Page 21 of Enemy Ex's Secret Baby

“You mind if I take a look at it?” Drew pipes up from behind the girls.

We all look at him.

“Drew’s an engineer, you know? He could help,” Dana says encouragingly.

“Sure. She’s all yours. Just be careful. Sometimes she sparks,” I say, getting up to my feet and checking myself over for any more dough.

Drew laughs and crosses toward the mixer. “Don’t worry, I’ve seen worse.”

“There’s no way we can afford a new one,” Lola says with a sigh.

If only I hadn’t started this drama with the Hitchins family, she might be able to ask her dad for a second loan. We started the bakery five years ago, kickstarted by the Hitchins money. Stella was still under a year old, we were in our early twenties, trying to figure out how to make things work. And in comes Mr. Hitchins (I’ve never had the courage to call him by his first name, Paul).

Now, though, I’m sure he’d tell Lola to stick that question where the sun don’t shine.

“Good thing is you won’t need to!” Drew announces after not even a minute. “It’s just some faulty wiring. I can fix it no problem.”

“Seriously?” I ask.

Drew nods. “You bet.”

“What’s your rate?” I ask.

He frowns. “Uh, free.”

“No way,” Lola says. “No way, there’s no way.”

“Okay, you know what, fine,” Drew says. “A dozen oatmeal raisin. I won’t go lower.”

I shake my head, about to rebut, but Dana intercedes. “He’s doing it for free, Gillian.”

“No, he’s doing it for a dozen oatmeal raisin! If you can start tomorrow, I’ll double it!” Lola says with a grin, bouncing over to Drew and throwing her arms around him with gratitude.

I look at Dana with relief. She smiles, holding her hands up. I’m going to have to have a talk with her. She’s got to nail down this man as soon as possible. He’s too good to lose.

Another sister to be jealous of…

“Mommy…” Stella comes up beside me and grabs my hand. “Can we go home now? I’m tired.”

I smile down at her, though my heart lurches when our eyes meet.

I’m never going to be able to forget him, am I?

“Of course. Let me just get cleaned up. And then we’ll go home.” It might be nice to have a man to go home to. Someone to help with the bills and school pickups. However, if the family I have the rest of my life is just Stella and me, I know that’s a life well-lived.

She’s my whole heart. No one else.

8

AXEL

I hate galas. Or to be more specific, I hate schmoozing. Because that’s all it is. A bunch of rich people in some hotel ballroom somewhere all rubbing elbows and laughing with each other, even though we all hate each other’s guts.

I’ve been forced into this by my dad. I have five events like this over the next month I’m attending in his stead in order to smooth things out regarding the Seton lot issue.

The funny thing about these people is that they’re the ones who are going to buy these condos. But they can’t stand the idea of being looked at as unkind or unpitying. They want to have their condo and also look like they care about the community. So that means, Hitchins has to pay by showing up and explaining to everyone how our luxury condominiums are going to improve the neighborhood.

Spoiler alert, it’s not.

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