“I’ll tell him. I love you, too. And kiss Carrie for me. I’ll call her before bed tonight.”

Just as I hung up with Evan, I pulled into the restaurant parking lot. Bode was waiting on the sidewalk, and he came over to open my door for me. “What a lovely date I have tonight,” he said, kissing me on the lips.

“Hey, Bode. Thanks for meeting me.” We walked in and were seated in a booth near the windows.

“So, what’s up with you and Broxton? Shark has been raging about it for days.” Well, let’s just jump right in, shall we?

“I had a little come-to-Jesus meeting with my brother today. Hopefully, that calmed him down. I guess Beau told you that Axel is Carrie’s father?”

“Yeah, and he said he treated you like shit.”

I rolled my eyes at my brother’s dramatics. “Not entirely true. We dated for almost two years, and Ax treated me like a queen the whole time. We had a huge blowup when I told him I was pregnant, and he said some really shitty stuff that night. I recently found out that when he cooled down the next day, he felt horrible and came back for me, but Beau and I had already left for California.”

“Hmmm,” he hummed, sounding unimpressed. The server came by and took our order, and we picked up where we’d left off.

I stared at the table as I spoke, making circle patterns with my glass of tea on the shiny wooden surface. “Anyway, Axel talked to Beau the next day, but my stupid brother never told me about that conversation. I just found out this week that Axel told him that he had fucked up and wanted me and the baby. That he would take care of us.”

“I don’t like that he said mean shit to you, Blaire. That’s not how a man is supposed to act,” Bode said, scowling and reaching for my hand to stop my incessant circle-making.

“I know,” I said on a long sigh. “Axel’s father is… toxic. He’s not a nice man at all. Ax had been with him all evening, listening to his dad say that I was a gold digger and other unflattering stuff. Then an hour later, I was telling him I was pregnant. He reacted badly, I’ll admit, and I went five years thinking that was how he really felt.”

“So, how do you know he won’t be a suck-ass father just like his own?”

“Because I knew him, Bode. He was this big, tough football player, but with me, he was sweet and loving. He was stunned when he saw Carrie in the grocery store. When he talked to Beau that day five years ago, my brother told him that it was ‘too late.’ Axel thought that meant I had terminated the pregnancy.”