“Um, on page two or three, whichever one has all the checkboxes, it asks if you want to change the child’s last name,” I said cautiously. This felt like so much to throw at him in such a short amount of time. Hey, look, you have a kid. Now let’s put your name on her birth certificate. And also give her your surname. And would you care to donate a kidney or part of your liver while I’m overstepping?

He stopped his pacing, and I could see his eyes moving down the page. Then he pinned me to my chair with his deep sapphire gaze. “Carrie Broxton?” he asked in a low voice, edged with something I couldn’t quite define.

Oh. I had never dared say that name out loud before. Sure, it’d rambled around inside my head for years, but hearing it spoken aloud for the first time? It was… moving. I couldn’t seem to hold Axel’s eyes. I looked somewhere in the vicinity of his chin and said, “It’s just an option. We don’t have to.”

I could see his lips turn up into a smile, and I let out a long breath. “Blaire, I would be privileged for our little girl to have my name.” I met his eyes and saw worry there. “But I want to make sure that’s what she wants. I don’t want to cause any more upheaval in her life. She’s just a kid.”

My heart thumped mightily in my chest. He was putting Carrie’s well-being ahead of something he wanted more than anything. “You know, Ax. You’re pretty fucking awesome at this parenting thing,” I told him.

He blew out a stream of air through pursed lips. “I don’t feel like it. I mean, she’s the easiest kid in the world to be around, but I just keep thinking I’m going to fuck something up.”

I shrugged. “You will.” He looked at me in surprise and apprehension. “We all do,” I chortled. “When she was starting on baby food, we found out she was allergic to peaches. Not like a deathly reaction or anything, just a bad rash that was very uncomfortable for her. Evan went to the store for baby food one day and bought apricots. Seems reasonable, right? Two totally different fruits. But they were similar enough that apricots also made her break out. It was a horrible couple of hours of itching and crying. Poor baby was miserable, but I think Evan felt just as bad.”