Page 11 of Rangers Unexpected Return

She was small, white-haired, and moved with the confidence of someone who had never lost an argument.

She looked me over from my boots to my face.

“You’re too thin.”

“I’m two hundred and ten pounds.”

“Thin,” she repeated.

Mabel walked around me and inspected my truck.

“Living out of this?”

“Sometimes.”

“Absolutely not.”

June set the dog bed on the ground.

Max stepped onto it and lay down.

Traitor.

June smiled. “See? He agrees.”

Agnes shoved the pie into my hands. “Apple. You look like an apple-pie man.”

“I didn’t know there were different kinds.”

“There are.”

Trigger leaned close to me. “Do not argue. It makes them stronger.”

Mabel touched the scar near my jaw.

“What happened there?”

“Mabel,” Nora warned gently.

“What? I’m getting to know him.”

“I met a knife.”

“Did the other man survive?”

“No.”

Mabel nodded with satisfaction. “Good.”

Saint covered a laugh with his hand.

Agnes looked toward Wolf. “Which room is his?”

“We haven’t gotten that far.”

“The front room,” she said.

Trigger shook his head. “That’s my old room.”