Clouds and Rain

okay?”
    Calley nodded. “Bill agreed that all of you should know the baby from the word go. That way if she wants to know, she‟ll know you well enough to just come over to talk to you.” Gable pinched her playfully. “You just want free babysitters.” Calley smiled. “I‟m sure Bill thought about that one too, yes.”
    “In any case, if it‟s my sperm, you‟ll end up with all boys. No women in my family.”
    “Your mother was a woman!” Calley teased.
    “Yes, she was. But she was the only girl, with six brothers, and Dad also had four brothers and no sister. So forget about that girl.” Calley got up and hugged Gable tightly. “Thank you,” she whispered in his ear. “I‟ll call you later.” 192

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    They walked outside together, Calley toward her car and Gable toward the tree where Bridget greeted him.
    “So where was the fire?” Flynn asked, petting Bridget so Gable could sit down next to him.
    “She and Bill can‟t have kids together. Apparently they‟re not genetically compatible.”
    “And she wants you to be a donor?”
    Gable looked at Flynn intently. “How did you know?”
    “You told me she‟d asked you before.”
    “And I said no then. I told you that as well.” Flynn nodded. “Did you say yes now?”
    “I told her I had to talk to you first.”
    Flynn hugged Bridget tightly and she let him for a moment, then she rolled on her back and begged for Flynn to rub her tummy. “I think you should. If you want. She‟s your best friend, Gabe. You love her to bits.”
    “I do,” Gable had no problem admitting. “She asked me to ask you as well.”
    “You just did.”
    “Ask you to be a donor too,” Gable elaborated. “She wants to leave it to chance. Also Bill doesn‟t want to know who fathered his children, so she now has four options.”
    “Four?”
    Gable nodded. “She asked Hunter and Grant as well.”
    “Bill‟s gonna know anyway. Unless it‟s a kid with curly black hair, then it can be either Grant‟s or mine, but if it‟s got fair hair, it‟s yours, and straight brown hair will be Hunter‟s. Come to think of it… if it‟s a tall, curly-haired kid, it‟ll be Grant‟s, and if he‟s shorter, it‟ll be mine.”
    “I know,” Gable shrugged. “That‟s exactly what I told Calley.”
    “I don‟t mind,” Flynn mused. “It‟s not like I‟m going to have kids any other way, and this way there‟ll be some piece of me still walking around when I‟m gone.”

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    “Even if you can‟t be its dad?”
    Flynn shrugged. “Bill‟ll do a good job.”
    Gable rustled Flynn‟s hair. “Why am I not convinced?”
    “You‟re projecting, Gabe,” Flynn answered. “I‟m not the one having parenting issues.”
    “Are you thinking you haven‟t had any decent role models and that‟s why you‟d make a lousy dad?”
    Flynn swallowed. “Maybe.”
    Gable could barely hear Flynn answer and it made him pull his lover tighter to his chest. “For the record, I think you‟d make an awesome dad.”
    To prove the point, Bridget put her head on Flynn‟s thigh, begging for more petting.
    “Don‟t worry, honey,” Flynn soothed her, scratching her ears.
    “You‟ll always be my baby.”

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    Chapter 26

    A FEW weeks later they met up with Hunter and Grant at a clinic about an hour‟s drive away from their respective ranches. Gable could tell both Hunter and Grant were nervous, although he figured they were nervous for different reasons. Gable knew Hunter didn‟t like hospitals.
    He‟d seen his father waste away in one in a matter of days and really preferred to stay out of them altogether. The reason Grant was nervous was probably the same reason he himself wasn‟t totally at ease.
    Unable to sit still, Grant got up. “I‟m hunting for coffee,” he announced. “I‟ll come with you,” Hunter was quick to answer, leaving Gable and Flynn alone in the waiting room.
    Gable watched them leave. He and Grant hadn‟t spent any time together in the same room since they‟d split up, if you didn‟t count the night in the barn when the two colts were born. It was clear that Grant had been avoiding him, and Gable didn‟t mind. Now they probably wouldn‟t be able to continue giving each other the cold shoulder.
    Again, Gable felt he was okay with that. He was going to have to talk to him one day. Grant and Hunter looked like a pretty solid item, and he didn‟t want to lose Hunter as a friend. Besides, being