Sunday Snippet: Gotta Start Somewhere

I hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving had a wonderful one. We're always low-key. We head to my dad's, eat, converse for a while then head home to nap in a food coma. We definitely had a good time.

The weather is crazy weird again, which is actually kind of typical for the end of November. It's usually a little colder and the question of whether it'll snow or not. Now it's more like up and down temperatures that go back and forth to drive anyone with sinus issues to the pharmacy to stock up on meds.

I finished up the episode of Ted Lasso I started and thoroughly enjoyed. I'm iffy on Jamie's redemption but hopeful it'll continue and stick. I honestly hated that character so much last season.

I also spent the week watching a large chunk of Batman: The Animated Series as mentioned in last week's post. I started with episode seventeen of season one and continued through episode thirty. I'll be watching more this week with a plan to finish out November with my memorial to Kevin.

One of the things I love most about revisiting this series is finding overlooked gems in the rewatch. There were a couple of episodes I'd completely forgotten about and it's nice to see them again.

That's pretty much it for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from Gotta Start Somewhere, a novella that got a start with a writing community prompt.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Colleagues, Justine and Thatcher, work for a private security company and finally land a mission together. When things go sideways and the duo gets trapped behind the safe zone, they have to lay low and wait for an extraction. There's no better time to discover what else they might have in common.

And a snippety peek…

Justine Holden scanned the roster for the Brownwell protection detail. "Hot damn, I finally get an assignment with Thatcher Beckett." She'd been waiting almost two years to pull duty with him.

He'd been in her recruitment group three years ago and, whoo boy, she noticed him. Sadly, they'd quickly been separated into opposite teams and trained on different rotations. She kind of lost track of him—other than occasionally bumping into him between operations.

She huffed out a breath. "I might actually get to have an actual conversation with him." Instead of quick nods and chin lifts or the usual inane chatter.

How's it going? Have a nice day off? Watch your six out there.

She reviewed the information on the protective detail. Leander and Ella Brownwell were requesting a six-man team to accompany them to Mexico to complete the settlement of Ella's grandparents' estate. The property bordered on the fringe of a drug cartel's holdings. The Brownwells didn't expect any trouble but wanted to take precautions until the sale of the house and grounds went through.

Justine nodded. "Smart choice. Never hurts to err of the safe side." She tucked the roster back inside the folder. "Better pack for a warm climate." Heading out of the briefing room, she bumped into Thatcher.

He gave her a smile. "Justine, right? You assigned to the Brownwell detail?" He propped a shoulder against the jamb.

Her lips curved upward. "Yes, it's Justine and yeah, I'm on with the Brownwells." Jerking her thumb over her shoulder, she gave a brief rundown. "Looks like it's you, me, Jasper, Mathias, Dora, and Chase as team leader." A good mix—she'd worked with all but Thatcher.

Thatcher inclined his chin. "Chase keeps a cool head, which I like in the person on point. Jasper's a whiz with tech. Mathias and Dora speak Spanish. That's a bonus." His lips quirked. "That leaves us in the role of marksmen, right?"

She chuckled. "If everything shakes out the way I think it will, probably." She knew her way around weapons. "I also speak Spanish but I'm better at interpreting."

He arched his brows. "Is there a story behind that?"

She shrugged. "It's weird, I know. I read and understand the words but I struggle to pronounce them. If I hear a conversation, I know what's being said and I can respond, but not quickly." Her brain worked the same with German, French, and Farsi.

Thatcher huffed out a breath. "You're ahead of me. I'm terrible with languages." He pushed away from the door. "I haven't tried the reading thing, though. Maybe we can talk about it on the flight down?"

Justine lifted a shoulder again. "Sure. It's a long flight. We can give it a try." She made a mental note to bring her Spanish dictionary.

Thatcher grinned. "I'd like that." He turned and ducked out of the room. "Wheels up in twelve. I'll let you get packed and maybe catch some shut eye."

She laughed. "That's exactly my plan."

This one is in the beginning stages of its journey even if the idea has been pinging around in my brain for a long, long time. Happy to get going on the story of Justine and Thatcher.

 

That's it for this week. Happy reading!

Skylin