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“Ryker. It’s Cash.”
Ryker, my closest friend from childhood, chuckles. “Saw it on the caller ID, man. What’s up?”
“Question for ya and if you can’t answer, I totally get it, but I’m gonna ask anyway.”
“Shoot.”
“Know why the diner’s closed?”
“You’re calling me to ask why the diner is closed? You that desperate for a cheeseburger?” he asks, laughing.
“It’s not that. I was, uh,” I rub the back of my neck, “I had a sort of date tonight with Dorothy’s niece and she’s not at home and hasn’t answered my texts. Stopped at the diner to see if she was there but it’s dark.”
“You’re calling me because you were ghosted and want me to find out why?”
“Shut up, asshole. I don’t think I was ghosted. Two hours ago we were texting and she told me she was excited about tonight. Now she’s nowhere to be found and Dorothy never closes the diner down without explanation.”
“I’m a cop, not a detective,” he reminds me.
“And you’re a cop in a small town who might have heard something come through on the radio.”
“And if I heard something come through, I wouldn’t be allowed to just tell someone that.”
I huff in frustration. “Yeah, I know. It was worth a shot, though.”
He’s quiet for a moment before, “You had a date tonight? With Hadley?”
“You know Hadley?” I ask, not able to keep the defensive tone out of my voice.
“Only from the diner,” he explains. “Go in there a lot. Saw there was a new girl working, Dorothy introduced us.”
“Oh. Right.”
“You know I’m not eager to jump into anything like that again. Crashing and burning wasn’t fun the last time, neither was the divorce, and I don’t need to bring anyone around Luna.”
Luna’s Ryker’s daughter only a year younger than Cody. She became his entire world and when his wife Amber left him. Not that she wasn’t the light of his life before that, but when he and Amber got a divorce, he fully invested himself in fatherhood.
“Yeah. I get it.”
“You think Hadley’s in trouble? Or Dorothy?”
My stomach sours at the thought. “Not sure but something isn’t sitting right with me.”
“Check Dorothy’s house. If they’re not there, head home and I’ll see what I can find out.”
I blow out a breath, wishing there were more options but knowing there isn’t much I can do.
“Let me know,” I respond.
“Will do. And, Cash?”
“Yeah?”
“This is the one you met in New York, right?”
“How’d you…”
“Small town,” he murmurs. “Shit spreads around here. Besides, Corbin told me.”
