Danielle continued, "This isn't just a snap decision; it's something we've been thinking about for a while now.”

Cherys squeezed Danielle tightly and then practically blurted, “We want a baby.”

Danielle just nodded.

Cherys clarified. "+I* want to have the baby."

Just then my brain caught up with what the girls were proposing. It hit me right about the time Cherys said, “And we want you to be the father.”

To say I was surprised was quite the understatement. My jaw dropped about two inches and my eyes flew open wide. But at least I wasn't screaming.

Danielle jumped in.

“We've wanted to start a family for a while now.

We're both 26, almost 27. We've got just about everything else in our lives settled: careers, home, finances. We already knew Cherys wanted to be the one to carry it to term, and we'd already started looking into sperm banks."

Cherys, still hyper-excited, cut in. "But I always wished the baby could have a part of both me AND Dani. It didn't seem right for our child to only be blood- related to me. So, a year ago, I'd already started thinking that if you were the father, then our baby would still have a part of Dani. The baby would have some of your family's genes, some of the same DNA as Dani." Her gaze softened. "But at the time, you were going through your breakup with Amber and then this whole mess with Brianna and it didn't seem right to ask that kind of thing from you."

Danielle reached out and held my hand.

“But you've healed from all that now, I can feel it. This weekend you had with E-Beth was the last step in recovering yourself. And... to be honest, it's easier to ask this of you when you don't have a current girlfriend.”

My mind was still racing, and the Engineer in me started coming up with all the little impracticalities of how this would work. Danielle saw the furrow in my brow and somehow she knew exactly what I was thinking.

“Oh, you wouldn't need to do anything, David. The baby would be mine and Cherys': finances, child-raising, all that. We'd take full responsibility and we wouldn't be asking anything else of you. It'd be just like we'd found a sperm donor through the system, only with you... we'd know what we were getting. And we'd be keeping things in the family."

Cherys blushed and looked down, blinking prettily.

“And... well, it would be a lot more fun getting pregnant with *youx instead..." The inflection in her voice made it clear we weren't talking about artificial insemination.

The prospect of sex with Cherys was almost enough to convince me on its own. She looked undeniably alluring in her satiny pajamas and hard nipples were already denting the fabric. But my conscience was still there.

I thought of how much my Life would change if I had a child. I thought of the little joys of looking down at my baby, watching them take their first steps or say their first words. I'd always known I would eventually have children. Heck, I'd even fantasized a time or two about having children with Cherys. This was an opportunity, and I found myself extremely excited by the idea of having a baby of my own.

And therein was my problem.

“I can't..." Cherys' face fell at those first two words. "I can't just do it and walk away."

Danielle cocked her head, already sensing that this wasn't just a simple rejection.

I leaned forward, my elbows on my knees, Looking straight at Cherys. "I can't have a baby with you and not be a part of his or her Life."

My gaze now swept back and forth between Danielle and her girlfriend.

“I'm willing to do it. I WANT to do it. But it's only fair that you both know that by doing this, you would be permanently bringing me into your lives in a very exceptional way.”

From the glances the two girls were exchanging with each other, it was clear that they had considered this possibility, but perhaps not entirely thought through their response. In the Lull of silence, I continued.