Just Another Silly Love Song - Rich Amooi Page 0,26

The salesman’s words, not mine. Might as well take this baby for a spin.”

I was about to tell my grandma to put the phone away, but the curiosity had gotten the best of me, for one reason or another. Maybe I wanted to be right. Or maybe I wanted to be proven wrong and be shown that you can’t always judge a book by its cover.

Either way, I sat there watching her, waiting.

“Let’s see here . . .” Grandma Joyce scrolled through her phone, nodding occasionally, and talking to herself. “Very interesting.” More scrolling. “Wow, I can’t believe this.” More scrolling. “Unbelievable, really.”

I tapped my fingers on the table. “Would you spit it out, please?”

I guess I wanted to know more than I had thought.

She pointed to her phone. “Looks like there’s a thirty-percent chance of rain tomorrow.”

I shook my head and laughed. “You’re terrible. You did that on purpose.”

She gave me a knowing smile. “Of course, I did.” She got her eyes back on her phone, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. “Okay, here we go. Just as I suspected.”

I laughed again. “What are you looking at now? Winning lottery numbers? The traffic on highway five? I don’t believe you.”

“No, no. This time I’m really prying into the life of Ben Baxter and that man is certainly a keeper.”

“A keeper? Right . . . There is nothing you can tell me right now that can change my opinion of him. And I’m sure you didn’t find anything, so give it up.”

She looked up at me. “On the contrary. Listen to this . . . Ben Baxter, aka Dr. Tough Love, will be appearing at the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe next week for their annual open house to help promote their animal adoption and spay programs.” She looked up and smiled. “Isn’t that sweet?”

I nodded. “That’s great that he’s going to be there because the Helen Woodward Animal Center is amazing, but you have to keep in mind that he’s getting paid to be there since he’s going on behalf of the radio station. That’s not charity or philanthropic work. Remember when I did those live call-ins from the San Diego Zoo?”

Grandma Joyce nodded.

“Well, they paid me three hundred dollars to do that.”

“Like when you were out at that Toyota dealership giving out free hot dogs?”

“Exactly. Same thing. Those are paid personal appearances.” I pointed to her phone. “Anything else or is that it?”

Grandma Joyce shook her head. “I can’t see anything now. An advertisement just popped up for hemorrhoid cream.” She sighed, tapping her phone a bunch of times. “Forget it.” She slipped the phone back in her purse. “Anyway, I still think Kyle is right. There’s probably way more to Ben than meets the eye.”

“If you say so.”

I suspected something completely different.

Kyle was trying to make Ben look good in order to motivate me to continue with the morning show. He obviously saw the desperation in my face and was scared I was going to quit, which had crossed my mind more than a few times.

But with no other radio jobs available in the area at the moment, I didn’t have a choice.

I had to stick it out until something better came along.

I just didn’t know how much more I could take of Dr. Tough Love.

Chapter Nine

LORI

“Good morning, San Diego!” Ben said. “It’s another day with Dr. Tough Love. Are you ready to do this? I certainly am. Give us a call and let us know what’s on your mind. Do you have relationship problems? Something going on with your significant other or immediate family member that needs to be addressed? Maybe you have a beef with a coworker. We’re here for you, whatever your . . .” He glanced across at me, probably wondering if I would say something if he used the word woes again. “. . . whatever your trials and tribulations may be!”

I smirked. “Or woes. People have got lots of woes.”

Ben chuckled. “And that’s the effervescent voice of my trusty sidekick—”

“Cohost.”

“Lori Martin.”

“Who’s here to give us the female perspective on things since—”

“That’s the only valid perspective in the world.” I smiled at him. “It’s good to be here again. I had no idea my voice was effervescent.”

“I was going to say prepubescent, but I’m trying to score a free mocha from you tomorrow since you didn’t bring me one today, either.”

“I’ll bring you one when you behave. Yesterday you were a bad boy and quite frankly, you’re already off to a rocky