Page 37 of Enemy Ex's Secret Baby

“Gillian–”

“Axel, it’s not worth talking about again, okay?”

I screw my lips shut. Best not to push it any further than I already have. But I got to apologize. That’s more than we’ve spoken about our summer fling in seven years. Not too shabby, I guess.

“I’m sorry too,” she says softly. “We never should have crossed that line.”

That’s honestly not what I wanted her to say. I don’t want her to regret it. How could she not, though, when our relationship has gone from bad to worse all this time?

“Less so because of Lola, but because I lost a really great friend,” Gillian says, forcing a smile.

I nod. “Yeah. We were pretty close, weren’t we?”

“Yeah. I sometimes think about all the things we’ve missed out on because we fucked it all up and slept together. All the memories we could have had.”

So many memories…

“Anyway. I’m feeling nostalgic cause of all this, I guess,” she says, waving her hands toward the cove.

“Me too.”

Although my version of nostalgia is coming with an intense pull in my gut, a feeling that makes me want to reach out and kiss her, remember exactly how it felt when we belonged to each other.

That’d be crazy, wouldn’t it?

13

GILLIAN

God, I wish he would just lean over and kiss me.

Stop me from saying anything else stupid. Or keep me from feeling like I have to say anything at all.

Because I’d really like to tell him the truth. About Stella.

That’s why I’m out here, actually. Why I left her with my dad for a couple hours, so I could just clear my head and think.

After Hunter Ricks left with Jessica and all us girls were cleaning up after brunch, Stella stopped and stood still for a while, her face quizzically screwed together.

“What is it, babe?” I asked her, not thinking anything of it.

“Jessica doesn’t have a mommy.”

I don’t have the full story on that. I don’t think her mom is entirely out of the picture, but clearly, she isn’t much in it either.

“And I don’t have a daddy.”

I stopped in my tracks with whatever I was doing. “That’s not true, honey. You have a daddy. And Jessica has a mommy, they just–”

Stella crossed her arms over her chest. “They just don’t want us.”

I have never said that to her. Ever. “Who told you that?”

She lifted her chin obstinately. She wasn’t going to tell me.

“That’s not…true, honey.”

“Then where is my daddy?”

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