Edge Of Fear (Arrow's Edge MC Book 4) by Freya Barker (best love novels of all time .TXT) 📗

with three in the kitchen not counting the bussers. I suspect, if tonight’s expected crowd becomes the norm, we’ll have to look into some extra kitchen and front-end staff for the weekends.

I walk past Mandy and put a hand on her shoulder and keep my voice low.

“Hang in there.”

She nods and gives me a watered-down smile. Then I poke my head into the storage room, my eyes catching on the stack of boxes I know are empty. For now. No Chris to be seen.

Heading to my office, I spot a garbage bag left by the back door. I take the opportunity to peek outside if I can see Chris.

I hear his voice coming from behind the dumpster when I open the back door, as I’m sure he hears me when I toss the bag in the bin.

“I’ve gotta go,” he says when I walk around the dumpster and slips his phone in his pocket. “Did you need me?”

“Didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“I was done.”

He’s abrupt, which is nothing new, but his eyes look worried.

“All right, well, I just wanted to let you know we’ve got a lot of reservations tonight so I’m calling Emme, but if this is the new normal, we need to talk about hiring a few more bodies. Depending on how your kitchen manages of course.”

He nods and starts walking around me.

“I’ll let you know,” he says right before he disappears inside.

A chill runs down my spine and I cast a furtive glance around the parking lot. It’s late afternoon with plenty of daylight left and I don’t see anything out of place, but then again, it’s early yet.

I duck in my office and give Emme a call. She agrees to come in, says she has nothing better to do anyway. With that out of the way, I do a quick check of our order coming in from the butcher tomorrow morning. It might be a little light. I manage to catch my sales rep on his way out the door, and he ensures me he can up the order in time for our delivery.

I should probably put something in my stomach before the dinner rush; I’ve been ignoring those hunger pangs all afternoon. Or maybe it’s my bladder. I haven’t been since I got here this morning. I better take care of that first.

The bathroom is empty and I duck into one of the stalls. I’m just grabbing a wad of toilet paper when I hear someone come in and get into the stall beside me. I’ve always hated public bathrooms for that reason alone, lack of privacy. Although as of this morning, I officially don’t even get privacy in my own bathroom at home.

I stand, start pulling up my pants, and turn to flush when I notice the smear of blood left on the paper I just tossed in the bowl. Immediately I check the crotch of my panties and my stomach drops.

Shit.

The word must’ve escaped me because I hear Lea from the stall beside mine.

“Everything okay?”

“Yes,” I answer automatically before changing my mind. “No. You wouldn’t happen to have a pad, would you?”

“Actually, I do in my purse. Give me a sec, I’ll get it for you.”

I sit back down as the lump of disappointment in my throat grows. Most women in my situation would be ecstatic to have dodged a bullet. I’m not one of them. I allowed my fantasies to run away with me and already imagined myself pregnant.

I tell myself firmly this is for the best and when Lea hands me a pair of pads underneath the door, I feel almost in control.

Except, when I open the door a few moments later and walk to the sink, I catch a glimpse of my wet face in the small mirror.

“Oh no, honey. What’s wrong?” Lea asks and I let out a sob.

Tse

“Van! Come here boy.”

The dog lifts his head from the pile of scrap wood where he’s been sniffing all afternoon—probably rodents or something—and trots toward me.

I look over at Ravi, who is helping Paco tidy up the site. We’re supposed to have a few more hands tomorrow to help put down the roof decking. The exterior of the house is already sheathed, we finished that today, and it’s ready for wrapping next week. After that’s done, we’ll have Jed’s crew back to work on electrical and plumbing.

It’s moving much faster than I thought it would, but the weather has been good and so far we’ve had no delays. I’m sure those will come once we have different contractors working on different aspects. There’s a certain order in which things need to be done, and all it takes is one thing to go wrong and the entire schedule is fucked. I’m glad Jed’s in charge of that; I wouldn’t have the patience.

The boy seems to enjoy working with us, although it took him a while to get comfortable around Paco. He’s getting pretty good with his measurements and already handles the nail gun like a pro. He wanted to use the saw as well, but I won’t let him do that without Paco or me standing right there.

From what I hear, he’s still avoiding the older boys, and either hangs with the young kids, or with Nosh or Lisa in the kitchen when he’s at the clubhouse. A few times I tried to get him to talk, but he quickly shut down.

Then yesterday I took off my shirt on purpose and he asked me about the tattoos, so I told him the same I told Sophia. He seemed interested in their meaning and actually stared at me for a few minutes when I mentioned I got my first one to cover up my scars. I almost fell off the log I’d been sitting on when he wondered out loud what age he’d need to be to get tattooed. He didn’t wait around for an answer and walked off. I didn’t want to push the issue and scare him off, so I left it,