Sunday Snippet: Call to Come Home

Welcome 2023! Here's hoping everyone has a great year filled with everything good and terrific!

The final week of the year ended up being crazy busy. The weather started out pretty frigid but by the final day, we had temperatures in the fifties. I'm taking extra precautions because rapid changes in the weather wreak havoc on my sinuses.

I got a few more episodes of Batman: The Animated Series viewed. "Harley's Holiday" is one of my favorites. There's a lot of good stuff in that episode.

"Make 'Em Laugh" is also a fun episode. Very interesting to see the Joker as a regular Joe … until he's not anymore.

Batgirl returned and became pals with Catwoman, which ended up being a lot of fun to watch. I do have some questions on how Selena knew to post her message on the campus message board. Just saying.

"Lock-Up" is one I'd forgotten about, but I enjoyed it. I loved the ending where he pretty much gets exactly what he wanted in a weird, twisted way.

I also got to watch "Deep Freeze" and enjoyed having Victor back for a bit. Also nice to see another familiar face, which if memory serves, we might see again.

I'll be continuing the rewatch and hopefully get through the rest of season two and all of three before they're removed from the streaming service. I'm very annoyed over losing great shows for someone else's bottom line. Grrr.

That's pretty much it for the life update. Tonight's post is from Call to Come Home, a novella that puts the characters in a reunion situation at the worst possible time.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Hollace is on a mission in enemy territory to retrieve power cells to keep their temporary base station running. She bumps into a man she shares a past with, the presumed dead son of her commanding officer. When Verge refuses to leave with her, ignoring the call to come home, she takes matters into her own hands to reunite father and son … and to pick up where she and Verge left off.

And a sneaky peek…

Verge glanced up from the inventory list when his scout party leader rapped on the door jamb. "Marins, you're back early. What's the report?" He shuffled the papers into a folder.

Josh Marins stepped inside the office. "Sir, we found a lone traveler snooping around the depot."

Verge's eyes widened. No one went near the supply storage area unless they were fully armed and ready to rumble with the sentry guards.

"I was not snooping, you moron. I had a specific purpose for being there, which I tried to tell you—"

Verge couldn't believe his eyes … a face from the past came barreling through the doorway.

She stopped midsentence. "Holy shit." Her mouth hung open.

Holy shit, indeed. The odds of meeting here, like this, were astronomically wild. And he had no damn clue how to respond.

Since they parted on cosmically terrible terms, he opted for snark. "Well, if it isn't Hollace Winters." His long-ago one and only. "What brings you to my base of operations?" The surprise and shock of seeing her gave his tone a bit of a dickish quality.

Too bad. He tried in general not to be a bastard—too many people counted on him to stay alive—but … he'd learned from the very best.

Hollace closed her mouth and schooled her features. "Verge Olafsson." She huffed out a breath. "As I live and breathe."

Marins swept his gaze back and forth between them. "Um, you two know each other?"

"In another lifetime…" they answered in unison.

Verge dismissed Marins. "Go ahead and finish your perimeter recon then report." He nodded toward the door.

Hollace waited until Josh left the room before speaking again. "Should've known you'd survive." Her voice rumbled on the last word.

Verge narrowed his gaze. "No doubt about it. I'm too damned stubborn to die." And he'd been lucky in the extreme.

She pinned him with a hard look. "Doesn't hurt you've got your old man's blood running in your veins." An eyebrow arch dared him to contradict her.

He didn't, but he did respond. "Wrong thing to say." As if either needed a reminder on that touchy subject.

She snorted. "I don't give a shit if that pisses you off. Vasser will be over the moon to know his kid survived the bombings."

He didn't want to talk about his old man. "Why are you here?" Seeing her again unsettled him.

He'd thought they'd be spending their lives together … until his old man got between them. He didn't like ultimatums and neither did Hollace. His dad issued one to Verge and Verge, in turn, gave one to Hollace when he decided to drop to reserve status. He considered her the one that got away because no one else mattered the way she had.

She took a moment before answering. "To retrieve the power cells so we can get the hell away from here." She barely paused before following up with a question of her own. "How did anyone survive the initial attacks?"

This story is coming in bits and pieces but it's moving along. I love having family dynamics play a role in breaking a couple up and getting them back together.

 

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

ML Skye