Total pages in book: 191
Estimated words: 182070 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 182070 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 910(@200wpm)___ 728(@250wpm)___ 607(@300wpm)
Zac made a face at me that I couldn’t decipher before turning us both around to face the other men. He winked at me. “Bianca, this is Dwight and this is Kevin,” he said, referring to the two bigger guys. “And this is Trevor, my manager. You can call him Trev. Y’all, this is Bianca.” His attention came back to me at the same time as his hand landed on the top of my head in a way that reminded me of how he’d done it a ton while I’d been growing up. “We’ve known each other twenty somethin’ years.”
Twenty-four, but okay, no need to be technical.
I was pretty sure Deepa made a little gasp, but I didn’t look at her. I was going to have some explaining to do after this. I’d get there.
I held my hand out to the biggest guy because he was the only one smiling at me. “Nice to meet you.”
“How’s it goin’?” the man replied, taking my hand in one that was three times the size of my own. And that was saying something, because I wasn’t a huge person, but I had pretty big hands.
“Good, thank you.” I turned to the other guy and shook his too. It was big but not as large as the other one’s had been. “Hi.”
“Hey.”
Then I turned to the older man, Trevor, and held out my hand to him as well because I highly doubted he’d remember meeting me years ago.
He glanced down at my outstretched palm, and then so did I. Was there something wrong with it?
And that was when Zac reached over, grabbed his manager’s hand from where it had been hanging loosely at his side, and held it out toward me.
It took everything inside of my soul to keep a straight face when I slipped my hand into his mostly limp one, only held up because of Zac who was still supporting it and who moved it up and down jerkily as he shook mine back. I looked at him and could see how thin his mouth was… because he was trying to keep from laughing too. I’d seen him make the same expression a million times back in the day.
We shook some more, way longer than what was necessary or normal, until the other man finally gave my hand a gentle squeeze, and I tore mine away from his with a glance at a Zac with laughing eyes.
And he thought I was a pest.
I guess I’d been right about Trevor not being pleasant from the memories I had.
“Hi,” I told him, fighting for my damn life to not smile. “So nice to meet you.” Except not really.
“Do you need me to move your mouth too or…?” My friend trailed off, and I didn’t know until then just how much harder it was going to be to not crack up at how rude this man was being and how it wasn’t unheard of from the way Zac was acting. That was the only reason why it didn’t hurt my feelings.
Something told me this was normal for him. That and Zac had already told me about this man being capable of not being very nice. Why the hell was he still with him? Maybe I could sneak the question into a conversation with Boogie one day. He would probably know.
The older man slid Zac a disgusted look that would have insulted me if I didn’t sense that he was like this with everyone. “Hello,” Trevor said with all the enthusiasm of someone about to get a colonoscopy without the use of drugs. “We’ve met. You’re the one who saved his life.”
He remembered that?
Zac turned back to face me then, blue eyes bright and that freaking mouth twisted to the side like he was surprised Trevor remembered me too. Maybe he didn’t remember we’d met? I wasn’t sure and didn’t get a chance to think about it much because the funny face he was shooting his manager wiped my memory.
“Zac, this is my friend Deepa,” I said, gesturing behind me.
She squeaked and waved.
Zac did that polite smile of his and greeted her briefly before turning back to me. “What time you get off, Peewee?”
“Four.” I almost asked him what time he would be done but decided against it. I didn’t want him to assume I was asking because I wanted to hang out.
Before either one of us could get another word out though, the side door leading outside opened. My heart skipped a beat because I didn’t want to get caught and bitched at. Fortunately, a face I didn’t recognize appeared. The woman stopped at the sight of the four men standing there and said, “Oh. You’re here. Great, come on. We’ll get started.”
I smiled up at Zac and took a step away from him as Trevor said something to the woman that I couldn’t totally hear. “Well, have fun. It was nice meeting everyone.”