Page 3 of Enemy Ex's Secret Baby

My friend sighs, brushing her dark hair out of her face. “Of course, I am. It’s just…you know, I’m sort of between a rock and a hard place with all of this.”

“Which is why we don’t talk about it,” I reply. We promised to put an embargo on talk about the development as soon as I got involved.

“Gillian, it’s been so hard on Axel. He’s barely even sleeping because of all this.”

My insides twist and my lips pucker like I’ve just bit into a lemon. I have to hold my tongue or else a torrent of curse words might pour out of me. Since we became adults, Axel is a sore subject. Me and him don’t get along for a variety of reasons. I know that the Hitchins company is what Lola’s whole family grew up on, their bread and butter. But she’s different than them…I wish she wouldn’t protect Axel and his feelings so much when he’s causing such harm to the community.

I keep this all inside. It wouldn’t be helpful to say. Plus, even if I wanted to argue, right now couldn’t be a worse time.

We’re saved from awkwardness when Harley’s doctor walks in with a serene smile on her face. All of us are silent, but Dad manages to croak out, “What’s the word, doc?”

The doctor’s smile grows. “Why don’t you come back and see for yourself?”

* * *

“Be very careful, Stella. Support her head…” I say softly, crouching next to my daughter who is sitting in a chair at Harley’s bedside. In her arms is little Tana Neville, Harley’s daughter. Fresh out of the womb and red-faced.

Tana already met her grandfather, auntie, and all her aunts. Now it’s Stella’s turn. She was miraculously patient, though she ran from person to person, eagerly looking up at them to try and get another glimpse of the baby.

Harley looks on from her bed, eyes lazing tiredly, and her short hair frizzed from sweat. The smile on her face, though, hasn’t disappeared for one second. The work she just did is no joke. I should know.

“What do I say?” Stella asks, looking to Harley and then to me.

“Introduce yourself,” Dad says from behind the chair, looking down as his two grandchildren meet for the first time.

“Hi Tana,” Stella says. “I’m Stella. I’m your cousin. I was the first one here, so you need to respect me.”

“Stella,” I admonish.

“Don’t worry, she will,” Harley says with a gentle laugh.

“Needs to learn to respect those who came before her,” Grant adds with a deferential nod toward Stella.

Harley and Grant exchange a look of love that’s so intense every one of us can feel it. I hate to say I’m jealous, but I am. Harley deserves it. Each and every one of my sisters does. And yet, love like that seems to elude me. Especially now that I’m a mother. Who has the time?

Before Stella, for a while, I had a boyfriend, love, I had found someone. I had looked for my person and was determined to have my happy ever after, my mother’s abandonment be damned. I saw how she and Dad were before everything fell apart. It felt real. Some of that must have been real. So, I searched high and low for that, determined that, unlike my mother, I wouldn’t screw up my family. I would run headfirst into love at any cost and I had found the perfect guy.

Unfortunately for past me, it didn’t last forever. When we were done, it hurt.

When the perfect chance for a rebound happened, I was all in. Stupidly, in time I fell for him, but he didn’t feel the same. We ended things.

So, you could say I was a bit surprised to learn about my unplanned pregnancy. More than a bit, actually. I thought I’d been careful. I’d been wrong.

“She’s big,” Stella mutters with wide eyes.

“You’re telling me,” Harley grumbles.

I laugh. “You’re in good spirits.”

“Oh, of course, how could I not be?” she replies.

I go to her bedside and plant a kiss on her forehead. “You did so good, sissy.”

Harley sighs in relief. “Thanks, Gilly.”

I look at Grant. “How are you holding up?”

His blue eyes widen. “Good. Better than I…expected.”

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