Page 48 of Enemy Ex's Secret Baby

“I’m not! Promise. It was just charming. You know, when I was your age, I couldn’t pronounce my r’s.”

Stella stops coloring and looks at me. “Like how?”

“Like kind of like how British people don’t pronounce their r’s. Except I didn’t have the rest of the British accent. And it didn’t just happen at the ends of words, but at the beginnings too.” I clear my throat. “Awound the wugged wocks the wugged wascal wan.”

“Oh! There’s a kid in my class who does that. Henry.”

“I hope you’re nice to him.”

She gets a very serious expression. “Oh, I am. Promise. With a capital ‘p’. That means I really mean it.”

“Who taught you that one? I like it.”

“Mommy.”

“Ah. Mommy. Should have known,” I say. I wonder what the two of them are like behind closed doors. Their special bond seems so magical. “Anyway, it’s good that you’re nice to him. Because kids weren’t very nice to me about it.”

Stella reaches out and touches my arm. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh, it’s okay. It’s…” I look down at her little hand in the crook of my elbow. Damn. Maybe I’m not just a horned-up dude who has a breeding kink. Maybe the idea of having a little one of my own to protect and nurture is starting to hit me. Although they’d have to be as well-behaved and thoughtful as Stella. And kids are like rolling dice with millions of sides. You really never know what you’re going to get. “I went to speech therapy. A nice lady helped me, so now I don’t talk like that.”

“But it’s okay that you talked like that.”

I nod. “Maybe. Kids can be mean sometimes.”

Stella retracts her hand and looks away. “Yeah. They can.”

There seems to be something she’s not saying. “Are kids ever mean to you?”

She shrugs. “Sometimes. Mommy tells me not to listen to them because they’re…” Stella looks side to side, “i-d-i-o-t-s.”

“Your mother does not use that word.”

“Yes, she does! Honest!”

Huh. Okay, then. “What are they mean to you about?”

Stella picks up a red crayon and starts to color in the head of a parrot. “They just ask a lot of questions.”

“Like…”

“Like why I don’t have a dad.”

Nice, Axel. You just made a six-year-old talk about her trauma. Add that to the list of reasons you’re going to hell. “Well, you have a dad, he’s just…” Where is he?

I can’t lie, the timing has always made me a little uneasy. However, the whispers from Lola and the Solace girls were that Stella belonged to Gillian’s ex-boyfriend at the time, Martin. Gillian just didn’t want to talk about it. I put any worries to bed very quickly after that.

“We don’t need to talk about it,” Stella says softly as if she’s comforting me. “Mommy says it’s none of their business and that plenty of kids only have a mommy or a daddy.”

I put down my crayon. “You’re still allowed to have feelings about it.”

“I guess.”

“I suppose maybe it makes you sad sometimes.”

Stella nods. “And a little mad.”

“Yeah, I get that too.” Poor little one. Doesn’t know how complicated life gets. I don’t know how things went down between Martin and Gillian. I imagine she must have told him about the baby. Is it better that Stella not know who he is or know that maybe he didn’t want to be a part of her life? She’s little, but she’s getting smarter by the day. It’s obviously not my place to have an opinion. I just…guess I have a soft spot for Stella. “That sounds complicated. Do you and Mommy talk about it?”

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