Page 20 of Enemy Ex's Secret Baby

This has gone deeper than the protests at the Seton lot. This is now about me and Axel.

It was never supposed to happen, me and him. A mistake to the very core. Both of us going behind Lola’s back while she was out of the country. We both swore up and down as soon as she returned that it would be over and done with and we wouldn’t look back.

I never anticipated how badly he could hurt me. I’ve been holding onto that hurt for seven years now, waiting to be able to let it go.

How could I, though? He’s going to be a part of my life until the day I die whether I like it or not.

Before we can talk about the protests, the door dings open and Stella leaps into the bakery. “Hello!”

“There she is! How was school?!” I come out from behind the counter and give her a great big hug.

“Good!”

Dana enters too, followed by Drew.

I look up at my older sister from my embrace with Stella. “Thanks for picking her up today.”

“Any time. You know that,” she smiles. “Hope you don’t mind Drew tagged along. I promised him cookies.”

Drew smiles sheepishly, scratching his brown beard. “I don’t need cookies, Dana.”

Of course he doesn’t because it’s a well-known fact that Drew has it bad for my sister. Okay, not a fact. No one has confirmed this. But there’s definitely something going on there and I’m determined to get to the bottom of it.

“Well, you’re in luck. We have some of those left. You want to take a look in the case?” Lola says, leaning onto the counter.

Drew heads over to take a look at what we have to offer.

“He’s partial to oatmeal raisin which makes him a crazy person in my book,” Dana says with a smile.

“Raisins? Yuck!” Stella remarks.

Drew shrugs. “More for me, then!”

I glance at Dana and see the smallest hint of a smile. If any of the Solace sisters deserve a man, it’s her. She’s been taking care of everyone for far too long. I know she loves doing it. She was basically our surrogate mother after Mom left. And she went into grief counseling as a career to take care of even more people. However, caretakers need to be taken care of too.

“Do you smell that?” Stella asks, sniffing wildly.

“Stella, don’t blame other people if you tooted,” I admonish.

“Not that! Gross!” she retorts. “It smells like–”

Dana’s eyes widen. “Something is burning.”

My heart drops into my stomach. “Oh no. the mixer.”

I run into the kitchen and find the attachment on the industrial mixer whirring at top speed. Dough is flying across the room. Smoke is starting to form around the attachment. “Not again!” I cry out. I duck down trying to avoid the crossfire of dough and head straight toward the mixer. I know, basically a suicide mission.

I take hold of the power cord and pull on it with all my might until it comes out of the wall. The mixer makes a sound like a dying cat as it slows to a stop.

“You okay?” Lola calls out from the doorway.

I drop onto my bottom and sigh. “Fine. I think we might need to bite the bullet and get a new one of these.”

“Sounds expensive,” Dana remarks.

I turn around and find everyone piled into the doorway, including Stella. Though there is a feeling of dread in the room, she giggles. “Mommy, you’ve got dough in your hair.”

I run my fingers through my loose blonde locks and find a splat of cinnamon dough. “Great, now I’ve gotta wash my hair.”

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