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Aspen smiled from her booth when she saw me walk into the R&R diner. I hurriedly sat down and ordered a cup of coffee.
“How did you find out about this place?” I asked. I’d been in Canyon City practically my whole life and never seen it. The waitresses here wore starched shirts with red gingham collars, a far cry from the plain printed tee shirts we wore at Buddy’s. The floor was checkerboard tile, and any furniture that wasn’t trimmed in chrome was slapped with a vinyl record motif. I could imagine my grandmother frequenting a place like this when she was my age.
“I considered working here at one point,” Aspen said. “But anyway, how have you been?”
She watched me a little too carefully. I tried to keep my expression neutral.
“Fine. Just working and taking care of Xander. The usual.”
Aspen nodded, sucking in her lips. “And Logan?”
“Haven’t seen him.”
Aspen fiddled with a sugar packet and bared her teeth. She looked agitated.
“He asked you to check up on me, didn’t he?”
She sighed loudly. “Okay fine, he did.”
“What did he say?”
“He said that he thought things were going really well, but the thing with Liam and Lisbeth at your house happened—”
I snorted. “So Liam told you about that?”
“—and ever since then, nada.”
The waitress came back with two coffees and a double order of hash browns for Aspen. We waited until she walked back into the kitchen.
“You knew that Logan was an undercover agent for the FBI, didn’t you?”
Aspen smiled nervously. “Yeah.”
“It would’ve been a nice thing to tell a girl with an eight-year-old kid, don’t you think?”
“I thought he could tell you himself. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”
“He’s investigating gangs and drugs. That’s not a big deal to you?”
Aspen slumped down. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I said. I sipped my coffee and glanced out the window. I could see my reflection in the glass. My haphazard bun was already slipping loose, and there were dark smudges under my eyes. If Logan could’ve passed for my age, I could’ve passed for his. I licked stray coffee off of my lips and cleared my throat. “I broke things off with him, anyway.”
“What?”
I’d sent the text just this morning, in fact. I’d only felt guilty about it for a second. I knew that if I did it in person, Logan would’ve flashed those puppy dog eyes of his and who knew what could’ve happened next?
I played with the stack of beaded bracelets on my arm. “Things were getting too complicated. The sex was good and all, but the issue with Lisbeth...”
“What issue with Lisbeth?”
“You know, the whole thing with the gang and the prostitution and the drugs? We were trying to help her together, but it’s just too dangerous for me. I had to cut myself loose.”
A strange expression passed over Aspen’s face. She looked like I’d just punched a baby in front of her. “Prostitution?” she choked out. “Drugs?”
Realization seeped into my mind. “Oh. Liam didn’t tell you.”
Aspen’s fork fell out of her hand. “He didn’t tell me anything. I knew there was something weird going on with Lisbeth but...I mean, now it all makes sense. What’s going on, exactly?”
I felt like laughing but I had to hold it back. A smile fought through, though. “You should just ask Liam. He could just tell you himself.”
After I finished quoting her own words back to her, I drained my coffee and slapped a couple bucks onto the table. “Before you try to fix my love life,” I said, “maybe you should pay some attention to your own.”
I immediately regretted it the moment I walked outside, but my bitterness was too strong. Aspen chose her path, and I chose mine. By being Liam’s old lady, she was committing to a certain way of life. Secrets, loyalty, and sometimes crime came with the territory. The Skull Kings put the club and their brothers first. For me, that wasn’t an option.
I’d spent not even twenty minutes inside of the diner. When I got back to my car, I noticed an envelope clamped under one of my windshield wipers. Confused, I glanced back at Aspen through the window of the diner. I could see her shoveling her hash browns into her mouth, oblivious to anything going on outside.
I could only think of one person who could’ve left this here, and the fact that he’d done it without me or Aspen noticing was almost impressive. Instinct urged me to throw away the letter, but for some reason, with the effort it must’ve taken him to reach out to me this way, I figured I might as well see what he had to say.
I shoved it into the bottom of my purse for later and drove off.