Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139088 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 695(@200wpm)___ 556(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
We didn’t have to bare all within seventy-two hours.
We would have time.
Oodles of it.
“We’re solid,” I confirmed. “Though, you do imminently face the grave task of wowing me with your grilling skills.”
His lips curved up.
“Do not take this lightly, my man,” I warned. “Our future depends on it.”
That was when I heard and felt him chuckle.
I also got much more than a lip touch after he bent his head to mine again.
“Finish the salad, beautiful,” he murmured when he was done with my mouth. “I’m hungry and I got a test to best.”
“I’m rooting for you,” I told him.
He shook his head, smiling.
I let him go and went back to the salad.
He returned to the hamburgers.
Spoiler alert: he manned a grill like a master.
I didn’t have any doubts.
I was at work, behind the bar at The Surf Club, leaning on it, staring across the space toward Byron.
Byron and his laptop.
Byron was a regular. As previously mentioned, like, a daily regular.
Like, he had his table across The Surf Club from Tito’s “office,” and no one ever sat there, except Byron.
Tito’s office was also just a table, but it had his books, his journals, and some little potted plants as décor. He was usually sitting there, unless he was out watering Lucia’s herb garden that was behind SC, or further afield, on a bender.
Our three owners/bosses were completely different.
Tex, who manned the coffee cubby, was loud and hilariously obnoxious.
Nancy, his wife, was sweet, and we were all loving it that, now she and Tex had settled themselves in the Valley of the Sun, she came in more often than not and helped out (this also had to do with the fact their house was in the perpetual state of renovation since it hadn’t been touched since it was built in the ’60s, and the Rock Chicks were making it their mission to come down and see to bringing it into the new millennium, one room at a time, so being at SC was an escape).
Last was Tito, who was very quiet, had an eclectic wardrobe, always wore sunglasses, had a mysterious past, and we all adored him.
Byron came in so often, and drank so many dirty chais, I didn’t remember the last time I was there—and I’d worked at SC for six years—when he wasn’t at his table with his caffeinated beverage, and if the hour warranted it, some of Lucia’s food, and his laptop.
Hmm.
His laptop.
“You okay?”
At this question, I turned to my left to see Harlow loitering there.
What I wanted to say was that I’d be okay if everyone stopped asking if I was okay, a question the girls had been asking me since I came out about Knox.
But these were my best babes. I’d told them about Knox, and they were worried about me.
So I needed to chill and let them do what they had to do.
“I’m hanging in there,” I told her.
She smiled, her eyes moving over my face to see if I told any lies.
In order for her not to see I kinda told a lie, I said, “Do you know what Byron does for a living?”
She shook her head, and her gaze wandered Byron’s way. “I’m usually too busy working to chat with him, but that’s no excuse for the fact that I see him every day, I find times to chat with all my girls, and I’ve never asked.”
I hadn’t asked either and felt like a bitch I hadn’t.
I mean, six years?
“You know the Angels have been talking about getting a local computer guru,” I remarked.
I felt Harlow’s attention return to me, but I was still watching Byron when she asked, “You think we should ask Byron?”
I turned to her. “I think our only other choice is Cody, and he’s a Nightingale guy, so he might help, but he’ll also not be able to help if say, we get a mission that the boys don’t want us on.”
“He could be working on spreadsheets or something,” she noted.
“Have you ever seen his screen…as in, ever?” I queried.
“Hmm…” she hummed, her gaze sliding back to Byron.
“What are you guys talking about?” Raye asked after she walked up to us.
“I’m thinking about the Angels talking about asking Byron to be our local computer guru,” I told her. “If he’s got the skills. We’d have to ascertain that.”
It was then Raye’s gaze moved to Byron.
“There is a possibility he’s an internationally wanted computer hacker,” Raye said.
This had been her idea for some time. I’d always laughed it off.
Now I wondered.
Raye came back to us, smiling. “But as you know, that’s just my overactive imagination. That said, he’s on that computer all day, every day. That is, when he’s not sucking back his dirty chai or eating Lucia’s cooking.”
As already noted, this was true.
“Well, I can’t say for certain, but it kinda feels like he hides his screen. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it,” I remarked. “I mean, that’s fishy. Right?”