he was proud of himself, and I’d never wanted to kill anyone more than I did in that moment.

“What?!?!” My voice was so high I was surprised the windows didn’t shatter. “You knocked me up again and you’re actually happy about it?”

“I love you Dawn. I won’t be sad to have a do-over being parents together.”

“A do-over?” I yelled. “A do-over? What the actual fuck is wrong with you? I’m forty-five fucking years old. I’m too old to be a mother again. Pregnancy is dangerous at this age. God only knows what kind of deformed egg I had, and with your crusty old sperm we’re probably going to have some freaky baby that has a tail or five arms or something. And we’ll be too old and decrepit to take care of it!”

I stormed towards the door.

“Dawn. Wait. Please don’t go. Let’s talk about this.”

I pointed my finger at him.

“Stay. The fuck. Away. From me,” I grit out. “Or I won’t be responsible for what happens next.”

I raced out to my car and tore out of my parking spot, driving as fast as I dared. I needed to be alone for a while to figure this out. I called Chloe from the car, letting her know I wasn’t feeling well, and headed home to wallow in my own misery.

Later that night Chloe came over after she closed the restaurant.

“Mom!” She called my name out as she opened the door. Damn it, I should have never given her a key. “Are you awake?”

She found me on the couch, surrounded by about a thousand Kleenex and a huge pizza I’d been working my way through all night. I was eating for two apparently, so I might as well drown my sorrows in cheesy carbs. It wasn’t like I could have a margarita.

Fucking Griff and his super sperm.

She stopped short, her jaw dropping as she took in the mess and my swollen, red eyes.

“What happened?” she asked in concern. “Are you okay? Did Dad do something?”

“He did something alright,” I choked before I started sobbing again. I couldn’t help it. I’d been crying all day and couldn’t seem to stop. I hadn’t cried this much since the last time I accidentally got pregnant.

Chloe stood in the middle of the room watching me with concern. I knew she was worried, but I couldn’t hold back my muddled emotions. I was crying so hard I couldn’t talk.

“Let me call Evie and Emma,” she finally said, pulling out her phone. “I think we need to bring in the big guns.”

“Tell them to bring ice cream. Lots of ice cream.”

Chapter 11

Griff

When Chloe texted me later that night wanting to meet for breakfast the next morning, I knew she’d heard the news.

I was glad she’d been with her mother, so she wasn’t alone. I’d texted Dawn three times since she left my house yesterday, with no response. I called her last night and again this morning, but she didn’t pick up the phone. I had been tempted to go over there, but I figured I’d give her some time to process everything.

Honestly, I need a little bit of time as well. Her being pregnant was a shock. But I’d meant what I said: I wasn’t sad that she was pregnant. I was pretty impressed that we’d gotten pregnant, and even though I knew it was ridiculous, I felt a sense of masculine pride that one of my boys had made it past the vasectomy to knock her up.

I’d looked up on the internet last night and learned that although it was pretty rare, after some time a guy’s swimmers could make their way past the point where they cut the connection. I’d also looked up pregnancy for women in their forties. I was sorry that I did that: reading about everything that could go wrong just freaked me out. It was good I didn’t know all that stuff the first time around.

Dawn and I needed to talk about what we were going to do. I hoped she was going to want to keep the baby, but knew I’d support her if she made another decision. I fully understood that she didn’t trust me yet, but this time would be different. I’d never abandon her or the baby, the way I had abandoned Chloe when I was a kid. I was a much better man now, responsible and dependable, I just needed to prove it to her by showing up and being reliable.