I went into the bathroom to pee and noticed red on the toilet paper when I wiped. Damn. I didn’t even have a tampon with me. I wadded up some toilet paper and stuffed it into my panties before going back to the kitchen. “Give me an extra thirty minutes before you come over. I need to run by the hospital.”

“What for?” he asked, his forehead furrowing.

“I just got my period,” I said. His eyebrows pinched together in confusion, and I explained, “I can get my birth control shot now, and it will be effective immediately.”

A wide grin split his face. “So, I don’t need to go buy condoms today?”

“Nope,” I said, throwing a wink over my shoulder before I walked out.

28. Axel

Axel

I meant what I said to Blaire. I wanted to have breakfast with her every damned morning. I wanted her and Carrie to move in with me and be a family, but a lot needed to happen before we could do that. First of all, she needed to get started on getting a divorce; I would talk to her about that the first chance I got. Second… I smiled to myself as I picked up my phone and dialed.

“Reagan, I need your help with something.”

“Whatever you need, Axel,” she purred.

After speaking with Reagan for about fifteen minutes, I went upstairs to put on some clothes. As I stood inside my closet in my underwear, I wondered what a man should wear when he told his daughter that he was her dad. It seemed like a momentous occasion.

A suit and tie? Uh, no, dickhead. She was four, for fuck’s sake.

T-shirt and shorts? You want her to think her father is a lazy slob?

I finally settled on a purple polo shirt and navy golf shorts with loafers. It was casual but still neat. I spritzed on Blaire’s favorite cologne and went into the bathroom.

I stared at my hair, trying to decide what to do with it to impress my daughter. I combed it smoothly over to one side, but I looked like a fucking douchebag, so I messed it back up. You’re overthinking this, dude. She’s a little kid. I kept the sides of my hair cut short, so I just added a little gel to the top and went with what I hoped was a slightly messy “cool dad” look.

Fucking hell, this is nerve-racking!

I still had an hour before I needed to leave, so I went downstairs and looked through Carrie’s baby book again. I took several of the pictures, including all the pregnant pics of Blaire, and scanned them into my office computer. I made a little collage and set it as my background on the monitor, smiling at the results. My girls.