“Neither do I.” Toby shrugged and then grinned. “Cops gotta be cops, and writers gotta be writers. We heading to the range?”
“Habits.” Anthony grinned then got into the car. It was Wednesday, and every Wednesday he and his partner spent time at the WPD’s gun range. The one that belonged to the town of Lusty, and that they’d been given a pass to use, was a much better equipped facility.
The drive was barely ten minutes. Anthony wasn’t the least surprised they weren’t the only two who had in mind to get in some firearms practice. He was surprised to see who else was there on this particular afternoon, taking target practice. They didn’t have any time to do anything but ensure their ear protection was in place. Then he and Toby stood back while Kate Benedict, Anna Jessop, and Samantha Kendall took them to school.
“I think we have to start calling you ‘dead-eye,’” Anthony said to Kate Benedict.
Grandma Kate laughed. “My husbands would have burst with pride if someone had,” she said. “They taught me how to shoot before they were called back into the theater, during the war. It became a Saturday routine for us in Lusty. We’d gather behind the convalescent home—now the Park View Inn—and we’d take turns, honing that particular skill. And for some of the men who were in residence, recuperating, it was a good way to get them handing firearms again. A few of them were destined to return to war, as my husbands were. And we all benefitted from their tutelage.”
“My husbands also taught me to shoot,” Samantha said. “And they gave me my first handgun, a Colt, similar to the one Kate is using.” Then Samantha looked over at Anna. “You didn’t need any lessons though, did you?” She grinned as she looked at Toby and then him. “Did you know that our Anna singlehandedly saved herself and her husbands from that armed idiot…” She turned back to Anna Jessop. “Do you know, I don’t even remember his name?”
“Idiot is a pretty good one,” Anna said. “His name was Carl Sanders.” She shook her head and gave Anthony a very sly smile. “Among his many sins, he called me a bitch and a blond bimbo—before I shot him.”
“The man was clearly demented,” Toby said. “Um… what did he have to say after you shot him?”
Anna waved her hand as if the matter wasn’t significant. “Well, you can’t necessarily hold against a man the cuss words he might utter whilst on the ground, writhing in pain and bleeding, can you?”
Toby laughed. “No ma’am.”
It was a bit of a challenge for Anthony to envision that the woman who looked like Mrs. Santa Claus had actually shot a man. Clearly, a case of self-defense. He decided to leave it as an item without an accompanying picture in his thoughts. “Good for you,” Anthony said. “I’ve always believed that anyone who carries a gun ought to know how to use it and then use it if the moment arrives.”
“I do believe that’s one of our treasured principles here in Lusty,” Samantha said.
Then it was his turn—well, his and Toby’s—to get some of their own practice in. The women stood back, silent and observant. The first round did unnerve him, some. That in itself was weird because he was used to being observed. He reckoned it was the who that was doing the observing that made him feel that way. But by the time he was emptying his second clip into the target, he’d found his focus, his zone, and had almost forgotten he and his partner weren’t alone.
Grandma Kate pointed out a small tic he hadn’t realized he’d had, and Anna Jessop made a suggestion to Toby that his partner took to heart.
Another day in the life of Lusty, Texas. He would have to return to work in Waco, eventually, but he was beginning, more and more, to think of this town as home.
Chapter Eleven
February seemed to fly by, and Mary marveled that after more than thirty years living in New York State, life here in Lusty seemed…normal. Easy.
It seems like home.
Now, on the very cusp of March, Mary couldn’t say she was sorry to be in Texas instead of New York. She did not miss the snow and ice of her native state, not one bit.
She stretched as she looked at the clock at the bottom right of her computer screen. The guys would be finished their shift soon. It took about an hour for them to drive here from Waco. She’d offered to go to the larger city with them, so they wouldn’t have the daily commute.
They’d both confessed to her that they preferred to stay in Lusty. Who could blame them?
There was something about Lusty that reached right in and touched the heart. Touched it? More like wrapped a loving fist around it and said, “Stay.”
Mary closed her computer down for the day. She’d written more, and better, since she’d come to live in this small Texas town than she had in a long, long time. She knew it had as much to do with the two men who were not only nestling her between them each night. They’d also done something no other man had ever done. They’d settled themselves snugly within her heart.
I’d just about come to the point of getting a lot of cats. Mary mentally laughed at herself. She had figured she’d be single for the whole of her life. Though she hadn’t heard of many women on the Kendall side of the family making that choice, she was aware there had been at least one Benedict who had, because she was currently living in that woman’s former house.
Mary headed into the kitchen and set about making supper. She’d already decided that the best thing to do, most nights, was to have something to serve that, if necessary, could be either kept warm for an hour or more
