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I frowned. Dammit, I really had been off in la-la land.

“I met her at the Down Home Diner. She drove me past your house, because she knew that’s where Beau grew up. She’s Little Grandma’s daughter, right?”

Marlowe laughed. “She’s her granddaughter. Patty is Little Grandma’s daughter. She cooks at the diner, and she’s Lettie’s mom.”

I shook my head. “There’s a lot to keep straight.”

“That part is simple. Wait until you get to Patty’s sisters and their kids and grandkids. That’s when it really gets interesting.”

“I thought you said you’d only been here for a few weeks.”

“I went over to Lettie’s for a potluck. I got to meet a lot of the family.”

“Who else have you met?”

I glanced over at her and saw her concentrating.

“I have to tell you; I was a little overwhelmed at the potluck. There had to be fifty to sixty people coming in and out of her house and in her backyard. I did meet another big family.”

“Who were they?”

“Originally, they were all known as the Averys. One brother and six sisters who’d been born and raised here, but now some girls are married, so their last names aren’t Avery anymore.”

“How many did you meet?”

“I didn’t meet their brother. He’s in the Navy and stationed in San Diego.” She paused. “No, that’s not right. He lives there. He’s stationed in Corona.”

“Coronado?”

“Yeah, that’s it. Evie, that’s one of the Avery girls, told me that. Her husband is stationed there too. Her name is Evie O’Malley now. Both her husband and her brother work together.”

They had to be SEALs.

“Who else did you meet?”

“I met the oldest Avery sister. Her name is Trenda Clark. Her husband was there. His name is Simon Clark, but her daughter Bella, took the cake. She is a pistol. She’s nine or ten years old, and she knew everything about everyone. Simon is her stepdaddy, but she loves him to death, and calls him daddy. Apparently, he was a SEAL Commander, but since he settled down here in Jasper Creek, he started up a security company. I would bet my bottom dollar Simon’s head would explode if he knew how much private information she gave out.”

“I bet you're right.”

“But it wasn’t just about her daddy. She told me about how she was kidnapped by a bad man with Millie and Lisa.”

Luckily, I was pulling up to a stop sign when she shared that bit of information. “Kidnapped?”

“She then went on to say it was okay because her daddy saved her.”

“What?”

“Seriously, that’s what she said. When I asked her how, that was when Trenda stepped in. She said to quit trying to scare away the new residents.” She giggled. “Bella waited until her mother left, then told me, that I didn’t have to worry about anything because her daddy and Roan could beat up anybody and keep me safe.”

“Do you think what the kid was saying was true?”

“I ended up sitting at a table with Roan and Lisa, and I mentioned what Bella had said. Lisa told me she’d had a stalker that had followed her from her old town. She tried to shrug it off, but Roan looked pissed. Not that Bella had said something, more that Lisa had been in danger.”

I could totally understand that. If someone I cared about was in danger, I’d be pissed. Pissed and scared. Mainly pissed until I took that asshole down.

I pulled up to a good parking spot near the Down Home Diner. Someone must have just left. I really liked the town center. There wasn’t a speck of trash to be seen, and on every streetlight hung a basket of flowers.

Marlowe started to open the passenger door.