Page 24 of Her Unflinching Warrior (Omega Sky)
Then she saw it. There was a small smile playing around Gideon’s lips. Damn….The man definitely had an ace up his sleeve.
Jada relaxed and started looking around at the décor. From where she was standing she could see the bar covered almost the entire back wall. She’d never seen such a huge selection of bottles, and she’d been to a lot of clubs in Manhattan. What’s more, the bartenders sure seemed to know what they were doing.
“Gideon!”
Jada looked up to see a huge red-headed mountain man all dressed in white making his way toward them. He had a huge grin on his face as he moved around the hostess stand. Gideon stretched out his hand but the lumberjack ignored it and crushed Gideon in a big hug.
“You made it! How long has it been?”
“Years,” Gideon smiled.
“At least five,” the man boomed.
“Slade, I want you to meet someone,” Gideon said as he pulled Jada close. “Jada Harlow, this is Slade Edwards, he’s the owner of this shack.”
“Hey, my last restaurant was a shack, we call this one a joint.”
The hostess giggled.
“Hey, Julie, when can we get my friends seated?” Slade asked.
“Uhm, Murray didn’t think their reservation was legitimate, so he uhm, wouldn’t let me seat them.”
“Excuse me?” Slade’s voice lowered two octaves. He gently pulled Julie away from the stand and lowered his voice. “Julie, what do you mean not legitimate? I put people on the goddamn list all the time, Murray knows that. Hell, he does it too. Tell me he wasn’t refusing service.”
Julie’s face blazed red then she looked down at the floor.
Slade’s gaze switched from Julie to Gideon. “Gideon, am I reading this right? He refused you and your woman service?” he asked quietly.
Gideon sighed. “Sorry, Slade, that’s what happened,” Gideon answered just as quietly, aware that there were customers all around them.
“Goddamned racist prick,” came Slade’s harsh whisper.
Murray had the misfortune to walk up at that point. Slade pulled two menus from the hostess stand and handed them to Julie. “Sweetheart, can you seat my two good friends? Their brunch is on the house.”
Murray’s eyes got wide.
Julie looked up with relief and grinned. “Why don’t you follow me.”
Gideon had his hand on the small of Jada’s back as he guided her past the hostess station. Jada was able to hear Slade talking before they were too far off.
“Murray, I need to see you in my office, right now.” He sounded pissed as hell.
Jada smiled.
Class, her man was all class.
* * *
“It’s beautiful here,”Jada commented, counting her blessings that she hadn’t packed her spiked-heeled boots for the walk through the park, otherwise she’d be a mess. Her feet would be killing her, and she’d be wobbly.
“Yes, it is,” Gideon said as he looked down at her.
Jada swallowed. She got the distinct impression he wasn’t talking about the stark landscape and the pretty bridge over the river.
He took her hand. “So have you walked off your meal?”
“My meal, the bourbon, or my mad?”
