Page 23 of Newly Tied

“We need to speak to your mom too.”

“No,” she whimpered. “I’ll talk to her tomorrow. Call Lang and tell him to meet us at the diner with the really big cheeseburgers and the super-thick shakes.”

“I’m sure he’s eaten already.”

“Malik likes French cuisine,” she informed me. “I will bet you money that Lang picked at his food and could really use some fries right about now.”

“French fries?” I asked, cackling.

“You have a small brain, did you know that?”

Lang picked up on the second ring, which did not bode well for the date.

“You need me?” he asked hopefully.

Always, I thought, but what came out of my mouth was, “Sort of.”

“I have no idea what that means.”

I had two concerns: First, I was worried about how he was going to take the news that not only had Talia made the choice to call me, but then I’d made the choice not to call him. And second, if the date was going well, I didn’t want to take him away from the future Mrs. Langston Ross.

“Del?”

“How’s the date goin’?” I asked, hoping I was coming off as excited.

“Try again.”

He knew me too well, that was the problem.

“Listen, I need to know if she’s about to invite you on home, because if she is, I don’t wanna pull you away to have a late dinner with me and Talia.”

“Actually,” he began, and the husky, low sound of his voice rolled right through me, “the four of us ended up at a gallery opening until about twenty minutes ago. We’re at Bayou Baby in the West Loop. Come meet us.”

I looked at Talia. “He wants us to meet him at someplace called Bayou Baby.”

“Oh, I’ve been there. The food is really good. It has a cool vibe, not too fancy. It’s both a lounge and a restaurant, and it’s open until, like, two in the morning.”

“You see? She’s down,” he said, having heard his sister. “When can you be here?”

“How nice is it? Because Talia looks great, but I’m in shorts and a T-shirt.” Her maroon cocktail dress looked gorgeous on her, showing off her curves and long legs. In the black platform sandals, she now came to my chin. “And I have white sneakers on.”

“You’ll be fine. It’s a noisy-ass restaurant. We’re getting a big table. Just hurry up.”

“Do they have shakes?” I asked Talia. “Because we both wanted those.”

“They do,” she said, grinning. “And they have really good onion rings too.”

“Okay,” I told Lang. “We’re right by work, so we’ll see you shortly.”

It took him a second, probably because his brain had been put to sleep by being in an art gallery. Not that he didn’t like art, but he was particular about it. “Why’re you near work?”

“Tell ya when we see ya,” I teased and hung up.

“Oh, that’s not going to make him crazy at all,” she deadpanned.

I waggled my eyebrows at her.

We grabbed a cab and were there in ten minutes. Inside, it was a zoo, but the hostess had already seated our party of seven—seven?—so she had one of the servers walk us to the table.