But clearly, with the eye contact that was happening between them when Axl showed before Boone took off, Axl had been cut off from me as penance for being a dick.
I had a feeling with the way they were with each other, the other guys were on other jobs that day and Axl was the only one who was free (ish, I suspected I wasn’t easy on their schedule).
But before Axl showed, I also suspected Boone did not know he was coming, and further, when Axl showed, Boone did not like it, but since he showed, Boone had no choice about it.
And I had a feeling with Axl’s body language, today was going to be awkward.
Boone gave me a kiss before he left, and whispered in my ear, “He isn’t cool with you, you let me know immediately.”
I was oh so never going to do that.
“Gotcha,” I whispered back.
He looked in my eyes, sighed, and I knew he knew I was lying.
He took off.
Axl put me in his Jeep so he could take me to the dance studio where Hattie had booked space for us to work out our moves.
We rode in uncomfortable silence, mine heightened by the fact that I’d become an issue between Boone and his bud.
I totally had to fix this.
Pronto.
“Axl—” I started.
“It’s about Jeb,” he announced.
When the specter of Jeb was raised, I shut right the hell up.
“I know you didn’t now, but when he talked to me about it, he thought you were blaming him for falling down in keeping you safe. He’s talked about Jeb with us and he carries guilt about that. He sees Whitney and her daughter a lot. She has a problem with her tub draining or her garage door opener fucking up, he’s on it like it’s an infestation of black mold and it’s killing them. He takes them out to dinner. He’s on the list at Muriel’s daycare to go get her if something’s up and Whitney can’t get there.”
Okay, I knew it was going to be rough, but I was going to have to prioritize our discussion about Jeb because Boone had told me none of this.
And if this was true, which it undoubtedly was, either Boone was still taking care of Whitney and Muriel and for some reason not telling me, or they were hanging in the breeze while we were stuck in new-relationship bliss. Because as far as I knew, when he wasn’t working, or trying to figure out what was happening with dirty cops in the DPD, he was always with me.
“He’s a good guy, but this is also about Jeb not being here and Boone breaking his back so Whitney doesn’t feel that as much as she would,” Axl carried on.
Another impossible endeavor Boone had taken on.
“Bottom line, I don’t know you all that well,” Axl continued. “But I do know you’re a straight talker and you’re tough, so I thought you loaded shit on him. He’s my boy and I was not down with that. But it wasn’t cool, me being a dick to you when it was none of my business. Then it was more not cool because you didn’t actually do that.”
“Axl, I got it then and just to say, as much as it wasn’t fun, I also liked it because I’m glad Boone’s friends are loyal to him.”
“Right.”
“And you weren’t a dick to me, as such. You were just not as friendly as you usually are.”
“Right.”
I turned to look at him as he drove. “Axl, let it go.”
He didn’t say anything.
“Is Boone up in your shit about it?” I asked.
“We had words.”
Fabulous.
He glanced at me. “We’ll get over it, Ryn.”
“Okay, so, even if, really, Boone is your business, I understand how you think we’re not your business when we hit a rocky patch. In the same vein, your friendship with Boone isn’t my business either, but still. Do you want me to talk to him?”
“We’ll get over it, Ryn,” he repeated, then his voice dipped. “Promise.”
“Are we good?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said.
He punctuated that by reaching out and giving me a brief knee squeeze.
Well…
Good.
The rest of the ride wasn’t long, but it thankfully also was no longer uncomfortable.
A lady in a pink dance leotard with a short filmy skirt who was hanging out at the front desk told us how to get to the space Hattie had rented, and she did this with this her eyes glued to Axl.
I wasn’t sure, but I thought I saw some drool forming at the side of her mouth.
Not a surprise.
Axl and I headed that way, Axl in the lead, the garment bag with my fur coat in it slung over his shoulder, me following holding my cowboy hat in one hand, the box with my gold sandals in it clutched to my chest.
But I nearly bumped into him when he stopped abruptly.