“I’m not sure. I gave him my number and told him to contact me after seven, and we would figure it out.”

“All right,” he said, patting my shoulder affectionately.

I brushed on some nude lip gloss, telling myself that I just wanted to feel confident for this conversation. That’s all. I totally wasn’t dressing up for Axel. I put on some wedge-heeled sandals and looked in the mirror. No, it looked like I was putting in too much effort. I switched to some cute flat sandals and checked my reflection again. I put the wedges back on. These really made my legs look amazing. Why the hell was I worried about what my frigging legs look like?

Because it’s Axel.

Dammit! I would just decide when he told me where we were meeting. If I was going to his house, I would wear the flats, and if we were going to a restaurant, I would wear the wedges. Done. Decision made. I glanced at my phone and saw that it was five after seven.

I went downstairs—barefoot—and sat on the couch with Evan as Carrie did a puzzle on the floor. She really was quite extraordinary. She wasn’t even five, and she was doing a puzzle meant for seven- to eight-year-olds. We had bought her puzzles in her age range, but she always had them worked within fifteen minutes, and she said they were boring.

She was making good progress on this one. It was a five-hundred-piece picturing a barn with kittens and ducklings, the largest one she had attempted so far. “You’re doing such a good job with that, Care Bear,” I told her, glancing at my phone. It was 7:18, and I had no texts or missed calls.

“I know,” she said confidently. “Can we get a duck?”

Evan chuckled. “Sorry, Princess. Our apartment doesn’t allow for barnyard pets. It’s, uh, in the lease contract.”

I stifled a laugh. I was fairly certain our lease didn’t mention ducks.

“What’s a lease contract?” Carrie asked, studying a puzzle piece before carefully snapping it into the correct place. Evan tried to explain it in terms she could understand as I looked back down at my phone. Almost 7:30. I had expected Ax to call right after seven, but maybe he was in the middle of dinner.

By eight o’clock, Evan was sneaking concerned looks at me when he thought I wasn’t looking. “Come on, Carrie. It’s time for your bath. You can work on the puzzle some more tomorrow,” he said, receiving a complaining groan from our little one. He gave me a sympathetic smile. “Let me know when you’re leaving.” I nodded.

He had Carrie bathed and in bed by 8:40 and came back down to sit on the other end of the couch from me. Pulling my feet into his lap and massaging them, he softly asked, “You okay, Blaire?”