23. Axel
23
AXEL
A xel stood on the front porch staring after Eden’s car and wondering what just happened.
I’m an idiot, and I don’t even know why…
Panic filled his chest, and he slammed back in the front door of the house, dodging family members and rushing to the back door to grab his coat and car keys to chase after her.
He made it to the back porch and was shrugging on his coat when he heard footsteps behind him.
“Hey,” Tanner said.
Axel turned to see his brother, with Valentina by his side, worried expressions on both their faces.
“What’s going on?” Tanner asked gently.
“I… I don’t actually know,” Axel admitted. “But I have to fix it.”
“You should probably think about how to fix it first,” Valentina said. “Otherwise, you’ll just upset her more.”
“What did you do?” Tanner asked .
There was an accusing note in his brother’s voice that Axel didn’t particularly like.
“You remember the football camp we used to go to every spring break, up in the Poconos?” he asked his brother.
“We loved that place,” Tanner said, his eyes lighting up.
“Right?” Axel said. “Well, I thought it might be cool for Jack to go. She didn’t even let me explain anything about it. She just took off as soon as I handed her the brochure. I thought girls liked surprises and big romantic gestures.”
“She’s not a girl,” Tanner pointed out. “She’s a woman.”
“And she’s a mom,” Valentina said, nodding in agreement. “Why would she be excited to send her little boy away?”
“It wasn’t like that, though,” Axel said, sighing at his own short-sightedness. “At least it wasn’t supposed to be.”
“Okay,” Tanner said, lifting an eyebrow. “Then what was it supposed to be like?”
“Sam Green over at the center has been trying to get me to look at what to do after the school thing is over,” Axel said. “Full-time jobs, training programs… It’s endless. But the other day, she sent me a personal note from old Matt Reeves over at the football camp. She had reached out to him, and he said he wanted me to be one of the coaches.”
“That’s awesome,” Tanner said.
“Anyway, I wasn’t going to do it, at least not until yesterday,” Axel said. “Then I met up with Eden and Jack at the Hometown Holiday Celebration, and we had such a great time, all three of us. And I got to thinking about how much Jack loves football, and how much we loved that camp as kids. I just thought that maybe the camp would be a chance for him to have fun and… I don’t know.”
“What?” Valentina asked.
“I’m serious about Eden,” Axel said, looking down at his feet. “I thought maybe the camp would be a chance for me to bond more with Jack.”
“Oh, Axel,” Valentina said softly.
“Anyway, I had the idea yesterday while I was with them, and then I emailed Matt last night when I got home,” Axel said. “I heard back from him this morning. He was all excited, and he got my photo up on the site and everything. So I printed out the brochure and brought it over to show Eden, and ask if she would allow Jack to come with me.”
“She didn’t like that?” Tanner asked looking genuinely puzzled.
“I don’t know,” Axel said. “She just left. ”
“Did she know you would be going with him?” Valentina asked.
“My picture is pretty far down on the page,” Axel realized out loud. “Maybe she didn’t see it.”
“You need to catch her and talk to her, like now, ” Tanner said. “You need to explain this before it goes too far.”
“I don’t even know what to say,” Axel said. “Or if she will even listen to me at this point.”
“Look,” Tanner said, taking a breath and placing a hand on the wall. “When you’re a single parent, everything is different. There are no spontaneous decisions—literally every choice you make is weighed carefully based on your child’s needs first, and yours second, if at all.”
“The right partner knows that,” Valentina added. “And they’re ready to be part of a family right away.”
Tanner wrapped an arm around his wife’s shoulders and the obvious love between them made Axel’s heart ache.
I want what they have. I want Eden to feel that complete trust in me when it comes to Jack.
“I am ready,” Axel said. “I’ve been ready. She wanted to take things slow.”
“You need to make sure she understands what you were trying to do before she closes the door on you,” Tanner said firmly. “Single parents don’t usually re-open them once they’re closed.”
“And you need to tell her how you feel,” Valentina added, her dark eyes so earnest. “Even if she wants to go slowly, she needs to know that you’re serious now .”
Axel hurried out the back door and into the frosty evening without another word. The distance from the back of the house to where his truck was parked out front felt like a thousand miles. He had just reached his truck when he heard the front door open.
“Wait,” Aunt Annabelle called out breathlessly as she rushed down the porch steps and down into the gravel parking area, a big reusable shopping bag in one hand. “Don’t let that little boy miss out on his dessert. ”
“Oh, wow,” Axel said, taking the bag from her. “Thank you.”
“That young lady was very upset,” Aunt Annabelle said, concern in her eyes. “Do you know what you’re going to say to her?”
“Tanner and Valentina helped me see what I did wrong,” Axel admitted. “I think I know what I need to do.”
“Your little brother gives good advice,” Aunt Annabelle said fondly.
There was a time when it would have annoyed Axel to hear yet another person saying that his baby brother was the level-headed one. But today he was just grateful for any help he could get.
“He really does,” Axel agreed.
“Well, get to it,” Aunt Annabelle said, patting him on the back. “You don’t want to lose that girl. She’s a keeper.”
He pulled her in for a quick hug and then hopped in his truck, placing the bag carefully on the seat beside him, where it filled the cab with the sweet, cinnamon scent of an apple pie.
He knew his aunt was watching, so he tried not to drive recklessly fast as he pulled down the driveway toward the street.
But his pulse was thundering in his ears, and he had that same sensation from yesterday—like his heart was being pulled out of his body and right over to a sweet little cottage on Rutgers Avenue and the two special people who lived inside.
Please don’t close the door on me, Eden...