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“So you just tell me what I need to know about Noel that would give him a reason to put a pin in things.”

“I can’t do that because she’s an incredible human being. You tell me something and she’ll be the one to put a pin in it.”

I twisted my lips. “I can’t do that. Because he is also an incredible human being.”

She let out a breath. “Well, damn,” she muttered.

“Yeah.”

We sat there, staring at the deer head wearing a Santa hat mounted over the bar.

I glanced at her. “Do you want something to eat?” I asked. “The place where I’m staying has a kitchen. It also has an extra room you can sleep in. Free.”

She eyed me suspiciously.

“Look, it’s almost”—I looked at my watch—“eleven o’clock. You’re an hour from the nearest hotel, which probably won’t have vacancies. It’s snowing. And it sounds like you’re not done trying to convince Noel to come home, so you probably want to be local.”

She didn’t reply.

“It’s a very nice house. And I have ramen.”

The ramen did it.

“Fine.” She grabbed her coat from the hook under the bar. “But I want you to know that if I go missing, there are people with questionable morals who will notice and they will hunt you for sport.”

“Noted.”

I was shrugging on my jacket when a woman’s voice cut through the bar. “You have a lot of nerve showing your face in here, William Dixon.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. Shit.

I turned to see Mrs. Dillard by the kitchen door with her arms crossed.

Sal nodded at his mother. “He’s fine, Ma.”

“Fine, my ass. How long you been sneakin’ him in here after you think I’ve gone to bed?”

Sal pretended to think about it. “Nine? Ten years?”

She rolled her eyes.

Lauren eyeballed me. “Uh, anything you want to tell me?”

I pulled my wallet out to pay for my drink. “I used to get in a little trouble when I was younger. Nothing anybody has had to worry about for over a decade,” I said, talking more to Mrs. Dillard than Lauren.

“You know how long it took us to get the chili off the ceiling?” Mrs. Dillard said. “Those are original pressed tin tiles. I had to use a toothbrush.”

I left a twenty for my ten-dollar drink. “I apologize for my sixteen-year-old self. Again.”

She pursed her lips. “Well. Might be I could forgive you if you looked over some contracts for me.”

I let out an internal sigh. “Of course. Have Sal run them over. And do it soon,” I added. “I don’t intend to be here long.”

I held the door for Lauren on the way out.

“Wow,” she said. “A man with a reputation.”

“It’s not what you think,” I muttered.