Angel

Chapter 21

Mattie

I laughed to myself when Nova pulled up to the restaurant. It was one of those pizza places that had an arcade for both adults and kids attached. He grinned, "We keep trying to tell you that we are just overgrown children."

"I'm beginning to believe you," I snickered as he unbuckled Violet and carried her inside while holding my hand.

"Over here, bunny," Raven said, his hand waving in the air. He had a big grin on his face as Violet wiggled out of Nova's arms. He scooped her up and threw her into the air, "Hello baby bunny, did you have a good day at school?"

She squealed with joy, "I had the best day, Raven. I got to play jump rope and we had spaghetti for lunch today." She began retelling all of the day's events as they listened to her intently. It was downright adorable.

"I think she has them wrapped around her little fingers," North commented leaning over to me. "It's good to see them so happy."

I gave him a genuine smile and nodded, "We're pretty lucky to have found them."

"Agapiménos, that seems to go both ways," Silas added as he watched all of them talking to Violet.

"Who are they?" Violet finally asked, realizing there were other people at the table.

North held out his hand to her, "I'm your Uncle North, little lady and this is your Uncle Silas. We came to visit your daddies." I froze at his words and quickly looked at Nova and the others. They just grinned.

"I have uncles?" she gasped. "Mama, why didn't you tell me I had uncles?"

"Well Bebe, remember how we just found Daddy Nova, well that means we just found your uncles too," I said, hoping it would satisfy her and the others.

"Oh, okay," she said, "Can I play a game, Daddy?" she asked Nova, tugging at his shirt.

"Sure thing, Flower. Let's go see what you want to play," he answered and picked her up. He gave me a kiss on the lips and whispered, "You did beautifully, Angel. She's happy, we're happy and that's all that matters." I nodded and he pressed another kiss to my lips then headed toward some smaller games.

"So beautiful, are you and Precious staying the night?" Brandon asked.

"No, she has school in the morning. That would just be more than I think she could handle, not to mention this mama has to get sleep sometimes too," I giggled.

"Will you and North be staying long?" I asked Silas.

He shook his head, "No, sadly. With the information you helped us find, we need to regroup and see what our next steps are. Although, I heard Owen and Sean were coming down this weekend. I'm sure they'll have plenty of embarrassing stories to share with you about these five." I laughed as the guys groaned.

"It's only fair since Nova knows all my secrets," I teased.

"Why do you call him Nova?" North asked in between pizza bites.

I shifted in my chair a bit and felt a hand on my shoulder and relaxed. "It was my gang name. Hers was Angel. They sort of just stuck over the years," Nova answered behind me.

"So wait, what exactly did you two do, if you don't mind my asking," Silas asked.

"I did things I don't care to say out loud in front of my daughter, Angel boosted," he chuckled.

"Wait, that's how you knew so much about cars and motorcycles," Brandon gaped. "Holy hell," he muttered.

Bebe leaned over and swatted his arm, "No bad words BB. MawMaw says that's a dollar in the swear jar," then she giggled, "Mama has to put money in the swear jar a lot."