Page 6 of Teach Me to Laugh

I was leaving the careers focused on caring for others to those like Raina. People who loved children, grew up in stability and knew what such things looked like, and had strong hearts. There was no doubt in my mind, Raina was in for a rough slap in the face with the cruel reality of some children in care, but I had something akin to faith that she would be fine.

So here I was, stocking books; a job I loved. Raina called me a machine and Joel always saved me a cart that was topped nearly to tipping. It wasn’t laziness on his part, but more a gesture of kindness. He knew the act helped me to unwind, and he also knew I needed all the help I could get.

Joel wasn’t exactly one of those people who’d found a way to slip through my tightly stitched seams, but I still liked him. He was nice enough, sweet, and entirely focused on his girlfriend and their puppy. Seriously, I liked dogs but that thing was way more trouble than it was worth. I can’t even tell you how many blankets the thing has mauled, or shoes it’s chewed.

I’m more of a cat person.

“Hey,” I turned to see Joel standing at the end of the aisle with a weird look on his face. “There’s some really butch guy here to see you.”

Really butch?Joel, and only Joel, would describe another man as such. Joel was also the opposite of butch. He was long and gangly limbed, so I’d bet he figured about eighty percent of the male population around him wasbutch.

I rolled my eyes and parted with my cart of books, glancing back longingly as we moved. “Did he say what he wanted?”

“Just that he wanted to see you.”

“Just my luck,” I said as I rounded the corner to see that thereally butchguy was none other than Mr. Gorilla Man—aka Beckett Davis.“Just. My. Luck.”I breathed again and I could have sworn that he read my lips, because his lips quirked and then my heart fluttered.

I reinforced my frown.

“Hey, peanut.”

Seriously, why did the men in my life call me peanut? It’s not like I had an oblong shaped head, for goodness sakes!

“What are you doing here?”

“I brought you a coffee.” He handed me the cup with the big gold M on the side. My stupid heart fluttered again.

“Why?”

He smirked and leaned over the tall counter to place the coffee on my desk. “It’s polite to say thank you.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever claimed to be polite.”

“True,” he looked amused. “How late are you working tonight?”

“Why?”

“Four.” Joel answered, but when my eyes shot to glare at him, he wasn’t looking at me. With all the obvious purpose in the world, he was focusing on a barcode he was about to scan.

I looked back to Beckett, feeling my spine tingle a little. I wasn’t sure if it was from irritation or excitement. Not liking the thought, I decided irritation was more accurate.

Again, Beckett grinned. “Wanna have dinner with me?”

“Not really.” I admitted, hoping I was telling the truth. Please Lord almighty let me not be crushing on this big oaf. I mean, he has a jacked-up truck! Even worse, it’s aredjacked-up truck!

I’m not saying red is bad, but it’s definitely flashy and I am so not the girl to crush on a flashy guy.

“I bought cake.”

The traitor!I was going to pull out every pretty blonde strand of Raina’s hair.

Cake, with thick gobs of icing, was totally my weakness. And Raina knew it.

“The icing is thick.” He added, tempting the already tempted cake fiend inside of me.

I said nothing.

“And it’s purple.”

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