Without giving herself a chance to second guess her gut, Yasmin picked up the landline and dialed her parents’ house.
“Good morning, sunshine,” Li-Mei said, answering on the first ring. “How did you sleep? You want to come over for eggs and rice?”
“Thanks, but I can’t Mom,” Yasmin said. “I’ve got things to do for work this morning, so I need to stay here and jump online in a minute, but I was wondering if you could do me a quick favor.”
Li-Mei made that growling sound that was her mother’s version of clearing her throat. “Maybe. Maybe not. I have a lot to do to get the babies ready, Yasmin. They’re judging top cock today.”
Yasmin fought a smile.Top cock.Only her mother could say those two words without a hint of humor in her voice. “It’s not a big favor. I just wanted to ask if you could send my sperm donor’s information over to your friend in the local FBI office. You said she could run a background check for us, right?”
“Yes,” Li-Mei said cautiously. “Does this mean Noah O’Sullivan has agreed to be the father?”
“No, he hasn’t agreed. And if he does, he won’t be the father, Mom, we’ve talked about this. A donor has no claim over a child conceived with donated sperm.”
“Doesn’t seem natural,” her mother muttered, clearly having as much trouble wrapping her mind around the situation as she had when Yasmin first announced her plan. But to Li-Mei’s credit, her confusion hadn’t stopped her from supporting her daughter one hundred percent. “But all right, I will send his information over to Sarah and tell her to put a rush on it before my daughter gets pregnant on Monday.”
“I don’t know that it will happen on Monday,” Yasmin said, rolling her eyes. “He hasn’t said yes yet, and even if he does, there’s no guarantee it will work the first time. Some people have to go through the procedure several times before they conceive.”
“At two thousand dollars a pop, you better hope it takes the first time.” Li-Mei made her growling, throat clearing, universal sound of disapproval a second time. “There are ways to get this stuff for free, you know, Yasmin. It’s like that song,All I Want to Do Is Make Love to You. Listen to the lyrics. It spells it all out.”
Yasmin’s lips curved. “You’re saying I should go pick up a hot young hitchhiker and bang him all night long, Mom?”
“I don’t want to know the specifics,” Li-Mei said in a voice that made Yasmin certain her mother was shaking her head wearily from side to side, wondering what she did to earn such a daughter. “I’m just saying I don’t want you to be pregnant and in the poor house by the time all of this is done.”
“I won’t be, Mom,” Yasmin said, smile fading. “Trust me. I’m going to do right by this kid, no matter how he or she is conceived. And you’re going to love being a grandma.”
Li-Mei sighed. “I’ll love being a grandma in a few years, too, precious girl. If you decide you want to wait and find a nice man. I know one is out there, Yasmin. Your happy ending was written in the stars the day you were born.”
“Maybe I’m just tired of waiting for it, Mom.”
“When you’re tired is when the end of the road is close. For all you know the one meant for you could be right around the corner, waiting for you to look up from all your plans and see him standing there.”
Yasmin didn’t know what to say to that, only that her mother’s words sent images of Noah O’Sullivan’s face flashing through her head.
Li-Mei humphed. “All I’m saying is that I don’t think you should give up hope. You’re such a good girl. Someday a man will come along who is smart enough to recognize a treasure when he sees it.”
Yasmin leaned against the counter, wishing she’d taken her mother up on that invitation for breakfast, after all. It would be nice to be within hugging distance right now. “Thanks, Mom. And thanks for forwarding that name on. It means a lot that you support me. Even when you don’t completely understand me.”
“I don’t even completely understand your father and I’ve been married to him forever and two days,” Li-Mei said with a sniff. “The only people I completely understand have feathers and live in a chicken coop.”
Yasmin laughed. “Yeah, well tell Sampson good luck for me. I hope the bastard wins top cock.”
Her mother cursed in Chinese. “He’s no bastard! I can trace his bloodline back seven generations, little girl! He’s more purebred than we are, that’s for sure.”
“Love you, Mom,” Yasmin said, hanging up before her mother could start reciting the long and illustrious lineage of her prized rooster. Pouring herself a third cup of coffee and a cup of water, she fetched her laptop from her desk and settled at the kitchen table to work through her virtual assistant duties.
But even as she crafted status updates and organized press releases, a part of her was daydreaming about Noah O’Sullivan and counting the minutes until she would round a corner and find him waiting just for her.
CHAPTERELEVEN
Noah
Yasmin stoodat the top of the rise just after mile marker three and studied the mud pit they’d helped create underneath an epic set of monkey bars with a critical eye. True to her word, she’d seemed to love getting elbow-deep in the muck and their portion of the course was looking goopier than any of the others Noah could see from their lookout post.
“I think we need to leave the hoses under the monkey bars and in between the trenches running for a few more minutes,” she said, swiping her arm across her lip, leaving a streak of mud behind. “I’m telling you, these things dry up a lot overnight, and I don’t want you to be accused of skimping on the mess your first time helping with a course.”
He grinned as he reached out, wiping the smear from her face. “There, that was it.”
“What?” she asked, grinning.