Sunday Snippet: Quick on the Draw

Season finale for Defiance… sooooo good. Seriously, I hope it gets renewed. Without giving away too many spoilers, I kind of loved where some of the characters ended up. I'm kind of on the fence about Amanda, but won't say more to avoid spilling anything.

The Walking Dead is almost ready to premiere and Sons of Anarchy rides next week. Makes waiting for Arrow's return in October worth it. Also looking forward to Sleepy Hollow and Gotham. Crossing my fingers FOX won't muck either of those shows up too much.

Enough TV for now. Tonight's post is from Quick on the Draw, a short story about a fun weekend that leads to new insight for my main character.

Here's the tagline:

Willa Hown opens her property to paintball enthusiasts on the weekends and enjoys the antics of grown adults finding their inner child. Kip Jarvison rarely takes time off but his brothers drag him to Willa's place for a weekend of fun and messy sport. Kip's not thrilled—until he meets Willa and she shows him how much fun paintball can really be.

And a snippety peek…

Kip shook his head. "Why did I let you guys drag me here again?" He had a 'to do' list filled with enough tasks to carry him through the next decade.

Kell rolled his eyes. "Because you need to let loose and have some fun, bro. You never do anything with us anymore." He stuck his lower lip out for good measure.

Kip snorted. "Yes, I do. Why just last week—" No, he'd been in Montana the last two weeks.

And before his stint in big sky country, he'd traveled throughout Canada, starting in Peterborough, Ontario and crossing the provinces to end up in Hollywood North, aka Vancouver. Damn. He'd spent two months in what his brothers referred to as the great white north.

Kip snapped his mouth shut.

Kyle slapped him on the back. "Yeah, dumb ass, we haven't done anything together since Christmas and New Year's." He leaned against the cushion of the back seat. "You left on January third and we've seen you maybe three times since." He ticked off Kip's itinerary. "Appalachia, New England, the great white north, and Montana." He folded his arms over his chest. "You bailed on Kell's last spring break. Hell, you almost missed his graduation."

Kip scrunched down in the passenger seat. "I made it."

Kell shot Kip a look. "Right, about five minutes before my name got called." His grip tightened on the steering wheel. "And you had to fly out for Bozeman that night. It's not gonna kill you to spend three days doing something with us."

Kip straightened. "Did I say it would? No, I didn't." But he hadn't been thrilled either and his brothers never missed anything. "But why paintball?"

Kyle snorted. "Because it's challenging and fun. We can relive our childhood and spend quality time together.

Kip settled back again. "Has it really been almost six months since we've spent more than a few hours together?"

Kell slid Kip a sideways glance. "Yep. So suck it up and deal."

Kip frowned. He'd obviously been working too hard if he didn't even notice how fast the time flew.

He nodded. "Yeah, no problem." He angled a little sideways. "You said your roommate's family owns the place?"

Kell answered. "Just Nash and his sister, Willa. They're parents are gone, about five years now."

Kip and his brothers understood losing parents at a young age. Their dad died in a house fire while trying to save a family and their mom checked out of life, leaving her boys with their fraternal grandmother so she could go off and find herself. The way Kip figured things; she'd done them a big favor. Grandma June, better known as Gram, raised them right. Her death the summer following Kell's last year in high school hit hard.

Kip changed the subject. "Will Nash be there?"

Kell chuckled and glanced in the rearview mirror. "Ky, care to answer that one?"

Kyle huffed out a harsh breath. "Hell, no, he won't be there. We met a totally hot girl on spring break—"

Kell broke into the conversation. "One Ky had his eye on—"

Kyle thwapped Kell on the head. "Yeah, yeah." He directed his attention back to Kip. "Anyway, they hooked up and stayed in touch. He's spending the next few weeks trying to 'woo' her." He made air quotes.

Kell translated. "Meaning he's trying to keep getting laid."

Kip laughed. "Apparently I missed a hell of a lot." He needed to stop missing so much. "So the sister runs the paintball business by herself?"

Kell shook his head. "Only on the weekends until June. Nash will be back to help her out with the full summer season."

Kip cocked his head sideways. "Sounds like a cool set-up. I'll bet we have a great time."

Kyle threw up his hands. "Finally! He's on board."

Kip didn't respond. He let his middle finger to the talking.

I love writing sibling conversations and when Willa joins the fun the banter goes up several notches. J

That's it for this week. Happy reading!

Skylin