Page 51 of Enemy Ex's Secret Baby

They have the exact same eyes.

“Everything’s fine,” Lola says softly, touching my back as she returns behind the counter with a skeptical look in her eye.

“Could you put me down, Mommy?” Stella asks. “I’m not done with my cookie.”

“Oh, yes, sorry,” I say and let Stella back down to the ground. I hadn’t even noticed how my muscles were starting to ache from holding her, she’s gotten so big.

“Axel’s favorite cookie is a snickerdoodle too,” she says before taking a big bite of her cookie.

I nod. “I knew that, actually.” My eyes meet Axel’s. Is he smiling? God, why did I say that? That brings back way too many memories. I perfected the recipe based on his tastebuds that summer seven years ago. He was my guinea pig. If it wasn’t so popular among the customers, I’d throw the recipe right in the garbage and never make another snickerdoodle cookie again in my life.

“You want to sit, Gillian?” he asks, gesturing to the seat across from him.

I eye the chair carefully. “Uh. Yeah. Sure.” Any other answer would just be taken as melodramatic, and I’ve already made things weird enough. I sit down across from them. We all remain silent as Stella finishes her cookie. Axel doesn’t touch his again. I think I probably made him lose his appetite with that scathing eye contact I’ve been giving him.

“How was wedding dress shopping?” he asks suddenly.

I frown. “How do you know about that?”

“Amy told me,” he says. “Your life isn’t exactly classified, Gillian.”

“Yeah, Mommy. It’s not exactly classified,” Stella repeats.

I gape at her. “Do you even know what that means?”

She shrugs. “No. I just wanted to say it.”

Axel laughs. “You did a good job, kiddo.”

My brain feels like it’s burning. How dare he call her by a pet name? How dare he act like a fun uncle when that’s not what he actually is to her? Not at all. I have to hold my tongue, but I’m so furious it’s actually starting to hurt.

Because underneath all the fury and anger, I love it. I love it so much. It’s all I’ve ever wanted for her. A male figure in her life… a father. My dad does his best, but he’s her grandfather and that’s different. Especially now that she isn’t the only grandchild. No, Stella needs a father of her own.

And even though Axel is technically that, it can’t be him.

Can it?

“Classified basically means like secretive. You know how we were telling secrets earlier? Well, we can call those classified,” Axel says, looking askance at me with a smirk.

“Secrets?” I ask. “What kind of secrets?”

Stella shrugs. “Sorry, Mommy. Classified.”

“There ya go,” Axel chuckles.

Don’t you dare smile, Gillian. This isn’t cute. It’s annoying.

No. It’s really cute. Although I’m terrified to think about what kind of secrets they were trading back and forth. Were they talking about me?

“Um, wedding dress shopping was good.”

“Just good? Did you find ‘the one’?” Axel says with melodramatic flair.

I can’t help but smile just a bit. “Yes, we found ‘the one’.”

“Ah…well, a shame Harley isn’t having a real ceremony, so I won’t be able to see her walk down the aisle. Or…does a courthouse have an aisle?” he asks with a cock of his eyebrow.

“I think so? I don’t really know.” I glance at Stella who has started coloring again. “You’ll come to the party, though, won’t you?”

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