Page 46 of Dusty Spur Ranch Cowboys

I lean forward to inspect it. “That feels irresponsible.”

Sadie gasps. “It’s for protection.”

“Protection from what?”

She gives me a look that suggests I’m asking an embarrassingly obvious question. “Bad dragons.”

I nod.

Emmett laughs into his coffee. “You see what I deal with every day?”

“You raised her.”

“I know. That’s the alarming part.”

Sadie beams proudly, clearly deciding that whatever was just said counts as praise.

My song never gets finished.

The afternoon keeps slipping by, and somewhere between the coffee, the music, and listening to Sadie explain why Princess the horse is secretly a wizard, I realize I haven’t looked at the clock in hours.

CHAPTER TEN

Willy

My grandmother has two favorite hobbies.

The first is gardening. That one’s easy to understand. The woman can bully vegetables into existence in soil that looks like it filed a formal complaint against farming.

The second hobby is collecting information nobody’s offered her. That’s the one I’ve never figured out.

June Kane knows things long before any reasonable person should.

I’ve spent years trying to crack the code. Maybe she’s got a network of retirees stationed around Colter Creek like surveillance drones armed with casseroles. Maybe reaching eighty unlocks abilities the rest of us don’t get.

Or maybe after decades of watching people make bad decisions and then insist they’re making excellent decisions, old women develop an instinct that borders on witchcraft.

Whatever the explanation, her success rate is annoying.

Which is why the look she’s giving me across the kitchen table makes the back of my neck itch.

“I know that expression.”

I nearly choke on a bite of cinnamon roll. “Considering it’s attached to my face, I’d think I’d be the expert.”

She flicks her fingers at me. “Not your regular expression. Your interested-in-a-woman expression.”

I stare at her.

She stares right back.

Most people blink during conversations. Grandma treats blinking as a sign of weakness.

“I don’t have an interested-in-a-woman expression.”

“You do.”

“No.”