“No, not at all.”

Riley suddenly wanted all his cards laid on the table. “But they know who we are?”

“No. Not in the truest sense of the word. We give enough details, socio-economic class, character, requests, and so on.” Marcus looked at Riley directly. “Does that cause a problem?”

Riley didn’t know what to say. How did he word his concerns without coming across as a superior idiot with privacy issues? What if the details that were given were enough for the potential surrogates to work out who Riley and Jack were? And was that actually important? Wouldn’t the surrogates be tied into some kind of confidentiality clause anyway? Thankfully Jack came to his rescue.

“Riley is a very rich man. That is a blessing and a curse,” Jack explained. “He has trust funds for our daughter and owns a considerable interest in Hayes Oil. We have to have some level of privacy. Also we have to be sure that we wouldn’t go through all of this for the surrogate to refuse us our child or use that same child against us in some way for financial gain. On the other hand, we need for the surrogate to know we’re not just going to have a child and dump him or her with a nanny. We’re not like other…”

“Rich people?” Marcus finished.

“Yeah.”

Riley felt relieved that Jack had decided to take this tack. The firm, no-compromises statement was exactly what Riley wanted to say but couldn’t.

“Part of the plus for your profile on the system will be that any child given to you will want for nothing.” Marcus paused. “Every surrogate we have on our books is contracted with strict confidentiality clauses. We have matched more than a few couples like yourselves where money is a factor.” He tilted his head then smiled and damn, those dimples were back again. “Some of them even have more money than you, Mr Campbell-Hayes.”

“Good to know,” Riley said with an answering smile. He liked Marcus.

Marcus continued, “The Walker Clinic will assist in negotiating the contractual terms and fees associated with your final agreement with your intended surrogate. This ensures all parties are on the same page before the agreements are drafted. Legal fees are not included in surrogacy fees. With tests and the legal phase, we are typically looking at six weeks. Once all parties have signed the agreements, we require that you fully fund an escrow account to cover all fees, and then the Clinic will give you a calendar for cycle medication starts. Does that all make sense?”

“One important thing, we have our own lawyer to liaise with yours,” Jack said. “Riley’s father will be working with us on this. We would want a level of secrecy, conditions on not exposing our family to the press, the usual.”

“Nothing we haven’t done before,” Marcus agreed. “I’ll need his details as and when you sign final paperwork today.”

Riley leaned forward in his chair. There was one more question that was absolutely vital to have answers to—the issue of surrogate selection. “How do you decide which surrogate is matched with us? I know we have a choice, but I am guessing you need to sign off on things?”

“We don’t have forced matching where we give you just one appropriate surrogate. Instead, here we think that the relationship between intended parent and surrogate is the foundation to the success of the whole process. It’s in our best interests and yours that we match you with your most compatible surrogate.”

“But we get final say,” Jack insisted.

“Absolutely. All the surrogates we have in our program see profiles first. They get to review all the intended parents, and from that they mark which ones they would be interested in working with. Once a surrogate has selected your profile, her profile is sent to you. That way you may have one surrogate or several at a time who say they’d like to match with you. When you get to see the surrogate profiles and if you like one or more of them, we will set up a meeting between you so that you can get to know each other better. I will be available and included in this call to supervise it and to be on hand if there are any questions. If you like each other, then we can begin the whole process; if not then we start again.”

Riley had one more question. He wanted timescales, black and white so he knew exactly what was happening. “So six weeks until we actually carry out a…uhmm…”

“Implantation?” Marcus asked with a small smile.

“That, yeah.” Riley couldn’t believe that he was blushing. Idiot.

“How quickly you match depends on how choosy you are and how your profile is seen by the available surrogates. Your flexibility and openness to the process will give you the most options.”

“How are surrogates screened?” Jack asked.

“A thorough screening and vetting process including a detailed medical, psychological, personality profile, and educational and pregnancy history. A detailed background and criminal check is undertaken, including our Investigative Service going into courthouses and personally searching records where applicable. Surrogates and egg donors are also medically screened again by your chosen clinic after you decide to match with them.”

“Thank you. And what is your success rate?”

Marcus smiled broadly. “Most of our intended parents leave our program with a child or children.”

“And the ones who don’t?”

“It’s not for want of trying. We have had a few cases where the client wasn’t successful. This could be because there was an issue with their own genetic material. Jack, you indicated you would be the donor and that you have no children. Have you ever fathered a child?”

“Not possible,” Jack said firmly. “I’ve never slept with a woman in my life.” He glanced at Riley, who bit his lip to stop himself from snorting in laughter. Jack sounded so damn horrified.

“Well, time will tell if your genetic material is useable.”

Jack squirmed in his seat. “If I can’t do it then Riley will.”

Riley was shocked. They hadn’t actually discussed that. They’d always focused on how this baby would be their baby, but genetically it would be Jack’s. Was Jack going to be able to accept things if they didn’t work out how the two of them wanted?

“Really?” Riley asked.

“Makes sense,” Jack replied.

Abruptly it was just the two of them staring at each other—Marcus forgotten.

“But then the baby wouldn’t be yours.”

“Hayley is yours,” Jack said softly. “But she’s ours. You know that.”

Riley was swamped with emotion, love and sadness and everything in between. “I love you, Jack.”

Jack leaned over and kissed Riley. “I love you too.”

Finally they turned to face Marcus, who was sitting with a wide grin on his face and his arms crossed over his chest. “I like you guys,” he said.

“One important thing,” Riley began, “we would want to be involved in every step, scans, tests, and we’d want to be part of our surrogate’s pregnancy as much as we can. “

The smile was replaced by serious-Marcus again. “It’s important to us that the intended parents are involved in the pregnancy, and anyone we match would want that as well. Many of our surrogates and intended parents become friends.”

“But not too much,” Riley interjected. “We would want our own lives; the surrogate wouldn’t be involved in how we brought the child up. Right?”

“Absolutely. What kind of friendship you have is your business. You may want just a business arrangement. How much interaction you want is part of the matching process.”

“Okay, so one more question,” Riley began. This was the single thing that plagued his dreams. “What happens if our surrogate changes her mind?”

Marcus nodded at the question, then answered very seriously. “On some, rare occasions, a surrogate changes her mind before contracts are signed. If that is the case we will rematch you as soon as possible. Once the surrogate is pregnant, you are already tied by contracts that will be checked and triple checked to hold up in a court of law in Texas.”