Read STAY THE NIGHT (The Phillips Family Book 1) for Free Online Page B

keep my distance. ”
        “ I do experience spontaneous combustion when you touch me.  That's not my normal reaction, Cray.  Why do you think that is? ”
        “ Chemical attraction, pheromones, a magnetic field, all of the above?  I don't plan to fight it whatever it is. ”
        “ I want to fight it, but I can't. ”
        “ Honey, why do you want to fight it? ”
        “ My interactions with men don't work out well.  I told you some of it. ”
        “ Angelica, I don't have a bet riding on getting you to bed and I sure as hell don't have a wife or a child hidden somewhere.  I'm an adult as are you, I earn a good living, as do you, I'm well over the age of consent, as are you, I'm hoping to open the next chapter of my life, as I hope you are because it's you who made me want to open that chapter. ”
        “ Do you want children someday? ”
        “ It's not something I yearn for, Angelica, but if together my spouse and I decide to start a family that's fine with me.  Those decisions need to be discussed and decided when the time is right and both parties get to express their feelings on the subject and either mutually agree or reach an agreeable compromise.  This forcing the issue between a couple because one's stronger and more determined than the other is bullshit.  It causes dissension and resentment and that's a perfect formula for failure down the road.  Why did you ask me that? ”
        “ I asked because I'm thirty-five, I'm reaching the dangerous time for giving birth and risking problems.  Women are bearing children in their forties today.  They delayed giving birth to achieve their career goals.  That's okay for them, but it's not for me.  You say you don't yearn for children, but you might someday.  You'd be better off marrying a younger woman, so if you decide you want to be a father, you could. ”
        “ Let's follow through on your scenario with a hypothetical.  I choose a woman ten years younger than me so that makes her twenty-six.  We decide to forgo having children because we enjoy the freedom to travel and come and go as we please.  All of a sudden I'm forty-six and she's thirty-six and it occurs to her she'd like a child.  Sure, I'm capable of impregnating her, but her eggs are aging.  What the hell is the difference? ”
        “ It wouldn't take her ten years to think she's missing bearing a child. ”
        “ Nonsense, Angelica.  I work with couples who are going through this right now and they're facing a dilemma.  Should they get pregnant and risk it or should they remain childless?  I don't tell them my solution because they don't want to hear it. ”
        “ What's your solution? ”
        “ Adoption.  I can love a child, brown, black, yellow, red, I don't care if I decide I want to be a father.  I've seen that done, too, and I defy someone to convince me that an adopted child isn't loved as much as a couple's biological child.  Bottom line, Angel.  I want to go the distance with you if we can make it work for us and I don't care how old you are. ”
        “ You've given the subject some thought. ”
        “ Yes, and I'll tell you why.  I played the field for a lot of years, but it stayed in the back of my mind that if I found the right one, I'd give up the bachelor life in a New York minute.  I always dated girls and then women who are my age or close.  I want a woman who's my partner in every sense of the word.  That means we can discuss the books, music, movies and current events of our time.  We don't need to agree on everything, but at least I don't encounter a blank stare if I mention a book that came out before she could read. ”
        “ We grew up in completely different cultures. ”
        “ Angelica, Norway is not a third world country and you came here at the tender age of eighteen.  That's seventeen years ago.  Stop trying to find reasons why a romance between us won't work.