Iris in Bloom: Take a Chance, Book 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

nodded.
    “We grew up in a house with eleven children and you want more?”
    “Crazy, I know.”
    “You of all people. As the oldest, I saw how Mom relied on you. I mean, you’ve practically been a mother for most of your life.”
    “I know. All that practice shouldn’t go to waste, right?”
    “You seriously want children.”
    “I do.”
    “Wow. I am never having kids.”
    “I know.”
    Their fish came at that moment and they took a few minutes to enjoy first bites, then Rose said, “You mentioned a second opinion.”
    “Well? Is she right? Should I have kids soon?”
    Rose took a moment to think. “Yes, probably. Statistically your fertility takes a big drop anyway at thirty-five. If your fallopian tubes are narrowed or blocked it’s going to be hard for you to get pregnant. There are procedures and new breakthroughs every day but why go there if you can avoid it?”
    Normally in a restaurant she’d check out the service, be tasting the bread with an expert’s discrimination, but today she was more interested in the talk than the food.
    “I’ve always wanted kids of my own. I can’t imagine my life without them.”
    “Are you seeing someone?”
    “No. And in Hidden Falls I’m running out of options. The men are taken or they’re gross or they’re gone.” She thought of Geoff McLeod. “Or emotionally unavailable.”
    “You could move.”
    “For a guy? Please.”
    Her sister’s lips twitched.
    “I’m thinking of doing it alone.”
    “Sperm bank?”
    “Yeah.”
    “That’s expensive.”
    “I know. I looked it up online.”
    “What about a friend with benefits? A baby daddy?”
    Rose glanced at her watch and signaled for the waiter. She pulled out her wallet and retrieved a credit card. “I need to get back but you stay and have whatever you want.”
    “No. I’m done. I’ll walk you back to work.”
    As they left the restaurant, weak sun danced off puddles from a recent rain.
    “I thought of finding some guy to father the baby but it seems complicated. First, there’s no one I want to sleep with (who wasn’t emotionally unavailable) and second I don’t want my kid going to find their dad someday and being disappointed.”
    Rose reached out and gave her a quick one-armed hug. “You never should have gone looking for your birth parents.”
    “No. I shouldn’t.” Jack and Daphne Chance had always been honest that their twelve children had come to them in various ways, but they were adamant that every child was their son or daughter. There’d been no differentiation between natural born and adopted. Jack had come through the foster system and he was determined that no child in his home would ever feel different or less special than another. The deal was, if you wanted to know all the details you had to wait until you were sixteen.
    Iris supposed it was a good policy, except that she’d not only found out she was adopted but she’d followed that up by searching out her birth parents. It had been one of the most devastating experiences of her life.
    “I don’t want that to happen to my kid. So I’ll be honest that he or she was fathered by a gorgeous, brilliant med student who needed the money. There’s no rejection in that.”
    The yeasty aroma of rising sweet bread dough, soon to be cinnamon buns, filled the air in the kitchen. While the dough was rising, Iris made lemon squares and kept an ear out in case Dosana became overwhelmed with a morning rush.
    She loved her bakery, the chaos and the comfort of it. Serving hot beverages to get people going in the morning or to pick them up in the afternoon. She loved the pre-work crowd, always in a hurry, followed by the overtired moms who came in dragging strollers and packing bottles of milk or Tupperware boxes filled with fish-shaped crackers for the kids. She liked the old people who wandered in with the newspaper, maybe open to the crossword puzzle and settled down with all the time in the world. She loved her go cup crowd and the