I hesitate, wondering if I’m supposed to keep my mouth shut. MCs genuinely don’t like their business shared with regular folks. But the cab driver already knew about it, and news seems to travel fast around here.
“That depends. Are you going to withhold ice cream from me for being an idiot? Because I’ve been looking forward to this all day.”
Stomping draws my attention to a woman coming out from the back and around the counter toward me. She’s tiny, I’mtalking four-foot-ten at the most, with the most striking green eyes and dark hair threaded with silver pulled back into a neat bun that has a pencil sticking out of it. Before I can say anything, she wraps her arms around me.
I freeze with my arms out at my side, looking to John in a what-the-hell-do-I-do-now manner. He chuckles and looks at the woman, who I’m guessing is his wife, adoringly.
The woman in question pulls back before reaching up and cupping my face. “You are stupid. I agree with this, but you are also very brave. My niece was working across the street when the incident occurred. She is my sister’s only child. I do not have to sit at her funeral holding my sister’s hand because of you.”
“I don’t know what the blast radius is on a grenade, but she probably would have been safe regardless,” I tell her, feeling like a bug under a microscope because now everyone’s eyes are on me.
She waves me off. “Intent is everything. Ice cream is free for you. You have to pay, though.” She points to Kruger, who steps up behind me.
“Of course.”
“You don’t have to?—”
Marie cuts me off with a glare. “Free ice cream for life. No arguing.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I reply.
“Good. John, make yourself useful and get our girl some food already. Look at her, she is practically wasting away.”
She walks back around the counter and disappears, muttering about me needing meat on my bones or something, much to Kruger’s amusement.
“My wife likes you, and she doesn’t like many people,” John says.
“She seems…sweet?”
He roars with laughter at that, and I hear others giggling around the store, too.
“That she is. That she is. Now go find a table and get comfortable, because I’m going to rock your world.”
I smile, because how can I not? These people are clearly insane, but the good kind that makes me want to see if they have any interest in adopting a thirty-year-old woman.
Kruger ushers me over to one of the booths before calling out his order of Rocky Road.
“You could have shared mine,” I offer as I slide in on one side, expecting him to take the other. Instead, he slips in beside me.
“And face Maria’s wrath? No, thank you.”
I shake my head and look around. Most people are going back to eating their ice creams, but there are still a few looking my way. I look back at Kruger.
“People are weird.”
He laughs, drawing attention to us once more. Damn the man. “You’re just now figuring that out?”
“Well, no, I always knew that. It’s just…people act strangely when they hear about the grenade thing.”
“People are a little wowed by you, and rightly so.”
“Why, though? I didn’t do anything anyone else wouldn’t have done.”
“Yes, I’m sure everyone here would wrangle a live grenade at gunpoint from a pissed-off biker, before almost killing themselves just to make sure it was far enough away not to hurt anyone,” he answers.
“I’m detecting notes of sarcasm with a hit of annoyance.”
“Glad to see you know what bullshit tastes like.”
