Loud and Clear by justsayins Virtual Book Tour | Spotlight, Excerpt & #giveaway {@RiptideBooks}

About Loud and Clear

Jaxon is getting by fine, severe dyslexia or not. Being a cab driver means he doesn’t need to read much, and the job has its perks. The pay isn’t bad, the people can be interesting, and having memorized the city streets keeps him from feeling too stupid.

When he picks up Caleb, a quiet fare in a nice suit, Jaxon doesn't think anything of it. Then he ends up driving Caleb home the next week too, and the next, and the next. Eventually Caleb tries to communicate—by writing things down. Turns out that Caleb has such a bad stutter he spends most of his time mute.

If only Jaxon had an easier time reading what Caleb had to say. But he’s interested in trying, and Caleb seems interested back. They discover that, with a little bit of effort, it isn’t so hard to make themselves understood. Especially when what’s growing between them is definitely worth talking about.

Buy links: Riptide

Excerpt...

Jaxon pulled up to the front of the Flameshow Bar, looking around for his fare. It didn’t take long to spot the lone man in a really nice suit walking toward his cab, wobbling just a little.

“Caleb Wrotslavsky? Did you call for a cab?” The man nodded, fumbling with a clip wallet, and then shoved an ID card under Jaxon’s nose. Jaxon picked out the C and the W, and that was good enough for him. “Okay,” he said. “Come on in.”

He waited a minute for Caleb to sit down—and buckle up. Good, he hated having to remind people. Then, before he could ask for the address of where to, Caleb handed him a card with the address and logo of the Lindsey Towers, a posh high-rise. Luckily, Jaxon was able to recognize it easy.

“Do you, uh, want this back?” he asked, holding out the card. Caleb nodded and took it. Okay then, guy was clearly a quiet drunk. Jaxon was perfectly fine with that. He clicked on his meter and headed off.

Caleb stayed quiet throughout the whole drive and seemed perfectly happy staying quiet, so Jaxon didn’t bother trying to chat. He was comfortable in silence, and it made for an easy job; just deliver, get paid, move on to the next job, when or if one came in—Tuesdays were usually pretty slow. Didn’t get a lot of calls for cab drivers on Tuesdays. Certainly not at bars. But whatever. To each his own. At least he had called for a cab, instead of trying to drive himself.

“Here we are,” he said, pulling up to the Towers. “Home sweet home?”

Caleb just nodded and handed over a credit card before Jaxon even told him the total. He rattled it off anyway and took the disgruntled-looking nod as permission to run the card.

“All righty.” He handed the card back, along with the receipts. “Just sign the top one and you can go on your way, okay?” Again a nod. Caleb scribbled something, and handed back the second receipt.

“Have a nice night,” Jaxon said, as Caleb moved to get out of the car. Another nod and a barely there hand wave, before the man made his way to the building.

“Okay, then,” Jaxon mumbled to himself, glancing at the second receipt. Nice, not a bad tip. He stuffed it in the right place, made his notes, and then clicked himself back on to awaiting new calls. Weird guy, but definitely not his weirdest. Besides, easy job, and those were nice.

To read the entire excerpt or learn more about the Author visit Riptide Publishing.

Aidan Wayne is a big believer in character-driven stories with happy endings. This is not to say that stories can’t contain a little (or a lot) of grief, just that at the end of it all expect there to be bandages and hugs. They particularly like to write about minority characters because damn it, they deserve happy endings too.

When not writing, Aidan enjoys practicing aerial, martial arts, and ASL, and watching reality cooking shows. They are probably in the middle of twelve projects as you read this.

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/justsayins

To celebrate the release of Loud and Clear, Aidan is giving away $15 in Riptide credit. Leave a comment to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on May 28, 2016. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!