Kelly Jamieson - Lost and Found

Krissa shifted from one foot to the other. “Can’t you get home early tonight? This is important.”

He sighed. “I can’t, hon. I’ll get there as quick as I can. What’s going on?”

“I just need to ask you something. I have an idea…”

“About what?”

What the hell did he think it was about? She held the phone away from her ear and scowled at it. “What color to paint the kitchen,” she said bitterly. “Okay, fine, we’ll talk when you get here.”

“Okay, babe, see you later.”

She dropped the phone. Damn. Patience wasn’t one of her strengths. When she got an idea in her head, she needed to do something about it. Now.

She turned on her computer. She’d researched sperm donation but not how it worked when you used the sperm of someone you knew.

She sank into her chair and covered the mouse with her hand, propping her chin on her other hand.

She heard the knock at her door and jumped. Her eyes flew back to the computer screen. “Uh…hang on.” She quickly closed the window. “Come in.”

“Hey.” Nate stood in the door, looking big and gorgeous in his jeans and close-fitting T-shirt. God, he was a hot guy.

She gulped. That wasn’t an appropriate thought.

“Hi.” She smiled brightly.

“I was wondering about joining a gym,” he said, taking a step into her office. “I still feel kind of puny after being sick.” He may have been sick but he was a long way from puny, with lots of muscle definition under that T-shirt.

“Uh…you want to work out?”

“Yeah. I lost a lot of weight—I’d like to bulk up a bit.”

He’d always been an athlete. Being fit and strong was important to him. She blinked. “You look really good.” Shit.

“Uh…thanks.” He shoved his hand through his hair.

“Well, um…Derek has a gym downstairs. Not a lot of stuff—a universal gym, a bench, some weights, a treadmill. You’re welcome to use it.”

“Hey. That’s great. Since I don’t have a vehicle.”

“You can use my car anytime. Well, if I don’t need it. Tomorrow I’ll be out all day doing presentations for one of my clients, but otherwise you can use it.”

“I should think about renting a car, maybe. I wasn’t sure how long I’d be here.”

“Yeah, I guess you could do that.” She still sat perched on the edge of her chair and she drummed her fingers on the arm.

They looked at each other. The damn glasses hid his eyes so she had no idea if he was feeling as tense as she was. His posture gave away nothing, although she thought he did look a little stiff. Her eyes dropped to his crotch, then skittered away.

Jesus. What was wrong with her? Last night had obviously stirred up some hormones or something.

“I’ll go check it out,” Nate said, and disappeared.

She slumped back in the chair.

After dinner, which Krissa threw together haphazardly, too distracted to care about what she cooked or ate, she dragged Derek into their bedroom. Nate gave them a funny look and she realized he thought she was so horny she was taking Derek in there to jump him. She almost laughed. If he only knew how mechanical their sex life had been lately.

“What?” Derek asked as she pushed him down to sit on the side of the bed. She sat beside him, turned sideways to face him, legs crossed.

“Okay,” she began, practically vibrating. “I have an idea. About having a baby.”

His face darkened. “Oh, Krissa. I thought we were done with that.” He rubbed a hand over his eyes.

“I know. But just listen. I can sort of understand not wanting to adopt. But a sperm donor would mean half the baby’s genes are mine. Half me, Derek. Wouldn’t you love a baby that was half me?” She pleaded for understanding with her eyes fastened on his.

“I don’t know.” He looked away, put his hand to the back of his head. His mouth straightened into a grim line. “I don’t think so.”

“What if…” she paused, swallowed. “What if the sperm donor was someone we knew? Someone we loved? Wouldn’t that make it better?”

He frowned, looked back at her. “What are you talking about?”

She rose up onto her knees, grabbed his arm. “I’m talking about asking someone we know to be the sperm donor. If it was someone close to us, that would be the next best thing, wouldn’t it?”

He just stared at her. She waited.

“I’m…I’m talking about Nate, Derek.” She bit her lip.

His eyebrows shot up. “What the…?”

She nodded, kept her eyes on him. “He’s your best friend. He knows about us. He’s the only one who does. You love him like a brother, and I…” Her throat stopped working momentarily. “I like him too. He’s a great guy. Smart. Talented. Good-looking.”

Derek frowned.

“He’s your friend,” she rushed on. Her fingers tightened on his arm. She felt the crisp hairs, the tight cords of muscle and sinew under warm skin. Her eyes roamed over his face, waiting for him to respond.

“That’s insane.”

She sat back onto her heels. Air whooshed out of her lungs.

“No it’s not.” She gripped him tighter. “It’s a perfect idea. Just think about it, Derek.”

He shook his head, looked like he was in pain. “It’s crazy, Krissa.”

“People do it all the time. I was on the internet. Women donate eggs to family members. Guys donate sperm. Women even act as surrogate mothers and donate their uterus for the baby. This would be nothing like that. And what could be better than having someone you know and love do that for us?”

Derek stood up, walked across to the window and stared out.

She waited. Waited. Waited. It seemed like he was thinking about it, despite his protests.

He put a hand on the window sill and leaned forward.

“Derek?”

Slowly, she unfolded her legs and slid off the bed. She moved up behind him, put her arms around his waist, laid her cheek on his broad back.

“What makes you think he would do that?”

She bit her lip. “I don’t know. I don’t know if he’d agree to it. He might.”

“Jesus, Krissa. It seems weird to me.”

“Would you think about it? Please?”

He said nothing for a long moment. “I’ll think about it.”

Tears filled her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered. He turned and wrapped his arms around her and she hugged him back. “Thank you.”

“Don’t say anything to him.”

“Of course not! You have to agree, and then we’d have to ask him…he might not want to do it.” Her tummy flipped at the thought that he could say no. Oh, what if Derek agreed but Nate wouldn’t?

They’d deal with that when they had to. If they had to.

“We‘ve gotten approval to manufacture a new medication that treats Alzheimers.”

The Vice President of Human Resources at Austerlitz Pharmaceuticals leaned on the table in the board room where they met. Krissa nodded.

“This is completely different than our others products. Our salesmen don’t know how to market this to doctors. We need to hire a new sales team with the right kinds of skills to sell this drug.”

“I think it’s wonderful that you recognize the different skill sets required, and recognize that your current sales team doesn’t have them.”

It was difficult to keep her mind on recruitment and selection when all she could think about was Nate and his sperm. Well. She forced her mind back to the discussion.

The HR Manager, Niles Arnett, nodded. “We knew that early on. The new product will be ready to market in two months. Is that long enough to recruit a new sales team? We aren’t sure what we’re looking for.”

“Two months is tight,” she said. “Very tight. I’ll need to do some research. Do you have information about the demographics?”