I had not forgotten what he’d said about his dad.

But I also kinda did.

“Do your parents live close?” I asked.

“Cherry Creek.”

“Oh.”

Yup.

That was close.

And a ritzy neighborhood.

The monogrammed notepad was even further explained.

Axl kept going.

“Mom hasn’t worked since she gave up her job when she had me. There are women who are good to do that, some born to do it, but she’s a woman who shouldn’t have done it. After she did it, she felt she had to become Supermom and Superwife. And that was her, the way she was. An overachiever. But Dad played no small part in validating it for her.”

I already suspected I wasn’t going to like his dad all that much.

I was thinking I might be liking him even less now.

Axl continued.

“Eventually, when I got in high school, outside coming to meets, she had nothing to do. They have a big house. Dad requires all the trappings of the status he’s earned, so they also have a lady that cleans and runs errands and stocks the kitchen and sometimes cooks. Mom does some charity work because that’s what Dad thinks she should be doing. Mom does not go back to work, because that’s not what Dad thinks she should be doing. Bottom line, she’s bored out of her mind, has been for twenty years, and it’s torture, because it’s like watching the slowest death in history.”

Oh my God.

Yikes.

Awful.

“I hate hearing that, Axl,” I said softly.

But I didn’t ask if there was some more sinister reason why his mom didn’t stick up for herself and do what made her happy and fulfilled regardless of what his dad wanted.

“I hate sayin’ it, but it’s the truth,” he replied. “She’s like … ” He shook his head. “Vacant. A robot. She switches on when she’s conditioned to do that by Dad. Say, he has some dinner party he wants her to give. But that’s rote. And she switches on for me. And that’s genuine. I bought that house, and I had some idea of what I wanted it to look like, but I worked with her in doing it. She handled the bathroom refurb and the painters and the guys who put in the blinds. Shit like that.”

“I bet she enjoyed helping you,” I remarked hopefully.

“Hattie, she was in software tech before she quit. In the ’80s. When home computers were just taking off. Her field was highly competitive. Way more than now. It was emerging and there weren’t many like her. You had to be sharp, one of the best, to land a job like that. She’s kinda like Evie, just not on that scale, though not far off. And from what I can tell when she talks about it, she really liked doing it. Now she’s forced into being nothing but the wife of a successful, prominent attorney who flirts with political ambitions. And that’d be okay, if that was what she wanted. That isn’t what she wanted. The life she leads has choked any true enjoyment she could have out of her.”

My heart hurt, listening to him.

It hurt for Axl.

And it hurt for his mom.

“God, Axl. That’s awful,” I spoke truth.

“Yeah. Not as bad, but still bad, Dad doesn’t even fuckin’ notice.”

I said nothing.

Though I didn’t because this made me angry.

Yup.

Official.

Even not meeting the man, I really was not liking his dad.

Axl spoke on.

“So, there you go. When we really dig into all that, it’s going to be aggravating. But now you know that isn’t all going to be on you, it’s the same coming from my end.”

“That doesn’t thrill me to bits,” I shared honestly. “Because I don’t like that for you. Or your mom.”

He grinned. “Yeah. Still.”

Yeah.

The “still” part of that was that we weren’t skewed with only me having the dysfunctional family.

He clearly had his share of that.

Maybe worse, having to watch his mom be like that.

“And just to say,” he carried on, “you wanna ask anything about me, ask. Work is confidential. We offer that to our clients, and we take it seriously. So I’ll never be free to talk about that.” He squeezed my hand. “But other than that, don’t hold back, Hattie. We both been waiting a long time to be right here. It feels good you wanna know about me and I want the same from you. We can have our times when we’re quiet and not sharing, and that’s okay. But if you don’t want it to be one of those times, just go for it.”

Man.

Seriously.

He was the greatest.

“Okay?” he prompted.

“Okay,” I agreed.

“Now, do you want me to swing through somewhere to get you some food? I got shit to do, but nothing that can’t wait another fifteen minutes.”

And man.

He had a lock on me.

“I’d love a bagel.”

Axl immediately started checking his mirrors.

And it was more than fifteen minutes seeing as he backtracked because we swung by Moe’s.

Considering this was a special occasion (in my mind), I went all out and got the Spicy Buff breakfast bagel, Axl got the Shorty-P, and we headed back out.

We didn’t talk much on the rest of the way to my pad, and not because we were eating. Axl said he’d hang with me at my place to eat and then he’d take off.

My joy came back because I loved that, after what Axl just gave me, I could settle into the quiet.

And I loved that he was going to essentially have lunch with me (since it was just after eleven).

What I didn’t love was, when we were nearing my house, Axl muttered, “Shit.”

I turned my attention to my pad.

Sly was standing outside it.

“Wait, is he bodyguarding again?” I asked.

“Forgot to mention, this morning when he dropped around, made a deal with Cisco. We’ve got a project we’re working on together. Seein’ as both it and you are important, we’re splitting resources. This means sometimes, it’s gonna be his guys on you, sometimes, it’s gonna be me or my guys.”

Axl offered this answer as he found a spot on the street and started to parallel park.

Of all that had impressed me that day about him, Axl talking and parallel parking at the same time was top on the list.

Though I was curious what project they were on with Brett.

Did it have something to do with him being framed for that policeman’s murder?