Rain, Rain, Go Away

Not much to report this week. Still editing. Having a very hard time staying focused, but I think I'm getting close to being done with Blind Ante. I've done some editing on Embers and Flame, also. I went ahead and got into that bit that was messed up in the middle. It wasn't as bad as I thought. A few paragraph revisions and I think it's back on track. Fingers crossed, I'll have them both ready for beta readers by the end of the month. Then the challenge will simply be finding them!

Excerpt from Blind Ante, Chapter 8--

Jordan woke with his nose buried in a sandalwood scented pillow and he moaned in pleasure as he inhaled deeply. It was such a comfortable smell and he rubbed his face into the cotton. His alarm clock was beeping, but it was far away and he considered closing his eyes and ignoring it. He drifted in the scent and the warmth of the body by his side with an arm thrown over his back as he came more fully awake. It was too dark to see who was next to him, but the memory of his first few nights assured him he was at least in the trailer. Flashes of Reese coming into his room and leading him here was little more than an extension of his nightmares. Except there was no violence or fire or rejection.

The alarm kept beeping and Jordan moved slowly, pushing at Reese until he rolled away and snuggled under the blanket without opening his eyes. But he froze when the alarm went quiet and what sounded like muttered cursing accompanied footsteps down the hall, coming towards them.

“Reese! Wake up. The alarm in Roger’s room was going off.”

Jordan looked up to see the shadowed form of a woman standing in the doorway. He couldn’t tell in the dark, but she sounded amused. “Hi. I’m Rain. Was that alarm set for you?”

All he could choke out was “uh, yeah” but he didn’t need to say more as Reese finally woke up. “Rain? What the fuck you doing here?” he asked as he sat up, rubbing at his eyes as he tried to focus and make sense of all the noise. Jordan sunk back down into the mattress and would have pulled the blanket over his head if he could’ve gotten away with it.

“Now, big brother, watch your language. A lady's present!” Reese scoffed. “Hey! I am! Anyway, Mom’s having fits, so she sent me.”

“Fits? She sent you in the middle of the night? Why?”

“Because you kicked Roger out and moved your new boyfriend in.”

Jordan sat up and sputtered, “I’m not his boyfriend,” at the same time as Reese yelled, “As if.”

The overhead light came on when Rain found the switch. She crossed her arms and looked back and forth between the two on the bed with one thin eyebrow raised. “Oh, yeah? Could’a fooled me. And when did you trade muff for ass, anyway?” Reese didn’t say anything but he gave her a ‘what the hell?’ look and she giggled. “What, you think your little sister doesn’t know things?”

Reese covered his face with his hands and took a deep breath. “Sister, dear, go start a pot of coffee. I’ll join you in a minute.”

“What? You don’t want me watching while you give your honey a good morning kiss?” She laughed when Jordan blushed.

“Rain! Go!”

“I’m going, I’m going,” she said as she raised her hands in surrender and turned away.

She sang as she moved towards the other end of the house, entirely too cheerful for someone who’d surely only had a few hours of sleep. “What’s going on?” Jordan asked Reese. He was going to be late for work if he didn't get up, but he was shaky so he stayed where he was and watched as Reese pulled a pair of track pants on over the boxers he wore to sleep in.

“Don’t know,” he admitted, “but don’t worry about it. Mom’s got some wild hair up her butt and sent Rain to snoop. She figures I’ll be more open with my sister than I will with her.”