He then told us if there was anything anyone wanted to discuss in private, they could find him or Smithie.
He unrolled the plans on a table, thanked us for our time and strolled away.
He met Smithie where the big boss still stood at the bar and I felt a little thrill run down my spine.
Not only at the way Smithie was looking at Dorian, with pride and respect.
But there was something different about Smithie.
He looked …
Chill.
“The handover is complete,” Ryn remarked, and I looked to her and saw her watching Smithie and Ian go up the steps.
“Yeah, it isn’t official, but it’s still totally official,” Pepper agreed.
“Good for Smithie,” Lottie said. “He deserves to take a breather from all the time-suck and drama. Craig asking if we were gonna get paid, then asking if PTO would still accrue, then asking if we’d have an employee discount for food, then that shit about a health and safety course to best navigate the elevated floor. I don’t know how Ian does it. The dude is a tool.”
I admired Lottie’s ability to be judgy, but sound like she was just saying it like it was.
Then again, she was.
Craig was a tool.
We all hung back and waited until everyone drifted away from the plans before we went to go look at them.
“Killer,” Pepper said, gazing down at them.
And, man …
She was right.
“I thought the club was hot before, but this isn’t next level. This is five levels above that,” Ryn noted.
She wasn’t wrong.
I continued to study the design, thinking that I wanted to tell Axl to cancel plans with Dad for tomorrow and make them after the renovation had been done.
Which reminded me.
“Axl and Dad are coming to the show tomorrow night,” I announced.
“No shit?” Lottie asked.
“Whoa,” Ryn said.
Pepper just stared at me.
“No, it’s good,” I said to Pepper. “Axl’s going to take him home after my last dance so he won’t have to sit next to him during any out-and-out stripping. Because, you know … gross.”
“If you think it’s good, then I think it’s good. But just sayin’, all this stuff that’s going on with your dad, it’s like a whiplash turnaround,” Pepper replied.
She could say that again.
“I know,” I agreed.
“Keep your guard up, babe,” she warned. “It’s my experience a leopard doesn’t change its spots.”
I nodded to her, and when I thought she’d looked away, I gave eyes to Ryn and Lottie.
“What’s with the eyes?” Pepper asked.
Okay, maybe I should have made sure that she’d looked away.
But she saw them, and I’d learned of late that avoidance was something to avoid.
Not to mention, my girls were my girls. They could take and give the honesty, and I’d discovered it wasn’t ever ugly.
So I went for it.
“Just, you know, maybe Dad had reason to have a reality check when Axl had words with him.”
“Maybe he did, all I’m saying, Hatz, is be careful with your heart,” Pepper replied.
“No, what I mean is, Axl is an outsider to the unit, but one who cares about me. So it was objective, but wasn’t, if you know what I mean. And sometimes, an objective opinion can make people think. Though, I don’t know if that’s all there was to it. I think another part was me telling Dad that Axl’s father said such nasty things to him. I think that was his, ‘Hey, wait,’ moment. You know, something like, ‘I did that too and it was really uncool.’ You know?”
“Okay, but still … look after yourself,” Pepper reiterated.
“Right, I’m butting in here to say what Hatz isn’t outright saying, Pez,” Lottie did, indeed, butt in. “You need to stop dicking around and go out with Auggie.”
“Exactly,” I concurred.
“Totes,” Ryn added.
“How is what she said—?” Pepper began.
“Axl was hands on,” Lottie stated. “That might not be where it’s at for you. But bottom line, you need a buffer from those jackals you call parents, that maggot of an ex of yours, and what she didn’t say, but I will, is, girl, it’s been a dry spell from hell. You need to get laid,” Lottie expounded.
“Word,” Ryn agreed.
“Listen—” Pepper tried.
“Nope.” Lottie held up a hand and shook her blonde locks. “It was touch-and-go there for both Rinz and Hatz when Boone and Axl started seeing other bitches. You don’t need Aug to give up and start looking. Serious, with Axl, it was a close call, since Mo said the chick he was seeing was solid.”
“I know, phew,” I put in. “He really liked her. They still text a lot.”
Pepper did a slow blink at me.
She then asked, aghast, “You let him text another woman?”
“Well, sure. They’re friends,” I answered.
“She’s someone he dated,” Pepper pointed out.
“I know,” I told her.
Her face twisted in a weird way. “Hatz, babe, he’s probably been inside her.”
Um …
“I try not to think about that part.”