“You got it,” Auggie replied, shifting to his workstation.

Hawk jerked up his chin then moved to the steps that would take him to his office.

“Is this a break in the case?” Mag murmured to them all.

“Fuck, I hope so,” Boone answered.

Axl did too.

He really did.

Because this needed to be done seeing as they were talking dirty cops and death.

But also, he had something important to concentrate on, that being Hattie, and this bullshit was getting in the way.

Chapter Four

Whoosh

Hattie

It was morning and I was sitting out on my side deck in my jammies with a cup of coffee and my phone, scrolling up and down.

Yes, doing this on Axl’s text string.

There had been nothing new.

Not after what happened at my studio two days ago.

Instead, I was scrolling through the old from after he and Ryn saw me lose it while dancing in that studio to when I was dancing to “Shut Up” at Smithie’s.

It started with:

You OK?

And then:

Hattie, just tell me if you’re OK.

I’m OK.

Thanks for asking.

He gave it a couple of days and then:

You want to meet up? No pressure.

Just want to see for myself you’re good.

I’m good.

Right.

You want to meet up?

To that one, I didn’t answer.

Then, the next day:

Time for lunch? Going to Mustard’s.

Mac says you dig it there.

Meet me in an hour?

Lottie was right. I loved Mustard’s Last Stand. It was crazy, but I was a hot dog girl.

I did not reply.

Axl didn’t seem to mind, because that night, I got:

I want to reiterate there’s no pressure.

This isn’t about the fixup. I’m seeing someone.

You don’t have to worry about that.

But even if I don’t know you that well,

I give a shit about you. We’re in the

same crew.

So just friends.

And as friends, I’m trying to look out for

you. See for myself if you’re all right.

Make sure you know I’m here to listen

if you want to talk.

I couldn’t ignore that, so I didn’t.

You’re very sweet. And that’s very

sweet. But I’m not lying when I said

I’m good.

I, of course, was totally lying.

I was so not good.

OK, then you’d be good to hang

with me sometime.

And I was oh-so-totally not good to hang with him sometime.

OK. We’ll set something up.

It’s just that I’m busy right now.

Getting ready for the Revue.

Right. Tell me when it’s a good time.

Will do! ☺

Needless to say, I didn’t tell him when it was a good time.