Page 66 of Enemy Ex's Secret Baby

I’ve managed all these years to remain hopeful that someone would come along. The right man. The one who wouldn’t care that I already had a daughter and would fit into my life easily enough that it would just make sense. Against all odds, I’ve carried this hope. Heartbroken too many times to count, even before Axel, starting with my mother, sometimes I wonder if I have any business at all remaining hopeful.

But I’m glad I did.

Without that hope I wouldn’t have gotten here with Axel.

I rest my head on his shoulder and feel him kiss the top of my head.

“I know you have to go. It’s okay.”

I grab tightly to his arm and sigh. “I wish I didn’t have to.”

“I’ll see you soon. Tomorrow, if you’ll let me.”

I smile and nod, but then remember, “Stella has a dentist appointment tomorrow. And then I’m helping Harley with planning the reception. Monday.”

“Monday.”

“Or wait, on Monday–”

Axel touches my chin. “As soon as I can see you, I want to see you. How about that?”

From somewhere in the room, I hear the buzzing of the phone. I lift my head. “Yours or mine?”

Axel reaches into his pocket and holds up his phone. Screen is black. Mine.

“It’s probably Dana calling, wondering where I am,” I grumble and get to my feet. I find my phone by the light beaming from the screen, still strewn on the desk where I left it before Axel so wonderfully intruded. But it’s not Dana’s name on the screen. “It’s Kira.”

“Let it go to voicemail.”

“You know I can’t do that.”

He grins. “Worth a shot.”

I smile at him though my heart is pumping. Kira is not the calling late in the evening type. If she needs to communicate over something other than a text, she’ll plan a phone call, even if it’s fifteen minutes in the future. The only other reason she would call me out of the blue is if I’ve butt-dialed her by accident, as I am wont to do. I answer tentatively. “Hello?”

“Gillian!” Kira shouts. There’s the thrum of loud music and people shouting in the background “I need to talk to you!”

“Where are you? It’s so loud, I can barely hear you!” I reply.

“Wait a second, I’m trying to get outside–excuse me!” she shouts through what I imagine to be a throng of people. Slowly but surely, the background noise lessons until it’s barely anything at all. “Sorry, I’m at this thing for work.”

“Where is it? Coachella?” I say humorously.

Kira doesn’t laugh. “I don’t know, some club in the valley. It’s a birthday party for one of the execs and I had to go and–” She stops and grunts. “That’s not the point.”

This isn’t like Kira. Talking too fast and stumbling over her words. That only happens when something has happened. Something big. I glance back at Axel who is doing something on his phone in an attempt not to listen. I’ll make it easy for him and go out into the bakery. “Kira, what’s wrong?”

“Are you sitting down?”

“No.”

“Well, you should sit down.”

“Are you drunk?”

Kira sighs. “A couple of drinks.”

“Do you need me to come pick you up?”

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