Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 384(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
I was with the crazy old coots on that one, though.
Giving wide eyes to tomato soup and grilled cheese meant he was some kind of little.
“Then you showed up before I could decide when I was going to butt in.” I hadn’t been able to figure out if he’d needed saving yet. He was either really good at ignoring nosy old people or he honestly had no idea what they were talking about.
The cute bug doctor just sighed and went back to eating.
He was going to fit right in.
Talon still seemed like he was going to murder me, though. “I was busy making sure no one walked in on them having sex and then I had to come over here to fix something you could’ve handled. Be a fucking grown-up for once.”
He’d learned to fit in too.
Turning around and mumbling something about Daddies who needed common sense, Talon barely turned to call over his shoulder as he marched out the door. “Leave the bug doctor alone or he’ll make sure you all end up with bedbugs and I’ll help him.”
That had everyone going silent except the bug doctor.
He giggled.
Yep, little.
So the nosy bastards were right…but what kind was he?
I still wasn’t sure and I was back to thinking that the bug cutie had no idea what anyone was talking about. So my guess was that he had no idea he wasn’t vanilla…but did he know he wasn’t straight?
I’d been watching him for a couple of days and still couldn’t tell.
It would’ve been easier if he wasn’t lost in his own world so often but that couldn’t be helped. He was a bug doctor after all, so he had to be looking at the bugs.
How often he’d been found digging in the dirt by everyone around town wasn’t helping them believe he was a boring adult either.
Unfortunately, everyone knew I was a real adult and were now looking at me to fix what they’d broken…the mind of the bug doctor.
He was still doing a great job of ignoring the chaos, though.
It was actually a pretty amazing skill, so I decided to use that as my opening and stood up to head over to where he was trying to hide from the insanity of the rest of the town. He was intently focused on his food, but every once in a while, he’d twitch as something he heard caught his attention.
So he was listening…and was curious at least…even if he was confused.
I wasn’t sure what he was thinking, though, so I shooed everyone else away and sat down across from him in the booth. “You have an amazing skill for ignoring chaos.”
It seemed like I was also chaos that should be ignored, so I kept going. “I’m Fraser. I’m your guide.”
His body barely reacted as he finished a bite of his grilled cheese and set the rest down. I could almost hear the wheels in his head turning, but he carefully wiped his hands and took his time before looking up and acknowledging me. “Alright, thank you.”
Was he actually polite or was it a defense mechanism?
The way he held his hand out didn’t help me decide. “I’m Paxton. It’s nice to meet you.”
Shaking his hand, I decided to clear up a few things just in case. “I wouldn’t have let the chaos continue much longer, no matter how good you are at ignoring them, but you need to be a bit more straightforward if you want to get rid of ’em. They’ve also been trained to walk away and stop being a nuisance if you say red.”
Training them on safewords was weird but it’d been more effective than I’d thought it would be.
Blink.
Blink.
“That’s good to know. Thank you.” There was a flash of something before the confusion set in again. “I’ve tried to follow some of the trails in the area, but I think a few of them may be marked wrong?”
His effort to find a rational explanation was amazing if the trails were as fucked as the roads had been recently. But still, I could help even if the trails had become magically lost.
“I can help you with that. I’m a part-time local guide and my specialty is the local trails and actual wilderness hikes.” Sometimes tourists just wanted to be able to walk the trails without worrying and sometimes they didn’t want trails at all, but either way it was fine with me.
The bug cutie finally looked thoughtful and like he’d tuned back in completely. “You don’t mind taking me off trail? I have some specimens I’m trying to locate but that’s been difficult.”
“I don’t mind.” I had questions, though. “But you’re always dressed like Boyd, the town’s accountant. Are you familiar with hiking?”
Did bug doctors always do fieldwork?
Aside from the whole playing in the dirt thing, he didn’t look like he did, and I wasn’t sure what kind of assumption I could make about his skill level.