Distractedly I noticed Gwen wasn’t looking at me like she didn’t like what she was seeing anymore but smiling at me.

“So, again, I don’t get it. What’s the problem?” Tracy somewhat repeated and my eyes went to her.

“The problem is,” my voice was rising and I let go of my finger, “the dream is, after I found my dream man, he’d woo me, which Tack doesn’t do but I’m okay with that since he’s a great cook, he thinks I’m cute, sweet and likes it when I get pissed which happens with him a lot and he’s awesome in bed.”

“Is no one listening to me?” Elvira asked but I talked over her.

“Then he’d win me, marry me in a big-ass wedding that rivals anything the Windsors could dream up and then…” I leaned toward Tracy, “we’d have…” I leaned closer, nearly teetering off my chair, “lots of babies!” I slammed back in my stool and threw up my hands. “But he’s forty-one! He’s got two grown kids! He’s not going to want to start again now! And he might be enough for me, being all that is Tack. That’s a consideration. And he has two kids, good kids that I like. But they’re older, almost grown up so it isn’t like I can ride the wave of helping to raise another woman’s kids to get my kid fix so I’d have to give up that part of the dream. And I promised I wouldn’t give up any part of my dream. And I want kids!” Now I was mostly shouting and ended my shout with, “Gah!”

Then I slapped my hands to my face again, covering it.

“I’m seeing her point,” Tess whispered.

“Me too,” Mara whispered back.

I dropped my hands and nabbed my clutch that was resting on the high, round table we were sitting at, declaring, “I’m calling him. We’re going to talk about this right now.”

“No!” Elvira said loudly. “Girl, don’t do that.”

“I’m doing it,” I mumbled, digging through my clutch.

“Don’t do it, really, don’t do it,” Elvira advised.

“Why?” Tess asked.

“Because, she’s been seein’ this guy for a couple of weeks. It’s been drama most of that time, it’s been good for only a few days, she’s drunk and no way she should be talkin’ to some biker about her dream wedding that rivals the shindigs of the Royals and lotsa babies after a few days of good,” Elvira explained. “I don’t know, I haven’t read the handbook, but my guess is, bikers don’t do royal weddings. More like, rowdy weddings that end in someone gettin’ stuck with a knife.”

It was then I decided it was imperative I talked with Tack about his thoughts on weddings too. Though, maybe later.

“I’m with Elvira on this one,” Camille put in her two cents. “Especially the drunk part seein’ as Tyra’s not drunk, she’s hammered. I do not see good things with this talk. Men like drunk women who get horny. They do not like drunk women who get hysterical about future babies…” I looked at her and she finished, “or not as the case may be.”

Oh God.

I was totally calling him.

I dropped my head and started digging through my clutch again.

“But this is important, she shouldn’t waste time if they don’t see eye-to-eye on their future. She should talk to him,” Sadie cast her vote.

“I agree,” Tess agreed with Sadie.

“I’m on the fence,” Tracy put in. “I see all your points.”

“Why am I not surprised about that?” Elvira muttered and I yanked out my phone and held it straight up in the air.

“Found it!” I cried.

“Oh shit,” Elvira muttered again.

“Jesus,” Camille murmured.

“Oh man,” Gwen whispered.

I dropped my hand, dropped my head and started stabbing the phone with my finger.

“I’m guessing this means we’re calling it a night,” Tess declared. “I’m calling Brock. Anyone need a ride home?”

“Hawk’s coming. He already texted me that he’s on his way. We have room. I can give rides too,” Gwen offered as I messed up and accidentally called my friend Susie in Tennessee so I had to disconnect and start over.

“Mitch is on his way too so we can take a few people,” Mara stated and, at her words, I got distracted and looked at her because I suddenly forgot what I was doing seeing as I wanted to meet Big Hearted Detective Mitch Lawson.

“I took a taxi here and Tack told me this would go long so he decided he’s at his place tonight. I’ll take a ride with you and Mitch,” I told her.

“Cool,” she said softly and smiled at me.

I went back to my phone and successfully hit Tack’s contact so I put it to my ear and listened to it ring.

It rang once then his gravelly voice came at me with, “Everything good?”

Damn, I liked his voice. Even on the phone.

“We need to talk,” I declared.

Silence then, “Say again?”

“Where are you?” I asked.

“The Compound havin’ drinks with the boys,” he answered.

“We need to talk. Now or close to now. My place when, of course, I get there and, uh, you do too. Mitch and Mara are taking me home.”

“We need to talk?”

“Yep.”

“About what?”

I brought the mouthpiece of my phone closer to my lips and whispered with heavy meaning, “Everything.”

“Oh shit,” Elvira muttered.

“Jesus,” Camille murmured.

“Oh man,” Gwen whispered.

“Everything?” Tack asked.

“Absolutely everything.”

“That’s gonna take a long time, Red,” Tack observed.

“No. The everything we need to talk about requires yes or no answers from you.”

“It’s nearly two in the morning,” Tack noted.

“Are you too busy to talk about everything which means everything important… in life?” I asked with grave, but drunken, seriousness and the drunken part was communicated by me slurring my words more than a little bit.

Silence then, “Are you smashed?”

“Completely and totally.”

“What are you wearing?”

“Who cares?”

“I do.”

“Why?”

“’Cause you’re smashed, you been with your girls, you somehow got riled up about somethin’ and once I settle you down about whatever’s aggravating you, I’m gonna rile you up a different way.”

My toes curled. Promptly after that, I got annoyed.

“Stop turning me on when I have the weight of my future happiness on my mind!” I snapped.

“Oh lordy,” Elvira muttered.

“Right on,” Gwen whispered.

“Why do I suddenly want a scary biker dude?” LaTanya asked.

From Tack with a smile in his voice, I heard, “I’ll be there in ten.”

“No, I’m getting a ride with Big Hearted Mitch.”

“Big Hearted Mitch?” Tack asked.

“Big Hearted Detective Mitch Lawson,” I clarified.

“Seems she knows your story,” LaTanya muttered to who I guessed was Mara though I wouldn’t know since I was staring at the table.

“I like that title for Mitch,” Mara muttered back, confirming my guess. “It fits.”

“I’ll be there in ten, Red,” Tack repeated.

“No, really, I want to ride with Mitch and Mara. I’ll meet you at my place.”

“Baby,” his voice gentled, “this is me seein’ to that soft spot when I say quiet-like that I… will… be… there… in ten. And what I mean is, when I get there in ten, your ass better be there.”

Oh boy.

“Are you coming on your bike?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m in a tight, short, little, aquamarine dress with high heels. I can’t get on a bike.”

“You’re in a tight, short dress and high heels?” Tack asked.

“Yes.”

“I’ll be there in five.”

“Tack!” I exclaimed but he’d disconnected.

I did too and looked at Mara. “Tack’s ruining my ride home experience with Big Hearted Mitch. He’s going to be here in five.”

Mara smiled and offered, “We’ll have you over for dinner. That way you can meet Bud and Billie.”

Bud and Billie were Mara’s second cousins. Bud and Billie were also the kids Mitch and Mara were raising because their Dad was a criminal asshole.

“Awesome,” I breathed, grabbed my glass and sucked back the last of my cosmo.

“We shoulda confiscated that while she was distracted by her scary biker dude,” LaTanya noted, eyeing the empty glass I put back on the table.

“Too late now,” Elvira replied.

Sadie whispered, “Excuse me,” slipped off her stool and disappeared.

I stared after her thinking she totally looked like a real-life fairy princess. And I kept thinking this, my gaze growing hazy and unfocused, until she slipped back on her stool two minutes later. This woke me up, my body gave a slight jerk and my head filled with the possibility that Tack wouldn’t want to have more kids when I did, badly, which would mean bad things for us. I was doing this, my heart beginning to hurt, as my head did a distracted scan of the still heaving restaurant/bar but my eyes caught on something. Then my head snapped back and I felt my eyes grow round. When the fullness of all that was meeting my vision penetrated, my hand shot out to curve around the edge of the table and my breath left me.

“Holy crap,” I whispered as I stared at the men sauntering to our table.

One was Hawk.

Suffice it to say, considering I’d been in the throes of a kidnap rescue, I hadn’t taken him in fully when I first met him. He was not wearing a tee and cargo pants. He was wearing a dark gray, slim-fit shirt and jeans. They looked good on him. Way good. Otherworldly good. And he wasn’t hot. He was smoking hot.

With him were three other men. Two were tall, dark and gorgeous and both gorgeous in a way that was also otherworldly. One was older and had unusual but unbelievably beautiful silver eyes, these soft and aimed at Tess. One was younger and had soulful, dark brown eyes, these gentle and they were on Mara.

And last, there was a Hispanic man who was rough around the edges and needed a haircut about three weeks ago but he worked it almost as good as Tack. His eyes were black, they were intense but sweet and they were on Sadie.

“We’ve hit the hot guy motherlode,” I whispered reverently when they were about five feet from our table.

“Welcome to my nightmare,” Elvira muttered. “Though you got yourself a biker who fills his Levi’s so well he should be in Harley Davidson ads and has an off-the-charts ability to give pleasure so you can’t really understand my pain.”

I again ignored Elvira because the Hot Guy Crew hit our table and I was busy leaning forward and breathing in their general direction, “Hello boys.”

Two pairs of black eyes, one pair of brown and one pair of silver shifted to me. All the men grinned but only Hawk had dimples. Two of them.

They were hot.

My heart fluttered.

Hawk looked down at Gwen, claiming her by sliding an arm around her shoulders and I decided instantly they looked freaking great together. “See you had a good night,” he muttered.

“Tyra, this is Mitch,” Mara said and I tore my eyes off Hawk to see Mitch had done the claiming shoulder thing with his woman on her stool.

“Big Hearted Mitch,” I whispered.

“Sorry?” he asked.

“That’s your new title,” Mara answered, her head tipped back to look up at him and he dropped his chin to look down at her. “Big Hearted Mitch.”

I watched his full, beautiful lips twitch and I felt a different kind of flutter.

“And this is Brock,” Tess put in and my eyes went to him.

“Do I have a title?” Brock asked.

“Silver Hottie,” I answered and I heard girl giggles all around.

“What?” Brock asked, smiling, his deep voice amused.

“I just christened you that. Your eyes,” I answered and then his lips twitched which caused another flutter.

“Hector’s already known as Hispanic Hottie or Double H,” Sadie put in and I tore my eyes from Brock’s mouth and looked at Hector who was staring at me, his dark eyes dancing. “Meet my husband,” Sadie went on, “Hector Chavez.”

“If anyone tells you you need a haircut,” I advised, “tell them to jump in a lake.”

“Will do,” he muttered on his own lip twitch while sliding his arm around Sadie’s shoulders.

“I see Tack found it,” I heard Hawk say softly. I looked his and Gwen’s way to see they were looking at each other, Hawk bent slightly toward her so they were close.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Gwen said softly back, smiling, and I was about to ask what they were talking about but I didn’t get the chance when Hawk straightened and spoke.

“I’ll get the check.”

“Oh no!” I cried, opening my clutch, “Let me –”

“I’ll get it,” Brock interrupted me.

“We’ll split it,” Mitch put in.