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“It kind of was ic, wasn’t it?”

“I thought so And in that office that day I think the ic made me kind of lose it for a second I hadn’t planned to oing to fund your research, that was it”

“No Rumpelstiltskin?”

“No, not even a little bargain with a minor demon Until I saw you and wanted to find a way to be near you As I said, I’d been thinking about having a child, even if I didn’t have a wife I had investigated possibly hiring a surrogate, and so that’s why I thought of it, I believe, to tie surrogacy to the funding And I figured that once our child was born, Iwith you”

“That’s kind of crazy”

“But mostly kind of romantic crazy”

“I’ll go with romantic crazy”

“Da”

“You need to quit worrying about the scotch I’ht,” she said

“I want to kiss you so badly”

She unconsciously licked her lips “Not yet”

“Fine But I think I’ve ad now The story is told”

“Alain, after we made the deal We only spoke on the phone, or we Skyped or texted or whatever But we didn’t ain”

“I thought you wanted it that way And I accepted it so we could get to know each other,” he said “Oh, when you went into labor, and I was told, I was absolutely beside o wrong I’d never felt anything like that into see et a second chance with you filled et the chance for any of that, of course”

“You don’t have to talk about that, Quint I was always drawn to you, too I respected how you’d changed and how you respected nancy And after everything that’s happened with Hampton — I never could have held onto hope without your help And I never could have gotten him back without you You made me feel safe Even in the darkestme to believe that all would be well”