“She didn’t trust these little guys alone in her new condo with her new furniture as Welly is being stubborn about house training and she’s a pushover about not putting them in their crates because Molly hates the crate. So I told her they could come to the studio. I need to drop them off on the way home.”

His voice was gruff when he stated, “I told her the breed was stubborn.”

“No, you told her they were stubborn and sloth-like,” she corrected.

“Because that’s what the website said,” he reminded her. “She’s committing to hopefully a couple decades with these things.” He jostled the fur balls that were wriggling in his hands. “She needed to know what she was in for.”

Her face changed.

Fuck.

So goddamn pretty.

“Sometimes,” she said softly, “it doesn’t matter. If a being is precious, even the bad parts are parts you need.”

He swallowed.

And his voice was downright rough when he asked, “What’s that?”

She knew what he was asking when her eyes went beyond him to the sculpture.

But they came right back to him.

“You. And me.”

Good Christ.

Good Christ.

Fuck.

The puppies kept squirming.

Axl kept hold on them.

“I don’t hold you up, baby,” he said softly.

She tipped her head to the side. “You don’t?”

“No.”

She looked beyond him.

“Well,” she said to her sculpture, studying it as if attempting to decipher it. “I suppose one take is that he’s holding her up. Another is he helps her soar.”

Good Christ.

Good Christ.

He bent and put the dogs down.

They scampered.

Welly right to Hattie.

Molly disappeared behind some chunks of stone.

Hattie kept talking.

“Sadie saw it today when she brought her guys to do some crating. They helped me mount her. She weighs a ton. Not literally. But close. She looks strong, but she’s hollow. Though, only in the literal sense, not figuratively. Figuratively, she’s just delicate.”

Jesus.

She was killing him.

“Please come here,” he said.

She didn’t come there.

She went on, “She wants it for the show. Sadie does. I said I have to ask you.” She looked at him again. “Is it okay it’s in the show?”

“That’s your call,” he told her. “Now, please come here.”

She looked back to the piece. “I think, if Sadie has the space for it, it should be in the show. Kind of before, with all the other stuff, and after. You know, a then and now. That’s its title, by the way. ‘After 2.’ There’s after Dad. And now after you. The title isn’t original. But it is apropos.”

After you.

“Baby, please come here,” he begged.

She came there.

He pulled her in his arms and shoved his face in her neck.

“It’s not for sale,” he declared to her skin.