I was shaken to my core by her harsh but quiet words. “Blaire, I’ll admit that I did have a few hours of freak-out, but then I got my head on straight and realized how much I wanted our baby. When I came back for you the next day, you were gone, and my heart hurt so much, Blaire. I had never experienced a loss that painful. For you and the baby.”

“So, you just changed your mind, Ax?” she asked warily.

I looked back and forth between her eyes but found them guileless and confused. There was absolutely no deception whatsoever. She really didn’t know. Then it hit me. “Beau didn’t tell you? He didn’t tell you I called the day after our argument?”

“You talked to my brother?” she asked, frowning in bewilderment. Fucking Beau hadn’t told her a goddamn thing I’d said. That son of a bitch.

I tried to control my rage so that Blaire wouldn’t see me lose my temper. I took a deep breath and ran my thumb across her full bottom lip as my fingers wrapped around the side of her head. “Do me a favor and ask him to tell you the truth about everything I told him that day. Then if you want, we can talk.”

“Ax, why don’t you just tell me?”

I stared into her gorgeous face and told her the truth. “Because you don’t trust me yet, Blaire, and I don’t blame you for that. Just talk to your brother. I want you to hear the truth from someone you trust. I know you don’t owe me a damned thing, but will you do that for me?”

She stared at me for a long while and then finally whispered, “Yes.” She pulled away from me and rolled off the bed, and my entire body shivered at the loss of her warmth against me. She went into the bathroom, and when she came back ten minutes later, I was waiting on the side of the bed for her, dressed in athletic shorts. Her face was blotchy, and her eyes were red; I stood and took her in my arms.

“Blaire, you have to understand that I didn’t even know Carrie existed. When I talked to your brother the next day, he told me it was too late. I thought that meant… I thought you had… gone to the clinic.” Even saying that made me nauseated—the thought of that sweet little girl never coming into existence.

“I need to go,” she murmured, and my heart broke just a little.

I wrapped the blanket around her again and walked with her downstairs, watching as she slowly started to dress. “Where the hell is my bra?” she wondered aloud, looking around. I helped her look and found it in the dining room where I had apparently tossed it trying to get her naked as fast as humanly possible.