“Hang up with him right now,” he could hear his father ordering.
“I’m not hanging up with my son,” she snapped. “And I’m not letting him listen to your rubbish.”
“This is unbelievable. He’s a smart guy. How he can be this stupid is beyond me. She’s after his money,” his father declared.
“You mean you think she’s after your money,” his mom said.
“Family money,” his dad shot back.
“Your money, Sylas. And I regret to inform you of this, but it is not always all about you.”
“Rachel!” It was a distant shout.
She was moving away.
“Axl, sweetheart, forget this even happened,” she urged into the phone.
“That’s impossible because this is serious, Mom, what I have with Hattie. And he has a choice to accept her and be kind and respectful to her or he doesn’t see either of us. Is this understood?”
“Perfectly,” she stated with no hesitation. “Now, on another note, I need some of your time soon. Later in the week. Could you have lunch with me?”
Shit.
He put it right out there.
“You’re leaving him.”
There was a hesitation then.
“I … well, darling, how did you know?”
She sounded freaked.
The door opened and Axl spoke his next while looking in Hattie’s eyes as she came inside.
“You always put up with his shit. You’re not putting up with his shit anymore.”
“Rachel!”
“I can’t talk about this now, Axl,” Rachel said quickly. “And I hope I can trust you not to mention anything to your father. I don’t quite have all my ducks in a row.”
“This secret is seriously safe with me,” he assured.
“Thank you, sweetheart.”
“Give me your phone,” he heard his father demand.
“I’ll be in touch. Tell Hattie I said hello and a bit later … well, I’ll contact her, and we can plan some girl time.”
“I cannot even believe you’re championing this!” Sylas shouted.
“I’m certain she’d love that,” Axl said.
“Good, and have a nice day, darling. Speak soon. Love you.”
“Love you too. And I know you can’t talk about it right now, but before we hang up, you have to know. I’m glad for you. I want you to be happy and I’ve wanted that a long time. I’m pleased as hell you’re going for it and I’ll support you any way I can.” He let that sink in and finished, “Later, Ma.”
Another hesitation before he got a husky, “Good-bye, Axl.”
She disconnected.
He dropped his cell on the counter and shared with Hattie, “She’s leaving him.”
She came right to him, put both hands on his chest and asked, “Wait, was that your mom or your dad?”
“First, Dad.”
“Your dad phoned to say your mom was leaving him?”
“My dad phoned to share he’d investigated you, knows you stripped, and is pissed as fuck I brought a stripper into his house and I’m so stupid I don’t know you’re after his money.”
She began to take a step back, but he hooked her with an arm and waylaid her.
“You know I don’t believe that shit,” he growled.
“I know,” she whispered, hands pressing in.
“He’s a goddamned dick.”
“Honey.”
“They got in a fight while Dad was spewing his shit, and then Mom called. She walked away from him and said she wanted some time this week. I put it out there, she confirmed.”
“Well, that’s good,” she said hesitantly.
“It’s fuckin’ awesome.”
He was still growling.
She pushed in with more than her hands.
“I’m okay,” he lied.
“You so totally are not.”
At that, his head dropped.
Just dropped, like he wasn’t in control of it.
It hit her shoulder.
That was when she slid her arms around him, held close and pressed against him tight.
She said nothing, just held on.
When he got it together and lifted his head, she caught his eyes. “You’re not stupid,” she said softly.
“I know, baby.” He let his gaze move over her face and then asked, “How hard is it for you to keep your shit right now?”
Her voice was vibrating when she answered, “Very.”
“I’m okay.” It wasn’t a lie that time.
“All right, honey,” she said, then moved totally in, turning her head and resting her cheek to his chest.
And yeah.
It wasn’t a lie.
Now he was okay.
* * *
“Gonna get us some hot dogs, nachos and beers. Babe, you wanna go with me to help carry?”
It was the fourth inning.
And something bizarre was happening.
Don looked to Hattie.
Hattie looked to Don.
Don jerked his head.
Hattie looked to Axl and smiled big and bright. “Of course.”
For fucking certain.
Something weird was happening.
“Anything else you want, Dad?” she asked as she got up.
“Beer, hot dogs and nachos sound like just the ticket.” Don’s gaze came to Axl. “Thank you, son.”
So fucking weird.
“Yeah,” he grunted, grabbed Hattie’s hand and all but dragged her up the steps from their seats he paid a fucking fortune for to get on the first-base line.
Things did not start out weird.
They met Don at a handicapped parking spot and Don was as Axl would have expected. Guarded and reticent.
The vibe was awkward and stilted as they hit Will Call, went in, got their programs and found their seats.
Through warm-ups, the same.
Before the game started, Axl headed up to get them their first round of beers, and when he got back, that was when it happened.
No longer stiff and uncomfortable, it was a father out with his daughter and her boyfriend, kicking back, watching a ball game and having a great time.
Don thanked him for the tickets and said next time, it was on him.
Don asked him how his job was going.
Don asked him how he felt about the Rockies’ stand against the Mets from which they just got home.
Don asked him if he’d ever been down to Arizona to catch spring training.
Don told him he’d followed Smithie’s Instagram and saw Hattie dancing, “And maybe you and me can take in a show sometime, if that isn’t too weird.”
And no, that wasn’t weird.
The rest of it was.
He stopped his woman in a concession stand line, let her go, got in front of her and looked down at her.
“What the fuck?”
She was very bad at trying to look innocent. “What the fuck what?”
“What’d you say to him?”
“Um …”
That gave him nothing and she didn’t expand.
“Hattie,” he prompted.
“Okay, so maybe I told him that your dad called you stupid and a pussy and that you found out today your mom was leaving him. And he was really flipped out about your dad calling you stupid and a pussy. He said, ‘Jesus, barely know the guy, and still know he’s far from stupid and for sure, he’s no pussy.’ Then he got kinda … angry on your behalf.”
For the second time that day, Axl couldn’t believe his ears.
“Let me get this straight, your whole life, he is not cool with you. He hears about my dad not being cool with me, and he’s angry on my behalf?”
She shrugged.
“Jesus,” he muttered.
“Hattie?” they heard.
They both looked in that direction.
And fuck him.
Automatically, his jaw tilted sharply, and his back went straight.
A dude was looking Hattie up a
nd down, smiling, and getting in their space.
“Jesus, Hattie, hey,” the guy said, the smile going broad.
And then he went right in.
Right … fucking …in.
With an arm snaking around her waist, he bent and kissed her cheek.
“Uh, no,” Axl ground out.
The man’s head turned his way, and way too fucking slowly, he let her go and stepped back.
“Shit, sorry, are you—?” he began.
“Yeah,” Axl bit off.
He looked to Hattie. “Sorry, honey. I just saw you and … ” Another step back. “You’re looking good.”
“You too, Flynn. Um … this is my boyfriend, Axl. Axl, this is Flynn,” she introduced.
“Axl,” the guy said.
“Flynn,” Axl returned.
Flynn looked right back to Hattie. “Boyfriend?”
This was an ex.
And two things Axl knew about him.
One, he wasn’t the dickhead who was up his own ass about dating a stripper.
Two, he was the one who let her go because he wasn’t enough of a man to stop being a boy who wanted all of his toys and he was either far more broken up about it than Hattie realized, or he understood what he lost after she was gone.
“Hey, I called,” Flynn said to Hattie.
Yep.
He understood what he lost after she was gone.
And he was scratching into that right in front of Axl.
Motherfucker.
“I know, I just thought …a clean break,” Hattie stated uncomfortably.
“I wish you would have picked up, honey.”
“You do get I’m standing right here,” Axl noted.
The guy turned his attention to Axl.
He was good-looking. Tall. Built. Could probably hold his own with ninety-five percent of the population and best a lot of that.
Axl could totally fuck him up.
And fucking Flynn didn’t miss it.
“Sorry, I—” he started.
“No, you’re not,” Axl cut him off.
“Axl,” Hattie said softly, edging close to him and taking his hand.
His fingers wound around hers tight.
Flynn didn’t miss this either, and goddamn it, he really liked her.
When he saw her holding hands with her man, that was when he backed off.
“It’s real good to see you, Hattie,” he said.
“Yeah, Flynn. You too.”
He took her in …
No, drank her in, and the flash of pain he couldn’t hide disappeared behind a mask of fake friendship.
“See you around, yeah?” he said.
“Yeah,” she replied.
He looked to Axl. “Axl, nice to meet you.”
Axl just jerked up his chin.
After another look at Hattie, Flynn turned and walked away.
Axl moved them forward in the line.
“Okay, that was unfun,” she mumbled. And louder, “Just in case you didn’t get it, that was one of the guys I used to see. The one who wasn’t into exclusive.”
“He didn’t want it to end,” he told her.
“I know. He told me that when I broke it off with him. I just didn’t want to be one of many.”
“How many times did he call you after?”
She considered this a second and …
Christ.
Hattie.
“I don’t remember. Five, six.”
Axl looked to the ceiling, then twisting his neck along the way, he looked to his shoes.
“What?” she asked.
His gaze went to her. “You really have no fucking clue, do you?”
“No fucking clue about what?”
He noticed the line moved again, and he moved them with it, saying, “No fucking clue how hot you are.”
“You like me,” she said.
“Yeah, babe, and I started to like you because you’re hot.”
“And because Lottie set us up.”
“No, because you’re hot.”
She stared at him, befuddled.
Christ.
Hattie.
“You took one of those calls, honey, and he would have told you he’s scraping off his other women to go exclusive for you,” he informed her.
She shook her head. “No, he seemed pretty clear—”
“Hattie.”
“What?”
“That man who just walked away is kicking his own ass right now, what he’s pretty much been doing for months, because he let you slip through his fingers. And now, you are very with another guy, and he’s blown his chance, and he knows it.”
“You can hardly get that in a two-minute interaction with him.”
“Wanna bet?”
She stared at him again, this time hard.
“You’re gonna get another call from him before this day ends,” he told her. “This one he’s gonna make to ascertain he actually did blow his chance because he’s gonna ask you where you’re at with me.”
“I really don’t think that’s going to happen, Axl.”
“Naked Jacuzzi sex says it does.”
“You can’t wager something the other person wants.”
He grinned at her.
Then he used her hand to pull her to him so he could bend and press his mouth to hers.
He pulled back an inch and said, “He’s gonna call.”
She rolled her eyes and said, “Whatever.”
He grinned again and moved them forward in line.
They got the beer, dogs and nachos. Hattie loaded up her hot dog along with her dad’s, Axl took care of his, and they took them back down to their seats.
And after they passed the food out, Don kept laying it on thick.
“The best. Beer. Ball field hot dogs. Nachos. My girl and her man.”
And Axl was done.
He leaned forward to look beyond Hattie and said to her father, “I know Hattie told you I had a family situation this morning, Don. But I can assure you, I’m fine.”
Don leaned forward too.
“My girl is not what I called her, and to my dying day, I’ll regret I called her that.”
Axl stilled.
Hattie went solid next to him.
“That’s my penance,” Don went on. “And I hope your father understands that’s his too.”
“He doesn’t understand that, Don.”
“Then I’m sorry for you, son. But I’m sorrier for him,” Don returned. He looked to his daughter, patted her leg, and said quieter. “I’m sorry, honey.”
“It’s okay, Dad.”
“It’s not. But thanks for that anyway,” he replied, sat back, aimed his eyes at the field and took a big bite of the hot dog Hattie had covered in ketchup, mustard and onions for him.
Axl turned his eyes to Hattie.
She was staring at him with hers swimming in tears.
“You okay?” he mouthed.
She nodded, sniffed, pulled her shit together, looked to the field and took her own huge bite of hot dog.
Jesus Christ.
Axl sat back and stared at the field.
“The runner should stick closer to the bag, right, Dad?” Hattie asked.
“No, honey, he’s a fast one. Got twenty-five stolen bases this year already. Pitcher doesn’t keep an eye, he’s gone,” Don answered.
Five minutes later, Don was proved right.
Stolen base.
* * *
Axl put his phone down at the side of the Jacuzzi and looked to his girl, who was straddling his lap wearing a red-and-white polka-dot bikini.
Yeah.
A fucking polka-dot bikini.
“She says she’s okay,” he told her about the text he just read from his mom after he’d texted her to ascertain that very thing.
“I really hope after all this drama that we have some smooth sailing for, oh, I don’t know, a year or five,” she replied.
He smiled at her.
“At least until Lott
ie and Mo get married,” she said.
“Yeah, at least until that,” he agreed.
She reached, grabbed her glass, and sucked back some margarita.
He didn’t go for his beer.
He went for her ass.
She put her glass back and looked down at him. “I knew I’d love your Jacuzzi the minute I saw it.”
“Always liked it. Can’t say I ever loved it, until now.”
She smiled at him.
“You good with that thing with your dad?” he asked.
“He’s never … ” She brought her shoulders forward, released them. “He could be apologetic, but that was different.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t know what it means, but I think he had a really good time with us today. I don’t think he’s been to a game in a long time. He doesn’t leave his house much. I think maybe, I don’t know …”
She didn’t finish that.
He still said, “Yeah.”
“It kinda feels stupid to hope,” she said softly.
“It’s never stupid to hope, baby,” he replied.
“Would you take him to a show?” she requested.
“Absolutely,” he answered.
“He follows Smithie’s on Insta. That’s totally not Dad.”
“I told him about it.”
She looked surprised. “You did?”
“Said they use you a lot to draw an audience.”
“Whoa.”
“You’re special, Hattie. And he knows it. He’s always known it. And I can’t speak for how he tried to draw it out, push you beyond what you were capable of giving to make you more when you were already great. My sense is, now he’s realizing how great you are and always were. And that doesn’t have to do with your dancing. It has to do with you being a daughter who would stick by her dad even when he didn’t deserve it.”
She made a study of watching her finger track his cheekbone, down past the corner of his lips, to his jaw.
“Babe,” he called.
Her gaze came to him.
“It’s never stupid to hope,” he repeated.
“Yeah,” she whispered, dipped her head and kissed him.
It got serious.
And then her phone rang.
They broke it off and she reached out and looked at the screen.
It said, FLYNN CALLING.
“Take it.” His voice was shaking with laughter.
“Axl, I don’t—”
“Take it, baby, naked Jacuzzi sex is on the line.”
She shot him a look then took the call.
“Hey, Flynn.” Pause then, “No. Um … ” Pause then, “Well, actually, honestly, no. We haven’t been seeing each other very long.”
Dream Spinner (Dream Team Book 3) Page 30