“Please tell me that’s not what I think it is.” Angel stood in the doorway to the shop with her arms folded across her Guns N’ Roses t-shirt. Dax grinned at her.

“Isn’t it the coolest thing you’ve ever seen?”

She couldn’t help but smile at him. No matter how much she disagreed with whatever he was doing, he knew all he had to do was grin and at least a part of her would melt. “No, Dax.”

“Come look at it, baby. It’s got a real leather seat and chrome wheels…”

“My baby girl is not getting on that thing.”

“She’s gonna love it.” Dax looked down proudly at the miniature Harley Davidson. It was one of those made by Mattel and battery operated…but it was made for someone much older than six, at least in Angel’s opinion. As she approached it and Toolie and two of the prospects stepped out of her way, she saw that the “real” leather seat and “chrome wheels” were upgrades the guys had made. It even looked like they’d replaced the gas tank. It was pink like the other accessories on the bike, but it had little white skulls painted all over it and it looked metal. She bent down and tapped it…the echo told her that it was not made of plastic. “So cool, right?” Dax said, still grinning like a kid.

Angel looked up at him and smiling she said, “It’s really cool, baby. But still no.”

“It only goes fifteen miles an hour and…”

“No.”

Dax looked around at the guys, watching them with a smirk. Angel usually tried not to argue or disagree with him in front of his men…but this was about Susie and she wasn’t going to back down. He took her arm and said, “Let’s take a walk outside, baby.” She went with him, waiting until they got outside to say:

“Dax, she’s just too little to ride.”

He chuckled. “Baby, it’s not really riding. It’s a toy. It may as well have pedals.”

“One with pedals I’d be okay with.”

“I’ll put the training wheels back on, and I already bought her a helmet and all kinds of safety gear. I went overboard, trust me. Come on, baby, just let her try it out and see how she likes it. I’ll teach her how to be safe on it and we won’t let her ride it unless one of us is around…You grew up with four brothers. I’m sure you didn’t sit around in the house playing dolls while your brothers were climbing trees and raising hell in the neighborhood. You’re tough because of that. Don’t you want Susie to be tough too?”

“Tough and in one piece,” Angel said, but she was wavering. She knew that she was being overprotective. It was so hard not to be. She was devastated when she found out that she couldn’t have children. They had talked about adoption, but Angel knew it was very unlikely that an adoption agency would have given them a child. Susie’s coming along and her firm’s support in getting a judge to grant her and Dax temporary custody, until they could finalize the adoption, was a miracle. She’d be forever grateful to Levi and Zoe for bringing the beautiful, fiery-haired little angel into their lives. If anything ever happened to her, it would break her heart and her will to live, she was sure.

“I’ve taught lots of kids to ride. Look at Cody and…”

“Katrina?” Angel said, rolling her eyes.

“Say what you will about Kat, but she’s a damned good rider, and a safe one. You know that growing up here is going to make Susie want to ride someday. The earlier I start with her, the better and safer she’ll be. It’s just a toy, baby.”

She sighed. “Okay, fine. But, if she so much as skins her knee…”

He chuckled again, “You can’t keep her in a plastic bubble, baby.”

“I know, but that doesn’t stop me from wishing I could.” Dax took her hand and they walked back to the shop. She could tell that he was itching to show Susie the little Harley now that she’d okayed it. Her eyes were on him and his gorgeous, smiling face when he led her in through the door. She was smiling too, until she heard the sound of Kat’s voice and Hannah’s laughter. She scanned the shop and spotted them on the other side of a car that was parked with its hood up, waiting for Toolie’s loving care, no doubt. Both of them had their backs to her and they were crouched down, looking at something on Hannah’s bike. “What is she doing here?” Angel whispered to Dax.

Dax looked over at them, surprised. He slid his phone out of his pocket and looked at it. “Sorry, babe. I have a text from her that she sent over an hour ago. Toolie and I have been working in here all morning with the music up; I guess I didn’t hear it.”

“And what does the text say?”

“Hi, Dax. Harley and Tammy invited me to go on a ride with them this afternoon. I’m going to meet them at the ranch, but I’ll be in and out and no problems for your…old lady.”

“They invited her on a ride? Does she know Harley? I know Tammy hasn’t been here long enough to know her.”

“Yeah, Harley was around back when Kat first started hanging around here. I guess they ran into each other at the attorneys’ office luncheon the other day. By the way, did Kyle tell you what a great job Kat did?”

“Why do you want me to not hate her so badly?”

Dax smiled. “Because you are such a warm, passionate, loving woman. I hate to see you waste any of that passion on negativity.”

Angel laughed. “Wow, you thought of that on the spot? You’re good.”

Dax stepped in closer and put his mouth next to her ear and said, “Last night you said I was great…a god, in fact.”

Angel laughed again. “Shut up. I’m going to go back up to the house before she sees me. I promised you I’d try to play nice from now on, but I shouldn’t tempt the fates.”

“Wait, what did you come out here for in the first place?”

“Oh, sorry. Kyle called. He wanted to know if we wanted to meet him and David for dinner tonight.” Angel could tell that Dax was trying hard not to make a face. He liked David and they got along really well, but Kyle, not so much. Angel kept trying but between their history and the fact that they were both such alpha males, sometimes she doubted they would ever bond. She glanced over at Katrina and suddenly realized the situations were almost exactly the same. Except that Kat wasn’t family.

“Um…” She smiled as he tried to think of a reason he couldn’t go. Finally, he said, “What about Susie Q?”

“Zoe said she’d sit with her. I guess Levi is…is Levi going on this ride with the girls?”

“Tammy asked me for a couple of enforcers but I didn’t have any available so yeah, Levi is going—and I was going to send Buzz but now that I know Kat’s going with them, I’ll have to change that.”

Angel didn’t like that Buzz was still around. Even if it was Kat that he tried to attack, Angel thought Dax might have gone a little too easy on him. “Yeah, I wouldn’t send Buzz anywhere with any of the women.”

“Well, I wouldn’t normally but I guess Levi has taken a liking to him for some reason. Levi’s a pretty sensitive kid. Maybe he sees something in him the rest of us don’t.”

“He would have to,” she said. “Okay, I’m going to get back. Susie will be home from school soon. I can tell Kyle we’ll make it?”

“Yeah, sure, babe.” She wasn’t sure, but she thought he was gritting his back teeth. At least he was trying. She kissed him on the cheek and whispered in his ear,

“Thank you, baby. I’ll pay you back when we get home tonight.”

Dax growled and pulled her in for a real kiss. God, she loved kissing him. Even still, he took her breath away, and to put the cherry on top of that sweet whipped cream, Kat had stood up and was looking in their direction. Angel smiled, smugly, at Kat and gave her a little wave. Kat looked like she wanted to flip her off, but surprisingly, waved back with all five of her fingers. Dax looked like he was fighting another grin. Angel supposed it was good that someone was amused.

* * *

Kat stood up from looking at Harley’s new exhaust system just in time to see Dax and his old lady in a passionate embrace. It wasn’t that she was jealous, or even that she didn’t understand what Dax saw in Angel. Even though Angel wasn’t her cup of tea, she could see what a man would see in her. She likened it to a kid that didn’t want to see their parents swap spit. It just made her a little nauseous. Then Angel gave her a smile that Kat would have sworn she’d stolen right off her brother Kyle’s smug face. She ached to flip her off, but she had to keep her promise to Dax and play nice…so, she waved back.

Harley said, “Looks like you and Angel have almost as good of a relationship as you and Kyle, huh?”

“Yeah,” Kat said. “Is that a problem for you?”

“Nope,” Harley said. “But I have to tell you that I think the two of you are a lot alike. I like and respect Angel a lot and I think the two of you could be good friends.”

“Maybe we could have been, a long time ago,” Kat said. “But there’s too much water under that bridge to cross it now.”

Harley nodded like she understood but said, “It’s too bad. Oh, here’s Tammy.”

Kat had agreed to this ride the night before and she’d fallen asleep looking forward to it. She had spent her life convincing herself that she didn’t want or need female friends. In high school when other girls were talking about buying prom dresses, Kat was busy learning how to do wheelies on her Harley, or taking the engine apart, fixing it, and putting it back together. It wasn’t that she didn’t like to look pretty, but it seemed to her that was all girls that age worried about. They thought she was a freak, but she didn’t fit in with the freak crowd either…because she scared them. She had lots of friends who were boys in school, but no boyfriends. No one asked her out or to the prom. Kat heard the talk behind her back and she knew that they were all scared of her too. She had a hard time showing her emotions, especially while she was going through puberty. She kept things inside until they boiled over and she exploded, so she didn’t really blame them. She knew she was a little crazy and although it was lonely sometimes, she wasn’t willing to change in order to get people to like her.

She had awakened the morning of the ride, thinking about canceling it. Tammy Covey was the main reason. Kat had come to know Gunner well since she came back from Hollywood, and she liked him. He did a lot of running for Dax, and a lot of the business Kat had with Dax was conducted through Gunner. That first day she met Tammy, the other woman had acted like she wanted to have a pissing contest, and that wasn’t what Kat was looking for. The truth was that she was envious of what Tammy and Gunner had. All he ever talked about was Tammy. Kat had no desire to even try to come between that.

“Hey!” Tammy said to Harley, with a smile. She looked at Kat then and Kat thought maybe the smile fell just a little. “How’s it going?”

“Good. Thanks for letting me crash your ride,” Kat said.

Tammy chuckled and said, “Welcome to the bitches that never had female friends club.”

“Appropriate,” Kat said with a smile, “Glad to be here.”

“You bitches ready to ride?” Harley asked.

“Yup,” Tammy said. “I just saw Levi and Wes outside. They’re ready to babysit us.” Harley rolled her eyes as she pulled on her helmet and said:

“We’ll let them think we need them.”

“Yup,” Tammy said again with a grin. Kat smiled. Maybe she wasn’t such a freak after all, or at least she wasn’t the only one.