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“Thanks for coming to get me,” Axel said as he slid on behind him.

“Was on my way,” he said. “Just finished closing for the night myself.”

“Why so late?”

“Someone fucked around and messed up an important order so badly it’s got me second-guessing my directive to Scout that he not show up at the shop until next week,” he replied.

“Might be okay for him to pop in after his beach time with Mark as long as he keeps his ass in the office. Would save me from having to choke the life out of someone.”

“Oh shit, that’s bad.”

“Would have been worse if I hadn’t found it when I did,” he replied. “Did Scout give you a heads-up about tonight?”

“About Kong joining us for dinner,” Axel replied. “Yeah, he wanted to make sure I was okay with it first.”

“And are you?”

“Yeah, actually, the more I thought about it, the more I realized I was being irrational when I jumped to the conclusion that he was bringing Kong over to tell us that he was leaving us to go with him.”

“That’s not Kong’s endgame,” Carl explained as he rubbed his hand down Axel’s leg before guiding the bike out of the alley.

“Then what is!” Axel yelled over the roar of the engine, not that he bothered answering.

This seemed to be one of those wait-and-see situations where Axel was the only one left completely in the dark. It might have pissed him off if he didn’t trust Carl, but he did, so he pressed his head to the back of Carl’s shoulder and clung for the duration of the ride.

The scent that reached them as they headed up the stairs made his mouth water, while the sight that greeted them left Axel frozen in the doorway with Carl pressed against his back, peering over his head, chuckling.

“I see he put you to work,” Carl said as he nudged Axel enough to get him moving again.

“Never knew cooking got this detailed outside of a restaurant,” Kong muttered while carefully slicing something on a chopping board.

A sizzling pan threw off a tantalizing aroma as Scout stood barefoot in front of the stove, wearing cutoff jean shorts and a tank top that showed off all his pretty tattoos.

Axel almost forgot the rules about shoes on the carpet in his haste to reach Scout’s side, then his brain caught up and he veered off course to take them off and put them on the rack beside the door.

Axel itched to touch Scout since it had been hours since he’d last seen the man, though he was also curious to see how Scout would react to being caressed right in front of Kong.

When Axel’s hands slid up Scout’s back, Scout inclined his head, sighed, and pressed into Axel’s touch, groaning when he hit one of the sore spots on Scout’s shoulder, then letting out a low moan when Axel started massaging it for him.

“Need me to take over the pan?” Carl offered as he stepped up beside them.

“Yes, please,” Scout slurred, hand trembling a little as he held the flat wooden spatula out to him. “But give it a minute or two before you stir it again.”

“Will do,” Carl said, as Axel guided Scout to a seat only to find himself yanked into Scout’s lap the moment he sat down.

“How was your day?” he asked, fingers sliding into Axel’s hair and gripping the strands at the nape of his neck.

He tugged just enough to get Axel to incline his head so Scout could nuzzle beneath his chin and kiss over the edge of his jaw.

“Slow, which was nice,” Axel slurred, shivering. “Got a good chunk of the floor stocking done, which means I get to spend the afternoon in the cooler.”

“Good place to be when it’s supposed to hit eighty-seven by noon,” Scout replied before kissing and nipping more. “I’m glad I’ll be on the water.”

“You got any plans for after your surfing lesson?” Carl asked.

“Not really,” Scout replied. “I picked up stuff for the next few nights and made sure it would stretch enough for lunch the next day, though Night fed me before we left the compound today, so my leftovers from last night are still in there.”

“Midnight snack,” Axel declared.

“Damn right. I’ll split it with you if you’re still up watching Vampire Diaries.”

“Admit it, you got as hooked on it as I did.”

“There could be some truth to that.”

“Hooked on the show, or a particular vampire?” Kong asked, shocking the hell out of Axel. “That guy who plays Damon is worth catching a few episodes for.”

Fucker even winked when he said it, which was when it dawned on Axel that he watched it too.

“I might have to check out this show just to see what the hell you guys are raving about,” Carl said, before stirring the sizzling pan.

“Just a few flips,” Scout cautioned. “We want a bit of crackle on the rice.”

“Yes, chef!” Carl replied, throwing him a quick salute before stirring once more and setting the spatula aside.

“Alright, if I dice this beef and these shrimp any smaller, they’ll be unrecognizable.”

“Dude, they look like you hacked the shit out of them,” Carl said, cocking his head as he studied the pile on the cutting board.

Okay, that was fair. When Axel looked over, all he saw was a mound of red sitting beside another round of translucent white. He wouldn’t have a clue what the hell it had started as if Kong hadn’t said something.

“Guess I gotta get up now,” Scout said, caressing Axel’s hip.

“Awe!” he whined, sliding off Scout’s lap.

As much as Axel wanted to remain there and feel Scout continue to grow harder beneath him, Axel’s grumbling stomach urged him to get a move on so they could eat.

Still, Axel stayed by Scout’s side when he returned to the stove and turned on a pan he already had oil in, caressing Scout’s lower back while he waited for it to get hot.

One after the other, Scout added ingredients that already sat diced in little bowls; some, like the carrots, onions, and garlic, Axel recognized; a few others he didn’t, but they sure smelled good when Scout tossed them in the pan.

“Where are the peas?” Carl asked.

Scout scrunched his nose and stuck his tongue out at that. “Ick.”

“Seriously? You really intend to make fried rice without them?”

“Yup. There was no asparagus at the store, which is what I usually use in place of peas, so I said, Fuck it , grabbed some broccoli florets, and called it good.”

They were diced in a bowl on the counter, but it was the meat Scout added next, before passing Kong a bowl and asking him to crack three eggs into it.

Scout cooked those in the pan after the meat and those yummy-smelling bits had finished cooking and been added to the rice along with the brocoli.

He folded them all together with the spatula and sprinkled some chopped green things on top, before finally adding the egg bits he’d carefully broken up while he was frying them.

“What are those?” Axel asked, pointing at the green things that had caught his attention.

“Green onions,” he explained. “They are kinda like when you see onions start to sprout. They’ll taste way better than peas, I promise.”

“Anything tastes better than peas,” Axel muttered.

“Seriously, another pea hater?” Carl said.

“Make that three,” Kong replied, waving at him before turning his attention back to the dishes he’d been carefully rinsing before loading into the dishwasher.

“Oh, that reminds me, I picked up more dishwasher pods too,” Scout said. “And I threw the old, empty box away. What the fuck, man? How are you gonna get on our cases about peas when you literally put an empty box back in the cupboard to offer false hope to whoever went to run the dishwasher next?”

“He did that to me the other night with the laundry soap too,” Axel chimed in. “Went to load the compartment only to have the bottle spit out the tiniest dribble ever known to man.”

“Oh, you’re one of those,” Kong remarked, smirking over his shoulder at Carl.

“I throw the old shit away once I bring home replacements,” Carl muttered.

“Which you might have an easier time doing if you’d toss ‘em when they were empty and add them to the list on that notepad you’ve got hanging over there,” Kong said, pointing out the paper on a chain that hung from a magnet attached to the refrigerator.

“There may be some truth to that,” he muttered as he started wiping down the counters.

Soon they were all seated at the table Axel set while Scout finished cooking dinner and plated portions for everyone.

“This smells amazing,” Axel said as he leaned over his plate to inhale the aroma. “Who taught you to cook?

“Not a who, a what,” he explained. “YouTube. Growing up, my old man used to try all kinds of recipes. Some were pretty awesome, but others were complete disasters because there were no pictures to show him what the end result was supposed to look like. Then Sawyer showed him how to use YouTube, and Dad and I got sucked into a whole world of cooking videos, which led to experimentation with a wide variety of things we were curious to try. Now whenever I see something I want to make, I find a few videos, watch them, gather the ingredients, and see if I can pull it off.”

“I’d say you nailed this dish,” Kong said, raising a forkful before shoveling it between his lips.

“Thanks for helping,” Scout said.

“Was better than spending the evening seeing how many beers I could put away.”

“Much better,” Axel murmured, thinking about his old man and how that used to be the first thing he reached for when he rolled out of bed. “My old man came by the gas station today. Sober.”

Looking over at Carl, Axel flashed him a smile.

“He says I have you to thank for that.”

“All I did was reach out and locate a few of his old friends to see if they could help him pull his head out of his ass.”

“He’s going to AA meetings,” Axel said. “He’s never done that before.”

“Good. That’s a step in the right direction.”

“Yeah. It is. He looked good and he apologized for not being a good dad these past few years. He even promised to keep working to become his old self again. Thank you for getting his friends to reach out. He sent his thanks as well. I know it’s too soon to hope he’ll stick with it, but I appreciate everything you did to get him started in the right direction. ”

“You love him, that’s all I needed to know,” Carl replied.

Axel really hoped his father kept with his newfound sobriety, but he’d seen his old man backslide several times over the years.

He knew better than to trust in it yet. He wouldn’t close the door on the possibility of it sticking this time, though.

That wouldn’t have been fair to either of them.

Just like objecting to Kong popping over tonight wouldn’t have been fair to Scout.

Axel would have deprived himself of the opportunity to listen to Kong share stories of their early days with the club.

The interest glinting in Carl’s eyes spoke volumes.

Axel kicked himself for missing it before.

Heat, desire, but most importantly, fondness softened both of their features whenever they looked at one another.

It was the same goofy-ass expression Axel got whenever he thought about Carl and Scout, and holy shit, he was completely okay with it.