Page 77 of Big Bad Wolf

Gert nodded. “She told me once she hoped the girls wouldn’t turn out like her, but I know she worried about them,” she said, turning to Rafe. “Are you taking good care of our girls?”

He swallowed his coffee too fast, scalding his throat.

“I’m trying.”

“Hm.” Gert narrowed her eyes at him, assessing. They didn’t like that he was new to town, he knew that. He had no idea how they’d feel if they knew the rest.

But this town was nutty enough that it might be their favorite thing about him.

“I heard my niece was in town today,” Gert said, giving Rafe a pointed look.

“Your niece?”

“Phoebe.”

Fee was Gert’s niece? Did that mean Gert was … like Fee? Rafe had heard that nymphs used ‘niece’ and ‘aunt’ to stay connected with their vast network of women. Whether or not that meant they were blood related didn’t really matter. What mattered was Gert might know a lot more than your average small-town diner owner.

Did she know about him?

“I hear a lot of things.”

Dolores’s gaze flicked between the two of them.

“I hear things too,” she said. “I heard Tom and Gil got into it over Bingo the other night. Fist fight outside and everything.”

Gert scoffed. “Those two old coots. I’m sure it wasn’t much of a fight.”

Dolores laughed so loud the tourists from the other table looked over in alarm. Dolores waved them off. “Go back to your flatlander chatter,” she said. “Don’t mind us.”

Dolores winked at him, but he was still trying to wrap his head around whether or not Gert was a nymph like Fee and if she knew what he was. The way she was still semi-glaring at him indicated both were true.

“Anyway,” Gert said, giving him a firm pat on the shoulder. Surprisingly firm for such a small woman. “You keep those girls safe, you hear me? Something’s been off around here lately, and I don’t think it’s just you hulking around town.”

Dolores liked that. She hooted loudly and smacked the table. “He does hulk, doesn’t he. He’s just a puppy dog though,” she said and Gert snorted.

“I guess you could call him that.”

“Hey, hold on⁠—”

He wanted to talk to Gert more about what she meant by things feeling off. Did she know Wyatt had been stalking Ruby? Did she know why?

But she was busy serving another table, shouting orders to the cook before he could ask, and Dolores had moved on to talking about the year she’d lived in New York City and tried out for the Rockettes. Unsuccessfully, she claimed, because of their unfair height requirements.

Rafe was given no choice but to listen and commiserate about the unfairness of it all.

By the time Dolores had to go check on her laundry, Rafe only had about an hour before he had to pick Ruby up from work. He’d asked Dolores once why she did her laundry so late. Ever since her third husband died, she didn’t sleep very well was what she told him. Might as well be productive, she’d said with a sad little laugh. That was when he’d decided to do his laundry more often.

But tonight he needed to talk to Gert.

He found her behind the counter, getting ready to close up for the night.

“All set?” she asked, taking the check and Rafe’s cash to the cash register.

“Yeah, uh … earlier you mentioned Fee is your niece.”

“She sure is.”

“So that means you’re … uh … you’re like her?”