Page 8 of Enemy Ex's Secret Baby

“Of course,” he says carefully. “I just thought since you’re so passionate about your causes–”

I turn to him, ire flaming in all of my nerves. “Are you really doing this here?” I hiss.

Axel smiles. Damn him. He’s got a gorgeous smile. I noticed it when I was twelve. It was smart of Lola to make a rule that I could never date her brother because I was hooked on him from the moment I started experiencing “the changes” (as Mom put it).

“Relax, she’s not paying attention.”

I glance back at Stella. She’s managed to ask the woman working behind the counter for a sample of something bright orange. Hopefully, the sugar makes her crash rather than bouncing off the walls all night. “Is this why you invited yourself along for ice cream with me and my daughter? To corner me and–”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Axel stops me, holding up his hands. I suck in a breath at the size of his palms, remembering the feeling of them all over me. Gillian. No. “Who said anything about cornering you? I’d never do that.”

I narrow my eyes. “Right.”

“You know, this whole feud between the two of us is ridiculous, don’t you think?”

He’s talking about his property development, but my mind goes back years and years. This feud has been going on a lot longer. In fact, it started back in our teen years when he started picking on me and I realized it was flirting. I couldn’t do anything about it because of my promise to Lola, so I picked on him right back. It was only a matter of time before the dynamite went off. And while dynamite might be explosive, it leaves only destruction in its wake.

“Let’s put an end to it, huh? I know it’s been hard on both of us. And Lola too, so–”

“How do you suppose we ‘put an end to it’, Axel?” I ask, leaning on the counter with an expectant look on my face.

Axel sighs. “You know I’m not backing off, Gillian.”

“Great. Well, this conversation hasn’t been very productive, has it?” I say and turn back toward Stella on my heels. “Do you know what you want, sweetie?”

“I still can’t decide between birthday cake and cookie dough,” Stella sighs.

“And why should you?” Axel says. He pushes past me and gestures toward the woman behind the counter. “A double scoop for the little lady, huh?”

“Axel!” I cry out.

He ignores me, touching Stella on the shoulder. My entire body braces and I go mute. No energy to fight him even though I know that two scoops is far too much for my little girl. It’s just…the image of them together twists my heart so tight it feels like it might combust.

“What is it you wanted, sweetheart?” he asks Stella.

“Birthday cake and cookie dough. In a waffle cone.”

“You heard the woman,” he says with a nod. Then, he looks over at me. “What are you having, Gillian?”

My lips tighten. “A scoop of the coconut sorbet. In a cup please.”

Axel rolls his eyes. “’In a cup’. You don’t know how to have fun anymore, do you, Gillian?”

Anymore. Like he remembers all the fun we had together throughout the years. Running around in the sprinkler as kids, getting ready for school dances as teens, the tremendous ease of our bodies looping around one another in young adulthood.

Maybe I was too reckless. Young and accidentally pregnant.

I wouldn’t trade Stella for the world. For the whole world.

But I had to grow up very fast to make sure I was ready for her. Every day, I’m still growing up even though I’m twenty-nine. I have to be my best self for her.

So, when Axel says I don’t know how to have fun anymore…well, that just makes me want to incinerate him even more.

We get our ice creams and go sit at a parlor table. I barely touch my sorbet while I watch Stella lap at her double scoop. Axel quietly licks a scoop of butter pecan. I fume the longer we sit there until I think I might burst.

“Stella, honey–” I reach into my purse and pull out a couple of quarters. “Go pick out some songs on the jukebox, would you?” The place is as old-fashioned as can be with all the same fixtures it must have had back in the fifties, jukebox included.

“She’s not finished with her ice cream,” Axel says, aware I’m trying to send her away so I can give him a piece of my mind.

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