Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 76347 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76347 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
“Slushies, anyone?” My twin brother, Orion, gets up from behind the desk in the back and stretches. He starts pacing the back, leaving his chair abandoned in front of the empty desk where he isn’t working on computers.
“Slushies?” My other brother, Lennox, grunts. “How about marketing? Maybe we should have spread the word out that we’re new in town, and we’re hella good at what we do.”
“I can help with that.” Cass, Lennox’s girlfriend, pushes her mane of blonde hair over her shoulder. She flexes her fingers, shakes out her hands like she’s warming up for a physical fight, and races over to her laptop.
At least she’s not saying I told you so. She offered quite a few times, but Granny said we didn’t need marketing. Computers break down all the time, she reasoned. People need the service, she reasoned. People would make good use of our knowledge of hacking the dark web…I mean, our knowledge of machines in all forms, she reasoned.
But sometimes, reason just isn’t enough.
The renovations on the store itself took a while. We have a nice showcase area out front with brand-new and used computers and parts for sale so that if anyone wanted to stop in and buy anything, we’d be set. We also have two big desks set up to meet with customers looking for repairs. If there were any, that would be awesome.
“This is so boring that I’m literally wilting into the ground moment by moment,” Lennox complains. “This was supposed to be us doing something while we’re not doing something.”
We’re all restless. It’s a darn good thing Granny stepped out for something a few minutes back. The level of complaining only ratchets up when she’s not here, and sometimes we just have to get it out and get it dealt with, which we certainly wouldn’t do if she were here.
Cass is all bright and happy. She’s a good soul, and ever since she met Lennox, she’s been pretty much head over heels madly in love with him. We might have computer skills, but she has people skills. If only Granny would let her use them. She has an actual marketing degree, which is more training than any of us, minus Granny, have, and Granny’s certainly isn’t in that field.
At least one of us is semi-happy. Okay, two, because Lennox and Cass are a pair. She came on this wild ride, this crazy journey, with us—at the very least, it was supposed to be wild and crazy. But so far, it’s just boring to the extreme. And hot. I never knew early July could actually feel like the bowels of Satan’s lair made real, and this is coming from someone who just spent a few months in California. It’s hot there, but this heat is pure wicked, fry you where you stand, and sizzle you into crisp bacon kind of hot.
“I think with some advertising, even just online, though we could also put up posters or send out mailers, the shop would be full,” Cass says, smiling from ear to ear.
Lennox joins her over at her laptop. He sets his hands on her shoulders and gets down to business, kissing her neck and gliding his tongue below her ear, distracting her.
“Gross,” Orion gags. “You two planning on needing a room, or do you just want the rest of us to clear out?”
Cass flushes bright red and giggles softly. “Never seen a woman more beautiful than when she’s talking about flyers and online ads,” Lennox crows, praising her with his words and then with his tongue until she’s nearly the same shade of red as the tomato I had in my BLT for lunch.
“Ugh.” Orion shuffles over to me. “Let’s get the heck out of here. Slushies would be better than watching the love fest. They don’t just need to get a room. They need to get a whole honeymoon and get it done and out of their system so that the rest of us don’t toss our cookies on a minute-by-minute basis because the level of sappy sap-sap is utterly intoxicating.”
I’m inclined to agree. I’m about to cast my vote for nasty, sugary slushies that are going to get more sugary and slushy in the heat before anyone will even think of taking a sip of them when the phone rings in the back.
The. Phone. Rings. In. The. Back.
Not one of our cell phones. Not a personal phone. The work phone.
Cass jerks her head up and spins around, nearly taking out Lennox’s chin and teeth. With lightning-fast reflex, he raises his head an inch, which saves him from an accidental headbutt. Orion blinks in the direction of the phone like it might not actually be a real phone jingling away over there but a ghost of a phone. I’m the one who springs into action, picking up the receiver and immediately going into my velvet, smooth-talking, come on down to the shop so that we don’t lose our minds from boredom voice.