And on her feet, she wore a pair of sandals that looked to be made with nothing but gold string crossing her foot and wrapping around her ankle. The heel was high and thin.

And yeah, he was fucking her in those shoes too.

She grabbed the last thing from the bed, a muted gold clutch, before she led the way up out of her bedroom space, and he waited at the door as she turned off lights and joined him.

Then he got her and her bags in his car and he did this hoping that she had to use the restroom while they were at dinner so he could watch her walk away in that dress.

She waited until he pulled out before she asked, “Where are we going?”

“Beatrice and Woodsley.”

He felt her eyes on him. “You got a reservation at BW in a day?”

“Lucked out,” he muttered, and he did. There’d been a cancellation right before he called in. “You been there?” he asked.

“Once, a few years ago, for Galentine’s Day with my mom.”

“Galentine’s?”

“The day before Valentine’s. It’s just for girls.”

“I know what it is, but I thought it was for friends.”

“My mom’s my friend.”

He was glad to hear that, considering her dad was such shit.

“She was a good mom too, Axl,” she went on.

“I’m glad, honey,” he murmured.

“I think there was a time, after I graduated from high school, where she got kind of messed up. Wondering why she picked him. Worried about what he’d done to me and what that would mean later. I still think she worries. But she sorted herself out. We got into being mom and daughter friends, not just mom and daughter, which is way cool.” Pause before she added, “She’s also started dating in the last couple of years. She’s gone on some vacations with friends. I think she’s finally getting over him and what he did to our family.”

Good news.

“You cool with her dating?” he asked.

“Definitely,” she stated, a chirp in her voice that not only underlined her word, it was fucking adorable. “I want her to be happy. I don’t think she’s been happy for a long time. I don’t think she’s happy now, not really. But I want her to find that.”

“Why don’t you think she’s happy now?”

“Well,” she began. “Your mom was driven and should never have stopped working. My mom wanted a husband, a home and family. It wasn’t like she wasn’t down to work to provide. To work to have her time and her space and her thing for herself. She likes her work. But my aunt told me she’d always been boy crazy. Said she went kinda nuts when she didn’t have a boyfriend.”

She stopped speaking, so Axl glanced at her to see she was gazing out the windshield, looking reflective.

Before he could say anything, though, she spoke again.

“And Aunt Pam said Mom used to talk, not about her dream of a big wedding, but her dream of a big house with husband and kids and stuff. Aunt Pam and Uncle Dave call Dad the Big Imposter. They said he was a charmer. They all fell for it. No one had his ticket. Until after the deed was done, her signature was on the marriage certificate and it was tougher for her to get out.”

“That why you’re an only child?” he guessed.

“Yes,” she confirmed. “It was Mom who told me that. Once we became mom and daughter friends.”

Her last was said with a smile in her voice, so he glanced at her again and saw it was also on her face.

Pretty all the time.

Smiling?

Gorgeous.

He looked back at the road and she kept talking.

“She wanted more kids. She just didn’t want more kids with him. And I think she wanted to leave way before she actually did. But they got pregnant within a year of the wedding. It was a time she still had hope that he wasn’t what he was seeming to be. Or she thought it was just youth and she’d train him to be a better husband. But …”

She trailed off.

Then again, she didn’t have to say any more.

“Think my mom put it off, having more kids,” he told her, seeing as she didn’t end what she was saying sounding like she was smiling. So he took his turn in order to turn her mind. “Thought she’d get back to work. And then she didn’t.”

“Yeah,” she said softly.

“In the end, it was more Dad didn’t want another kid. If they had more kids, he’d have less of her attention, and less of it to take up with all the shit he thought she was supposed to be doing. And what Dad wants, Dad gets.”

“Yeah,” she repeated, just as softly.

Definitely the smile was gone from her voice.

He reached her way and she gave him what he wanted, her hand.

When he had it, he said, “This is a bummer. Let’s have a bummer-free zone for the rest of our first date.”

She let out a cute laugh and said, “That works for me.”

And except for him telling her they’d set up cameras, and he had to let his guys into her pad to check for prints, and she’d have to give him her laptop and her two exes’ names so they could run them, that was where they kept it.

Mostly it was Hattie talking about her day with Sly. How much he liked hanging at rehearsal (not a surprise). How much he didn’t like helping her pick out her dress for that night (definitely not a surprise, no man would see that dress and like not being the one who was on the date with her, though it was hilarious, thinking about Sly sitting there while Hattie showed him dresses).

Last, how she thought it was weird, everyone involved with Brett seemed so cool when he was a self-described “motherfucker.”

This was where they were at when Axl found a parking spot not close, but not far from Beatrice & Woodsley. Though, it was closer than walking there from his house, which was what he’d normally do since the restaurant was in his ’hood and they didn’t only serve great food, but they had excellent cocktails. He wasn’t a regular, though he was no stranger.

But after he shut the Jeep down, instead of getting out, he turned to her

“First, honey, do not get caught in this fairy godfather gig Cisco has going on. He is absolutely a motherfucker.”

Her face fell and he hated that.

But he was not lying, and men like Cisco had three paths: they got caught and went to prison, they got dead, and for the rare, they retired.