Axl shook his head. “I got no excuse for that. Or the verbal abuse he keeps doling out. What I know is, recently, he called her a whore.”
“Jesus,” Hawk clipped.
“She didn’t tell me that. She told Ryn, Ryn told Boone. And I got it from Boone. But before … ” He paused, then got to it, “I can’t step in with her dad. She knows their relationship is dysfunctional. She feels beholden. I could only have her back. Until I heard that. Then I shared I was going to have to have words with her father.”
“Good,” Hawk murmured.
“Then I got there, and the man was practically beaming, he was so fuckin’ happy Hattie brought her boyfriend over to meet him.”
“Fuck,” Hawk grunted.
“So we sat down. He gave me the ‘What do you do for a living’ and ‘How’d you meet my daughter’ gig. I answered. All was good. Then I told him I couldn’t have him upsetting Hattie like he did by calling her a whore. He tried to explain it by saying he was in a bad mood. I told him, in future, if he was in a bad mood, he needed not to take that out on Hattie.”
“On your first meeting,” Hawk noted.
“On our first meeting,” Axl confirmed.
“Which happened … what? How long have you been seeing her? A few days?”
“Yep.”
“You laid down the law with your woman’s father the first time you met him after you’ve been with her a few days,” Hawk laid it out.
“Yep.”
“Christ, Axe, you don’t fuck around,” Hawk muttered.
“This isn’t really something you fuck around about.”
“No, it isn’t,” Hawk agreed.
It was time to give Hawk the fullness of it.
“She goes every night to make him dinner and clean up after. She runs errands for him. He’s a part of her day-to-day life. And the man I saw last night wasn’t the picture of health, but he could see to himself, even with the errands. What I told her was that I was there to support whatever she felt she needed to do. But full transparency, my hope was that she’d find her way to helping him move on without him infiltrating her life on a regular basis the way he does. Now, I’m not certain.”
“Men do this,” Hawk stated.
“Sorry?” Axl asked.
“We see another man and the shit he’s in and we don’t realize we put ourselves in his shoes. Without knowing where your thoughts have turned, you’re thinking, if I had a daughter and I loved her and I fucked up with her in immense and arguably unforgivable ways, I would not want the door closed to redemption.”
“That makes sense,” Axl said.
“Is Hattie an only child?” Hawk queried.
“Yeah.”
“And her father is ill?”
“Diabetes that he doesn’t manage very well.”
“So she’ll manage it for him,” Hawk deduced.
“Correct. But he has a nice house. A newish car in the drive. She says he has a job where he works from home and makes good money. She started dinner, he was down to finish it and clean up after so we could get on with our plans. She’s had to skip a few nights with him last week, but neither he nor his home looked neglected in any way. He doesn’t walk freely, but he can have groceries delivered. He can also drive through a pharmacy.”
“It’s bullshit.”
Axl nodded once. “It’s control. She knows it. We’ve had some talks. She’s thinking on things and part of what she’s thinking is she wants to pull back from him so she can get her head straight about what he’s done to her and how it continues to affect her.”
“And now that you know he has genuine healthy feeling for her, you’re not sure that’s the right path.”
“That’s why I’m talking to you. I honestly don’t know where to go from here. Again, Hattie and I are new. We’ve talked about the mental abuse, but not him hitting her. But needless to say, because there was both, it seemed cut and dried.”
“And now it’s complicated.”
“Now it’s complicated,” Axl affirmed.
“Have you spoken to her about where the dad might be at?”
Axl shook his head. “No, I didn’t want to give her hope because even with all that, she wants what everyone wants. Her dad to be a good dad.”
Hawk gave it only a beat.
Then he broke it down.
“First, as an only child with a father who has a chronic illness, one as significant as diabetes, it is inevitable there will come a time where he will need her. And if she feels she must do what she’s currently doing, which she does, because she’s doing it, she’ll feel duty bound to meet those needs when they become more considerable. But it is my strong opinion that now is absolutely not that time. She needs to wean him off her. And that isn’t about abuse. It’s not about control. It’s about dysfunction in a family unit that needs to be rectified. She will be in her twenties and falling in love once in her life. She doesn’t need a family member sucking her time and energy when she should be enjoying being young and falling in love.”
Falling in love.
“And straight up,” Hawk continued before Axl could recover from the velvet hit of those three words. “The man isn’t ninety, but he is ill. He’s got a life to live that is likely going to be abbreviated by his condition. So he needs to be encouraged to live it.”
“Yeah,” Axl grunted, still stuck on the thought of Hattie falling in love.
With him.
Which he was doing with her.
He’d just not consciously acknowledged it.
“The second is harder, which is why you’re here,” Hawk carried on. “But if you had no problem getting down to important business on your first meeting with this guy, I’d find your times to continue to go over when she’s with him. Regardless of the rocky start, try to establish a relationship with him. And then point out, if he loves his daughter, he should get his head out of his fuckin’ ass and put the work in to build a relationship with her that isn’t based on shit.”
“Yeah,” Axl repeated.
“That’s harder, Axe, ’cause you can’t go in there doing that without her knowledge. Which means you gotta point out to Hattie in the middle of sorting her head out about past and current issues that there’s healthy emotion mixed in that. And since there is, you think it’s worthwhile you both work on him in coaxing it out.”
Hawk leaned forward.
Because he wasn’t done.
“But you gotta be certain you’re at one with thinking it’s worthwhile to coax it out,” he warned. “If you’re not, then you should keep doin’ what you’re doing. Support what she feels she has to do, and step in when he crosses a line.”
“Right,” Axl said.
Hawk’s gaze remained steady on Axl.
“It’s been a rough road for you with her, what she experienced growing up, even when you got together, it wasn’t going to be easy,” Hawk remarked. “Still, sucks to hear that it’s not only not easy, but also confusing.”
“Definitely sucks,” Axl agreed. “Though, appreciate you talkin’ it out with me.”
Hawk sat back again and replied, “Anytime.”
Axl stood.
Surprisingly, Hawk didn’t.
“Again, gratitude,” Axl said. “I was at a loss. Now I’m not. It’s important so it’s good to have a path.”
Hawk nodded.
Axl moved to the door.
“Axe?” Hawk called.
He turned to his boss.
And it felt like someone punched him in the sternum when he saw the look on Hawk’s face.
A look he couldn’t quite read.
But he could feel it.
“You know what fucks me?” Hawk asked quietly.
“No,” Axl forced out.
“That you came to me with this.”
And a sock to the gut.
“Sorry, I—”
“No,” Hawk bit off. “That you came to me because you can’t go to your dad. That fucks me, Axl. Because I’m honored you fe
lt safe sitting across from me and talking this through. But you should feel safe with your dad. You do not. And that pisses me right the fuck off.”
Axl said nothing.
He felt a number of things.
But he said nothing.
Hawk did.
“I got two boys,” Hawk told him something he knew. “If I knew Asher or Bruno went to another man for advice on anything, something important like this, or which protein powder worked best, I fuck you not, I’d die a little inside.”
It wasn’t easy, but Axl swallowed.
“What I’m sayin’ is, I get you’re flyin’ blind with this,” Hawk continued. “You don’t have a father who acts as a foundation for you, Hattie doesn’t either, so you gotta search for the path forward rather than knowing it or having your personal path lead to your father’s door for guidance. So I’m glad you took the time to come up here, man. I just caution you to realize you are lacking the same thing Hattie is and don’t get lost in that. You made the right choice today, coming up here. And as shit progresses with Hattie’s dad, remember, that path is always open to you. I don’t have all the answers. What I will always have is the time to listen and work shit through.”
His throat feeling tight, Axl nodded.
Hawk was older, but not old enough to be his father.
But fuck, he was glad he’d found a man like Hawk to be his mentor.
“Right. Later, Axl,” Hawk finished it for both of them.
“Later, Hawk.”
And with them exchanging chin lifts, Axl walked out of Hawk’s office.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Two Drawers
AXL
That evening, twenty minutes later than he wanted to do it, Axl walked in from his garage, calling, “Hattie, baby, I’m home.”
And within seconds, Hattie came flying into the kitchen, barefoot, wearing a long, yellow dress with little white flowers on it. It was fitted to her torso, had ruffles for the short sleeves, a flowy skirt and a slit up to the knee on her left leg.
Her hair was piled on top of her head and her face was panicked.
“Okay, I thought I had it together, but I didn’t,” she announced. “So I made Sly go shopping with me today and I bought seven dresses. I’ve switched out which one so many times, I think Sly might beg Brett to be taken off Hattie Detail. But I think this is the one. What do you think?”
He didn’t tell her what he thought.
He told her what he knew.
“You look beautiful.”
“No, seriously, what do you think?”
Axl was confused seeing as he’d just answered that question.
“Honey, you look beautiful.”
Looking down at herself, she shifted her hips side to side, which meant the skirt drifted around her legs.
Axl was watching that as she asked, “Is it too casual?” Then she decided for him. “It’s too casual. It doesn’t say Cherry Creek.”
He tore his eyes from her hips and stated firmly, “Hattie, look at me.”
She looked at him.
“You. Look. Beautiful,” he declared.
She kept gazing at him for a few beats before she said, “Okay. Phew. Now, hair up or down?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Down.”
“Right!” she for some reason cried loudly, then rushed out of the room, her skirt flying out behind her.
He found her in the bathroom, leaning over the sink, yanking something out of her hair.
It came tumbling down.
Well, hell.
That went straight to his dick.
He had to shower, and they had to get on the road. They didn’t have time for a quick fuck.
“Babe, I need to shower.”
She turned to him. “If my hair is down, I need product. And fiddle time. Are you okay to shower with me in the bathroom?”
“Of course.”
She grinned at him. “Then shower.”
And back she went to her hair.
He moved to his room, pulled off his clothes, tossed them on the chair, boots and socks remained on the floor, then walked naked back into the bathroom.
She turned to him again, her eyes doing a full body scan, but sticking on his cock.
This meant he got behind her, fit himself to her body, bent in and kissed her neck, getting a whiff of her perfume, feeling his cock stir (again), and he said in her ear, “You can have it later.”
“Mm,” she hummed.
He kissed her neck again then went to the shower.
When he got out, Hattie was still at the sink fucking around with her hair, but now she was doing it with Cleo sitting on the bathroom counter, tail swishing, staring at her in fascination.
Axl didn’t question that.
He understood a fascination with Hattie’s curls.
But when he reached for a towel, Cleo remembered nothing fascinated her. And doing so, she tossed him a look, jumped down, and Axl stopped and stared as she ran her body along the backs of Hattie’s legs as she strutted out.
“Jesus, what’d you do to my cat?” he asked.
“Well, as she’s a girl,” Hattie told the mirror, “and I’m a girl, I realized the best way to win any girl over was to offer her girl time.” She stopped fucking with her hair and turned fully to him. “In other words, I took some time with Cleo, and she and I had a chat which was mostly me chatting, and Cleo snarfing down a bowl of tuna.”
“In short, you bribed her with food.”
“Totally.”
Axl chuckled.
Hattie leaned a hip against the basin and watched him towel off.
“Babe, it’ll take me five minutes to dress and we need to be out the door in five minutes. I don’t have time to fuck you which means we don’t have any for you to change your mind seven more times about your dress, or your shoes, or—”
“I got it, I got it,” she said, whirled, her skirt flew, and she was out the door.
He seriously wished he had that twenty minutes he’d wanted to have before they needed to leave when he walked from the hall, dressed in jeans and a white button-down, his shoes in his hand, to see Hattie rise from the bed wearing a pair of high-heeled yellow sandals with a thin ankle strap, a little gold at her throat and wrist, and a sheen of gloss on her lips.
He’d woken her up to fuck her that morning before he had to get up and shower, then leave.
With Sly at the door to take duty, he’d left her in his bed.
That fuck, officially, wore off the minute he saw her in those shoes with that lip gloss.
Now he was wishing even more than he did before—and he wanted this visit out of the way, but he’d never been looking forward to it—that he hadn’t caved when his mother pushed for this dinner.
He beat back the need to at the very least kiss her, and hard, which he knew would lead to them both wanting other things, which in turn would mean his resolve would buckle, and he got on with putting on his shoes.
She grabbed her purse. He grabbed her hand.
And at the door to the garage, he called, “Later, Cleo.”
Nothing.
“Later, shmoochmagooch,” Hattie called.
A distant meow.
“Shmoochmagooch?” he asked.
“During our chat I learned she likes baby talk,” she told him.
Fucking hell.
This made him grin and he kept doing it even when he was backing them out of the garage.
Bad news, they were on their way and it was always a crapshoot with his dad how things would go.
Good news, Hattie seemed a lot calmer than when he walked into the house.
“You good?” he asked to confirm.
“Absolutely not. I’m totally freaking out,” she answered.
He glanced at her and saw none of that.
“You seem good,” he noted.
“I’m faking it.”
Back came his grin.
“Honey, it’s gonna be okay.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Smart advice. I will now commence visualizing the ride home.” She then put her hands up at her sides, tip of her thumb to tip of her middle finger, and she began chanting, “Om.”
Now he wasn’t grinning.
He was laughing.
Fuck, she was something.
Yeah.
Cute girls totally did it for him.
She stopped chanting, dropped her hands and asked, “How was your day?”
“I had duty at the monitors,” he shared. “We take turns having to sit there and stare at them. I got three days of that and then I’m back out from behind my workstation. Which I already know will be the best day of the week.”
“Man of action,” she noted.
“Definitely not a man of sitting on my ass all day,” he replied.
She didn’t say anything, and at a glance, he saw her lips tipped up, looking amused, staring out the windshield.
It was a good segue, so he took it.
“Sometimes, depending on what jobs we’re on, I got night duty doing that,” he told her.
“All right,” she said.
“That’s not a problem?” he asked.
“Honey, I work nine to two in the morning. Is that a problem?” she asked back.
“No.”
“I can hardly be ticked at you that you have to work nights when I work nights.”
Right.
“Yeah,” he said through his chuckles. When he stopped chuckling, he asked, “Did you get to your studio today?”
“I was in the middle of a tourney of Pac-Man with Sly, and, by the way, he’s nowhere near as good as you, so I kicked his ass, when I decided the dress I picked to meet your folks in didn’t work. We went to four stores. Sly carries a gun. That’s the only reason it wasn’t five. I felt the need to make up for it, so I took him to Cherry Cricket for lunch. He was feeling the burn of me kicking his ass so he forced a short first to win two takes it all at the video machine, which I won. Commence freak-out about the dress, because I decided on a red one, but obviously, since I’m not wearing it, it wouldn’t do. So that would be a no on the studio.”
“Maybe tomorrow,” he replied.
They fell into a comfortable silence, and during that silence, Axl contemplated two things.
Dream Spinner (Dream Team Book 3) Page 22