“What kind of candy bar?” the man directly across from her asked.
I opened my mouth to say ‘Not a Three Musketeers’ when Riel beat me to it.
“It couldn’t have been a Three Musketeers or a Crunch bar. She hates everything else,” Riel offered up.
Then he frowned ferociously, looking at me with wide eyes.
“You remembered.” I smiled.
I also felt sad.
Because there were a lot of more important things he should be remembering.
Like what had happened to Luca.
Instead, he remembered the one and only time that I was ever around him when he would’ve had the chance to learn something like that. A stray Halloween where I’d sent Luca all my Halloween candy that I hadn’t liked eating. There’d been no fun-sized Crunch bars or Three Musketeers in it, because I had eaten them all.
I swallowed the bile that threatened to move farther up my esophagus.
Then I shoved all those feelings aside, put them into a tiny little box, and duct-taped that bitch closed.
Because thinking like that wasn’t going to get me anywhere.
It wasn’t going to get my Luca back.
It wasn’t going to make me happy again.
It wasn’t going to do anything.
How did I know?
Because I’d allowed myself a lot of hope in the very beginning.
I’d prayed.
I’d pleaded.
I’d begged.
Nothing had brought him back.
Nothing.
I was still here.
And he wasn’t.
And the longer he stayed away, the harder it started to hit me.
Luca wasn’t coming home.
He was gone.
For good.
“And for you?” the waitress asked Riel.
I flicked my eyes over to watch her face and got mad all over again.
She wouldn’t look Riel in the eyes.
She also wouldn’t look at his face.
It was more than obvious that she was looking at a point over his shoulder.
I gritted my teeth and fisted my hands to stop myself from saying or doing anything that might cause her to spit in my food.
“I’ll have a steak. Sixteen ounces.” He paused. “Corn and a salad.”
“Dressing?” she asked.
“Umm, ranch?”
I looked at him. “You getting the ranch? You’re sure?”
He frowned.
I looked at the waitress. “Maybe put the ranch on the side. Also, bring him Italian dressing as well.”
Riel gave the waitress his menu, and she rocketed off as if she’d been burned.
I rolled my eyes.
“I take it you don’t like ranch?” Piper asked Riel.
He shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I don’t remember what I like. I’m playing this game right now. Try and see.”
Piper looked at him curiously. “That’s got to be interesting.”
He nodded. “It is.” He sighed. “Last week I bought a whole family-sized box of Lucky Charms before I realized that when the milk hit the marshmallows, they reminded me of snot nuggets.”
Jonah, who’d been in the process of drinking his beer, choked.
I started to laugh, wiping tears from my eyes.
“Oh my God.” I wiped the tears from my cheeks. “You and Luca were in full agreement on that. Y’all both hated Lucky Charms so much. Him, I think, worse than you. But you were right there with him. Y’all fed on each other’s mutual hate for it, that’s for sure.”
Riel’s lips twitched.
“Malachi…” a man on the end said. “What’s…”
“He’d like to be called Riel now,” I said to the man. The man that I still didn’t know who he was. Though he looked quite familiar, too.
The man looked at me with an odd expression on his face.
“He doesn’t like the name Malachi. We decided Riel was what he was going to go by now. His middle name is Gabriel. So, he’s going to go by that until he finds what really seems right as he grows and matures.”
Riel snorted.
“Thanks,” he murmured. “I’m pretty grown and mature, but I get what you meant.”
“Riel then,” the man said. “How did you like your first week of work?”
“Frankie, Pace. Pace, Frankie.” Riel gestured to the man that was speaking. “And to answer your question, Pace, I enjoyed it. Other than that woman getting killed the first day on the job.”
“I’m Lock. This is my girl, Saylor. That’s Justice, and his wife, Royal. Pace you met. His girl is Oakley. Then you have Logan on the very end with Captain Morgan, and Logan’s wife, Katy,” Lock said, introducing the rest of us. “I’m sure that Riel would’ve gotten around to introducing you eventually.”
Riel winced.
“Sorry, I meant to do that.” He paused. “But, saying that, I didn’t remember Katy’s or Oakley’s name.”
Katy smiled and waved from her end. “My dad’s the police chief. His name is Luke Roberts.”
My eyes widened. “I think he gave me a ticket when I first moved here.”
Katy’s lips twitched. “That sounds like him. He’s a butthead sometimes.”
“How do you know Mala… Riel?” Logan asked, speaking up a little louder due to his distance away from us.
I looked at Riel, then back at Logan.
Feeling my heart lodge in my throat.
“Riel and Luca were best friends,” I said softly. “They met in bootcamp. Luca is my missing fiancé.”