Sunday Snippet: Keeping Up with Honor

Ugh. Turning the clock back is a bummer. I've been reading arguments for staying on standard time or making daylight saving time permanent. I think I'm coming down on making DSL permanent, but either way, it would be nice to not have to turn the clocks in any direction.

Had a busy work week and hit my daily goals to stay on target for project dates. I also got a lot of writing in and updated some completed manuscripts for my new venture. I truly hope to launch it before the holidays.

Not a bad week of watching television. I'm debating on how many streamers I'm going to keep because they keep raising their prices. I'm okay with paying more if it's not all going into shareholder pockets. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of deal SAG-AFTRA can make with the studios. That might also help me decide which streaming platforms I'll be keeping.

I ended up starting a new Silent Witness two-parter and struggled a little with this one. Domestic violence is a hard watch and there aren't many clues to who the culprit is. I'm hoping to finish the second half later today.

Caught another Death in Paradise and enjoyed it. I'm a big fan of Humphrey and can't wait to finish his run so I can watch the spin off Beyond Paradise.

Watched another episode of Only Murders in the Building and enjoyed it even if a lot of the scenes were goofy. It's kind of nice to have the comedic skills of the cast on display.

Got another episode of Battlestar Galactica in on my rewatch. This one had some good moments with a lot being left unsaid, which ends up biting a few people later.

Enjoyed another episode of The Batman, which finished up the two-part origin story of Clayface and put Yin on the tentative side of the Batman.

Watched another episode of Classic Rugrats. I remembered the first part with the submarine imagination scenario but forgot about the one where they discover Chuckie is left-handed. I love going back to these episodes and seeing them again.

Caught another episode of VIP and enjoyed it. It's fun to see the characters out of their element. It's also fun to see Val figure out what's actually going on.

Enjoyed another episode of My Life Is Murder. Nice to have a bit of Alexa backstory about her husband and how his death still affects her.

And that's pretty much it for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from Keeping Up with Honor, a novella that puts a couple on a collision course with their future after splitting them apart in the present.

Here's the miniblurb:

Honor Brock goes against orders and runs a fool's mission to find a lost artifact. Rush Masterson tests a theory and risks his life to track her down. Once he finds her, he has to keep up because Honor won't go back until she has what she wants.

And a sneaky peek…

Rush's words slapped her hard. She deserved the scorn. But the broken trust stabbed at her heart.

She spoke to his retreating back. "I'm sorry, Rush."

Maybe she could show him they still had a shot. No, she'd blown her chance with him. She had been selfish, wanting one night with him in case she ended up not making it.

But she'd survived and he'd followed her. Now she'd have plenty of nights with Rush, but not the kind she wanted.

She sighed. "Well, I can still save the fleet." Packing up her bag, she hefted it over her shoulder and went out to meet Rush.

He studied her for a long moment, his face inscrutable. "Where to?" He arched an eyebrow.

She ached to touch him, to rewind to the obs deck and tell him everything she should've told him.

Instead, she grabbed a map and nodded toward downtown. "Ancient history museum. About five kilometers."

Rush huffed out a breath. "Long walk. Why don't we find something to get us there faster?"

She tilted her head to one side. "Okay, not a bad idea." She crossed the street to a parking garage. "Think anyone left their key in the ignition before they fled?" She peered through the windshield on the vehicles closest to her.

Rush dropped down, running his hands along the under carriage of a van. "Probably not, but they might have a spare set, in case they got locked out." He moved on to a small coupe.

Her face flamed. She should've thought of that. She mimicked his actions, coming up empty in her row. Rush started on the next section, and she did the same.

Two cars in, her fingers grazed a familiar oblong shape. "Rush. Think I hit paydirt here." She gave a hard tug and the magnetic box fell into her hand.

Sure enough, a spare key took up the space. A shadow fell over her in the dim light. Rush glanced down and cracked a slight smile. She stood up and pressed the unlock button. Rush pulled the passenger door open and slid inside.

Honor followed, wrinkling her nose. "Man, remind me to crack a window if we ever have to flee a planet again." Musty, stale air circulated when she started the engine.

Rush nodded toward the dash. "Fuel?"

She checked the gauge. "Half a tank. Plenty enough to go downtown and back." She backed out of the space and drove out of the garage, headed for the museum, carefully navigating the buckled areas of the pavement.

She slid a couple of looks in Rush's direction. He stared straight ahead, his face set in hard lines. I did that to him. The responsibility ate at her. And she had no idea how to make it right. Or if she could, no matter how much she wanted to. Then again, she didn't ask him to come along and chase her back home. So yeah, he owned that one.

With no traffic or lights, they covered the five kilometers in short order. She parked in front of the museum and shut off the engine. Rush popped his door open and walked around the front of the car.

Honor waited a few moments, getting her head back in the game. "Find the artifact, figure out the ship, head home." Everything else could wait.

Rush braced his hands on the window. "You coming?" Impatience laced his tone.

Heaving a sigh, she nodded. "Yeah, let's get this done." She stopped. "Shit. No lights or power. Why didn't I think of that?" Maybe because she'd been consumed with fear and doubt about the mission.

Rush smirked. "No idea, but I did." He reached into his bag and brought out two lights.

Damn the man for pulling her ass out of the fire. Again. She got out of the car, grabbed one of the torches, and stalked to the unlocked entrance.

I'm actually having a lot of fun with this story. It's kind of my favorite what-if type of scenario.

 

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

ML Skye