A Baby in the Bargain Read Online Free PDF Page A

used to get those warehouses and factories built.”
    “Well, we are seeking out folks who got the short end of the stick from H.J.,” GiGi said calmly.
    “But maybe I’m not the best one to deal with it right now, when I’ve started with the infertility endocrinologist and the wheels are finally in motion for a baby.”
    Jani could see from the expression on Georgianna’s face—which still showed glimmers of her early beauty—that her grandmother was trying to contain her disapproval of the course Jani had set for herself.
    “You’ve made it clear that that’s what you’re going to do come hell or high water but I still don’t agree with the rush,” GiGi said bluntly. “I know when you had that appendectomy at seventeen and they found out you have only one ovary—”
    “One unusually small ovary,” Jani reminded. “Which means that from the get-go my chances for having a family are greatly reduced—you and I were both told that.”
    “I know that since then you’ve been scared silly that you wouldn’t be able to have a baby at all.”
    “Because they made it clear there were risks, especially if I waited too long. ‘The earlier the better’ — that’s what they said. And now I’ve turned thirty! Thirty and with all those years wasted on Reggie. I can’t wait any longer, GiGi!”
    “Eat some grilled cheese, tell me if there’s enough garlic in the mayo,” her grandmother advised.
    Jani knew that was a diversion to keep her from getting too agitated. But it was difficult not to get agitated over this. Until now she’d followed the traditional route—she’d tried to find the right guy, get married, then have a family. The route her grandmother approved of.
    But that route had led to a dead end and cost her precious time. Time she certainly didn’t have to waste.
    So she wasn’t going to. She’d come to the firm conclusion that she had to bypass the step of finding another man to have a relationship with. She couldn’t afford the months, the years that a relationship required to blossom, to develop. She couldn’t afford the time it took to get to an engagement, a marriage. To only then pursue a pregnancy and have a baby. More years could be spent on that course.
    Instead she’d decided to have a baby on her own. Here and now, without a husband. That’s what she’d made up her mind to do. And that was what she was going to do. Despite the fact that to seventy-five-year-old Georgianna it wasn’t merely unconventional, but bordered on scandalous.
    “I’m just saying,” Jani reasoned, getting back to her initial point, “that maybe it would be better to give this particular deal with Gideon Thatcher to someone else because so much of my energy will be devoted to getting pregnant.”
    Hmm... But why did the thought of her grandmother giving this job to one of her female cousins make her feel a little jealous, a little territorial?
    Jani didn’t understand it.
    But it was that feeling that prompted her to add, “Maybe one of the boys would be better...”
    GiGi shook her head as she took a bite of her own sandwich. “I’m looking at it this way—let’s say you do get pregnant—”
    “I will get pregnant. I have to. It’s my last chance.”
    GiGi humored her. “Yes, well. Once you do, then you’ll be pregnant and dealing with that without even a husband to take care of you or help you— that wouldn’t be a time to send you out on one of these missions, would it? Then you’ll have a baby—on your own,” the elderly woman emphasized. “I won’t be able to ask you to leave a baby in order to spend time getting to know one of these people to find out how much damage was done and how we can make up for it, will I?”
    GiGi had always been sharp as a tack and that hadn’t changed with age. She’d also always been a step ahead of all ten of her grandchildren, and Jani could see that was still the case. Apparently GiGi had anticipated her arguments and prepared her