Dr. Strange Beard (Winston Brothers, #5)

by Penny Reid

It wasn’t until I was seventeen when I realized it was rare for people to tell stories for the benefit of the listener. Usually, but not always, a story is told mostly for the benefit of the teller.

Meanwhile, you’re just happy you got out of English because the quiz was supposed to be on Romeo and Juliet, and you hate those melodramatic a-holes and you’re glad they died because they were self-involved poor listeners.

“Well then, it was a gross abuse of the English language, Roscoe. You only use a rhetorical question in order to produce an effect or to make a statement. It’s a question asked to further a point, to persuade, or for literary effect, none of which were required or relevant in this situation.”

“Knitters’ guild?” Ashley asked, quirking a smile. Cletus waved his hands in the air, including the one holding the razor. “You know, the knitting peoples’ governing body.”

“Cletus, what exactly do you imagine knitters need a governing body for? We’re not a militia.”

“No one wants a goatee in the shape of a clover. Beards aren’t topiaries,” Duane grumbled, but gave me a small smile.