“What’s his name?” one of the smaller kids asked, patting the dog’s spotted back.
“Buckshot,” Sage said, smiling.
“He’s so cool,” another one said.
Law stepped forward just as the smallest one launched himself. He caught the boy easily, lifting him off the ground before another kid wrapped arms around his leg—the others laughing and giggling.
Law laughed quietly and steadied his stance, taking the jostling with ease.
“Hey there.”
“You said you were coming yesterday!” the older one accused immediately.
“Traffic.”
“Where?” the boy demanded.
“Turnpike.”
“That’s not real traffic.”
“Sure it is.” Law winked and placed the first kid back on his feet and ruffled his hair before glancing across the yard. The man’s gaze swept the driveway automatically—over him, the others, the tree line beyond the property.
As if by habit.
But something about him had shifted.
Sage noticed it immediately.
At the ranch, Law always carried a certain tension under the surface, the quiet readiness of someone who expected things to go wrong.
Here, that edge had softened.
The screen door slapped somewhere behind them. Someone laughed inside the house. The smell of charcoal and cut grass drifted across the yard on the warm July air. Cicadas buzzed lazily in the trees. Buckshot barked and tore after a stick one of the kids tossed across the lawn.
The house behind him. The kids hanging off his arm. The open yard stretching out around the place.
Law looked like he belonged in the middle of it.
Which, Sage supposed, he did.
Something tight and warm pulled across his chest.
“So, where’s the food?” Boston said, slapping his hands together, breaking the moment.
“Always thinking about your stomach,” Rip grumbled.
“You still pissed I had us stop at the drive-thru?”
“Three.” Rip corrected the young assassin. “Three drive-thrus.”
“And you ordered something every time,” Boston reminded Rip with a smirk.
The front door creaked open again, cutting the argument short.
And suddenly, more people started pouring out.
Two men who had to be Law’s brothers. A pair of women. A couple of teenagers who looked like they’d abandoned whatever they were doing the second they heard the shouting.
