Chapter 11

Evan

Nearly a week had gone by without hearing from Piper. The way the situation unfolded between us made me feel terrible. She’d come to me, The Baby Maker, for help with her dream of having a child. But our past got in the way. She’d run away from me in a state of disarray, her dream in tatters. It was my fault. I had ruined everything with her again.

Fate handed me a second chance with Piper, and I’d blown it. Fuck. I tried to be careful and ease her into the arrangement. Once she realized the whole company was based around me, she’d become overwhelmed. Piper wasn’t stupid. She understood that if I had a nearly perfect record of getting women pregnant, I obviously had a lot of children out there in the world. She couldn’t handle that fact, and she couldn’t go through with the arrangement.

I’d made a mistake when I’d left her all those years ago. I messed up even worse by not trying to put things right with her afterward. Ten years of my life had been wasted because of my own stupidity and stubbornness. I could have gone back to her. She might have forgiven me. Hell, she seemed happy enough to see me last week. I could have had a happy life with her, but I went the other way and lived a life of sex and women. It had all been for a good cause, but at what cost?

You have to make things right with her, Evan.

I wasn’t sure if I could fix things with Piper now. I’d had two chances to be with Piper, and things had gone wrong both times. It was all my fault. Even if I couldn’t erase the past and get back together with her, I still wanted to spend time with her. Any amount of time. Even minutes would be worth it to me.

Piper didn’t understand she’d been the only woman I ever loved. Out of all the women I’d helped as the Baby Maker, none of them came close to Piper.

I’d constructed the Baby Maker site to be secretive. While I built the site, I met people who knew how to find information about anyone and anything, even if that information was private. They could get me anything I needed.

I called my contact and told him what I wanted to know. He got on the case right away. He returned my call in less than an hour with Piper’s home and business addresses. Pretty good service for a thirteen-year-old kid. He was young, but a genius with computers. Thank Christ!

I decided to visit Piper at her home. Her place of work would draw too much attention to both of us. She’d feel safer at home, and I needed her to be calm. Or as calm as possible, considering how weird this situation was.

I entered Piper’s apartment building. She lived on the second floor of an old brownstone which had been converted into apartments. I climbed the stairs. The wooden steps creaked beneath my feet, sounding loud in the silence. The second-floor hallway gave no indication of who lived behind the closed doors.

I took a few deep breaths and knocked on Piper’s door. She opened the door and peered at me over the security chain. She looked shocked to see me. I said nothing and shot her a half-smile.

Piper’s mood changed instantly. “What the fuck are you doing here?” she asked. “How the hell did you find me?”

She was angry and freaked out that I’d found out where she lived. She probably thought I’d turned into a stalker overnight like some kind of weirdo. It was nothing like that. I just wanted to speak to her.

Come on Piper, let me in. I’m not all bad.

“I have my ways,” I replied. “Don’t worry. Your secrets are safe with me.” I grinned slightly, hoping to change her mood.

Her apartment was the only one upstairs, but it would be better if she let me inside. There was no way we could have a decent conversation this way. Not while she cowered behind the door and looked over a security chain.

“Can I come in?” I asked.

“I shouldn’t let you,” she said. “But since you’re here, I guess you can come in.” She removed the security chain from the door and let me in her apartment.

It was obvious an interior designer lived here. Her place looked amazing. The walls had beautiful lines, and spotlights highlighted the many details perfectly. It had a warm, vibrant feel. Her design style reminded me of her personality. The tiny accents on the doors and door frames elevated them somehow, taking them from the nineteen twenties and melding them with a twenty-first century sensibility.

Design books and magazines filled the bookshelves. Obviously, she used these to inspire her in her work. The walls were an off-cream white, and numerous paintings hung on the walls by an artist called J. Larson, who I’d never heard of. They were rather abstract and probably not to everyone’s taste. They had a wild, manic style that really made them eye-catching. If the artist wasn’t already famous, it would only be a matter of time.

“Who is this artist?” I asked, trying to break the tension.

“My best friend, Jules,” Piper said. “I met her at art school a couple of years after you left for college. She’s been with me through thick and thin, unlike some people I won’t mention. She warned me about all the Baby Maker shit. God, I should’ve listened and stayed away.” She sat on the couch with anger in her eyes.

“You knew who I was, didn’t you?” she asked. “From the moment you saw my picture in the email, you had to know it was me, and you still turned up to meet me.”

“That’s true. I saw your picture, and I had to see you. Nothing could have kept me from seeing you again. Christ, all those years apart drove me crazy.”

“How did you think I would react? Finding out that you’re the Baby Maker? Didn’t you know the shit storm it would cause? I mean, look at us now!”

“I was excited to see you,” I said, trying to justify my behavior. “I dropped all my plans to be there. I even showed up early so I could see you arrive.”

“And that makes it all right, does it?” she asked, super pissed. “You turn up early and cancel some plans? Plans to fuck other women, probably. You think that puts you in the clear?”

“I came here to make things right,” I said. “I‘m eternally sorry how things went between us. And I don’t want to stop you from having a child, if that’s what you still want to do. Don’t let me ruin your life. I can’t be the one who robs you of her dreams, just because of something that happened so long ago.”

“It all seems very easy for you, doesn’t it? Really? Goodness, a few words and everything just turns out right. Well, times have changed, and it’s not like that anymore! And for your information, I‘m not like that anymore.”

“Please, just let me help you,” I said desperately. “Then you can have what you want in life. You can move on and have the kid you always wanted.”

“And why would I let you help me?” Piper hissed. “So you can sow your seed another time and satisfy your urges? The ones you’ve had for the last ten years? Then on top of all that, you could make some money off of me?”

I lost myself in Piper’s eyes. “I’m sorry, but you have it all wrong. Not a penny goes to me. Every single cent goes to charity. To an orphanage, in case you’re curious. This was never a money-making venture. It was all about helping women and giving them something they desired.”

I waited for Piper to respond, but she sat in silence and stared at me. She shook her head in disbelief.

“If you want my assistance, I’ll waive any charges. I just want you back in my life. Piper, I’ve wasted ten years, and now I don’t want to waste this golden opportunity.”

Piper listened thoughtfully. “Back in your life,” she said. “What, for four months? And at one session per month? That equates to, um, not a fucking lot of time. Geez, maybe ten hours or so? And what happens if I don’t get pregnant during the four months? What then?”

“Then we try for as long as it takes. I‘m happy for every single second I can spend with you. Something is better than nothing. Those brief moments would mean more than time to me.”

I moved closer to her on the couch. I’d missed Piper over the years, and I wanted her to be close to me. I inched closer and put my hand on her cheek. My fingers ran over her soft, velvety skin. Her blue eyes pierced my soul, just like they did in school.

“Piper, I’ve missed you so much,” I said. “Ten years. That’s a whole decade thinking of you.”

Piper started to lean toward me. I could feel her warm breath on my face. The touch of her soft cheek under my fingers.

Fuck, she feels like it was only yesterday…

Piper leaned into me. If things went the way I thought they would, this would be one of the few times I’d had sex that wasn’t part of an arrangement or contract. Piper was worth so much more. I had thrown the rule book, my rule book, out the window for her. Piper had her own rules. All the other ones were worth breaking.

Piper leaned further into me and gently closed her eyes. This was the moment I’d dreamed of for ten years. I leaned in, too, and placed my lips on hers. The smell of her hair enveloped me, and the heat from her full lips came over my whole body. I’d waited so long to feel this again.

Her tender lips brought all the memories flooding back. The atmosphere was electric, and I was easily aroused. I ran my fingers through her auburn hair. I pushed it from her shoulder and softly kissed her neck. Piper tilted her head to the side in acceptance of my tender kiss.

Damn, I’m still more than in love with her…

I ran my tongue over her soft skin, and she moaned. The taste of her body was just as I remembered. She cooed softly into my ear. Our embrace became closer and tighter. I wrapped Piper in my arms and pulled her deep into my chest. Her breasts pushed against me. Her breathing became deeper and more defined. It was sublime.

Piper opened her bright, blue eyes and gazed deeply into mine. She bit her bottom lip. Her fingers ran down my shirt. I was taken by her and could still see the girl I left broken so many years ago. I’d been a damned fool. It would have been easy for me to just go back to her, but by then, things had gotten out of control. Then, the urgency of seeing her had faded with each passing day. That memory lingered inside my lonely heart.

Piper held her hand out to me. I took hold of her fingers and I stood. Piper led me towards her bedroom.

“Come on, Evan. We’ve waited long enough.”

There is a God. Amen.