“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 ass**le.

“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.