Dream Spinner (Dream Team Book 3), Kristen Ashley [reading eggs books txt] 📗

squat, one knee bent, his other almost, but not quite, on the ground.

His arms, though, were straight up.

And suspended precariously on rebar you could see running through the ribbons of steel that made up his body, his fingers were wrapped around the waist of a woman made of concrete.

And she was soaring.

Over his right shoulder, one leg front, one leg behind, her back, neck and head arched, arms out to her sides.

Him.

And Hattie.

“Your mom had a client meeting tonight,” her voice came from behind him.

He turned.

She stood there leaning against the crate in her work clothes, cutoff jean shorts and a tank, ratty old red Keds that were serious cool, her hair in a big bunch on the top of her head, curls dropping down the sides and around her neck.

No makeup.

Total pretty.

Her gaze went to the puppies in his hands, then to his eyes.

And she kept talking.

“She didn’t trust these little guys alone in her new condo with her new furniture as Welly is being stubborn about house training and she’s a pushover about not putting them in their crates because Molly hates the crate. So I told her they could come to the studio. I need to drop them off on the way home.”

His voice was gruff when he stated, “I told her the breed was stubborn.”

“No, you told her they were stubborn and sloth-like,” she corrected.

“Because that’s what the website said,” he reminded her. “She’s committing to hopefully a couple decades with these things.” He jostled the fur balls that were wriggling in his hands. “She needed to know what she was in for.”

Her face changed.

Fuck.

So goddamn pretty.

“Sometimes,” she said softly, “it doesn’t matter. If a being is precious, even the bad parts are parts you need.”

He swallowed.

And his voice was downright rough when he asked, “What’s that?”

She knew what he was asking when her eyes went beyond him to the sculpture.

But they came right back to him.

“You. And me.”

Good Christ.

Good Christ.

Fuck.

The puppies kept squirming.

Axl kept hold on them.

“I don’t hold you up, baby,” he said softly.

She tipped her head to the side. “You don’t?”

“No.”

She looked beyond him.

“Well,” she said to her sculpture, studying it as if attempting to decipher it. “I suppose one take is that he’s holding her up. Another is he helps her soar.”

Good Christ.

Good Christ.

He bent and put the dogs down.

They scampered.

Welly right to Hattie.

Molly disappeared behind some chunks of stone.

Hattie kept talking.

“Sadie saw it today when she brought her guys to do some crating. They helped me mount her. She weighs a ton. Not literally. But close. She looks strong, but she’s hollow. Though, only in the literal sense, not figuratively. Figuratively, she’s just delicate.”

Jesus.

She was killing him.

“Please come here,” he said.

She didn’t come there.

She went on, “She wants it for the show. Sadie does. I said I have to ask you.” She looked at him again. “Is it okay it’s in the show?”

“That’s your call,” he told her. “Now, please come here.”

She looked back to the piece. “I think, if Sadie has the space for it, it should be in the show. Kind of before, with all the other stuff, and after. You know, a then and now. That’s its title, by the way. ‘After 2.’ There’s after Dad. And now after you. The title isn’t original. But it is apropos.”

After you.

“Baby, please come here,” he begged.

She came there.

He pulled her in his arms and shoved his face in her neck.

“It’s not for sale,” he declared to her skin.

“No. I called Dad. He told me he’d keep it in his backyard until …”

She didn’t finish that.

He did. “We get our place and it has its place.”

“Yes,” she said softly.

He lifted his head. “Until then, as you know, I don’t have a backyard. My place butts the fence and the fence butts the alley.”

“I know, but as much as I love your pad, Axl, you can’t raise kids in it. They need their own space. And we’ll need our own space. And your place will really only be just our space until we find a different space when the concept of ‘our’ expands.”

Their kids’ll need space.

And they’ll need space.

His throat felt tight.

“Right,” he pushed through it.

“My mom’s backyard isn’t big enough for it either. Your mom has no backyard. So it’s Dad’s. For now. He sounded kinda excited about it. Even though I made sure he knew eventually, it’d be moved.”

“Right.”

“I’m supposed to get you a plaque,” she said confusingly.

“What?” he asked, not following.

“Evie and Ryn told me when I showed them this today,” she tipped her head to the sculpture. “Now that it’s official, you know, you and me, you need a plaque for your workstation.”

He felt his lips curve up because this had become a thing.

Evie started it with Mag. Got him a #1 BOYFRIEND plaque to sit at his workstation. It changed when they got engaged. It’d no doubt change again when they got married.

Ryn did the same, and the plaque Boone had declared him her hero.

“They suggested, ‘Axl Pantera, The Wind Beneath My Wings,’ ” she told him.

“Please, fuck, do not give me a plaque that says that.”

She grinned up at him.

Her grin faded and she traced his cheekbone with her thumb, murmuring, “I’ll figure out something.”

“Baby,” he called, and her gaze went from her thumb, which was now at the corner of his mouth, to his eyes. “I love it.”

“Good,” she whispered.

“And I love you.”

“Good,” she repeated, still whispering.

“Thanks for adding Jordan to my house.”

Her warm brown eyes melted.

“You’re welcome.”

“Wanna move in?” he asked.

She did a slow blink.

When she was done doing that, there was no describing what was in her eyes.

It was just a feeling.

And that feeling had a focal point in the left side of his chest.

And then she said, “Absolutely.”

And when she was done doing that …

Well, that was when he kissed her.

While he was doing it, Molly started yapping.

And Welly used the distraction to pee in the corner.

* * *

HAWK

Hawk folded into the backseat of the town car next to Cisco.

“Joe,” Cisco said