I wasn’t.
I was a woman with protection on my mind.
Chaos said they were going to cover me but they’d said thatbefore and no protection was infallible (as I’d learned the hard way).
This time, I wasn’t going to take any chances.
The little old guy didn’t approach me, which I thought wasweird.He worked there and I was a customer.I had questions.I mean, I couldpick a gun that fit in any one of my purses (or at least most of my purses—Iwas equal opportunity with purses, and wallets, seeing as if the purse wassmaller, the wallet would also have to be) but I also needed one I couldhandle.
Further, I needed to learn how to handle it.
According to the Yelp listing, Zip’s Gun Emporium was theplace for all your gun and ammo needs, offering admittedly crotchety (and therewere a fair few reviews that shared this information), but nevertheless expertgun and ammo advice.
The listing also shared it had a firing range.
And whoever Zip was, he taught classes.
He did it grumpily, but he was reportedly good at it.
But there weren’t any notices up anywhere about theseclasses.The only things on the walls were shotguns, rifles, and more handguns,as well as the odd mostly-naked-chick poster mingled with mostly-naked-chickcalendars.
I needed a gun and to sign up for a class.
So I needed to talk to somebody.
“You takin’ this?”I heard asked.
I looked in the direction this came from, which was towardthe old guy, who I saw was not speaking to me, just as I heard, “Yup.”
That was when I turned even further, which was right beforeI froze.
Snapper was moving toward me.
He was doing it also doing a full body scan, up, down, backup again, down, then back up, gaze lingering on my throat, then on my face, andfinally he made it to me, stopped and looked into my eyes.
It was a man-bun day as well as about six days past groominghis beard.
And I knew it was six days because I felt it hit my lowerbelly that those six days since I was hurt were six days he spent worryingabout me and not bothering with what he considered was unnecessary personalgrooming.
“Hey,” his baritone came at me.
“Hey,” I said quietly.
“How youdoin’?”he asked.
“Good,” I answered.
His teeth came out and hit dead center in his full lower lipin a way I instantly became mesmerized.
They let that lip go to whisper, “Rosie.”
I lifted my gaze to his.
“What youdoin’ in a gun shop,honey?”he asked.
I thought that was a stupid question and was surprised by itbecause Snap was not a stupid guy.
“I think that’skindaobvious,” Ipointed out since he was looking right at me and the swelling might be gone butthe rest was still visible.
