Saturday Snippet

The theme today deals with using setting as a character. When done well, this is so powerful. It's one of those writerly things I constantly work on because it doesn't come naturally to me at all. Really…not at all.

The scene I picked it from one my favorite books, HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO. The setting is Hawaii. The heroine is rich and has to learn money can't buy everything. The hero is rough around the edges.

Deana touched her fingertips against the blurry tile wall then pushed off into her final turn. A bluesy tune rang out of the built-in deck speakers as her body sliced through the cool water on the return lap to the other end of the pool.

She closed her eyes and fell into a rhythm. Tried to block out the melody and focus, instead, on keeping her stroke in time with the beat. She needed a mind wiped clear of any thoughts or memories. One where the sound of Ryan's agitated voice from the other end of the phone didn't still ring in her ears.



With each stroke, each rise of her arm, her thoughts crushed in on her. Doubt, fear, anger. The dragging sense of loss that would not leave. Identifying the bodies of Chace and Kalanie at the morgue. Listening to the police investigators voice their doubts about Ryan's story and how he couldn't possibly have slept through the entire attack on his parents as claimed.

Some days the reminders proved to be too much.

She brushed the wall and stood up. Water lapped against her hips in the shallow end of the pool. She rubbed her eyes, willing to do anything to stop the visions spinning around in her head.

Dropping her hands, she mentally assessed her options for saving Ryan. She could not come up with a single strategy that didn't include Josh. Controlling him would be the issue. She trusted the defense attorneys, had let them do their jobs, and they failed. She needed more of a say in tactics and analysis this time around.

When the hot sun started to burn her arms, she gave up on her mental planning and let her mind turn to lunch. A movement caught her attention by the house. As if she had conjured him, Josh stood right there on her deck, less than twenty feet away, with a stern frown on his face.

"Hi." She barely made a sound but she knew he heard her when he started moving.

He took the last three steps down to the edge of the pool. "What is that?"

Her mind refused to adjust to the sight of him. One minute she thought about him. The next he appeared. She wiped her eyes one more time. "What did you say?"

He hitched his chin. "What the hell happened to you?"

She finally focused on his blue eyes and how his stare locked on her chest. It was not as if she wore a tiny bikini. She had grabbed her usual navy tank with the low rounded neck. Practical for exercise and not all that sexy.

Then it hit her. The marks. He saw them, couldn't take his eyes off of them.

A familiar wave of dread crashed through her body. Since his focus didn't waver, she reached for her robe on the side of the pool and struggled into it with one had while the other covered the area from her sternum to the top of her breasts.

"I wasn't expecting you," she said.

"Deana."

"I'll meet you up on the deck."

"Deana, stop."

But she couldn't. The cotton fought her, forcing her to wrestle to get the thing over her shoulders. She ended up in three feet of water with her cover floating up around her.

Josh's gaze dropped to the material bunched between her breasts and anchored in her tight fist. "Tell me how you got those scars."

She forced her shaking legs to move to the stairs and climb out. "Why are you here?"

"The scars, Deana. Where did you get them?"

The soaking wet robe weighed a ton and stuck to her thighs making it tough to walk without stumbling. "That's not important."

"It sure as hell is." He stepped forward, the flat line of his mouth fierce but his touch gentle as he wrapped his fingers around her elbow. "I need you to explain."

Being this close to him closed her throat. Seeing the pity in those sad blue eyes made her want to scream it back open. That was the last thing she wanted from him. From anyone.

___________

Remember to check out the other authors' snippets:

Megan Hart — Read in bed!

Eliza Gayle

Rhian Cahill

Jody Wallace

Lissa Matthews

Mari Carr

McKenna Jeffries

Myla Jackson

Taige Crenshaw

Alison Kent

Delilah Devlin

Shelli Stevens

Shiloh Walker

Zoë Archer