Guardian Angel (Angel's Halo MC 3)

Raven snorted and Willa elbowed him in the ribs, but it must not have been very hard because he didn’t even flinch. Laughing, I shook my head. “I bet. So, what would you like to drink?”

“Sweet tea will be fine. Thanks, sweetheart.”

“Will Bash be joining you all soon? I can grab his drink while I’m back there if you want.” I glanced at Raven, who was answering a text.

“He’s on his way. Just bring him some tea too. And we would love some fried pickles, Gracie.” Raven rubbed a hand over her stomach and licked her lips. “With blue cheese.”

“Yuck, pickles.” Lexa made a disgusted face. “I don’t want pickles.”

“You liked pickles yesterday,” Raven reminded her. “You said they were your new favorite.”

The three year old gave her a deadly serious frown. “I was being nice.”

I burst out laughing with Willa and Spider. There were times when Lexa acted so grown up that it was both scary and amusing. Luckily, Raven made sure that she acted her age more often than not. Raven rolled her eyes at the little girl that was basically her stepdaughter. “Fine, smarty pants. What would you like for an appetizer?”

“What’s that?” she asked with a frown.

“Something small you can snack on while we wait for our dinner,” Raven explained patiently.

“Oh.”

“So do you want anything?” Lexa shook her head and leaned forward so that she could blow bubbles into her cup of water. Raven smirked and looked up at me. “Just the pickles and dressing, Gracie.”

“No, wait.” Spider stopped me when I started to go and place their order. “Is the blue cheese pasteurized or unpasteurized?” When I gave him a blank look he gave a small laugh, as if he was self-conscious. “She’s pregnant. If it’s unpasteurized then she can’t eat it.”

My eyes weren’t the only ones that widened at his explanation. Raven and Willa looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “How do you know that?” Willa asked.

“Bash was telling me. He’s been reading some books or websites, something. One of the things was what pregnant women can and can’t eat. Unpasteurized milks, dressings, cheeses; that sort of thing.” He frowned when Raven’s chin trembled. “What?”

“Bash has been reading pregnancy books?” Raven whispered.

Spider shrugged his massive shoulders. “Yeah. He’s been doing all kinds of research and shi—um, stuff like that since he found out you were pregnant.” I bit back a smile at him catching himself before saying a bad word. The big, bald and deliciously sexy biker censoring himself was both amusing and adorable. Of course, Raven would have gone all kinds of crazy on him if he had cursed in front of Lexa. She was definitely a protective momma where that little girl was concerned.

“Okay, I’ll check to make sure it’s pasteurized,” I promised.

The rest of the evening went by quickly. I handled my tables, went back and took their orders once Bash joined them, and made sure that Raven could eat her blue cheese dressing with her fried pickles. I barely had time to breathe until closing.

I was tired, cranky, and a little hungry by the time I walked out the back door with Quinn and the rest of the girls. All I wanted was to go home, wash off the sweat and the smell of food that seemed to have seeped into my pores during the last six hours. Yawning, I pulled out the keys to the Chevelle and slowly walked toward the car on feet that felt like they were the size of watermelons.

“See you tomorrow, Gracie,” Quinn called as she got into her little Honda.

“Yeah, see you.” I yawned again and tossed my purse onto the passenger seat before collapsing down into the driver’s. I shut and locked the door before turning the old car on and then leaned my head back against the seat. Eyes closed, I fought not to fall asleep as I tried to push my tiredness away so that I could drive home. I heard everyone else leaving, but didn’t move.

I wasn’t sure how long I sat there, but finally I reached for the gearshift as I forced my eyes open. I hoped my body got used to this crazy schedule soon or I was going to be a freaking zombie before long…

A tap on the driver’s side window made me jerk before I completely got the gearshift into drive. I turned my head to find Harley standing beside the car, smiling down at me. Maybe if it hadn’t been nearly midnight and I wasn’t so tired I wouldn’t have really thought much about his sudden appearance, but I wasn’t in any mood to deal with him or the attitude that Hawk was most likely to get when he found out about Harley approaching me.

Sighing, I rolled down the window just enough so that I could talk to him. “Hi?” It came out as a question because I didn’t know how else to ask him what he wanted without sounding like a complete bitch.

“Hey,” his smile turned smug and for some reason I became even more uneasy about this. “I was hoping to catch you before you went home.”

“Why?” I gave him a forced smile as I carefully reached for my phone sticking out of my purse beside me. I hated that he was intimidating me and didn’t know why. I hadn’t felt like that earlier in the day and it was freaking me out a little that I felt that way now.

He bent down and I got a closer look at his eyes. They raked over my face and then lower. My thumb swiped over the screen on my phone and for once I was glad I knew my phone so well. I could easily type without looking at the screen if I needed to. “Hawk can be an overbearing prick. The way he just took you over at lunch today was a dick move. I thought we had something going for us, you know? Chemistry.”

I tried to keep my eyes from widening. I’d talked to him for a total of ten minutes all day and I hadn’t once felt like we had chemistry. I hadn’t thought much of him, honestly, except to be mad at Hawk for making threats because this guy had merely talked to me.

Now, I was starting to wonder if Hawk had had plenty of reasons to make those threats. “Um…” My thumb hit the last number I’d called, thankful that I hadn’t called anyone since Hawk two days before.