“And then you offered me ‘After,’ and I already knew I was gonna buy it in your show. I didn’t care how much it cost. I wanted it from the minute I saw it. Because it was you. And I wanted you. I didn’t have any of you back then, so even little pieces would work, I wanted you that bad. But in the end, I knew, I wanted all of you.”

She had nothing to say to that.

But now he was getting another look.

Lots of warmth.

Axl kept talking.

“Then, after I was a dick to you about Jordan, I talked with Mo. He has issues. We all do. We look out for each other, but we can’t be there twenty-four seven. So, he told me, when he has his moments, Lottie looks after him and I knew that gutted him, because you don’t want to lay that kind of heavy on someone you love. Which was what I was trying to protect you from. I didn’t want you to shoulder that heavy. But then Mo told me Lottie doesn’t mind. She’s all over it. Because she loves him and that’s a part of him and she wants it all.”

Now Hattie was looking at him with an expression he couldn’t quite read.

But it looked like surprise.

So he kept explaining.

“Now I get that’s why I have that piece in the living room. To remind me of the pain of losing Jordan. Which is something I didn’t want, but it’s the last thing I got from him. Even as much as that sucks, it’s still precious because it means I had him in the first place. I loved the guy, and I was at his back when he died. And when that happened to him, there was no other place I’d want to be. And ‘After’ is the girl you were, folded in on herself. But you had the nerve and mental toughness to unfold and fly high. That was my girl then, and that’s my girl now. But I didn’t have you then. Though, when ‘After’ is here, I’ll have you. Then and now. I’ll have all of you, even your pain, which is what I need.”

This time, when he stopped talking, she started.

“Someone you love?” she whispered.

“Sorry?” he asked.

“You said you don’t want to lay the heavy on someone you love.”

Well, fuck.

He had said that.

He stared in her eyes.

She stared in his.

They did this a long time.

He broke it.

“I would have wanted to do that with more fanfare, maybe some roses, definitely Mexican street corn deviled eggs.”

She didn’t laugh.

Didn’t even smile.

Tears started shimmering in her eyes.