Excerpt: It’s about time

Welcome to another excerpt from Second Chances.

I ran across the blog of one of my new favorite authors Hallee Bridgeman and am  excited to join in her Christian Fiction Friday blog hop. If you’re interested, you can check out the other blogs at the link at the bottom of the page, to view other excerpts from works in progress.

Today I’ll be posting another excerpt from Chapter 5.

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“Hey, Lacey.” He greeted her as if it hadn’t been over a month since they’d last talked. “Where’s everyone at?”

“It’s always dead in here over winter break,” She met him at the cash register. “Everyone’s on winter vacation. I’m surprised you came in today,” She struggled to keep her excitement at bay—to keep her tone neutral, conversational—when all she wanted to do was to ask where in the world he’d been and why they hadn’t talked in so long. Was I just imagining this amazing chemistry between us during the auditions?

“Nothing better to do,” He shrugged. “It’s someplace warm and I’m thirsty.” He smiled warmly at her, causing her to smile in return. “I’m surprised you guys are even open—But I’m really glad you’re here,” Her smile morphed into a grin. “I thought you and Joel were going to visit family…?”

“Joel did,” She nodded. “I don’t really do family,”

“You don’t do church, you don’t do family…” he mused, leaning his muscular arms on the counter top and gazing intently at her; his deep brown eyes studied her with a half-smile. Again, she waited for him to ask why; again, he surprised her by not questioning it. For a moment, his smile faltered and the silence lengthened, but he quickly let whatever was on his mind fade, and the warm smile returned, framed by rough stubble. “I’ll take a hot chocolate,”

“Sure,” She opened the cash register as he handed her some change, and then rang him up.

While she went back to mix his hot chocolate, she tried not to let a sudden, sinking sense of disappointment overwhelm her. What were you expecting? She sighed, not even sure what she wanted from someone she barely knew in the first place. Maybe it was all in my head.

Every time she spotted him in the coffee shop, she watched him from a distance, wishing he would come and talk to her again, hoping for… for what? Sometimes he came in by himself, or with some other students to study, but he never came up to talk to her. Granted, she was constantly busy whenever he happened to come in. They hadn’t even had a chance to talk about the Spring production because she didn’t have his number. I need to change that, pronto, she reminded herself.

When she brought him a cup of steaming hot chocolate over to where he stood at the pick-up counter, instead of moving back to sit at an empty table, he stayed where he was, content to sip his drink standing nearby. Since she had nothing to do, she stood near him, leaning back into the corner of two counters.

“What time do you get off?” Surprised by his question, a shy smile spread across her lips.

“Seven,”

“I’ve never been ice skating. You want to go with me tonight?”

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I hope you enjoy and it piques your interest. Stay tuned for more updates.

I’ll post the link to the Blog Hop as soon as it becomes available

Happy reading 🙂