Page 97 of Enemy Ex's Secret Baby

I laugh hard as he slides the ring onto my finger. I can’t even believe my eyes.

“Do you like it?”

I wrap my hands around the sides of Axel’s head and kiss him with everything I have in me. “Love it. Love it so much. Love you so much.”

Axel wraps his arms around me and kisses me again. “I love you more, pretty sure.”

“Oh no, not this again…” I groan. Then, I remember. “Kira’s birthday!”

Axel squints his eyes closed. “Gillian, that was a ploy.”

“What?!” I should have known Kira hadn’t turned over a new life and wanted a celebration all of a sudden.

“She wanted to make up for making things messy with Martin…and everything else. Although, I’m quite glad she did,” Axel says before kissing me right on the nose.

“This is the best day of my life!”

I jump to attention when I hear Stella’s voice. From the dune grass, she emerges, beaming from ear to ear. She skips over and squeezes in between us. “How did you get here?!” I ask in shock.

“Lola drove me.”

“At the speed of light?” I gape.

Stella wasn’t the only one hiding in the dune grass. My sisters all emerge, Grant, baby Tana, Lola and Jeremiah, and, of course, Dad.

I feel drowned in love as they all crowd around us, celebrating our engagement. Hugs, kisses, tears. I don’t even know what to do with myself.

They’ve also brought a picnic for us all to share. We spend the evening reveling in Axel and my love. Stella sits between us grinning from ear to ear. I don’t need to be right next to Axel to know that my love for him is as boundless as the Pacific or grains of sand on the beach.

“Can I see the ring?” Stella eventually asks.

I hold my hand out and show her, then hold it up next to her face. “It’s the same color as your eyes.” It’s not painful anymore to see Axel’s eyes in Stella’s. It’s my favorite thing in the world. I look up at Axel with a smile. “Both of your eyes.”

Axel smiles back and wraps his arms around Stella. “What do you think? Did I do a good job?”

And just that image right there, two green-eyed loves of my life, brings me to tears. I embrace them, give them kisses, and bask in the way they both whisper, “I love you.”

I never knew my heart could be so full it’s overflowing.

EPILOGUE

AXEL

I lean back in the chair and stare out at the ocean, placid blue extending for miles and miles and miles.

My stomach is twisting in knots. My suit feels itchy. Too tight and constricting, even though it’s made of linen. I run my hands back through my hair and then curse, remembering I’ve already coiffed it in the mirror. Can’t help being antsy.

I’m starting to regret this. Not the marrying Gillian part. But have a major spectacle of a wedding.

It was my idea to get married in Maldives. I wanted to marry her in style. Wanted to show off just how much I loved her by screaming it to the world and making sure every last person heard it. Which is how I’ve ended up in a tropical paradise with over a hundred of our closest friends and family waiting to watch me and Gill get married.

On Christmas Eve, no less. That was Stella’s idea. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned about myself in the past six months since becoming a father, it’s that I will do anything for my little girl.

Including planning a wedding to her exact date specifications.

Gillian always says I’m spoiling her. I just tell her I’ve got years of catching up to do.

I feel a hand on my shoulder. “You’re freaking out, aren’t you?”

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