“Julian?” Aiden asks, looking up from his phone. “What was the number Luke used to call you from?”
Julian reads off the number from his phone, Aiden following along while looking at his phone.
“Well, I think I know why Luke has been calling all morning,” Aiden says, his facial expression cold and hard.
Annalisa sits up straight. “Did Luke message you?”
“I just got this message from that same number,” Aiden answers, then reads the text out loud: “‘Heard what happened. Need to talk to you ASAP. I have information about Greg.’”
Aiden’s phone vibrates again, and he reads the next message: “‘Let’s all meet somewhere public. Sweetie’s Ice Cream Parlor. Half an hour.’”
He sets the phone down and looks at us expectantly.
“If Luke has information, we need to go,” I say before anyone has the chance to turn the meeting down.
“Do you think he actually has answers?” Annalisa blurts out, her words laced with disbelief. “He’s a manipulative asshole, this whole thing could just be an excuse to talk to us.”
“We’ll never know if we don’t go,” Mason says.
“You guys don’t have to come, but I need to go,” Aiden says, grabbing his plate and putting it in the sink.
I stand up automatically. “I’m coming with you.”
Aiden looks at me, and for a second I’m positive he’ll demand that I stay home, but he doesn’t. I bring my plate to the sink and stand in front of him, on the opposite side of the kitchen island, and he gives me a slight nod.
Mason gets up. “I’m coming too.”
Noah follows his lead, a smile on his face. “I can never turn down ice cream, even if it is freezing outside. Count me in!”
“Looks like we’re all going then,” Chase says, and we look at Annalisa to see her decision.
She looks around the table at all of us, finally sighing. “He’s my dirtbag brother. If this turns out to be a waste of time, I better be there to hit him.”
Hopefully, it’s not a waste of time, and he’ll have some information that gives Aiden some closure.
7
Moments after we make the decision to meet up with Luke, we clean up my kitchen and head straight out the door for Sweetie’s Ice Cream Parlor, hopping into three cars so not everyone has to drive.
No one mentions anything about which car I’ll be riding in. I guess it’s just known that I’ll be with Aiden, and even I just sort of gravitate toward him. Aiden’s always had a pull on everyone, always drawn the attention of everyone in a room without even trying. But the way I feel about him is stronger; I feel pulled toward him, like magnets.
Aiden also expects that I’ll ride in his car. He leans on the passenger-side door of his Challenger as I lock my front door, waiting for me, and opens the door for me once I come down the steps. But I don’t miss the way Mason frowns at us as Aiden closes my door for me. Bundled up in my scarf and mittens, I press the button to turn on my seat warmer. It’s just the two of us.
“Are you nervous?” I ask.
“Why would I be nervous?”
“Because we’re meeting Luke, who may help us piece together why your stepfather was murdered on your front porch?”
“Shouldn’t you be the nervous one?” Aiden answers.
“Why would I be nervous?”
He stops at a red light and looks at me, his expression serious. “Because you haven’t seen him since that day at the Tracks, when he saved you from Dave and you decided not to tell anyone about that part of the attack. Not even Anna.”
My face heats up from his correct assumption about what happened that night. “What—I—how?—No. How did you know it was Luke who saved me? Did Dave tell you when you found out what happened and went all Rambo on his face?”
“It wasn’t that hard to connect the dots, Thea.”