“Cooper Callahan, how’s life treating you, suga?” she says before engulfing me in a mother’s hug.
If you ask me, I would consider Kathy the heart of the town. She holds my face between her hands and I stare at her sea-foam green eyes. Her blond wavy hair frames her face beautifully. I know by the pictures around the diner that she was, is, a stunning woman. Her physical body reflects her soul.
“What looks good? I haven’t seen you in years. You have some serious catch up to do, young man.”
“Can me and my friends get a table and eat first? We are starving.”
Kathy pulls back and sees them. “Oh my, I’m so sorry. How did I not see these four gorgeous women? You guys are friends with Cooper? None of you are his girlfriend?” They shake their heads furiously and I keep my face neutral. I will ignore that their head shake, or more like one specific head shake, upset me.
“Well, come on in. Let’s get you all seated. Do we have anything in mind? Are we on any diets?” Kathy slides the menus over the table as we sit. I don’t know if they did it on purpose, but the way they sit in the booth left Rosalie pressed to my left side.
“We are not on any diets at the moment. I’m craving bread, you guys?” Rosalie says.
“Well, if you want bread but also some nutrition because we gotta keep that beautiful skin clean, I recommend the Club Special. It has ham, turkey, pastrami, American and Swiss cheese. We can add any vegetable you want and you can choose from our homemade chips or french fries.”
“Let’s order two of those with lettuce and tomato. Should we get sodas or sparkling water?” Margarete says.
“How about you try our in-house summer refreshers? We have pink raspberry lemonade, black cherry spritzer, and we have fresh berries refresher.” Kathy smiles before she taps my shoulder with her pen. “The usual for you, or are you feeling adventurous?”
“The usual with one of the less sweet refreshers,” I say.
Kathy’s smile widens until laughter spills. “A little adventure. I see. I’ll get everything in and comeback with your drinks.” She points at me. “I haven’t forgotten the updates you owed me.”
I nod and gather the menus so she can take them with her to the front. I feel Rosalie’s arm pressing on mine and I thought I should have asked for a bigger booth. I scoot until most of my right thigh is off the booth to give us both some space. I didn’t realize Rosalie saw me moving. She whispers something to Genevieve and in a few seconds, there is more space than I thought the booth had.
Rosalie leans in. “You could have asked for more space. No need to move away like we are the plague.”
“I thought you would feel bad,” I say.
“Why would I feel bad?”
“I don’t know. That’s the vibe I get. We are still strangers.”
“Between last night and what happened at Leroy’s. I don’t think we are strangers,” she whispers.
I furrow my eyebrows. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
She is going to reply, but stops as Kathy comes in with our drinks. I chat with her for a few minutes and update her about me and my brothers and she left to ring one of the locals.
“Next time, make sure your helmet is devoid of any marks or logos,” Rosalie whispers.
I blink and took a sip of my still too sweet drink to hide my surprise. All of our helmets have the club logo, but the ones we lend to anyone riding with us are small and faint. I don’t think she holds on to the helmet long enough to see it. The thing I’m constantly learning about Rosalie is how observant she is. Is like nothing can get past her.
We get our food, and while eating I discussed some sort of plan. I’m not sure how much information to share because I don’t know what they know. They are not my brothers. We haven’t built trust between us. I know they probably think the same about me. I guess they tired of beating around the bush. Maybe this is how they communicate.
“We need to address the elephant in the room. What are we gonna do about you being linked to a cartel?” Genevieve points at Rosalie.
“I don’t know, but I wanna know who is pulling this stint. I don’t think my manager, who apparently is the one doing illegal things, can pull me into this.”
“So you guys know nothing or anyone from the Cartel?” I ask.
“Never. Our lives, our every minute, is control and supervised 24/7. We barely can make friends.”
“Why?”
The four women look at each other, wondering what to say.
“Do you know what we do for a living?” Genevieve asks and I nod. That was a smart way to ask if I know the identitythey’ve been trying to hide. With every interaction, I can see why she is their leader.
