Avoidance possibly wasn't going to work and she carefully and briefly glanced at the other person through the clear portion of the lane partitions to see who they were in case she was going to need to either fight her way out of this or suddenly decide she needed to practice more and hope they left before she went through her next clip. She preferred the second option, and not just because she liked this range. They knew not to ask too many questions of their patrons.

She wasn't sure whether she was relieved or not to see that it was Phil. They'd reached a careful friendliness and all but admitted to each other that the other had depths they'd rather not discuss unless required, even to the point that she'd given him an Ask One Question Free card for Christmas. On the other hand, there was a difference between knowing the other person had secrets and seeing them cluster an entire clip in the red zone, which they'd both done. And now they both knew the other could.

He was walking towards her in any case, so she finished policing her brass before clearing the rental gun and placing it obviously in view so he'd know she wasn't planning to use it. Walter's very first lesson had been not to point a weapon at anything she didn't intend to shoot, and for the moment she didn't intend to shoot Phil.

"Afternoon," she said calmly, putting the hearing protection on its hook.