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His fingers squeeze mine back and I see a smirk trying to appear when he looks down at me. “Yeah.”
“Does that mean you like cars as much as I like coffee?”
He lets out a small huff that might almost be a laugh, “That’s a high bar, Baby Doll. But yeah, I like cars. Always have.”
“How long have you had it? The shop?”
His head tilts as we continue down the sidewalk, “22 years.”
I’m about to open my mouth and say something about that being a pretty exact amount of time. But if his son is 20 then22 years agomeans Axel opened his shop about a year before he got a woman pregnant. I guess that’d be a fairly easy milestone to remember.
It’s killing me not to ask more about that whole situation – Brian, his mom, the relationship between all of them. Not to mention Brian in general. If today goes well, then I imagine we’ll see each other again. And what happens if we end up really dating? Eventually I’ll have to meet Brian and…
Nope. Not going there. Not right now.
An older man pushes out through the doors, exiting the store and Axel catches the door with his free hand.
Ushering me in first, I step past Axel and into the long blue room, hosting a handful of round white tables with matching uncomfortable chairs, and merchandise displays lining every wall.
All of the employees seem to be talking to customers, so I wander over to one of the displays and poke at one of the phone screens.
Axel’s elbow nudges my arm, and I look up to see him holding his phone out to me. “Add your contact information.”
His brows are furrowed, and I almost laugh at the expression on his face. He looks so serious, like there’s a chance that I wouldn’t give him my number.
Trying to stop my smile, I take his phone. Glancing up, I see his eyes are moving around the store, so I quick delete ‘Maddie’ and type ‘Baby Doll’ instead.
I don’t know why I like it so much when he calls me that. But I also don’t know how to tell him I like it without expiring of embarrassment on the spot.
“Can I help you?” a 20-something guy approaches, his eyes bouncing back and forth between me and Axel.
Handing Axel his phone back, I try to take the two of us in objectively.
Axel in his worn jeans, slightly messy hair, intense blue eyes, and a tight white t-shirt.
I don’t think it’s meant to be tight, but Axel is just sobuilt, that no normal shirt will fit him. The material is stretched tight around his massive chest – which is eye level for me – and the dark lines of his tattoos are just visible through the light color of the cotton. It’s fantastic.
And then there’s me. Full face of makeup. Hair dried into somewhat styled curls. Wearing pink flats and a bright yellow summer dress. The straps are wide, hiding my bra – a padded push-up number to satisfy Axel’s desire for me to wear something “thicker”. But instead of making my breasts more modest, it just makes them more pronounced. The scoop neckline would probably be perfectly conservative if I didn’t have big boobs, but I do, so it isn’t.
Moral of the story, we make quite the pair. The voluptuous beauty and the burly beast. Or something like that.
Axel drops a big palm on my shoulder, “She needs a new phone.”
The guy, Dan – according to his nametag – nods to Axel, “We can do that.”
Dan is obviously under the impression that Axel’s in charge, and I don’t feel even the smallest urge to correct him.
It’s nice to have someone else in command for once.
I’ve been doing everything on my own for so long it’s become second nature. There’s no one else for me to fall back on. No one I can ask to help me, aside from Elouise. But I don’t want to bethat friend, the one that’s constantly a burden.
We follow Dan towards one of the empty tables.
As we walk, I reach up and press my hand into the middle of Axel’s back, wanting to feel him and wanting him to feel me. My silent way of saying thank you.
The fingers he still has resting on my shoulder flex.
Once we’re seated, I give Dan all the info he needs to open my account and it only takes a few minutes to figure out which phone I want. I was going to get the slightly cheaper one with the smaller amount of storage, but Axel convinced me to go big.
