Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Vienna was distracted by a stack of postcards, so I grabbed several bookmarks for her to add to my stack.
“What are you doing?” she asked, eyes wide when she finally turned and saw the stack of books in my arms.
“Shopping for books,” I said. “Funny, but I thought that’s what you wanted to do,” I said, pointedly looking at her empty hands.
“So, you like reading rom-coms and cozy mysteries?” she asked, shooting the stack a small smirk.
“Love ‘em,” I said, getting a surprised little twinkling laugh out of her.
“I really don’t need all of those,” she said, shaking her head, feeling guilty about the money.
Which, as I tried to impress on her the night before, was silly. I had more than I could spend.
Most of the club brothers made the exact same income. But Raff and I were given more, thanks to our lives being so consumed by the job compared to the others.
It was enough to get myself a house.
Then fucking fill it with books.
“Sure you do,” I said, tone light.
“Listen to the young man, honey,” the owner said, nodding as she looked at us. “He speaks nothing but the truth.”
“Exactly,” I agreed, shooting the older woman a smile as I brought the books over to the counter.
“Little word of advice from an older broad,” she said, leaning over the counter a bit toward Vienna like she was about to share a big secret. “When a handsome young man wants to buy you things, just smile pretty and let him.”
“She clearly knows what she’s talking about,” I said, snatching the book from the stand that Vienna was running her finger over, and handing it to the woman, who was just barely keeping a big grin to herself.
“Did you buy half the store?” Raff asked as he came in, looking a bit like a fucking snowman in his oversized black and red scarf and puffy white coat.
“Oh, lordy, there are two of you,” the woman said, fanning herself with one of Vienna’s books. “I think I read a book like that once,” she added with a wicked little wink in Vienna’s direction.
I tensed, worried talk of anything sexual might trigger Vienna, but she shot the woman a smirk as her cheeks went a bright shade of pink. Making me think she may have read a book or two like that before all this shit happened too.
“You know, we sell these very nice tote bags,” the owner said, waving toward a stack of them at the end of the counter with a big store logo on the front.
“Sign us up,” I said, grabbing three of them and passing them to her.
“Riff!” Vienna said, eyes wide, trying to silently argue with me.
“Hey, they have travel mugs too,” Raff said, snagging one and putting it on the counter.
“You’re not helping,” she said, but she was dangerously close to smiling right then.
“I told you I have a shopping problem,” Raff said, sounding grave. “I just trip, fall into a display,” he said, acting that out, “and come back with a bunch of things to buy. Look, this looks fun,” he said, waving the cover of a book at Vienna that had a woman swan diving off of a boat into the water.
“I don’t know where you found these two gentlemen,” the owner said. “But if they have a daddy or grandaddy, you send that man my way,” she said as she handed Vienna a bag of books in the tote as she finished ringing up the rest. Which may or may not have included a novelty pen, a fancy faux leather-bound notebook, a book light, and a pair of socks with books printed all over them.
She may have objected in the store, even looked incredibly uncomfortable as we said our goodbyes to the store owner, but as we walked back to the motel, there was a brightness in her eyes that would have had me buying her an entire fucking library to see there again.
Back in the room, she emptied all the bags, looking at her score while still wearing her bison coat and hat, then rearranging things into different piles, and carefully tucking them back into the bags, and piling them all on the desk where nothing could happen to them.
Then she climbed back into her nest with the book she was already mostly finished with, reading while she absentmindedly stroked Vernon’s head.
I moved outside with Raff, watching the plows clear the main road in town.
“What did Slash have to say?” I asked.
“To take our time, not draw attention to ourselves. Might have a different kind of precious cargo now, but the car is still loaded with guns,” he said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I’m fine with taking our time. And Vienna seems okay. So long as she can make her nest and read, she seems content.”