The bar was slow that night, and Logan hated it. A busy bar kept his mind off of other things. Painful things. Also, a busy bar meant lots of tips. Whenever there was just a few people he always hovered and got a little weird, and no one liked to tip weird bartenders.

Tonight there were even less people than usual; only one silver-haired man sat at the end of the bar, swirling a straw around his empty margarita glass.

Mitch Huntington.

Logan had seen him before, both here at the lake and around Helena. Of course he had no idea who Logan was. He’d never given much thought to Mr. Huntington as anything other than just the dad of another rich kid at his high school. Of course, that was before Cassie had entered his life and turned everything upside down. She never talked about Spencer much when they were together, other than passing references to parties or things they’d done together. Logan had been crazy jealous anytime she mentioned his name, but tried to reassure himself she had picked him, so she obviously didn’t care about how popular Spencer was, or how rich.

But she’d never actually picked Logan; she’d been told to hang out with him. By her jerk of a father. For all Logan knew, maybe her dad had even asked her to break up with Spencer as part of some larger drama going on with the Huntingtons. What did Logan know about the complicated lives of the wealthy families in his town?

At least now he knew enough to be glad that he’d escaped. He should be grateful to Cassie for breaking his heart. She’d saved him from a lifetime of always feeling like he wasn’t good enough and reminders that he wasn’t a part of her world.

Luckily, Logan had enough practice at hiding his emotions to not let on to the thunderstorm raging in his mind and served Mr. Huntington like he would anybody else.

Of course, when Mr. Huntington got a call and put the phone to his ear, Logan decided it might be a good time to clean that side of the bar one more time.

“Jason! How are things going? Did that lawyer ever call you back?”

Logan’s heart sped up. Jason Hart?

He told himself didn’t care. He shouldn’t care. This was between his mom and her former boss, and had nothing to do with Logan.

He stood there, wiping the same glass, with his back to the bar.

“Oh yeah? What did the lawyer say?”

A lengthy pause gave Logan’s heartbeat the chance to ratchet up another few miles per hour.

“Great news! I knew they’d find something to work with. She’ll never see a penny, will she?”

Logan nearly crushed the glass he was holding; he was gripping it so tightly.

So that was it then. After everything his mom had been through, it would all be for nothing. He didn’t care that there wouldn’t be extra money for Columbia—he’d never counted on that at all. But it made him red with rage to think that just because she’d stood up to someone richer and better connected than she was, it had been a lost cause from the beginning.

The two men started talking about the upcoming golf tournament in town and Logan breathed slowly through his mouth to quiet his racing heart. When he heard Mr. Huntington hang up the phone, he turned around with a practiced smile.

“Anything else for you, sir?”

Mr. Huntington stood up and shook his head, his eyes not quite focusing as he patted his jacket pockets for his keys. Of course he only left a dollar tip for the three drinks he’d ordered.

Logan hoped the drunk idiot crashed his car.

He shook his head. No, that might hurt someone else. Hot anger flared again as he thought of Cassie’s lie.

However, it flared less brightly than it had a week ago. He could be furious at someone like Mr. Huntington for driving drunk and hurting someone. But Cassie had been trying to avoid that. She hadn’t even been drinking that night; she’d been the one trying to get her drunk friends home safely. He could just picture what a moron Spencer probably was when he was wasted. He must have grabbed the wheel or something idiotic like that. It probably hadn’t even been Cassie’s fault she swerved.

But it was her fault that she hadn’t told Logan right away.

Hideki kept telling him it wasn’t that big of a deal.

“Yes but she lied about it,” Logan said for the hundredth time as they pounded away at Call of Duty later that night. The bar had been so slow, he’d actually left early and he didn’t have any houses to clean the next day. They’d started an epic battle that would probably go all night. One more thing checked off from the BSE list.

“So what? Everyone lies,” said Hideki, his eyes glued to the screen as one of his players blew up one of Logan’s.

“She almost killed me!”

Logan glanced over to see his cousin roll his eyes.

“Pretty sure she made up for that times, like, a million.”

“But she lied about it,” Logan repeated, attacking Hideki with a supercharged round. “And she let me think she was this nice, funny, perfect…”

Logan shook his head.

“I should have known better than to trust someone like her.”

“Someone like what? With money?”

Logan grimaced. Is that what he’d meant?

“You’re such a snob, Logan. Get over yourself.” He’d earned another eye roll.

“Easy for you to say! You’ve never had to see your mom counting pennies to be able to go grocery shopping. You’ve never been the poor scholarship student at school, the only one to ride a bike wearing thrift store jeans in a school full of beamers and Ralph Lauren polos…”

Hideki held up a hand in defeat, his other hand still tapping away at the controller.

“Hey you know we’re always here to help. You just need to ask.”

“Well, thanks, but I don’t need help anymore. I got into Columbia on my own, I’ll make enough this summer, take care of me and my mom… Yes!” He finally found Hideki’s hidden soldier and blew him up. He turned triumphantly to his cousin, grinning like crazy.

Hideki just looked at him, eyebrows raised as he threw the game controller on the floor in defeat.

“Logan, seriously? She’ll be fine. You know my mom will look out for her. You don’t need to worry about her.”

Logan frowned. Of course he worried about her. She was his mom.

Hideki sighed.

“Look, you can be mad at Cassie, also known as the hottest girl you will ever make out with in your life,” he said. “I get that. Sort of. But don’t keep living your life just for your mom. You’ll be thousands of miles away. This is your shot.”

Logan remembered the last time someone had said that to him. Cassie hadn’t wanted him to stay behind because of his mom either. Everyone was pushing him to go, but what if he wanted to stay right where he was?

“Maybe I can defer a year, save a little more, wait until things have settled down.”

Hideki’s mouth dropped open.

“You did not just say that.”

“What? It’s my life, I can do what I want with it.”

His cousin shook his head.

“That’s not how this works. You don’t work for years then just throw it away because some girl broke your heart.”

“This isn’t about Cassie! It’s about my mom.”

“Yeah, okay.” Hideki snorted. “It’s a big city, you don’t have to see her if you don’t want to.”

Logan’s stomach twisted into a tight knot. It wasn’t a big city. It was huge. And he’d be all alone. He knew more about it now, that was true, but he’d still have to navigate everything without anyone else there to guide him. He had been so against her help at first, but when he’d opened himself up to it, he realized how little he actually knew. He had poured over her answers to him about New York, keeping track of every little detail she shared about the city. Then, so stupidly, he’d let himself get excited about the idea of having her there with him by his side.

But now that was gone forever. Could he really do it on his own? Now that he realized how little he knew about the world outside of Montana, he wasn’t sure he wanted to go. This wasn’t like jumping off a boulder into the lake. This was his future. And then there was his mom’s case—though that was apparently all settled now that he’d overheard Mr. Huntington congratulating Mr. Hart. His mom’s case was lost and he didn’t want to abandon her right when things were going badly for her.

He wished now he’d talked to Hideki about the lawsuit. He couldn’t decide if he should tell his mom what he’d overheard at the bar. Would it change anything? She hadn’t given him details about where things were with the case, just vague updates about things “moving along.” It was late, and it wouldn’t do her any good to hear about it in the middle of the night. He sighed and ran his hands through his hair.

“Hey, you don’t need to decide anything tonight,” said Hideki, putting a hand on his shoulder. “But don’t wait too long. Things could get complicated.”

Hideki had no idea how right he was.

“Let’s just play,” Logan said, and gestured for his cousin to pick up his controller.

Hideki bit his lip and started a new game.

If nothing else, at least they could make progress on the BSE list tonight.