Her expression changed again, as did her tone.

“You hear from her today?” she asked.

And Axl’s mood changed to match her tone.

“Yes, she’s going out to buy some workout clothes. There’s a gym in her building. She wants to take advantage of it.”

“Good,” she murmured, what she didn’t ask hanging in the air, which was the reason for Axl’s mood change.

He answered it anyway. “He’s texted seven times so far today.”

“Honey,” she whispered.

He told her something she knew. “He’s pissed, behaving like a dick and acting like this is all about him. Not a surprise.”

It could safely be said Sylas Pantera was blindsided in coming home on Friday evening, thinking he’d have dinner with his docile, soul-sucked-out-of-her wife and then do whatever it was his father did when he was winding down from a week.

Only for him to find her closet empty, her vanity vacant, picture frames and pieces around the house missing.

And then, after searching, finding a note on his desk in his home office that shared his wife had left him. She gave him her lawyer’s details, asking that, for the time being, they speak only through their attorneys.

So far, the only good news was, Sylas had adhered to this request.

The rest …

Axl predicted thirty seconds after he found that note, Sylas called his son, but Axl wasn’t answering. He was with Hattie, Don and his mom.

But after eleven calls, on Saturday morning, Axl picked up.

Once Sylas finished sharing how he discovered his wife was gone, he then ranted for a full ten minutes about respect and commitment before Axl could get a word in to ask if his father really found any of this a surprise.

His dad’s response was, “Are you insane? My partner for thirty-six years leaves with no discussion, no warning, and I’m not supposed to find it a surprise?”

It was at that, Axl lost it.

“She’s not your partner, Dad. She doesn’t occupy an office across the fucking hall. She’s your wife. The woman you married. The woman you had a child with. The woman you’re supposed to love. And that’s why she’s no longer there. Because you’re pissed you lost your partner. You’re not destroyed that you lost your wife.”

He hung up after that, and since, had not been taking his father’s calls or returning his texts.

Both of which there had been many.

After sharing that his dad had been in touch, and he was unsurprisingly not handling things well, he didn’t tell his mother more.

She was buying workout clothes and trying to find Pekingese breeders.

She’d had enough of his shit.

And so had Axl.

But Hattie had been around, and she knew Sylas was badgering the witness.

“Maybe you should block him,” she suggested. “Just for a few days. Or, um … weeks.”

“I’ll talk to him eventually. Share I’m not going to listen to his shit. But not on our Sunday. Brunch is done. Sharon and Shiloh are now at home, smoking copious weed and fretting about your reaction to them being together. And it’s just you and me.”

But he’d lost her in the middle of that.

He knew it when she began to look horrified.

“Oh my God, did I not hide I was freaked about my mom’s hippie, stoner boyfriend?”

Christ, she was cute.

“Uh …not so much,” he informed her.

She tore from his arms and pulled her bag off her shoulder.

“I need to call her,” she mumbled.

She so did.

Axl left her to it, going to the bedroom and dumping his keys and his phone by his nightstand after he set some light rock playing low on the Sonos system that ran in speakers throughout the house.

Perfect afternoon of fucking music.

He grinned.

When he went back into the kitchen to get them drinks, she gave him big eyes, and said into her phone, “I’m happy for you, of course I’m happy. If you’re happy, that’s all I need. I’ve wanted that for you for a long time. And he seems like a nice guy. Totally into you. I’m sorry I didn’t handle it well. It came as a surprise. Though, Mom, I hope you know, in my eyes, no one is ever going to be good enough for you. But please, apologize to Shiloh for me. I acted—”

She stopped talking when a pounding came at the front door.

Axl was at the fridge.

Hattie was still eyes to him.

And he knew who that was.

She did too at the freaked look now on her face.

Therefore, without hesitation, he turned on his foot and started to prowl out of the kitchen, hearing Hattie say, “I gotta go Mom. I think Axl’s father is here.”

Yeah, that had come out at brunch, Axl’s family drama.

Then again, after Shiloh exhausted sharing his file of pictures of his carved logs that was on his phone, they were so nervous, and Hattie so thrown off guard, conversation had dried up.

Axl made it to the door quickly, saw his father through the three windows at the top, unlocked it and pulled it open.

“This isn’t happening right now,” he declared.

He should have known better.

This was Sylas Pantera.

What he wanted, he got, took, or if necessary, he hassled, coaxed or charmed until it was his.

So his father pushed in.

Hattie was coming into the living room and Sylas’s eyes locked on her.

“Of course you’re here,” he declared contemptuously.

Uh …

Hell no.

“Dad—” Axl started.

“If I could have some privacy with my son,” Sylas spat at Hattie.

Hattie looked to Axl.

“She’s not going anywhere. You are,” Axl said to his dad. “We’re not doing this now. I’ll let you know when I’m down to talk.”

His father turned to him.

“With no warning, out of the complete blue, your father loses his wife, he’s grappling with that, and his son doesn’t have time for him?”

“Hattie and I have plans—”

And that was when it happened.

Sylas leaned toward Axl and roared, “I don’t give a fuck what you’ve got happening with your slut! Your father needs you!”

Oh no.

Hell no.

“Axl,” Hattie said urgently, wisely racing to him and hitting him full on, standing in front of him, her foot back and bracing her weight, her hands to his chest.