Stealing the Show (PolyAm Fam #3)

Chapter 7

seven

leo

A day off in the middle of the week might sound luxurious, but I was often too tired from the three or four days on shift prior that I couldn’t make myself do much more than lounge around watching reruns of NYPD Blue . Maggie nearly always had to work, so it was just me and Blue hanging until the lady of the house returned. And, yes, Blue’s name did come from that show.

Not from Blue’s Clues , which my niece used to enjoy teasing me about.

I sat in the living room drinking coffee and thinking about how different our lives would be when we had a little one. I’d be on dad duty when I was off-shift and Maggie was at work. Arranging daycare coverage was going to be challenging since my schedule was so erratic. I was leaning toward trying to take a year off work with parental leave.

Did I know anything about newborns?

Not a chance. But I’d learn. Maggie and I would learn together.

The thought thrilled me. I wanted to see a baby in my wife’s arms so badly, I…

I would do almost anything.

And then an idea struck me. An idea so wild, so crazy…

It would never work, right?

Well, there was no way to know without asking. I picked up my phone, pressed a few keys and waited.

raine

My first day at the theater in Brown County was short. They had me fill out some paperwork, gave me a tour of the facilities and the costume loft, and handed me a stack of plays they’d be producing. They asked for some sketches by the end of the following week.

I didn’t realize I would get to work from home most of the time, but it made sense. They didn’t exactly have an office for me. Their staff didn’t have offices either. There was one small, cramped office for the house manager, and that was it. She was my boss, and she seemed thrilled to have me on board.

I was thrilled, too, because I needed something like this on my resume when I applied for full-time jobs. Which I would need as soon as I got my diploma.

If I got my diploma…

As I was driving the curving, hilly roads between Nashville and Bloomington, my phone buzzed with a text. I couldn’t see who it was from, and all sorts of ideas fired off in my imagination. I couldn’t help hoping it was from Maggie, though. I hadn’t talked to her since our makeout session the previous week.

I hoped she wasn’t upset that I allowed Leo to join in on our date. He mostly just watched. I wondered what happened after I left.

As soon as I pulled into the parking lot at my apartment, I grabbed my phone and hurried to my text messages. I did not expect what I saw. It wasn’t from Maggie, but close…

Unknown Number: Hey, it’s Leo Katz. I wondered if you had a moment to chat, just the two of us. I’m happy to buy you coffee. I’m free today, but we can work around your schedule. Let me know.

Suspicion rocked through me. Why would Leo want to talk to me alone? Was something wrong?

Me: Uh, okay. I am home from work early. What did you have in mind?

Leo: Meet you at Hounds & Grounds in an hour? I think I’m gonna bring Blue with me. He seems bored.

Me: Oh, okay. See you there.

I hadn’t been there before, but I knew of the small coffee shop located downtown on the square. The owners were huge dog lovers, and part of the shop’s proceeds went to support local dog rescues. Blue and I might have gotten off on the wrong paw, so to speak, but he settled down later and wasn’t completely obnoxious.

I left my dressy clothes on, a billowing, tiered Bohemian-style skirt, a chambray shirt open and tied at my waist over a white tank top, and accessorized with silver and turquoise jewelry. I changed out of my ankle-high moccasins and into silver sandals.

Bonnie came in while I was looking through the plays I’d be working on this summer. “You’re back already?”

“And so are you?” I teased her. She was working as a research assistant for an eccentric professor, so it always seemed like she was coming and going at odd hours.

“How was it?” She ignored my jab.

I filled her in on my orientation at the theater and showed her the plays I’d be reading in the next week.

“So are you going somewhere else? You’re all dressed up.”

She was a regular detective, huh?

“Yeah, I’m meeting Leo Katz for coffee at Hounds & Grounds in about forty minutes,” I shared.

Her eyes widened. “Maggie’s husband?”

“Yeah.” I scanned her face, and it was clear she was surprised by this turn of events, almost as surprised as I was when I received his text. “So, that’s weird, right? That he would want to have coffee with me?”

She cocked her head as she thought about it for a moment. “He watched his wife lick your pussy the other night during your date, right?”

“Uh, yeah, so?” I bit my lip to stifle an embarrassed laugh.

“Well, he probably wants in on the action.” She made pelvic thrusting motions and threw her head back like she was in ecstasy.

“Oh my god, stop that!” I begged her. “You think that’s what’s going on? He wants to date me too?”

“Couples love a unicorn,” she said with a smirk.

Was I a unicorn? Did I want to be a unicorn?

I’d never dated more than one person at a time, and I’d never identified as polyamorous. Did Maggie and Leo want to change that?

I wasn’t sure of the answers to my questions, but just the idea of it sent electric sparks racing up and down my spine. Then Bonnie killed the buzz.

“Any luck finding that missing jewelry?”

That was it. My spirits plummeted, making my whole body sag.

“No, and I told you about my meeting with the dean. She seemed pretty adamant that I was responsible. They are getting a lot of pushback from the jewelry’s owner, like I said. So I don’t know what to do. I won’t even earn that much the entire summer working for the Brown County theater, and I still have to pay for rent, groceries and gas anyway.”

“Have you considered other ways to make money?” Bonnie tilted her head as her gaze roamed over my face. “You could sell plasma. Or a kidney. Or eggs!”

“Eggs?” My nose wrinkled up. “From chickens?”

“No, dumbass, your eggs.” She gestured to where her ovaries were.

I rolled my eyes. “Any suggestions that don’t involve selling body parts.”

“Only Fans?” Her eyebrows waggled.

“Again, something that doesn’t involve selling myself?

“There are a lot of guys out there into feet, you know… I wouldn’t dismiss the idea. I could take pictures for you. We could make those tootsies look so sexy, baby!” She was trying to restrain her giggle but failed miserably.

“I’m going to meet with Leo,” I announced, even though I was early. I knew Bonnie meant well, but I didn’t find any of her suggestions even remotely funny. This was a serious situation, and I died a little inside every time I tried to figure out the puzzle of how to raise twelve grand.

“Have fun!” Still laughing, she waved as I huffed in frustration, grabbed my purse and keys, and headed out the door.

* * *

Hounds & Grounds looked adorably charming with its checkered curtains and tablecloths with tiny paw prints in the white squares. I was early, so I ordered a latte and made my way to a table in the back that had a tiny bit more privacy, but still not a lot because the place was pretty small. I only sat there for a few minutes before Leo’s burly form came through the door, making the bells ring.

Blue pulled tenaciously on his leash, trying to drag his master toward me, but he was no match for Leo’s tall frame and bulky muscles. Leo looked a bit more relaxed in khaki shorts and a navy polo shirt than when I saw him last. That uniform, though, it did things to me. I had no clue I had a thing for uniforms until he appeared in his living room wearing his.

He waved and gestured to the counter, and I held up my porcelain mug to show I already had my drink. Oh, yeah, he offered to buy. Oops. Well, no matter.

Did Maggie know he was here? Did she send him? I had so many questions, and seeing him meant I was that much closer to the answers, if only he would hurry up and get his order so he could join me. Blue was definitely anxious to say hi. He stared at me the whole time his master was ordering and waiting for his coffee to be made.

A few minutes later, there they were, sitting across from me. After Blue excitedly greeted me, he occupied himself with a brand-new bone, looking as thrilled with it as we were with our coffees. After giving the furry demon some attention, I concentrated on his master, whose face was covered in dark scruff, and his eyes looked like two glittering gems as he made himself comfortable and took a sip of his coffee.

“So, how’s it going?” Leo asked smoothly, like we did this every day.

“It’s going,” I assured him.

“Thanks for meeting me here. I know you were probably surprised to get my text, and, no, Maggie doesn’t know yet,” he revealed.

My brows furrowed as my eyes bounced between his. “She doesn’t? Well, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I thought you polyam folks believed in transparency and communication—everything on the up and up.”

He looked as though he was about to choke on his coffee, his eyes widening. He set down his mug and wiped his lips with a napkin, clearly scrambling for an answer to my accusation.

“No, no—this isn’t about our poly relationship.” He shook his head, coughing to dispel a smirk that tried to creep across his face. “Sorry, I should have been more forthcoming in my text, but, to be honest, I had no idea how to broach the subject with you.”

“What subject?” My heart kicked up into a faster beat. He was a cop. What he just said sounded…suspicious. His voice lowered at the end of his sentence. It made me think the subject in question might be…dangerous? Illegal?

Surely not. He’s a cop .

And though he seemed to enjoy “dirty” activities, I didn’t think he was a dirty cop.

He sighed, took a deep breath and then reached down to pet Blue. Whatever this was about seemed to make him nervous. I didn’t think men like him got nervous. He looked like he ate nerves for breakfast. He carried a gun and dealt with hardened criminals, after all.

“I’m not sure how much Maggie told you, but we’re dealing with…um…infertility,” he enunciated the word like it had more syllables than it actually did.

“Well, she did say something about not being able to have kids,” I remembered from our dinner at the Mexican place.

“Right. So we’ve been looking into surrogacy,” he explained.

“Wait…what?”

“Surrogacy,” he repeated, “you know, like someone to have our baby. All expenses paid, of course,” he threw out right away. “There’d be a sizeable payment up front, and then monthly payments, and…”

He scrubbed his hands down his face. “I’m sorry, this is a stupid idea. I don’t know why I even thought of it. I just…I want Maggie to have a baby so bad, and I mean, she wants to, you know? I just hate thinking her dreams of motherhood have been crushed. And we have to wait six months to even get an appointment with the surrogate agency, and?—”

I sat there trying to absorb his words. My roommate’s earlier jokes about selling body parts and products, including eggs, leaped to my mind. My fucking god, did these two chat about this beforehand? Was he asking to rent out my uterus? Buy my eggs? What. The. Actual. Fuck.

He scooted his chair away from the table, making an absolutely excruciating screech that made Blue stop chewing his bone. Leo stood up and gathered the dog’s leash in his hand. “I’m sorry. It was wrong for me to ask you here today, especially without Maggie’s knowledge. I probably fucking blew it for you guys, relationship-wise, and all because I just had this crazy idea that?—”

“Wait,” I repeated from earlier. “Can you sit back down a sec?”

He plopped down, looking completely dejected.

“Are you asking me to carry your baby?” I tried to keep my volume down, as there were a few other patrons at a nearby table.

“I was, but I don’t know what I was thinking.” He looked down at the table and shook his head again. “Forgive me? Please don’t let this interfere with your relationship with my wife, okay? She had nothing to do with this. I was just off work today, and my imagination got a little carried away, and I?—”

“Will you please just stop?” I was tired of his rambling apology. Trying to wrap my head around this completely unexpected proposition was making it hurt, but I kept going back to something he said about a payment? Downpayment and monthly payments?

“Sorry,” he said again.

“Backing up a moment…I just want to make sure I understand what you’re talking about. Because maybe I could help. But I’ve never had a baby before. Don’t they like women who have already given birth once as surrogates?”

“Probably,” he admitted, “I already said I didn’t think this through very well. We just found out that we can’t even get an appointment at the agency that matches you with surrogates until November. We’re just getting impatient, that’s all. She turns forty at the end of the year, and?—”

“Well, assuming I could do it, how much would it pay?” Please be more than twelve grand , I added in my head.

“I don’t really know, but I think the going rate is like fifty thousand,” he shared.

I nearly fell out of my chair.

“Are you okay?” He reached out to steady me when I nearly had a rude meeting with the floor. And Blue, who seemed rather concerned about me and started licking my hand.

“You’re serious about this,” I confirmed, “not bullshitting me?”

He had the tiniest glimmer of hope in his dark eyes. “You would consider it?”

I straightened my back and sat tall in my chair. Well, as tall as I could with my five-foot frame. “I’d want to talk to Maggie about it and, of course, know the logistics, but I’m not saying no.”

A smile curled his lips ever so slightly upward. “Okay, yeah, of course. We’d have to get all our cards lined up, our ducks in a row, all of that. Don’t tell Maggie yet, please? I want to mention the idea to her first and see if she thinks it’s absolutely crazy, and then… I don’t know… We’d probably have to talk to a doctor or something. I have no idea, but, my god, I’m so glad you’re willing to consider it.”

He reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “I want a baby too, of course, don’t get me wrong. But it’s been Maggie’s lifelong dream to be a mother, and…I want to give that to her so bad, I… Well, I’m willing to do almost anything.”

I smiled. He was so sincere—it was beautiful to see how much he loved his wife. Relationship goals for me someday, huh?

But, wow, if this worked out…I wouldn’t have to worry about the money I owed the theater department. I could graduate and get on with my life as soon as I had the baby…

My god! Was I actually considering this? It was crazy, right?

But I really couldn’t afford not to. And Maggie and Leo were some of the best people I’d ever met. If I could help make their dreams come true while also solving my own problems? It sounded like a win-win to me.