“Girl, you are so not gonna go slow.”
Great.
We got out of the car and walked up to Grizzly’s house. Ally forged ahead without a care in the world. I drug my heels and looked back at Matt. He’d gotten out of his SUV, pulled a handgun out of the back waistband of his jeans and tucked it in full view at the hipbone in the front. He leaned against his SUV and crossed his arms.
“They come back, sportin’ a bodyguard,” Grizzly said by way of greeting, not looking at us but looking at Matt. “So now, I suppose you want me to think you’re serious. Especially now with you and a shiner. Jeez. You knee him in the nuts?”
“How do you know it was a him?” I asked.
“Girls don’t go for the cheekbones.”
“Oh.” I didn’t know that.
“Did you?” Grizzly persisted.
“What?”
“Knee him in the nuts?”
“I bit him.”
“Bit him!” He threw his head back and laughed. “Next time, go for the gonads.”
“Good advice,” I said.
He looked at Matt. “Let me guess, trainee PIs.”
“No,” I said.
Grizzly swung his big head to me. “Bounty hunters?”
“Nope.”
“Not cops,” he said with derision.
“Un-unh.”
“Feds?” This was said with incredulity.
“I own a bookstore.”
Grizzly didn’t answer. Grizzly was staring at me as if a second head decided to sprout out of my neck at that moment.
“I’m a bartender and back up barista,” Ally put in.
Grizzly still didn’t answer. I noticed he had a cat in his lap and was stroking it. Two more cats sat on the cement railings of his porch and another one was curled up on his welcome mat, a welcome mat that had kitty-cat footprints printed on it.
“You like cats?” I asked.
“Who doesn’t like cats?” Grizzly returned.
“I like cats,” I assured him, and it was no lie, but I would have said it anyway because he also had a shotgun sitting across his lap.
“Me too,” Ally said.
Grizzly looked at Matt then back to us. “Who’s the guy?”
“Just ignore him, we are,” I told him.