“Hattie, she was in software tech before she quit. In the ’80s. When home computers were just taking off. Her field was highly competitive. Way more than now. It was emerging and there weren’t many like her. You had to be sharp, one of the best, to land a job like that. She’s kinda like Evie, just not on that scale, though not far off. And from what I can tell when she talks about it, she really liked doing it. Now she’s forced into being nothing but the wife of a successful, prominent attorney who flirts with political ambitions. And that’d be okay, if that was what she wanted. That isn’t what she wanted. The life she leads has choked any true enjoyment she could have out of her.”

My heart hurt, listening to him.

It hurt for Axl.

And it hurt for his mom.

“God, Axl. That’s awful,” I spoke truth.

“Yeah. Not as bad, but still bad, Dad doesn’t even fuckin’ notice.”

I said nothing.

Though I didn’t because this made me angry.

Yup.

Official.

Even not meeting the man, I really was not liking his dad.

Axl spoke on.

“So, there you go. When we really dig into all that, it’s going to be aggravating. But now you know that isn’t all going to be on you, it’s the same coming from my end.”

“That doesn’t thrill me to bits,” I shared honestly. “Because I don’t like that for you. Or your mom.”

He grinned. “Yeah. Still.”

Yeah.

The “still” part of that was that we weren’t skewed with only me having the dysfunctional family.

He clearly had his share of that.

Maybe worse, having to watch his mom be like that.

“And just to say,” he carried on, “you wanna ask anything about me, ask. Work is confidential. We offer that to our clients, and we take it seriously. So I’ll never be free to talk about that.” He squeezed my hand. “But other than that, don’t hold back, Hattie. We both been waiting a long time to be right here. It feels good you wanna know about me and I want the same from you. We can have our times when we’re quiet and not sharing, and that’s okay. But if you don’t want it to be one of those times, just go for it.”

Man.

Seriously.

He was the greatest.

“Okay?” he prompted.

“Okay,” I agreed.

“Now, do you want me to swing through somewhere to get you some food? I got shit to do, but nothing that can’t wait another fifteen minutes.”

And man.

He had a lock on me.

“I’d love a bagel.”

Axl immediately started checking his mirrors.

And it was more than fifteen minutes seeing as he backtracked because we swung by Moe’s.