Sunday Snippet: Hot Water

Crap. It's December. I'm not even close to being holiday-ready. Then again, it's been a really weird year. Update from last week. The youngest is negative for Covid. She's home and having fun with the dogs. The middle kiddo? Well, he ended up back in the emergency department again. The acid reducer seems to be working, but we've discovered he's got kidney stones. There might be more going on but we won't know until he follows up with a urologist. All I know is he's tired of feeling like crap. Fingers crossed we get whatever is up with him figured out.

Kind of a slow week in television. I watched several more episodes of Silent Witness. I'm almost finished with season seven. I'll start eight this upcoming week and then I'll be at the place I originally started watching the series.

Started a new episode of Blue Heelers and got about halfway through. I'll finish it up this week.

Also plan to watch Gabriel's Inferno part three and some holiday quickies from Passionflix this week. Looking forward to diving into those!

Tonight's post is from Hot Water, a novella where my main characters bond over the lack of hot water.

Here's the mini-blurb:

When Demi Strange and Nathan Jordan work together at a summer camp, things get heated. The campers use up the water ration, leaving Demi to borrow Nathan's shower and it lands her in more than hot water.

And a snippety peek…

Demi hated the shower situation. She finished rinsing off under an icy deluge.

"Damned tweens and their brilliant minds."

She never got to the shower stalls in time to grab a hot one because the girls figured out they could each get one extra minute of rationed time if they kept her busy and took their turns one after the other. After toweling off, hoping to create some heated friction, she dressed quickly and grabbed her kit. Her third cold shower of the week left her teeth chattering and she counted herself ready to do something she'd never done before—maim her campers. All ten of them.

"Little demons."

Okay, not so little. Most were in the ten to twelve age group. And every one of the girls got along, something almost unheard of in her three years' experience. She wouldn't ruin their fun at her expense … yet. She needed to play their game and beat them. No more distractions.

She exited the building and bumped into Nathan.

With a grunt, he steadied her then narrowed his eyes. "You're shivering and you have goose bumps." His gaze showed concern. "You didn't get a hot shower, did you?"

She shrugged. "It's the chilly weather. Very unseasonable this summer." She backed away, trying not to choke of the falsehood even though the temperatures had been in the high sixties the past week.

Nathan trotted to catch up with her. "Look, you can use my shower anytime. No strings attached. I mean it." He paused at the juncture leading to the boys' side of the camp.

She gave him a brief smile but kept walking. "Thanks."

She'd started to thaw out, both from the icy water and around Nathan. She really did appreciate the offer. A small shiver went through her. She might have to take him up on the use of his cabin.

Entering the girls' dorm, she shook her head. "But I'm not ready to cave just yet."

Way too much temptation she might not be able to resist.

Demi definitely won't be able to keep resisting Nathan's offer … or him.

 

That's it for this week. Happy reading!

Skylin