Page 30 of Accidental Baby Daddy

When she pulled away, laughing, I kissed the freckles across her nose.

That good memory led to something bad, and I knew it, so I tried to push it out of my mind.

As I stared across the grounds down to the cabin where Lex was, a small figure came into view, stalking across the grass.

I frowned, squinting, and standing up, jostling Trent in my arms. He didn't stir.

I knew it was Lex before she came into focus. It was like something inside me always knew when she was near, and that was rather inconvenient given how she’d broken my heart and put it in a blender.

How do you just stop loving someone no matter what they did to you?

Lexie made it up the hill, glaring at me, but her face softened when she saw the little bundle in my arms.

“Ollie,” she breathed. “You’ve got a little one.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “That I do,” I admitted, walking over to the boombox and turning down the music. “I assume the noise is why you came hauling ass up here.”

Lexie snorted out a laugh and it wrinkled her nose in the cutest way. “I thought you were having a party.”

“This late?” I asked incredulously. “Please, Lex, we’re old now.”

“Speak for yourself, mister.” She swayed toward me and Trent. “He’s really yours?”

“Nah, I just took him in. Like a stray.” Her eyes widened and I laughed. “Yes, Lex, he’s mine.”

“How old is he?”

“Five,” I say, brushing Trent’s hair back from his face. “Listen, I’ve got to take him inside but... stay for a beer, why don’t you?”

Lexie looked at me a bit warily, but then shrugged and sat down in the patio chair across from mine.

I took Trent into the house and upstairs to his room, tucking him in and humming to him, hoping he wouldn’t wake up again. He didn’t, thankfully.

My heart thudded in my chest. Why had I asked her to stay? What was I thinking? I’ve been desperately trying to get her out of my head yet I just invited her to have a beer?

Despite my contradictory thoughts, I grabbed two bottles from the fridge and popped them open before walking back out onto the patio.

She sat cross-legged in the patio chair, wearing a pair of sweats and a baggy t-shirt. She didn’t appear to have any makeup on, and her hair was piled messily up on top of her head. She looked unexpectedly sexy, and I had to catch my breath.

I wanted to ask her where she’d been tonight. I wanted to ask her who she’d been with.

But that was none of my business. Not anymore.

Instead, I cleared my throat. “I guess you probably have a lot of questions.”

She shrugged. “I guess it’s really none of my business.”

She was right, it wasn’t, but I was still surprised she didn’t ask. Maybe I was just assuming she still cared when she honestly didn’t.

She looked up at me. “I’m more surprised that you’re here at all. Are you stalking me or something?”

I scoffed, anger rushing through me. “No, of course not. If it wasn’t for me, you’d have had nowhere to go.”

“I have somewhere to go,” she mumbled. I noticed there was no fire in her eyes. Seeing that made me deflate, made my shoulders slump.

Without fire, there was no love. And maybe there never had been, at least not for her. Me, on the other hand, I had fallen so deep in love that it felt like I was dying every time I had to be away from her, even if it was only for a few days.

It had become clear that she didn’t feel the same way. Not then, not now.

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