Axl stopped by the pedestal I was standing on, his eyes raking me, they came to mine, and he demanded, “Jesus, fuck, what are you wearing?”

“Uh…”

“A bridesmaid dress, Axe,” Lottie answered for me. “Seeing as we’re at a dress fitting, and you know that. But I’ll repeat, what are you doing—?”

“Your father called you a whore?” Axl bit out, ignoring Lottie.

I looked to Boone who was looking apologetically at Ryn, which made me turn my attention to Ryn who was in full-on Eek! face.

Ryn told Boone, Boone told Axl.

Now Axl was here.

Enraged.

Damn.

“Eyes to me, Hattie,” Axl growled.

I turned instantly back to him.

“Uh…”

“And you’ve been fasting?” he clipped.

My gaze took the journey from Boone to Ryn again, which bought me another growled, “Eyes,” from Axl.

I started to move off the pedestal to him, seeing Mag now standing behind him with Boone, and I did this saying, “Honey, I—”

He shook his head, I stopped moving, and he stated, “Oh no, baby. Fuck no. Shit just changed with how we deal with your dad.”

Uh-oh.

“Listen, maybe we can talk—” I tried again.

“You’re not a whore,” he declared.

“I know that, but—”

“Does it even penetrate how entirely fucked up it is for a father to call his daughter a whore?” he asked.

I shut up, and not simply because, in truth, it actually hadn’t. It hurt he said that. I knew he was wrong about it. But it didn’t occur to me to take that one step further and think that was, indeed, entirely fucked up.

What it was, for me, was Dad just being Dad.

I also shut up because I’d learned this. That “this” being, when Axl got pissed and had something to say, I didn’t interject, even when he asked me questions.

“And you have a beautiful body,” he announced.

Oh.

Wow.

“What the fuck? Fasting?” he went on.

When he didn’t say anything for a while, I opened my mouth to share, but before I could, he threw up his arm, indicating me, and said, “For Christ’s sake, look at you. You’re fucking perfect. And you don’t need that dress to be that, but, baby, you in that dress. Fuck.”

I stood still.

I felt the girls go still.

The air went still.

Maybe even the earth stood still.

Because…

Perfect?

Oh man.

Okay.

Official.

I really needed my guy to fuck me.

“And you’re fasting,” Axl continued. “Because that asshole gets in your head. I told you, baby, he harms you, I intervene. I’m intervening.”

“It’s intermittent fasting,” I said softly. “It’s a program to—”

“Lose weight?” he asked curtly.

“Yes. I could stand to shed a few pounds.”

Like, maybe, twenty-five (okay, thirty) of them.

“Why? You out of shape?” he queried.

“Well, no.”

“So?” he pushed.

“What I’m trying to share is, it isn’t him. It’s something I want to do for me.”