food to arrive. “I still don’t know if I made the best choice,” I admit, checking the menu. “I went with the prawns but the chicken also looks good.”
“If you like mine better, we can swap,” he says, kissing my temple.
If that isn’t true love, I don’t know what is.
“What do you think Quinn is doing?” he asks, picking up his glass of soda and taking a sip. “I hope she’s okay.”
“I hope Temper and Abbie are okay,” I reply in a dry tone, making him laugh. Quinn can be fussy at times, and hard to settle, so I hope she’s not putting them off having babies. “She’s probably asleep. Do you think you’re going to start a trend and all the Knights are going to start having kids now?”
“Maybe—they’re all crazy about Quinn. Imagine when she grows up and she has all these scary-ass, tatted biker uncles. No one is ever going to ask her out.” He grins, looking extremely happy about it.
“You don’t need to look so thrilled,” I reply, shaking my head. “If a boy likes her enough, he will still ask her out, so that can be his test.”
“What? If he doesn’t mind potentially getting killed for her?”
I roll my eyes. “I’m glad we have at least sixteen years until we have to worry about this.”
“Eighteen,” he replies. “She’s not dating until she’s eighteen.”
“And how old were you?” I ask, raising my brows.
“That’s not the point,” he fires back, frowning. “She’s a girl. And I don’t want her to be how I was. She’s going to have a better role model in you.”
“I started dating when I was like fifteen,” I point out to him. “Not that my dad knew—it was all done sneakily. Which is what she will probably do if you don’t let her do anything fun.”
“She can have fun. Just more like ‘board games at home’ fun, not ‘out drinking with boys’ fun,” he replies, flashing me his teeth in a grin.
Laughing, I cup his face and look into his eyes. “We’ll see how that goes for you, but we have plenty of other stages to get through with her first.”
“Luckily.” He kisses my lips and then my nose. “I’m so happy right now.”
The food arrives and the prawns are placed in front of me. “Me too.”
“Because we’re on our first date in what feels like forever, or the food?” he asks, and thanks the waitress.
“Both,” I reply, grinning.
“Did you get an update from Nadia on Jean?”
“Yeah, no one has heard from her since. She hasn’t updated her social media or anything,” I say, frowning. “But she’s old, so maybe that’s why.”
Crow smirks. “Maybe she just doesn’t use social media. Or maybe she’s hiding from someone and doesn’t want to be found.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know, some of Jasper’s friends or something. Who knows?” he replies, wrapping his arm around me. “These drug lords have a line of people under them just waiting to do some dirty work.”
“If that were true, why would she come back here to the city?” I ask, frowning. “Wouldn’t she go as far away from this place as she could instead of running back to it?”
“Yeah, I guess so. There’s probably more to the story.”
“There always is.” I sigh, turning my face to him. “I have kind of missed working for Nadia, though, so it’s nice to brainstorm a case with her again.”
“Your eyes lit up when you told me about it,” he agrees, lip twitching. “Missing the adventure, are you?”
“I love my life and I’m so grateful and blessed to have both you and Quinn, but yeah, I guess I wouldn’t mind a dash of adventure.” I pause, and then add, “Just a dash, and someone else’s drama, not my own.”
He laughs. “That seems fair.”
I reach my foot out so it touches his. It’s really nice just being here with him, just enjoying each other’s company with no other distractions, but at the same time, I really miss my daughter.
Being a parent is weird.
“You playing footsies with me, babe?” he asks, smirking.
“And what if I am?” I ask, arching a brow. “What are you going to do about it?”
“Nothing right now, because that would be frowned upon,” he replies, blue eyes filled with amusement. He leans over to whisper in my ear, “But later...”
I clear my throat. “Well, I guess we will see then.”
And I can’t fucking wait.
We finish up our peaceful, quiet meal, just chatting about everything and anything. It feels nice to have this little break, and