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“Take them to Rome and then out to the sea, maybe Positano, although it’s so many steps but it’s worth it.” Mom sighs as she rests her elbows on the counter.
I check Mr. French out at the register. “Mom would live in Positano if she could. It’s pretty spectacular, I have to admit. Been meaning to get back there myself.”
“Nowhere like Hope Crest, though. Listen to you small-town folk trying to dream big.” A condescending voice comes from the door.
Nikolai Drafter walks in, blue uniform wrinkled and nowhere near the code I usually see most of the other officers in the small Hope Crest police department wearing theirs. Nik and I were good friends in high school, always running in the same crowd and playing the same sports. He was a pompous jerk back then, but so was I, teenage hormones and ego running rampant. It wasn’t until I went off to college and he sat on his parents’ couch for two years that I realized those were his only personality traits.
Nik comes from a construction family and always talked about following in his father’s footsteps—until Butch ratted his dad out to a competitor in high school and the senior Mr. Drafter was eventually put out of business because of his shady dealings. The entire scandal resulted in the rats in Cassandra’s locker. To this day, I don’t know for sure that it was Nik, but I have my suspicions. He denied it at the time, and I’d hoped becoming a cop would clean up his conscience and his regard for people, but I don’t think it has. I wouldn’t fully know because we’ve drifted since high school, but from what I hear around town, he’s still the same old scumbag.
“Ashton, what’s up?” He tips his chin at me in a bro-like way.
“Hey Nik,” I greet him cordially because, after all, I’m still working the counter, and I’m kind to each one of our customers.
“Didn’t realize the money man reduced himself to takeout orders.” Nik acts like he’s joking with me, but I know it’s a backhanded comment.
Everyone else seems to fade away, checking out, and walking back to work or their activities. Nikolai seems to have killed the friendly buzz we had going.
I shrug. “I help wherever my family needs it. What can I get you?”
He’s trying hard to hide the sneer because he probably wouldn’t do the same for his father. From what I hear, Nik blames his relatives for the life he’s living now. He grew up much like me, in a very nice home with whatever gifts he asked for and no need for worry. After his father’s business went under, they had to sell their house, the cars, and Nik’s life took a very different turn. He blames a lot of people for his lack of wealth, in his eyes, and for not being set up in the cushy way he believes my siblings and I have been.
“There is an order for the station that someone called in.” He looks bored now that he’s done ragging on me.
“I’ll just go get that from the kitchen.” Mom is wearing her polite, I-don’t-like-you smile.
That leaves Nikolai and me alone in this side of the restaurant, and a sudden need to know about Cassandra’s investigation lights a bulb in my brain.
“Hey, have you gotten anywhere on the break-in at the Mauer house?” I lower my voice as I ask.
It’s a miracle no one in town has found out, but I guess since Cassandra has told me the police haven’t even contacted her since her initial report, I guess they didn’t inform anyone in the gossip mill.
Nikolai’s eyebrows shoot up and he looks around nervously. “Who told you about that?”
Suspicion sits in my gut because it’s weird he’s following my question up with a question. “I was just curious if you’d found out who did it.”
No need to tell him about my ties to Cassandra. Not because I wanted to hide our relationship. I was planning on telling Mom about what’s happening between us as we worked the lunch counter together, but something tells me to stray on the side of caution where Nikolai is concerned.
“That’s police business. But I don’t think some hotshot actress really needs protection from some measly cops in a small town. That chick was practically staring down her nose at me when she came in.” He scoffs, and I know for sure now that he holds a grudge against her.
“A crime happened in our town, it could happen again to someone else, and you’re not taking that seriously?” I actually do look down my nose at him.
“Why are you taking up for her? She’s nothing but Butch’s spawn, may that bastard rot in hell. She probably set the thing up if she’s anything like her father, always looking for attention. I mean, she shows her tits to millions on screen—”
“That’s enough,” I spit through my clenched teeth.
“Patrick.” Mom touches my elbow as she puts a takeout box full of dishes on the counter. “There you go, Officer. It’s on the house.”
Food for the cops in town always is, but I should charge him out of spite.
“Have a good day now.” He grins like the devil as he takes it and walks out.
Mom doesn’t speak until he’s out the door, and it shuts with a jingle to the bell over it.
“People judge that girl too much for the sins of her father.” She shakes her head.
“And not enough from the sins of his.” I point out the door to where Nikolai just disappeared around the block. “I get a bad feeling about him, Ma.”
She purses her lips. “I can’t say I don’t, but he’s got a tough job, honey. His family has put him through the ringer, and that molds you. Same as Butch Mauer’s daughter. What’s going on with her that I found you ready to throw down with a police officer?”
