I think summer is here already. We had those few beautiful days, and suddenly the past three have been hot and muggy. I’m disappointed. I shouldn’t be, because we haven’t had too many good springs here in recent years. Most of the time now, we get a few weeks of cool, early-spring weather, and then summer arrives with the heat and humidity. One of these years, I’ll get a really great spring again. Maybe next year, after a decent winter.
( Photo credit: Sorin Mutu via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA )
But the flowers are blooming, which I like (and the weeds are sprouting, which I don’t like), so I’ll just look at the positive parts for now. One more positive is I get to watch beautiful horses racing next weekend. I’ll get the household chores in first, and I won’t drink a mint julep, but I’ll find something summery to drink with it.
And I have a three-day weekend this week, which means extra writing time, and that is definitely a positive. I actually got a lot of writing done last week, even though the day-job has been crazy-busy. I got a lot of new pages written in the mornings and on my lunch breaks. I’m aiming for a decent night’s sleep tonight, because the next two days will be busy, before a little lull, but I still want more new pages.
I have a quick snippet of story from Hunting Medudsa to share with you, too…
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“You need to know I’ll die before I let him kill you,” he said, startling her. Andi blinked, and he turned his head toward her, his green eyes as hard as his jaw. Her heart jumped up into her throat. Gods, he was serious. A hot splatter of stew hit the back of her hand, and she jerked her spoon away from the small pot to turn the burner off, forcing herself to look away from him. “Maybe you should be practical,” she started. “Maybe you should think about trusting me a little,” he cut in, swinging around to fully face her. The front view was as distracting as the back, she realized, absently noting the crisp dark hair spattered over his wide, muscular chest and narrowing onto his flat belly, to that unfastened button… She pulled her gaze back to his face when he stepped away from the cave opening.
“I got you safely away before Stavros could kill you. I just spent the last two days taking care of you.” His nostrils flared. “I don’t know how you’ve managed by yourself all these years.” A lump pushed her heart down out of her throat, making her nose and eyes sting. “If I haven’t earned a little trust after the last two days, I don’t see how you can ever trust anyone.” That was low. She dropped her spoon into the pan and pushed to her feet. “That wasn’t very nice.” “It doesn’t look like your family rushes to help you out every month.” She couldn’t argue, as it was true, but that didn’t lessen the sting. “So when did anyone take care of you last, Andrea? Besides me?” “Not since I was thirteen,” she yelled. “Then it wasn’t so bad, until Annis died. Now I take care of myself.” Her vision blurred a little, and she blinked hard. Kallan moved toward her, his mouth a flat line, his green eyes flaring sparks. “But you trust them anyway?” “They’re my family.” It really was that simple. If she truly needed them, one of them would come. “They’ve abandoned you to the Harvesters.” His shout echoed in the cavern. To her horror, a tear slid down her cheek, but she didn’t wipe it away. “They need to be safe too,” she whispered. “So the sacrifice of one isn’t a big deal if the rest are safe?” His tone was still rock-hard, though lower in volume. Andi didn’t want to think about it that way. His view of the whole situation was so distorted. Wasn’t it? “As long as none of us get the amulet, it’s okay to lose the Medusa every once in a while?” He touched her cheek, wiping away the tear there.
Another fell, and she wasn’t sure if she was angrier at him or herself. Or her family.
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Now I’m going to go listen to some good music while I dive back into my tiger shifter story. I hope you all have a really wonderful week!