Snippet Saturday

Today’s topic is “Talk, Talk” – in other words, dialogue. Dialogue happens to be my favorite part to write. Seems like a perfect time to give you another little peek at LEAN ON ME. Cassidy left Holloway to climb mountains (literally) and while gone made a bad decision that insulted most of the folks in her hometown. Many still hold a grudge, except for Mitch, the guy who had a crush on her in high school and is pretty happy to see her come back:

They walked in silence to the informal gravesite. Mitch opened the gate and followed her into the small space. She wiped her hands on her jeans then folded her arms. A second later she unfolded them again. She couldn’t stop moving or catch her breath. Every part of her trembled as if on the verge of blowing apart.

Mitch crouched down. With a gentle hand, he skimmed his fingers over the raised writing on the grave marker. The move was so caring, so reverent, that her world centered again.

“I don’t think I realized she was buried here,” he said in a whisper, the type usually reserved for church or a solemn occasion.

“We had to get an exception to allow it.”

“We?”



She squatted next to him, balancing on the balls of her feet. “I stood at the back of the church.”

He finally looked at her. “Excuse me?”

“I was there, at the funeral and burial. I didn’t want her last day to be about me, because both my mom and Allan deserved better than that, but I came. Of course I did.” The nicknames and catchy phrases about her life were bad enough. The idea people would think she’d abandoned her family at the end was a hole that continuously burned in her gut. “Allan kept insisting it didn’t matter what anyone said, but deep down I think he knew it was the right decision and felt relief at not having to answer a lot of questions about me on such a horrible day.”

“I had no idea.”

Cassidy brushed a few leaves away from the marker. “Not how you expected The Chosen One to act?”

“I’ve never called you that.” The clench of his jaw mirrored the anger in his voice.

“She was my mother and I loved her. I’ve done a lot of stupid things in my life, some selfish, but the rumors about this are wrong.”

She felt his gaze on her cheek. The skin heated under his attention. She didn’t look at him because she doubted her ability to say anything coherent or maintain her control.

His fingers tickled her chin as he turned her head to him. “You are a constant surprise, Cassidy Clarke.”

“Is that a good thing?”

“It’s not a bad one.”

The tug, the pull. The intensity of the moment grabbed her hard. Shook her with enough force to rattle her bones. Whatever whirled around them blocked out everything but the bright fall sunshine streaming in through the mass of leaves above them.

She stood up, breaking the connection before her common sense became a casualty of her pulsing attraction to this man. A second later he was right there next to her. So close she could feel his breath on her cheek and smell a hint of his mint shampoo. His shoulders blocked her view of the yard and his intense gaze never left her face.

“So now what?” She whispered the question because talking in a normal voice seemed out of place.

“I fight back the urge to kiss you.”

His hands didn’t move. He didn’t even shift. Which was good because she doubted she would have been able to walk away if he touched her.

“That would be wise.”

Like that, the spell broke. The zap between them blinked out, taking the huge surge of energy with it. The bubbling promise left in its wake was not one ounce more comfortable or controllable.

He must have sensed it too because he fell back on his flirty tone. “And I go plan some smart conversation for our date tonight.”

“I don’t remember saying I would come.”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “Oh, you’ll come.”

She laughed before she could stop it. “Are still talking about dinner?”

“Not really.”

___________

Remember to check out the other authors’ snippets:

Rhian Cahill

Shelli Stevens

Anne Rainey

Jody Wallace

Mari Carr

McKenna Jeffries

Myla Jackson

Taige Crenshaw

Delilah Devlin

Lauren Dane

Shiloh Walker

TJ Michaels

Leah Braemel