“Tell me what’s going on.”
“Not here, Kait.”
My heart started pounding.
“So there is something. What have you been hiding?”
Leo looked toward us, and I stopped myself. Whatever this was, I wasn’t going to turn his eighteenth birthday into an interrogation.
Then dessert arrived, and something else struck me. There was no loud birthday song. No staff gathered around the table. No clapping and shouting. Marcy placed one slice of chocolate cake in front of Leo with one candle. After he blew it out, the nearby employees clapped softly exactly once and returned to work.
I looked around the diner differently. These people knew not to touch Leo unexpectedly. They knew which sounds bothered him. They knew how long to wait for an answer. They even knew how he preferred to be celebrated.
Across from me, Chloe wiped a tear from her cheek.
“Why are you crying?”
