“No, I’m just desperate, and you’re all I’ve got.”
Cole laughed. “Lay it on me. I owe you some good advice. If it weren’t for you, Brooke and I might not be together.”
“I can’t really take credit for that.” Jarrett shook his head. “You two were destined to be together. I don’t think a hurricane-force wind could’ve kept you apart.”
“Well, it helped that we were already married. At least I didn’t have to work up the courage to ask her again. Is that what you need? You finally found the right girl and you want advice about how to pop the question?”
Jarrett knew Cole was teasing him. He’d told his friends a few years back he had no intention of getting married. Though he didn’t give his reasons and none of them asked why, the unspoken explanation was as plain as day… Carlie. His best buddies, all busy in grad schools across the country, hadn’t met her while they were dating. All they’d known was her first name and the fact that Jarrett was in love with her.
Carlie was like an unstoppable force of nature. She’d asked him out on a date within twenty minutes of meeting him. For almost a year, he’d spent the majority of his days at the sisters’ apartment in Boulder, even eating most of his meals at their kitchen table. On weekends, he and Carlie would occasionally go out on dates. But since both were on tight budgets, they usually rented movies and hung out on the couch. Rylie had been a great sport, never complaining she was stuck as a third wheel. Jarrett had done his best to include her in their conversations, enjoying her wry sense of humor.
So when Carlie dumped him and left for Nashville, Jarrett had lost far more than the girlfriend he’d intended to marry. He’d also lost the comfortable daily routine he’d grown to love, along with his best gal-pal. Okay, it was his own fault he’d lost Rylie, but at the time he’d been too messed up to deal with seeing Carlie’s identical twin.
As Jarrett had always been private about his emotions, his buddies hadn’t dared to ask him the details. They’d only known the breakup had thrown him into a deep depression, and his desire for marriage and family had never returned.
Until now.
“I don’t want to get married, but I want to be a father.”
“You want to be a single dad?”
Cole crossed his arms over his chest, layering the neon-green mechanical arm over his natural one. It was no accident that both men wore prosthetic limbs. Jarrett and his three friends, co-owners of Phantom Enterprises, had met as teenagers at a computer camp for kids with physical disabilities. The bonds they’d formed had strengthened over each passing summer, and by their senior year they’d determined a plan to one day run a technology company together. The result was Phantom Enterprises. It had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, making all four of them billionaires.
“One of my kids at the Puerto Rican orphanage I support got diagnosed with leukemia,” Jarrett explained. “He’s only three years old. If I can get him to the States, he’s got a better than ninety percent chance of survival. I want to adopt him.”
“Can you make it happen in time?”
“The caseworker will only approve me as an emergency medical guardian. She wants him placed permanently with a married couple.”
“They won’t approve an adoption for a single parent?”
“Single parents are usually allowed to adopt from Puerto Rico, but this caseworker wants Gabe to be with a couple.” A lump formed in his throat. “I’d be a better dad, though. I’ll understand what he’s going through.”
“A single dad, huh?” Cole grimaced. “I assume you’ve thought this through, because you don’t do anything on impulse. But you do realize what kind of commitment you’re making, right? Parenting is hard, even with a healthy kid and great spouse by your side.”
Cole glanced toward Brooke, who was attempting to coax a burp out of their now-drowsy baby.
“I’m not worried about that. I can afford to hire all the help I need.”
“What about your family? Can they come?”
“I’m sure my mom and dad will come for a week. But they babysit my sister’s kids, so they can’t stay long. Juanita’s going to help me out. She’s an older Hispanic woman, a cashier at my grocery store. She said she’ll help me communicate with Gabe.”
Cole cocked his head to the side. “I won’t even ask how this woman found out you were thinking of adopting a kid from Puerto Rico.”
Jarrett chuckled. “I complimented her hair, and the next thing I knew she was trying to set me up with her niece. From then on, she quizzed me about my life every time I stepped foot in the store.”
“Did you ever consider shopping somewhere else?”
“No.” Jarrett shook his head, smiling ruefully. “Juanita is sweet. She reminds me of my grandma.”
“I have to ask…” Cole leaned back against the kitchen island and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Is part of this about the possibility you can’t have kids of your own? Are you adopting so you won’t be pressured to get married and find out you might be sterile?”
Jarrett had known since he’d first had chemotherapy as an eleven-year-old that his fertility might be affected.
“You know I’m grateful to be alive. I’d still love to have kids of my own if I can, but I feel the same way about adoption that you do. He’ll be my son, the same as if he had my DNA.”
Cole nodded, apparently satisfied. “What’s his name… the boy you want to adopt?”
“It’s Gabriel. They call him Gabe,” said Jarrett. “I thought everything was on track. The caseworker agreed to give her approval by the end of next week so we could get him here for treatment. But then she explained that my guardianship would end when his initial cancer treatment was over, and Gabe would be placed permanently with a married couple. There’s no way I can give him up after being his father for a year.”
“Ah!” Cole’s eyebrows arched high. “You want to find some girl and do a quick temporary marriage, kind of like I did?”
“Absolutely not!”
An involuntary shiver ripped down his spine. He must’ve made an awful face, because Cole laughed.
“Haven’t you spent a lot of money helping out over there? Doesn’t that count for something?”
“I’ve spent hundreds of thousands. Half the orphanages were operating without electricity. So we revamped everything and set them up with generators. Not just my children’s home, but every orphanage in the country.”
“And that wasn’t enough to get approval to adopt one kid?”
“I’ve been doing it for years, so it’s enough for them to know I’m not trying to buy babies and sell them on the black market. I thought knowing I had the money to get Gabe the best medical care would make me a shoo-in, but the caseworker has a different opinion.” He rubbed the back of his head. “It’s frustrating because I thought she was on my side.”
“Maybe you should marry the caseworker,” Cole said, with a wry grin.
“She’s sixty and married, with ten grandkids.”
