“No, I insist. It’s hard to find good babysitters, and you’re the best. We want to keep you happy.”

Jenna blushed at his praise, and we said our goodbyes before going up to our penthouse apartment. Evan carried Carrie upstairs to the bathroom and asked, “Do you want me or Mommy to give you your bath?”

“Mommy, but I want you to read with me tonight, BaBa.”

He kissed her forehead and set her down. “Okay, princess. I’ll get your jammies ready.” Evan had helped me raise Carrie since she was born, and she’d always called him BaBa. That stemmed from when she was an infant and started babbling. Her first syllables were ba-ba-ba-ba, and she said it all the freaking time. Evan had insisted that she was calling him BaBa, and the moniker stuck. It really was quite cute.

I started the bathwater and took Carrie’s temperature while we were waiting for the tub to fill. It was perfectly normal, and I was pretty sure Jenna had been right about the jumping around causing her to vomit. As I bathed my little girl and dried her hair, I thought about my interaction with her biological father tonight. Why hadn’t he even asked about her?

I got Carrie dressed in her sweet little purple pajamas, and she climbed into her purple bed where Evan was waiting with a book called Dragons Love Tacos, her current favorite. I stood in the doorway for a moment, my heart so full of love as I watched my favorite person in the world read to Evan. She wasn’t even five years old yet, but she was already reading way above her age level. My little genius.

Evan and I had his-and-hers bathrooms, and as I went into mine, I felt transported into my own little world. My space was decorated in soft pink and gray, and it was my favorite room in the apartment. Even the Italian marble in the room was light pink. As I climbed into the shower, I couldn’t help but think about Axel. I was absolutely shocked at his visceral reaction to my being married. Hell, I was surprised he had even taken the time to come and talk to me.

And I’ll be damned if the attraction wasn’t still there. The sexual tension between us had been so thick that it was almost visible. When he brushed his lips across mine, I could feel it all the way to my toes, but luckily, we didn’t go any farther than the soft kiss. We could have, though. It was simmering there, in the space between our bodies, just a bubbling of want and need.