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Oh, this guy is so dead.
Take five minutes, he said.I’ll be right over, he said.
Two damn days ago.
Glaring at the now towering pile of deliveries with Axel’s name on them, I can’t believe I actually thought he understood what I was going through. That maybe he even cared.
Ha!Wrong again, Nora.
The jerk doubled down on his efforts. Cue the ten additional deliveries in the last twenty-four hours— most of which arrived while the movers were here —each box bigger than the last. He probably had his whole stupid hockey team howling about it.
I glance around Diane’s otherwise empty living room, trying to take solace in the knowledge that by tomorrow at noon, I won’t have to worry about letting this guy snow me again.
Yanking the door open, I suck a deep breath, ready to lay into him— and choke.“Axel?”
This cannotbe my obnoxiously hot neighbor of the flirty winks and dirty smiles who always looks like he’s fresh out of some expensive cologne ad even when he’s pairing a black eye and split lip with his custom suit. Because this guy—
Well, it’s not just the dark circles around his too-wide eyes or the grayish pallor to his skin. It’s not even the cheap plastic totes hanging too tight across his chest.
It’s the infant car seat, complete with an actual infant inside, that has me questioning whether I’ve somehow stumbled into an alternate reality.
“Where did you getthat?”
Axel blinks, swallows. “He’s mine.”
I take a shocked step back. “Since when?”
And yes, it’s possibly the dumbest question I could have asked. But Axel looks around like he’s thinking…hardand then asks, “When were you at my place?”
What? “Two days ago.”
He nods, then he shakes his head, and I get the sense he’s not entirely sure if he’s coming or going. “I was heading over here, but when I opened the door, Shelly was there. In labor. So, yeah, about two hours after that.”
Okay, maybe today’s not the day to tear this guy a new one. Because as excuses go, his is pretty legit… And crazy tiny in his itty-bitty blue shirt and cap.
Oh, man. I should look away. But then the little guy makes one of those precious baby owl mouths and my heart melts.
“Wow, congratulations,” I say softly, inching forward. “What’s his name?”
“Otto. For my dad.”
Sweet.
Except this is Axel. And he’s a jerk.
The fact that he’s holding my personal kryptonite in front of him doesn’t change that.
I ought to let him get back to his two-day-old baby. I peek down the hall, wondering where the reinforcements are. The guys from the team or that brother of his. One of the seemingly constant stream of guests coming and going from his place at all hours. Anyone who can help out with the oversized packages, which suddenly make more sense.
Only the hall is empty.
But even without the entourage, he’s going to need to hand off Otto to move these. “Where’s Mom?”
He swallows and adjusts his hold on the carrier. “Pennsylvania. Or on her way there, I guess. I called the hospital from the Lyft, and she’d already been discharged, but I don’t know if…”
Oh God.He’s alone.
He clears his throat and levels me with a look. “Do you still need a job?”
