Her diary began two years after she’d left home at eighteen, but it read like a highlight reel of a movie, narrating the life of a young girl who had left her home in Nebraska with stars in her eyes and a hopeful heart in search of something better. There were mentions of hitchhiking that made Diesel cringe for her safety and friends she’d made along her travels. She’d worked as a waitress here and there and spent weeks traveling in a van with a group of other twentysomethings. Her writing carried the voice of a girl who was seeing the world through new eyes. Every time I laugh, I’m reminded of the emotional jail my parents had kept me in, which makes me want to cling to that laughter and be even happier…If I ever have a kid, I’m going to make sure it knows what joy feels like every day of its life…I think I’m in love with this world. There’s so much good in it.

Diesel skimmed the parts that talked about hookups before the month he’d have been conceived, but he lingered over details of her first days in Colorado when she’d met Manny, who was now Alice’s husband, who she described as a nice guy with a lot of hair. When she’d mentioned she was looking for a job and a place to stay, Manny had brought her to the Roadhouse. I was scared at first because there were about ten bikers there. But Manny introduced me and explained that he had recently joined a new motorcycle club called the Dark Knights, and I got to meet the guy who founded it! His name was Tiny, but he was huge, and kind. I like him, and I like it here. I think I might stay. She’d met Manny’s then-girlfriend, Alice, and described her as a strong-willed blonde. They’d given her a job as a waitress and had let her stay in the cabin she’d later bought from them.

Diesel flipped through the pages, learning about how much his mother liked her job, how tired she was by the end of each night, and how Manny’s father had moved away the next year and had given him the bar.

And then he saw the first mention of Axel, his muscles flexing as if readying for a fight as he read the entry.