Page 133 of The Deals We Make

“There you go,” she says, slipping it down in front of me. “Can I get you anything else?”

I shake my head. “What’s your name?”

“Raven,” she says.

“That a nickname because of the hair?”

She runs a section of hair through her fingers. “No, it’s my real namebecauseof the hair. I was supposed to be called Natasha until my dad saw the color of my hair. Said it looked like a raven’s wing.” She shrugs, then smiles as if embarrassed. “The blue tone is from a box of dye I bought at the grocery store.”

“What brings you to our little town, blue?”

I don’t miss the way she looks nervously outside the window. “Decided it was time for a new chapter.”

“Know a thing or two about those. Isn’t always easy, is it?”

She’s about to answer and then catches herself. “Enjoy your dinner.”

I watch her until she disappears from sight, headed to the kitchen.

The meatloaf cuts perfectly, and I scoop it and some mash onto the fork and then eat it like I haven’t seen food. I made my annual pilgrimage to Cabo San Lucas where Hallie and I went on honeymoon. Thirty four hours on a bike. Two overnight stops at shitty motels.

And on the way, I decided it would be my last.

Something felt off about being there this year. Can’t put my finger on what it was. Maybe this was the first time I noticed I was the only guy there vacationing solo.

Plus, I know it puts a strain on my club when I fuck off for ten days.

I continue to make my way through the food, even the vegetables because I know Ma will give me shit if I don’t. And after drive-through meals, my gut could probably do with some of that good bacteria.

“You doing okay?” Ma says, holding her own mug of coffee as she slides in the booth opposite me.

“Same shit, different day,” I say.

The new girl catches my eye again, and I see Ma’s face change. “Stay away from her, Axel.”

I look at my mother-in-law. “Watch your tone with me.”

“You just came back from a memorial trip for Hallie.”

“Don’t tell me what I just came back from. I need some food. Wanted to check in to see if you are okay. What I don’t need is a motherfuckin’ lecture.”

Ma sighs. “Fine. It’s just, I got some feelings about that girl. Blew into town the night there was blood around the moon.”

I roll my eyes. Ma always thought she had some kind of sixth sense. She’d call Hallie and say she’d done her tarot cards or that the full moon was moving into her seventh house. “I don’t believe in that bullshit. And you can cool your heels. I had my forever with Hallie, just looking for a tonight.”

Ma looks over where Raven is furiously wiping down the counter. “Well, she’s not it. Blew in with two suitcases and a little boy about five. Who only has two suitcases and a little one? Living in that skeleton of an apartment Pete and Shelly Dobson have above the hardware store.”

I know the one. It can’t be more than two rooms with solid walls and a watertight roof.

“We all have our stories. You know this. That girl is like a hundred pounds soaking wet. If she’s arriving with a kid and only what she can carry, she must have good reason. You ask what the reason was when you hired her?”

Ma shakes her head. “She’s a good girl. Hard worker. She offered to do her first shift for free to show me what she could do. Accepted cash too. Makes everyone’s life easier.”

For a second, there’s a protective beat in my chest, but I bury it.

Everything that happens in my town is an Outlaw problem.

And I can’t help but think that Raven’s gonna bring trouble.