The man strolls into August's office. August immediately sat straight in his chair when his door opened and revealed his boss.

"Come on my boy," the old man says. The thing that August didn't understand was the old man. Why he was so caring? He treated August like a son and obviously loved him like one.

"I need to get a case," August says shaking his head at the old man.

The old man shook his head, "You will not. I banned it. You won't get another in the next two weeks."

August froze, "What?" August was now angry. What the heck? Now what he was supposed to do? Everyone was going to see him as a sore loser now.

The old man knew what August was thinking. He remembered reading the boy's resume. The nervous freshly graduated twenty four year old. The old man grabbed August's jacket and held it up for August.

"Come with me," the old man says with a old wise smile.

"Mr. Santorini, I really am fine. I really do need to focus on a new client," August says shaking his head at the old man.

"They can wait. Come on," Mr. Santorini says. August looks at his computer and sighs. Then he got up and put on his jacket and followed Mr. Santorini.

The old man never married. And often felt lonely. He loved reading books and one day found himself at the book store across the street. He knew the owner who was deaf and worked very hard with the store. She pulled impressive numbers.

"Why are we at the bookstore?" August asks the man.

"We are looking for a book. Your teachers wrote how you loved to read. Do you still read just to enjoy? Other than just case information and the news?" Mr. Santorini asks. August finally starts reading the book labels.

The old man smiled and left August to read all the books spines until he came across something interesting. August found that they were in the language section when he saw that he was reading books about American Sign Language.

He frowns thinking about his older brother and two twin little sisters. Who all were deaf. His mom was also deaf, while his dad and him were hearing. One of the twins is hard of hearing, but didn't want any hearing aids. She found them annoying. The twins who came as a surprise when his mom was thirty-seven. August was fifteen when they were born. They were half his age and loved them too much. He should go see them soon. He pulls out his phone and sent them both a text asking what they have been up to.

Mr. Santorini smiled to himself as he watched August look at some of the American Sign Language books. He remembered checking a few out that way he could communicate with the bookstore owner. Speaking of, he wondered if she was here today.

Mr. Santorini didn't understand August sometimes. August didn't like to talk about his family and he didn't know why.

"I'm going to go look for someone, be right back," Mr. Santorini says wandering off. The old man takes his time going through the shelves until he finds the small red head standing on a ladder shelving books. He waits patiently for her to step down and notice him. He was patient which was something that he learned as he got older.

August felt confused after the old man had walked away. Did he finally get a girlfriend? August himself was curious. He was going to follow the old man to see who he was looking for. But his phone stopped him. One of his sisters texted back. He stops walking and answers. Her text consisted with how much she misses him and wished that he was there to hang out with her.

He replies saying that he would come see her sometime this week and then starts looking for Mr. Santorini. After looking through the awfully large bookstore he finally finds him by looking through the book shelves. He moves a book carefully being silent and watches as Mr. Santorini slowly moves his hands.

Was Mr. Santorini using American Sign Language (ASL)? He definitely was. August could recognize the signs. Something about his own day. He couldn't follow quite well. Some of the books were in the way.

August heard a slight giggle and straightened up. He watched as a pair of hands reach for Mr. Santorini's hands.

Beth's giggle snapped August out of his angry daze. Beth reaches over and helps Mr. Santorini sign the word "month." August watched amazed. Then August walks around the book shelf and straight up to Mr. Santorini and Beth. Beth was surprised as August walked with pure confidence. His blonde hair cut short with a color blue eyes to match. She ignored her heart that was beating oddly fast at the sight of the young man. She looked at Mr. Santorini who looked at August with love and pride. Beth tugs on Mr. Santorini's sleeve wanting his attention. August frowns and thought how she was rude to address him.

"Hi, my name is August Wicks," August says to Beth and holds his hand out for her to shake.

Mr. Santorini chuckles, "She's deaf, my boy." August immediately straightens himself even more.

Beth just stood there clueless. August looks back over at her and saw that her hair was struggling to stay out of her face and in the hair band. She had some jeans on with a long sleeve turtleneck.

Beth tugs on Mr. Santorini's shirt sleeve again. It wasn't like she was trying to be rude. She wanted his attention. She couldn't speak English or well she could she just chose not to in public. Mr. Santorini was watching August with curiosity. He couldn't help it. He watched the boy watch Beth.

"Who is that?" Beth asks Mr. Santorini making sure her signing was slow and careful that way he could understand.

Beth looks at August feeling bad.

August's phone beeps and it was like it gave him life or something. He stirred back awake from a deep sleep. He makes eye contact with Beth carefully catching her attention. Mr. Santorini then slowly watch as Beth carefully keeps her eyes on August waiting for his next move. Or spoken word. She didn't catch onto learning how to read lips in school. Then all the sudden August starts moving his hand and it felt like he woke up from a deep slumber. His heart started to beat again and August didn't know how to feel.

"Sorry, my name is August Wicks. Are you deaf or hard of hearing?" he asks. While some people would be offended about the question Beth wasn't. Beth wore the truth. Because she was like everyone else despite what they believed. Mr. Santorini just about fell over though, it seemed like August spoke ASL. It was something Mr. Santorini didn't know about the kid.

"I'm deaf, how do you know ASL?" Beth asks. She felt like it was rare to just bump into someone who was speaking and just happened to know ASL. She looked at Mr. Santorini to see that he was just as surprised as she was.

"My mom, older brother, and little sister who is a twin are deaf. The other twin is hard of hearing," August tells her struggling with smooth words. Beth's eyebrows furrowed though.

"Do you sign often?" she asks watching as he signed.

"No, it's been a few months. I don't remember when the last time I used it. Maybe when I last saw my family," August says admitting to his faults. The fault was not seeing his family as often.

"Your movements are rough. Maybe you and Mr. Santorini can help each other," she signs and then looks at Mr. Santorini. It wasn't like she was rude. She was being blunt. It was something that nobody understood about the deaf culture. They told it as they saw it. They didn't keep it to themselves. They couldn't afford to. If they needed to communicate something to someone they were going to do just that. Hurting feelings wasn't something they really cared about, well they did care about people's feelings. Just not when it came to signing. The poor old man looked confused, but August understood.

"She says we need to work on our signing," August says moving his hands as he talked.

Beth looks at Mr. Santorini and then grabs his sleeve again. He looks at her kindly and then August finally understood why she kept grabbing Mr. Santorini's sleeve.

"What book do you want today?" she signs to the man slowly watching his face to see if he was understanding.

Mr. Santorini sits there and thinks about it. "Fiction."

Beth waits patiently for him to finishing signing, "Mystery." Beth smiles and tugs on his sleeve and jerks her head. The universal language for, "Follow me."

August followed quietly and was in awe as she knew exactly where it was. She obviously worked here. August waves his hand towards Beth and she looks at him.

"You work here?" August says. Beth nods and smiles widely.

"I own this place," She signs back with excitement clear in her face. August couldn't help but smile back. Mr. Santorini himself was already smiling, he was considering about leaving the two alone.

"What book do you want to read?" she asks August. August had to think about it. It's been too long since he's actually read a book.

Or knew which one he needed to read next. At one time he had a list of what he needed to read. He didn't even know where to begin. Or if he couldn't find something where to look at next. He never really had a favorite genre he liked. He just liked reading.

"What is your favorite book?" he asked her. She blushes heavily. Why is she blushing?

"Under the Tuscan Sun," she signs quickly. He's never heard of it... Nor has he read it. "It's practically chicklit. Romance? There was a movie about it if you aren't a reader."

He was quick to answer, "I used to read all the time. Work has been keeping me too busy."

"Where do you work?" Beth signs with curiosity.

"Across the street. Santorini Law Firm," August signs slowly.

Beth's hands do their magic, "You're a lawyer." He nods his head and a book catches his eye and he couldn't help but reach up and grab it.

Beth grabs his arm and signs to him, "That's a good book. You'll probably like it. Enjoy it." Then she walks away hiding somewhere in the shelves away from him trying to calm her heart and humming body.