Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139147 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
I got to work before Luna, and I’d strapped my boring beige (but it worked with the dress) server apron around my waist and was sipping the dirty chai I made myself (after three hours of sleep, I needed caffeine fortification), when Luna strolled in.
She took one look at me, I took one look at her, I put the chai down, and we raced to each other, caught up our hands and girlie bounced.
When we stopped bouncing, I filled her in.
“We made up, we did it, multiple times, he gives amazing head, has an insanely pretty dick, said some unbelievably beautiful things to me, and it’s all good.”
She let me go, threw her hands up in the air and cried, “Yee ha!”
“After we were done, Martha came pounding on the door complaining about the noise Alexis and Jacob were making and how she feared Jacob was gonna fuck Alexis in half,” I continued.
She threw her hands up in the air again and shouted, “Yee ha!”
“Are you gonna be able to get out of your lease?” I asked.
Her lease wasn’t up until January.
“I have to pay a month’s extra rent or lose my deposit, but I can cover that, so the Oasis is a go and I told them to send the lease agreement.”
I threw up my hands and yelled, “Yee ha!” Then I told her, “Cap’s gonna shower at his place and be at mine at six to go to Lon’s. Want us to swing around and pick you up?”
“That’d be cool.”
We both stared at each other, then simultaneously threw up our hands and exclaimed, “Yee ha!”
“Yeesh, are you two done?” Byron asked.
I turned to him. “Sit your ass down. I’ll bring your drink to you.”
“What’s got into you?” he asked.
“I’m falling in love.”
He smiled. “Congrats.”
Then he went to his table.
It was after the lunch crush when they walked in.
Specifically, he walked in.
I knew it was him immediately. If the long-ass beard didn’t give it away, then the messy gray-blond hair, the flannel shirt buttoned up to his neck (I couldn’t see due to the beard, but the way it sat on his shoulders told me this), even though it was ninety-seven degrees outside, and the sheer enormity of his frame would have.
He was with a pretty blonde lady who was maybe ten, fifteen years his junior.
Oh my God.
I was dropping some of Lucia’s chili-chorizo fettucine on a table.
Luna was close, doing a water run.
I knew she saw him too when she said, “Oh my God.”
He looked around the space, caught sight of me and boomed loudly, “You Raye?”
In a flash—and if you’d asked me a second before, I would have told you no way he could move that fast—Tito was standing beside me.
Then again, there were mild hints of serial killer in the big, bearded man’s affect.
“Are you Tex?” I asked.
He put his long, beefy arms out to his sides. “Who else would I be?”
Taking in all that was him, this was a pertinent question.
“You know him?” Tito asked.
I looked down at Tito. “No. But he’s a friend of Cap’s.”
Tito nodded, turned to Tex and gave him a long look, then flip-flopped back to his table.
Luna and I went to Tex.
I jerked a thumb at Luna. “This is my friend, Luna.”
He put his arm around the blonde, and even though we were standing right in front of him, he still was booming, “This is my wife, Nancy.”
“Hi, Nancy,” I greeted.
“Raye.” She smiled a dazzling, kilowatt smile at me. She turned it to Luna. “Luna.”
Tex was looking around, and still booming, he decreed, “This place is the shit. Though, your espresso machine is a bust. Two filters? Amateur. You need four.”
“Okay,” I said slowly.
“He’s the barista at Indy’s bookstore,” Nancy explained. “He knows espresso machines.”
“Incidental,” Tex grunted. Then he asked me, “What do you need? Tasers? Stun guns?”
Apparently, he’d been briefed about me.
I shook my head. “Got those.”
“Grenades? Smoke bombs? Tear gas?” he went on.
Luna and I were struck dumb by this offer.
“TSA would get up in my face if I packed ’em. Don’t need the hassle of another prison sentence. Nance and the kitties need me around,” he said. “Anyway, we needed wheels when we got here to look over the place, so Nance and I drove down.”
Another prison sentence?
And…
The kitties?
Luna found her voice first. “You have grenades?”
“Sure,” he replied (still kinda booming).
“Um…” I didn’t quite respond. Then I steered it to a subject I could wrap my head around, “You have kitties?”
“Cats,” Nancy put in. “Tex and I have a cat sitting business. Though we have our own cats too.” She looked up at him. “How many do we have? I lost count.”
“Nine,” he said. “No, ten. Didn’t like the feel of that asshole who brought us Oreo, didn’t give him his cat back.”
Uh.
What?
“You stole someone’s cat?” I asked.