He would have, if he’d been able to jack off to thoughts of her in that dress, and what he wanted to do to her in it. But he didn’t want her wandering out for a glass of water and catching him jacking to her.

At least, not at this juncture.

Then again, when they got to that juncture, he wouldn’t be on the couch.

“Sly there?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she told him.

“Good. Tonight, I’m cooking and we’re hanging before you go to work,” he declared.

Nothing from Hattie.

“Baby?” he called.

“Dad,” she said.

Shit.

Right.

To keep their date bummer-free, he hadn’t asked how it had gone down with her dad when she told him, for that night, she wasn’t going to take care of his grown ass.

And it wasn’t his place to intervene with her father.

Not yet. Not ever.

That was hers and he could share his opinion and advice.

But he couldn’t get in the middle of it unless it was harming her.

And after she broke it down for him the night before last about what was messing with her head in that studio weeks ago, he had yet to ascertain if it was still harming her, or what harmed her was in the past and the man had lost his power, outside what he’d done to her back then and how it still messed with her head.

“Okay, how do we juggle that?” he queried.

“Pardon?”

“I wanna make you dinner. I want time with you. You need to see to him. My guess, you’re not ready for me to go hang with your father while you sort out his dinner. So how do we juggle that?”

She didn’t readily answer.

So Axl got in there.

“What time does he eat?”

“I usually go over early because I don’t eat with him and I have to fuel before I dance.”

“What’s early?”

“Five.”

“Okay. Sly can take you over to deal with him and I’ll have dinner ready for us six, six thirty. Cool with you?”

There was a hesitation before, “Yeah.”

“Anything you don’t eat?”

“What are you making?”

The first meal he was cooking her?

Totally pulling out all the stops.

“Tuscan chicken.”

Auggie made a noise.

Axl ignored it.

“What’s that?” Hattie asked.

“You like chicken?”

“Yes.”

“Prosciutto?”

“Definitely.”

He grinned. “Spinach? Goat’s cheese? Sun-dried tomato?”

“Yes. Absolutely. Yes,” she answered in line.

His grin got bigger. “Then you’ll like this.”

“I’ll be home by six.”

“Okay, honey, see you then. You got the key I left?”

“Yes, and Axl?”

“Yep?”

“I really like our bummer-free zone. We’ll talk about Dad when that time comes. But it means a lot that you know how, uh…he was and you’re not being…”

She didn’t finish that.