Sunday Snippet: Think Twice

Celebrated my thirty-fourth anniversary this weekend! We had crappy weather, so we brought Chinese home and stayed in for the evening.

Had another busy work week and I'm so thankful the projects are rolling in. Working on a terrific manuscript and I'm so excited to dive into the story. This will be a fun one!

Had a so-so week of viewing television. I'm still focusing on the great cleanup and spent a good amount of time reorganizing and rearranging things in my living room.

I did finish up Wednesday and I enjoy this show so much. I'm excited to see where things go from here.

Caught another episode of Classic Rugrats. The autumn leaves one is fun. I love how much this show still appeals to both kids and adults.

Watched the premier episode of Brokenwood Mysteries season nine. This is another show I have a lot of love for. I miss a few of the original recurring characters but I'm enjoying some of the newer ones. Trudy in particular ends up being fun.

Enjoyed an episode of Endeavor. I'm kind of sad to see Thursday falling in with the new crew. But I'm hoping there might be a twist to this thread. We'll see what happens.

Caught another episode of Classic Who. I'm nearing the end of the classic episodes and I'm happy I did a full rewatch. There are a bunch of episodes I either missed as a kid or completely forgot.

Started a new Silent Witness two-parter. I kind of like seeing Nikki in therapy. Not really sure what's going on with Jack, but he's never boring. Thomas is another one I'm not sure about. His interaction, or lack thereof, with his daughter left a lot to be desired. Clarissa is awesome as always.

Enjoyed another episode of Battlestar Galactica. This is another one of my favorites because Lee Adama steps fully into the role of being a badass.

Also needed some background noise and I ended up watching the Surf Now channel and The Forgotten Coast. Ended up enjoying it a lot.

Started another episode of Strangest Things. Kind of an odd mix of topics with this one, but very interesting so far.

That's pretty much it for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from Think Twice, a novella where the characters take two steps forward and one step back more than once with each other.

Here's the mini-blurb:

When Judd Millian asks Pru Watson to work with him to take out the evil invading their city, she doesn't hesitate to say yes. But when he wants something more, she's reluctant, unable to commit to an answer. The indecision drives a wedge between them, but Pru won't let Judd get sucked into the worst part of her past.

And a preview snippet…

Pru hesitated before answering. "Because you matter. This is my mess to clean up. I can't deal with something happening to you because of me."

Judd opened his mouth, closed it, swallowed hard then visibly relaxed his stance before he finally spoke. "You do realize you're doing exactly the thing you never wanted me to do, right? You're taking the decision out of my hands and not giving me a choice." He held her gaze, daring her to counter.

And she wanted to. Wanted to deny the truth of his words. But she couldn't because he'd called things exactly right.

Her shoulders slumped. "I do now." She whirled away. "I've been so blind. Because I let my need for revenge and closure consume and drive me to the point of absurdity." She turned back to face Judd. "I don't have to do everything alone. Especially this. The good of all takes priority. I finally understand this." How many times had he pulled her out of the fire.

Going it alone didn't matter because Judd always turned up at the right time.

She needed him for a lot of things, but only one she had confidence to ask about. "I'd like to plan the op together. Can we do that?" Anything else would maybe come later.

Judd tilted his head to one side. "And after?" He didn't spell it out, but what he wanted couldn't be clearer.

She bit her lip, chewing over her response. "I don't know. What I want and what I can have are often two very different things." At least to her brain they were.

Judd shook his head. "They don't have to be. The fact you won't see the difference is a big part of our problem." He sighed. "And honestly, we can plan an op together and maybe get lucky and pull it off, but half the trouble is the constant start, stop, move forward, go back, then dive headlong off a cliff. It's exhausting and it's not healthy for either of us." He started walking back and forth. "I've given you all the space I possibly can. I don't think it's too much to ask to have some kind of assurance that once this is over … we can actually, I don't know, maybe have a conversation about where we go from here and what we want from the future."

She gave a nod. "It's not. Too much I mean. You're asking me to make a decision before we get tangled back up in trying to eliminate the evil running rampant in the city." The idea scared the hell out of her, but he deserved some kind of assurance.

Judd and Pru are on the same side but often at cross purposes. This ended up being a conversation they needed to have.

 

That's it for this week.

Cheers!

Skye