Lacy Williams's Blog, page 5

Christmas Scavenger Hunt Round-Robin: Soldier Under the Mistletoe

Merry Christmas! Welcome to the scavenger hunt! At each author’s blog post, you will find a question that can be answered by checking out the free Amazon preview of their book. Provide the answer at this Google Form. Note:You must answer the questions for every author in the round-robin to be considered to win one of three gift cards. At the end of my post is a link to the next blog, who will provide a link to the next blog, etc., to the very end.

Do you love little sister/brother’s best...

Short story: The Bull Rider & The Belle

It was already sticky-humid when Noelle stepped outside her tiny Airstream trailer.

The sun wasn’t even up yet, but her A/C unit was chugging away, fighting the July heat that seemed to bake up from the Texas red dirt.

Her glasses fogged in the humid outdoor air.

She closed the door and counted backward from five, allowing the fog to clear from her lenses.

The trailer park where she lived had nothing to recommend it except that the space was cheap. It was a scraggly, grassy lot on the...

Short story: Her Autumn Crush

“I want to be a Ninja Turtle.”

“I want a butterfly.”

“Can you make me a princess?”

“Umm… Spiderman.”

Jamie Murphy had used up her entire repertoire over the past two hours. And almost all of her supply of face paints.

The line of children waiting to take a turn in her wood and canvas director’s chair had dwindled and she shook her right hand to relieve the low-grade soreness that came from such a long period of concentration.

Only half an hour more.

She’d spent hours changing...

Short story: The Music Box

Alexandre Dubois made a practice of avoiding people.

Especially tourists.

Especiallywomentourists.

Nosy, irritating, stubborn women tourists.

Tourists who parked themselves on the step outside his door at all hours of the day.

All right, he was a bona fide recluse who avoided everyone. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d stepped outside his upstairs apartment. Maybe seven… eight years ago?

The fact that she’d parked herself there was an irritant. A missing comb in the dainty song of...

Short Story: Prince of Her Heart

She was elbow-deep in the thirty-first floor toilets when Hilda found her.

“You want me to what? With who?” Yellow rubber gloves snapped as Sissy Rawlings tugged them off.

“Mr. Prince needs a date for the company party tonight.” Hilda loaded cleaning supplies back onto Sissy’s cart.

“But I’m not—” in his league. “I’m the cleaning lady,” Sissy protested.

“And I’m his executive assistant. When his date cancelled, he assigned this task to me. High priority. You’re it.”

A half...

Short Story: Her Christmas Groom

She wore an oval Christmas brooch pinned at her neck, as she’d promised.

Matt Pederson gulped as the full magnitude of his situation hit him.

A mail-order marriage.

He couldn’t take his eyes off her as he stood from the table in the cafe, the only eating establishment in the small Wyoming town with its clapboard storefronts. They’d agreed to meet in a public place. He’d thought it would make her more comfortable.

But after this meeting, they planned to traverse the snowy...

Short story: Military Mail-Order

To: Matt.Thomas@...
From: Rachel.Aimes@...
Subject: Been thinking

We’ve been emailing about what-if’s. What if you never came home? I can’t go on like this anymore…

Army Ranger Matt Thomas felt the familiar flip in his stomach as the 737 began its final descent.

He was home.

Eighteen months in Afghanistan and he couldn’t wait for a burger from the mom-n-pop diner near his house. Couldn’t wait to hug his mom.

Couldn’t wait to see Rachel.

His sort-of fiancé.

We love each other....

Short story: Annie’s Cowboy

“Next up is Austin’s dad, Steve. Steve, tell us all about being a data analyst.”

Annie sat in a chair that was way too small for her I-have-a-kid-and-I’m-proud-of-it derriere, with Kenny on her lap.

She tried to listen to good old Steve, but apparently, she was a kindergartener at heart because she found the classroom delightfully distracting. And Kenny kept wiggling on her lap.

And wiggled again. She squeezed her son and leaned the top of her chin on his white-blond head. Wouldn’t be...

Short story: Falling for Ms. Penn

“Mr. Montgomery!”

Drat. He’d almost escaped from the ballet studio.

Aiden turned away from the glass door, sending one last longing look outside. Inside, the floor was filled with pink backpacks and tiny shoes. Beyond the observation window, little girls giggled and twirled. But the woman with the strident voice, the girls’ ballet instructor, wore no smile.

One of her hands rested on Beth’s shoulder and the other on Angelica’s. He’d escorted the girls into her classroom only moments...

30 Days of Story: To Trust a Cowboy (the end)

Annie hadn’t been this nervous about giving a haircut since she’d gone through cosmetology school.

It was the quiet way Wade was watching her in the mirror. She almost turned the chair so his back would be to the mirror, but it wouldn’t help that much. There were mirrors on the other side.

Things had gotten heavy. The lighthearted conversation she’d come to expect from him was silent.

She’d had no clue that Chelsea was fighting cancer. That’s what chemo meant, didn’t it?

For the past two...