Axel sighed. “Ah, Kelly. I missed you.”
Kelly grinned.
“Suck up,” Mateo muttered.
Rylan looked nervous and darted a look back at Smitty. “Heller, um—”
“Nein.No more drama.” Axel groaned. “And no more kissing in the garage. It’s a shop, not a singles bar.”
Smitty laughed. “Rylan, if you could see your face.”
“Shut up, old man.” But Rylan had to bite back a grin.
Then Kelly turned on some God-awful country music, and the shop got back to normal, arguing over radio stations, the sound of a spray gun and sander filling the garage.
Axel sat back in his office and put his hands behind his head, aware he’d crossed a huge hurdle today. He’d shoved his father out of his life, hopefully for good. And he’d partially mended a bridge with his brother. Now if he could just figure out how to handle the heartache left by the beautiful woman who no longer seemed to want him in her life.
I have fifteen days to win her over.He prayed it wasn’t too late.
Noise by the cat bed made him take a second look, and he froze. Queen was circling her bed and panting. Then she lay down, still panting, and started cleaning herself while the dog stood like a sentry off the bed, his focus on the cat.
The kittens were coming.
“Shit.” He hurried out of the office and grabbed some clean towels and rags.
“What’s up?” Smitty asked.
“I think Queen’s about to have her kittens.”
“Seriously?” Smitty dropped paint samples to the table and followed Axel back into the office.
The others soon followed.
Axel placed towels under the cat and crooned to her in German, petting her hesitantly until she purred and rolled to her back.
“Don’t touch her too much,” Smitty cautioned, looking at his cell phone. “It says here some cats don’t want you to touch them.”
Axel started to pull his hand back when the cat wrapped her paws—and dug in with her claws—around his wrist.
“I think she likes it,” Mateo said, his voice reverent.
Axel glanced up at his crew. A bunch of knuckleheads he’d cobbled together over the past seven years had come together to form a weird kind of work family. Rough and tumble yet they stared at Queen in wonder.
Yeah. He could do worse.
Twenty
Five days after her not-quite-a-breakup with Axel, Rena heard the knock on her door and answered with a tired “Yeah?” She hadn’t looked through the peephole, thinking it was J.T. coming back to check on her since he’d just dropped her off. In addition to having to work at someone else’s faraway salon, her car had up and died.
Del and her guys were working on it, and J.T. had volunteered to give her a ride home that evening since she’d just cut his hair. But it wasn’t J.T. on her doorstep.
She suddenly felt wide awake. “Axel?”
He gave her a thorough once-over, his expression shuttered. “Hello, Rena. May I come in?”
She almost said “As long as you haven’t brought any more wacky gifts” but didn’t. It had become almost comical how bad the presents were. A plastic flower that smelled like dirty socks and lavender, a red-heart lollipop with a scorpion inside it that readStung through the heart, yet another troll doll—this one with puke-green hair—and a candy bracelet that had turned her mouth purple. That one she’d handed off to an excited Colin.
She hadn’t received a gift today and frankly didn’t want one. Except she did, because she was as big a doofus as the man standing in her doorway, apparently. “Come in.” She stepped back to let him in and winced when he handed her a small red gift bag covered in hearts.
