Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 72494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 362(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Yep.
Waving at Amanda while she snickered, I sighed and let her tell the story. Her delight over the crazy meant she always told it better than I did. “His parents kept arguing about his name when he was a baby. Both sides have huge families, and there was so much drama, people in the neighborhood still talk about it. His mother threw a frying pan at his father when she was about nine months pregnant.”
I wished she was kidding.
“So the basic story is that they couldn’t agree on a name, so it’s officially Benjamin Xavier Becker and that just sounds ridiculous together.” She was so nice when she gave her opinions. “But his mother calls him Ben or Benji or Benjamin when she’s pissed and waving around a frying pan, and his father calls him Xavier or something worse when he’s pissed.”
And she still wasn’t kidding.
When the silence started to stretch out, I straightened and saw her grinning and Payton looking slightly startled. “You said to call you Ben. Is that still okay? Honestly, it sounds traumatic and I don’t want to add to your stress.”
I’d have preferred Master, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath for that. Especially when I was constantly looking like an idiot around him…or worse, a mama’s boy.
“I don’t mind Xavier either, but I actually enjoy pissing my father off, so I usually go by Ben at work.” My slightly overly honest answer had him laughing quietly as I pushed away from the counter to get them some treats before they left.
Saving the day deserved a reward.
“You’re braver than I am.” His soft reply had his blush flaring back to life and Amanda looked like she was barely holding off the urge to hug him and tell him how cute he was. That was always hard for her but she’d mentioned that he was a stickler for not being overly familiar at work, so she was trying to behave.
“My friends from college call me Bex. If the family drama makes you nervous, I’d be fine with you using the nickname too.” That hadn’t come out too mushy, right?
Payton’s blush coming back didn’t make me confident about that, but after a second he smiled, so I was going to take that as a good sign. “Thank you…Bex.”
“You’re welcome.” Nope, not too mushy.
“I’ve been stuck in the middle of their insanity for so long it’s second nature.” And it was fucking with my life, but I left that part out. “Sadly, the fact that my father ditches me every time those women come into the shop has become second nature too. This time he even left the building.”
Traitor.
He’d even slammed the back door to make sure everyone had known he’d left.
Amanda leaned over and gave the surprised cutie a quick side hug as I picked out the treats they seemed to like the best…although admittedly, I knew Amanda’s preferences better than Payton’s. “So see, you rescued him and were nicer than his family. You didn’t even threaten him with a kitchen implement.”
That had me rolling my eyes at her and Payton clearly couldn’t decide if he was supposed to laugh or not.
“She only threatened you once. Stop being a drama queen.” It was a sign that they saw her as family.
And that was another heap of drama all on its own.
I wasn’t sure how it had happened but the rumor around the neighborhood was that Amanda and I were dating, and I had a feeling my parents believed it too. My mother only threatened family, so that mess had definitely gotten out of hand.
Sometimes I hated my life and sometimes I loved it. It was usually easy to tell which I was feeling at the moment, but any time Payton was around, I was never sure of anything. He kept me on edge. He blushed like he was attracted to me, but whenever I went around the bookstore, he mysteriously vanished.
That’d definitely given me mixed signals, unless I was just bad at reading normal people because my family was full of idiots.
“Once was enough.” Shaking her head, she looked over at Payton again. “Alright, we need to go rescue Elizabeth just in case the ladies decided to go book shopping while they’re in the area.”
That horrific idea had Payton’s eyes going wide as I handed over the bag of goodies they’d earned…well, he’d earned. “You can’t let them ask me about the books in…in that section again. They’re not asking about tropes, Amanda. They weren’t.”
What the fuck had they been asking him?
She just giggled.
She was going to end up as one of those dirty old ladies when she got old, but for now she decided to save Payton.
“Come on.” She looped her arm through his and started dragging him off as she raised up the bag in thanks and grinned. “If that’s your limit, I’ll respect it.”