Sunday Snippet: Hand of Fate

Whew. It's been a very long week. A slow leak in one of my tires means I've been filling with a portable device every other day or so. Add in the oven going out on our stove and scrambling to find another one on top of the tire issue. We did get the range replaced and hope to have the tire situation under control this week. Bleh.

Weird weather again. Storms and some back and forth temperatures. I really hope we don't pay for the somewhat mild temperatures by having a super-hot October and November. Would also love to not have flooding from the rain. We've been very lucky so far.

Work projects were gnarly again. Started a new copy edit that, well, went okay as far as the copy edit part is concerned. The story? All over the place. I don't have to be the target audience for the manuscripts I edit, but whew! I struggled with this one because I had a hard time following the plot, which I don't run into very often at the copy-editing stage. I'm also working on a manuscript evaluation and that is going pretty well. I'm very interested in the subject matter, which always helps.

I made a little progress on getting my side project ready to go. Hopefully, I'll be able to do more this week. I'm kind of excited to see if I can make this happen before the end of the year.

Had a terrible viewing week. The copy edit needed a lot of my focus, which isn't a bad thing. I made it almost halfway through my usual shows.

Started with Marple and enjoyed the mystery. Very fun to have two Janes in the story. Also enjoyed getting a glimpse of nostalgia with Miss Marple and her childhood.

Watched another episode of Britain's Most Scenic Counties and learned more new things about Kent. I'd love to visit someday.

Caught the season two premiere of Return to Paradise and quite enjoyed being back in Dolphin Cove. Loved having Jack Mooney make an appearance again and having him kind of give Mackenzie a fatherly type of tough love. She does need to sort things out with her past before heading back to London … if she heads back.

Started an episode of Poirot but didn't get it finished. I'll pick it back up this week. I hope.

That's it for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from Hand of Fate, a novella that explores the dynamic between a couple when they have to swap roles.

Here's the miniblurb:

Ada Kurtz and Clark Wellington are great at their jobs and either could pull off an upcoming mission. But when Ada gets injured, she's relegated to the sidelines, planning the operation and calling the shots for Clark. He has to take out an enemy satellite which won't be easy without Ada flying his wing.

And a sneaky peek…

Ada faced Clark in the projector room. The undercurrents flowed back and forth and threatened to consume one or both.

Pissed she had to stay behind, it took everything Ada had not to howl in frustration. She should be going on this op. Too bad her sprained knee had other ideas.

Why the hell didn't I pay attention to the big yellow markers indicating the wet deck outside the junior officers' head?

Right. She'd been too wrapped up in being pissed at Clark. Did he always have to use her as an example of what not to do in his morning briefings?

None of that mattered.

He's going. I'm not, and it's my own damn fault.

She'd have to be satisfied with planning the mission. And hope Clark didn't get himself killed leading the damn thing.

Hence the undercurrents. She decided to give Clark her last-minute thoughts and then she'd go off to sulk in private.

“Keep your entrance low and fast.” She spoke matter-of-factly and could probably be more encouraging. “Use the terrain to stay hidden. And I mean until the very last second.” She looked directly at Clark. “Make sure you give the flak suppression unit enough time. If you don't, they can't weaken the defenses.”

Geez, why couldn’t she just say bang on and leave it at that?

Because the whole plan worried her. There were too many variables in taking out the relay station. And this op had a million ways to go wrong, even if it all came from her head. If anything happened to Clark … it would be on her.

And honestly? Losing him would suck, and not just because his father commanded the ship. Clark gave her something to focus on. Their back and forth masked the deep attraction she had for him. Wartime didn't really qualify as a good time to start a relationship, but she'd jump at a chance with him. If only she didn't suck so badly at behaving.

She glanced up to find Clark waiting for her to continue, a stony expression on his face. Yeah, pep talks weren't her thing. Another ticky box checked in the needs-work column.

She shook her head. "Just stick with the plan."

Having a little fun with this one. Ada is out of her element with planning and being responsible for a mission, and I enjoy writing the discomfort and tension she feels.

 

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

ML Skye