Author Spotlight - Excerpt from Accidental Hearts

Michelle and I hope you've enjoyed her week in the spotlight. Here's an excerpt from Accidental Hearts. Leave a comment here on this post today, Saturday and Sunday along with your email and I'll pick a winner from the post to receive a PDF copy of Michelle's story.

Smiles
Moderator Steph

*********
(The set-up: Abby and Tyler have taken their respective monsters ... err, nieces and nephews ... out to a recreation center with mini-golf, games, ice cream, laser tag)

"Uncle -- "
Tyler jerked around when Pam shrieked and barely closed his eyes in time as the golf club slammed into his face. He threw himself backward and flung up his hands, deflecting the worst of the blow.

And ended up sitting in three inches of slightly scummy water.

It occurred to him that if Pam hadn't yelled, he wouldn't have turned and put his face directly in the path of Danny's golf club.

Then again, he should have checked before he bent to take his violet ball out of the hole. He knew it was a mistake to put himself and Abby ahead of the children, even though he knew the game would go much faster that way. That was what he got for hoping to leave the children several holes behind so he could have some private time with Abby. Trying to get away from them seemed to encourage the children to play fast, which brought Danny up on his heels playing without looking ahead. How hard was it for the boy to see an adult male standing two feet away on the putting green?

"Tyler?" Abby knelt on the edge of the shallow water hazard and reached for him. "Are you all right?"

"Am I bleeding?"

"No."

"Then I'm all right. I think." He tried to smile and regretted it. The tiny movement sent a spike of pain crashing through his head. Now he knew how Frankenstein's monster felt, with that seam around the top of his skull.

Twenty minutes later, he and Abby sat in a corner of the snack bar, all by themselves, while he pressed a paper towel full of crushed ice to his forehead. According to the tiny mirror in Pam's pocket, most of the damage consisted of a half-inch wide mark down his forehead, dark red and turning into a bruise. Nothing on his nose, though it felt like the bone was ready to crumble. No blood, thank goodness. He had felt sick enough when Abby had hurt her knee. Seeing her blood had made him feel helpless and angry and slightly twisty in his stomach. Tyler didn't want to know how he would react to his own blood on his hands.

"Feeling better?"

"It's quiet, there's no one arguing within a mile of here, and I have ice cream.
Which, I might add, I don't have to share with those two monsters of mine. What more could a man want?" He tried to smile and was relieved when his head didn't threaten to split open again.

"I like a guy who's easy to please." Abby spooned up some of her sundae. There was an odd flicker in her eyes that made him wonder if she was about to say something and then changed her mind.

"Honestly, I am feeling better. Would you stop trying to feel guilty?"

"Me?"

"Yes, you. It was Pam who shrieked and Danny who hit me. I don't see any way you could have foreseen or stopped them, and Chad and Candy weren't involved at all."

"Well, if you put it that way ..." She fought a grin. "How's your sundae?"

"Fine."

"I'd believe that if you were actually eating it."

"Oh." His face warmed, which felt rather odd against the chill of the paper towel.
The truth was that between trying to drive the ache in his face away, wondering what kind of an idiot he looked like, and gloating over Abby's concern for him, he hadn't had any attention to spare for eating.

He liked staring into her eyes as she sat across the table from him. Tyler wished he could ensure she would be there every morning and evening -- but how could he say that? Most of their time together had been either full of interruptions, embarrassment, or accidents. The last thing he wanted to do was drive Abby away. He wanted to do everything in his power to make sure she wanted to be there, with him.
Short of brainwashing at this point in their relationship -- did they even have a relationship? -- what could he do?

*****

Web site: www.Mlevigne.com
Trailer: www.Mlevigne.com/tabor-main.html
OR www.MLevigne.com/trailers.html
Buy link: http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-326/Tabor-Heights%2C-Ohio-cln--Accidental/Detail.bok