“Few years.” Axl took a sip, swallowed and said, “I was in the army before that.”

“Well, son, thank you for your service.”

Never quite knowing what to say when people said that, Axl rarely said anything.

Like now.

He just jerked out his chin.

Don pressed on. “You see any action over there?”

Axl felt his neck muscles tighten. “Had a few tours.”

Don looked him direct in the eyes and said quietly, “Right, son. Right.”

Don then nodded, not losing eye contact, and…

Fucking hell.

“You serve?” Axl asked.

Don nodded again. “Right outta high school. Didn’t know what to do with myself, enlisted. I was army too. Just did my four years and got out. Knew myself better by then.”

“Yeah, tend to learn a lot about yourself when you’re in.”

“Yeah,” Don confirmed.

“You guys doing all right?” Hattie yelled from the kitchen.

“We’re good, honey!” Don yelled back, took a sip of beer and looked to his knees.

“Listen, Don—” Axl began, and Don’s head shot up.

“She dances. You seen my girl dance?”

“Yes,” Axl replied.

“You, uh…know where she dances?”

“Sat through her show last night.”

Don blinked.

“She was magnificent. Danced ballet to a punk rock song,” Axl told him.

Don’s chin shifted to the side. “She what?”

“Joan Jett. She danced to Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. She had four other numbers last night, she’s always great. But that one blew the audience away.”

“I…” Don looked toward the doorway to the kitchen and back to Axl. “You’re, well…good with her working there?”

“It’s her life, she can do what she wants,” Axl said on a shrug. “But I think she likes it better now that they’ve switched to a Revue. She can be creative. And she’s really good at that. Shines. Headliner used to be a friend of ours, the one who set us up, Charlotte McAlister. But Hattie’s the main headliner now.”

“She is?”

This news visibly rocked him.

Good.

Axl nodded and drew back more beer.

Then he told him, “You should follow the club on social media. Sometimes, they post videos. Can’t say I have time to check very often, but from what I’ve seen, management uses a lot of Hattie. She’s drawing a big crowd for them. Always had a velvet rope, now they have to turn people away. Even if the cover charge has tripled.”

“Well, I’ll be damned,” he said under his breath. He took a second to think on that, then back to a normal voice, he asked, “How long you two been seeing each other?”

“We’ve known each other awhile now,” he hedged.

“You meet Sharon yet?”

Sharon was Hattie’s mom.

He shook his head. “Not yet.”

It was the first time since he met the man that he saw something overt he didn’t like.

A smug smile.