Gabe's Second Chance (Appledale 3)

“Don’t worry, Ethan, the morning sickness will pass soon. I know it’s awful. After work Lily and I will go cheer her up,” Stella offered, patting his arm in a comforting gesture.

Ethan smiled, feeling better. “She would love that, Stella. She really wanted to be here with you girls today but she looked so pale and tired. I almost rushed her over to Doc’s but she wouldn’t go.”

Stella laughed at his serious statement and shook her head with amusement. “I’ll take her some of Henry’s homemade chicken soup and make sure she eats. Don’t worry, Ethan, Liz will be just fine. These are normal symptoms of pregnancy.”

“So she keeps telling me,” Ethan said in a voice that didn’t hold much confidence in that statement.

As soon as Ryan and Ethan left, people started rushing in for the lunch hour. Karissa tried to help out as much as possible. She was used to serving people and didn’t want to sit on her butt all afternoon, so she took drinks out to the tables and took orders.

Later that afternoon when the rush was over, the three girls sat down and let out a deep breath of relief.

“That was crazy. You do this every day?” Karissa laughed, shaking her head in disbelief. “It doesn’t get this crazy at the bar. I’m pooped.”

Ally came out of the kitchen with some turkey club sandwiches and fries for all of them. “You girls deserve this. We were swamped today.”

They all sat at a table and ate and chatted about the wedding for a while, throwing around ideas. Karissa was excited and nervous something would go wrong, too. She knew it was silly to feel that way, she trusted Gabe, but nothing in her life had ever been easy.

“We just have to give Gabe’s mom time to fly home. Casey is my only family,” Karissa stated.

Lacy shook her head. “No, now you have all of us, Karissa. We are a family and we stick together.”

“That’s right, girlfriend. And we’ll have this wedding all planned out before you can blink. We’ll let Liz handle the dresses though because Lacy will pick out jeans for everyone,” Stella said, teasing Lacy.

“Hey, come on, jeans are like the staple of fashion. What can’t you do in jeans? They’re comfortable and they look good on you,” Lacy answered with an innocent smile, trying to hold in her laughter.

“Well it’s my time for me to clock out, but call me later, Rissa.” Stella said her good-byes and clocked out to go and visit Liz. “I’ll talk to Liz about dress ideas and call you later.”

“Give Liz our love, Stella,” Lacy said, waving as Stella left the diner. Ally got back to the kitchen to start the cleanup process with Henry, leaving Karissa and Lacy alone with a few customers still lingering over their lunches.

Karissa cleaned off the dishes and took them into the kitchen. She turned to go back into the dining area when she stopped in her tracks, her heart jumping in fright. She saw one of the men that had chased her and Toby that night walking in with another man she didn’t recognize. It wasn’t the same one he had been with before. She slowly backed into the kitchen and alerted Ally. Henry immediately picked up the phone and called the station, alerting Ryan and the others.

Karissa looked over to Ally with a worried look. “What should we do, Ally? Should I sneak out the back? I don’t want to bring trouble here for you.”

“No. He might spot you walking down the street. Henry called it in,” Ally said, hugging a pale-looking Karissa. “Don’t you worry, kiddo. The cavalry will be here before you can blink.”

They watched as Lacy waited on the man as if she had no idea who he was. Karissa reminded herself to commend her on her acting skills later. If that was her she would have already dropped the dishes from nervousness. Lacy walked over to the window and placed the order ticket, winked at Karissa, and silently mouthed, “Don’t worry.”

Lacy continued to clean the empty tables. Karissa watched worriedly from the kitchen and noticed that two of the men customers were not leaving the restaurant. She knew one of them, Steve Dillon, was in Ethan’s self-defense class. He was young and strong looking and sat with his buddy watching Lacy carefully. She breathed a sigh of relief that they were keeping an eye on Lacy. If something happened to Lacy she’d never forgive herself. Lacy had been through enough violence for one lifetime.

After they were done eating one of the men grabbed Lacy’s wrists as she walked by the table to clear their plates.

“You sure are sexy, sugar. Wanna go have a drink with me and my brother,” he leered, looking at her breasts.

Lacy gave the man a dirty look and yanked at her wrist, but he wouldn’t let go of her. “I’m a married woman, sir. Now get your hands off of me!”

“Or what?” The man laughed. The other man winked at Lacy, laughing at his buddy’s antics. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, we’ll make sure you have fun too,” he added.

Steve got up from his table. “You’ve got two seconds to let her go or I’ll break your arm and make you.” Steve wasn’t as muscular as Ethan or Gabe. He had a slender build that fooled people into thinking he wasn’t strong, but Lacy knew he was one kick-ass fighter and felt relieved. She was still in the beginning stages of learning self-defense.

The second man with the beard stopped laughing and stood up to Steve. He looked at Steve’s lean body and young look and gave him a triumphant grin. “No one threatens my brother, especially when he’s just having a little fun. What else is there to do in this dull-ass town? So mind your own business, kid.”

Lacy tried to get the man to let go of her wrist. She twisted her arm around and under as she had learned in class and surprised the man into letting her go. She slowly and calmly backed away from the table when she noticed he had pulled out a knife and was wielding it around, ready to attack the first person who got close to him.

Steve changed his stance to a fighting stance. His friend came up behind him to back him up. “Lacy is our friend, mister. We were just defending her so put the knife away,” Steve said calmly.

The two men laughed at Steve and his friend. “I’m gonna give you two little hicks a lesson, then Lacy is my prize.”

The man with the knife lunged at Steve and he backed up out of the way so the man missed him, then Steve kicked the knife out of the man’s hand. “Now it’s a fair fight so come on, bring it. You’ll see I am not such a hick after all,” Steve’s voice was full of confidence.