“What did you mean by let us have a child together?” Cade asked as they entered the house. Ophelia looked at him, wondering what he was going on about.
After she dropped the bomb on him in the car, he had not said anything through the drive home, and now it was like his mouth taps were let loose and now he could talk. “Are you saying that… Are you saying that we should… Are you saying that?” he trailed off each time.
Cade did not want to seem vain to her; what would she think about him if he were still thinking about them being intimate when she had clearly told him off about it? She had been clear and never stuttered about it either, so she must mean that they have their baby another way.
“Are you saying we have a test tube baby? Adoption? Artificial insemination? IVF?” Ophelia blinked at him. He seemed to have way too much knowledge about things like this and why.
“Why do you know so much about babies?” she asked. Cade cleared his throat, confronted by her question. He expected that she would answer his question, but not the way she did. She should have answered why she changed her mind and how she intended to have the baby.
“I researched on it a lot.”
“Why?”
“It’s nothing,” he said, biting the corner of his lips. How could he tell her that Harper had told him that she was infertile while they were together and he had researched other ways they could get babies even if she could not conceive? He had seen a family with her and he never thought of giving it until his grandfather made him do so. Now he was forcing him to have the same family with another woman.
“Did one of your girlfriends make you do that?” she asked, crossing her hands across her chest.
“One of my girlfriends?”
“You know, the ones that flocked around you while you were in school. Did you promise marriage to one of them and then discover that they could not have children? Is that why you did this much research?”
“Can’t a man just want to know about things like this? If it were a woman who knew these things, it would not be strange,” he rambled, looking everywhere in the room aside from her face.
“The look on our face and the nervousness you show with your hands,” she said, pointing to his hands that he kept pressing and fondling “Shows me that I was right and you are just lying,” she said. Her tone was hard to decode. Was she angry that he had done the research?
“Are you angry?” he asked, trying to pry into her face, and now was the time for her to avoid him.
“Why would I be angry?” she asked, biting the bottom of her lip. The worst part of it all was that she was angry. Very angry that he had somehow admitted that he researched because of a woman. “Who was it? Harper?” she asked, following up. She immediately regretted asking that question because his face seemed amused at her question.
“Don’t mind me, don’t answer that,” she said, quickly waving his hands in the air as if to clear up the question and stop him from saying anything.
“But…”
“Don’t you dare try to answer that,” she replied, glaring at him as she also hoped that he ignored her question.
“Okay,” he said, throwing his hand in the air as if he surrendered to her. “I want to use one of my wishes,” he said and she gulped.
“Now?” She blinked hard so that the fear she felt would not show. Her heart raced as she began to think of all the things he could ask her. She had literally put her life in his hands at this point, and who knows what outrageous things she could ask him to do?
“Yes now,” he said, and she nodded.
“What is it?” She was not going to act scared of what he was going to say. She could not say she was not sacred, but there was no way she was going to show it to him.
“If we are having the babies.”
“I already told you that we are doing that,” she cut him off and he nodded.
“Okay, so to have the babies,” he started and stopped midway. He did not want her to think he was trying to do this for his own good. “Can we make sure that this is something you really want? Think over it again.”
“I have thought over it,” she said. She could not believe that he had used his wish like that. If she were the one, she would have asked him to do something that benefits her, but he was worried about her instead. How weird.
“Yes, I know you did think about it, but I do not want you to feel pressured because my grandfather asked for kids. It has been your decision not to have them for years now; how could that change overnight?” He rambled, and she could see the genuine concern in his eyes and feel it in his voice.
“Cade,” she said, silently shifting closer to him so there was barely any space between them. “I want you to know that I have thought it through and I would do this.”
“Why?” he asked. He felt like this was the right time to get a written agreement, so she did not say that she was forced into doing this.
“Because I cannot bear to lose to Frances,” Ophelia said, but she thought to herself if that was just an excuse for her to get closer to Cade. She hated how close Harper tried to get to him every time. Harper had a history with him; she felt the need to create history with him.
Those who doubted the authenticity of their relationship would definitely not doubt them again if they had kids, right?
“What?” Cade asked shocked.
Ophelia opened her mouth to explain, but her phone vibrated on the table. She looked down at it, and it was her father’s name written boldly on it. She wondered why he would call her so early in the day. He rarely called her. “Excuse me,” she said, holding a finger to him and picking up the phone, sliding her finger across it, and putting it to her ears.
“Hello, Dad?”