Sunday Snippet: Chasing the Sun

There's nothing quite like hitting the third week of December and realizing less than half my holiday shopping is complete. I need about five more hours each day to get everything finished up. Something tells me I'm not going to see that extra time.

Had a decent week of television viewing. Caught an episode of Riverdale and, wow, I'm seriously impressed with how the relationship with Betty and Alice is being portrayed. I'm on the fence with the Hal stuff. Was completely thrilled I didn't have any Hiram to deal with and loved the father / son stuff between FP and Jughead and Archie and Fred. It's so bittersweet to watch Luke Perry's scenes.

Caught another arc of Sapphire and Steel. I should be getting ready to start the third season next week.

Watched an episode of Murdoch Mysteries. Really not sure what to make of the neighbor interaction. My gut says the wife is probably some type of murderer. We'll see if I'm proven right. I have a vague idea of who I think she'll end up taking out if she is.

Also watched an episode of Frankie Drake Mysteries. Enjoyed seeing a family member added to the fold. Loved Nora's mama bear protection instincts.

Also caught another episode of Midsomer Murders. Very happy this has another season coming up.

That's pretty much it for television this week. I also dived deep into the holiday music on a couple of days. Tonight's post is from Chasing the Sun, a sexy short that might end up turning into a novella.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Chance Martin and Rena Chavez are best friends, and maybe something more, if their work will stop getting in the way. But when Chance can't deal with a set of orders to remove an admiral with lethal action, he starts a downward spiral he can't stop. Rena has to pull him back from the edge, no easy task because she always follows orders.

And a sneaky peek…

Rena sat reading the after action report from the Moru Zasu explosion. The space substation held a key position on the relay route from their home planet Xanxia to the newly discovered Celestene, a planet the central government coalition hoped to start settling soon. They had to if they wanted to ease the current population burden.

God, what a close call? Complete with bodies flying out of the blast area with the recon ship just barely getting clear of the explosion.

She huffed out a breath. "Did Chance even bother to mention it?" Nope. Just wrote down the facts and went on with his duties. Closed the file.

A full week ago.

Yeah… something's just not right with him.

Her pen tapped the pages of the report and Rena pondered how distant he'd become. "Chance Martin can do aloof and biting on his best day, but lately he's been over the top with it." Maybe that explained his almost complete withdrawal from social activities. "He never shows up for the late night poker fests anymore." And he sure doesn't haunt the tiny little bar in the far cargo hold of the Valor.

She'd looked for him on multiple occasions.

She hadn't seen him around much since his spacewalk. And truth told… she hadn't made much effort to hunt him down—other than checking the bar and poker games. She wondered if anyone had. Probably not. She didn't like the guilt trip that set in. It had teeth.

God, she hated when her conscience reared its ugly head.

But, dammit, Chance had stunned her when she had reached out after he ejected during a battle. His admission of not wanting to come back knocked her for a loop. Rock-solid Chance Martin had a death wish? It boggled her mind. "And I don't know how to deal with it."

So… she hadn't been there for him. Not really.

His confession messed up the way she viewed him and she had no idea what to say. "After all, I'm not the one who's supposed to skirt the boundaries and pull my ass out of the fire." No, that would be Chance, much to his father's dismay.

Being the son of a government official made him push against boundaries, sometimes going too far.

Rena played by the rules. Always went by the book unless everything else failed. And, okay, she tried to keep things loosely defined when it came to Chance, because he got her on a level no one else did. "But he's not allowed to do things like give up and not want to come home."

He was supposed to bounce back and be the same guy she'd known longer than anyone else on the ship. Not disengage from life and crawl inside his head to hide away from everyone who cared about him. But he did exactly that.

This one is coming together in fits and starts. I've got a solid idea of where I want things to go but the sages aren't always on the same page.

That's it for this week. Catch everyone on the flipside.

ML Skye