Really, spring has been here for way longer than it should be this time of year. I shouldn’t complain, because I love spring. All the daffodils and other spring flowers bringing color before the trees start to get green…it’s lovely. But we didn’t get any real winter here, which means that there are going to be an abnormally large amount of bugs here pretty soon, and I am not looking forward to that. I suppose it just means my indoor time will stay greater than my outdoor time. But I have shrubs waiting to be planted, and I need to get some garden clean-up done so I can put in this year’s annual herbs and tomato plants when it’s consistently warm enough. Though I also need this wretched virus to start to be contained for the local garden center to allowed to open again so I can buy those plants.
Our state is one of many under a stay-at-home order, so only essential businesses are allowed to operate right now, and we are only supposed to go out for necessary trips. I’m lucky because my day-job is able to operate with us working from home right now, and I know how lucky I am. I have friends and family who are not that lucky right now, so I am hoping more people will follow the stay-at-home requests to help slow the spread of this virus so we can get back to some semblance of normal in our daily lives. I say ‘some semblance of normal’, because I’m not sure how close to our old normal things will be when this is finally over. Right now it’s hard to imagine that.
But I’m going to hope for it, and in the meantime, I’ll keep working on my stories and reading stories by some of my favorite authors to maintain some semblance of normal in my world. I’m also working with my web designer on some updates for my website, so we’ll have a little unveiling for that in a couple of months.
I have a little snippet of story for you right now from Light the Way Home:
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“I really do appreciate this, Lucie,” Nate said from where he stood at the sink.
“It’s nothing, Nate,” she said lightly. “Keeps me from having to spend endless hours on job search sites and getting more depressed than I already am.” She kept her head down as she buttoned her sweater up to her chin.
“It isn’t nothing to me.”
His firm, quiet tone snared her attention, and her mouth went dry. The shadows in his brown eyes made her curl her fingers around the edges of her sweater to keep from reaching out.
“I’m not accustomed to asking for help.” He cleared his throat. “I appreciate it.”
She swallowed. “It’s no problem,” she whispered. Dammit–hot, attracted to her, and vulnerable. Shit, that was trouble. She took a slow breath. “I’ll see you in the morning then.” She inched toward the door.
A hint of awareness darkened his eyes, but he stayed where he was. “Good night, Lucie.”
She took two more steps, clearing the doorway to the mud room, and a little relief sank into her belly. Until she heard footsteps behind her.
Within reach of the back door, she whirled. He stood at the open doorway of the kitchen, undisguised desire in his eyes this time. Her heart skipped a beat, and she felt a quick rush of excitement that she tried to squash as he stepped into the mud room. She held her breath as he took another step. One more. Until he stood a foot away, and her breath rushed out.
He studied her face for a long moment, and she wondered what he saw, what he was looking for. Impulsively, she moved closer to him, noting the way his eyes rounded, and she stretched up to brush a kiss on his mouth, lingered for a second, then stepped back.
“Good night, Nate,” she whispered, reaching behind her for the doorknob.
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What are you doing this week to keep some sort of normal in your daily life? Baking? Reading? Something else?
