“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.