“My cousin,” I told her firmly, nodding to emphasize my point. I felt hope swell inside me. “You really called me.” Otherwise, how would she have known Tiffany was there?

“I did,” she said, her face looking slightly horrified at what had happened. “I just assumed… oh God, Ax! I was so fucking emotional, and I didn’t want to hurt you by coming into your life when you obviously didn’t want me. Be-because I thought you were with someone else. I should have talked to you.” She covered her eyes with the hand I wasn’t holding.

“Yeah, you should have. But I’m just so fucking happy to know that you actually thought of me. I thought you ran off and forgot about me.”

She pulled her hand away from her eyes and stared at me. “Axel, how could you think that? I loved you so much.” Loved. Past tense. Ouch. She chewed on her bottom lip, her voice soft and tentative when she spoke again. “Do you want to know why I named her Carrie?” I nodded, not sure where she was going with this. “Axel, Blaire, Carrie… ABC.”

I felt like I had been shot out of a cannon. Shocked, but also like I was flying high and fast through the air. I took her face in my hands and kissed her lips softly. My God, that felt right. I leaned my forehead against hers and spoke softly, “Thank you.”

“There’s more,” she said, her hands sliding up and down my forearms. “Her middle name is Lexa.”

I pulled back an inch but left my hands on her face. “Lexus? Like the car?”

She smiled. “No, but I get that a lot. Lexa, L-E-X-A.” At my look of confusion, she said, “Spell it backward.”

“A-X-E-L,” I whispered as my heart threatened to rise up into my throat. And then my lips were on Blaire’s in a crushing kiss. She had named our daughter after me, even after I had broken her heart. She parted her lips, and my tongue dipped inside, thrilled to be kissing her again after all these years. “Blaire,” I moaned into her mouth.

“Ax,” I felt rather than heard her say. Her tongue reached out and touched the tip of mine, and I thought my entire body was going to explode. Blaire buried her hands in my hair, and I deepened the kiss, tasting the slight sweetness of the wine on her small, velvety tongue. I wanted to fucking devour her in one bite, but I also wanted this kiss to last forever. Our tongues stroked longingly against each other, and I pushed her gently back until she was lying on the couch with my body covering hers.