Teaser Tuesday – Finding Trouble

So once the book is published, you don’t just stop!  You have to write more, of course.

This week I worked a little on my kidlit series Trouble.  This is from pretty much the beginning, so all you need to know is that Rebecca is a good girl, and she hears crying in the rain.

The solid, wailing thing shrieked and pulled away from me.  He flailed his arms as he went slipping in the mud and ended up on his butt.

It was a boy.  A boy with blue skin and white hair and pointy ears.  He was the strangest-looking boy I had ever seen.

“I’m sorry,” I said, twisting my hands together.  I hadn’t meant to scare him.

His eyes were huge.  Like a cartoon character’s.  He shot off the ground and grabbed the front of my coat with his muddy hands.  “You can see me?”

“Of course I can see you.”

He let go of me and started bouncing around the yard.  Like he was the Easter Bunny, I guess.

“Why were you crying, boy?” I said.

He stopped bouncing.  “I was lost.”

I felt so bad for him.  He had been so sad, and sometimes people are mean when you look funny, and he did look funny.  I held out my hand.  “Do you wanna come to my house and have some food?”

He grabbed onto my hand like it was saving him from water that was too deep.  I pulled him to the house, then we washed off his hands and bare feet with the house on the patio.  I left my galoshes on the patio and hung my jacket up inside the door.

The blanket he had tied around his neck dripped on the floor.  “Why are you wearing a blanket?” I asked.

“It’s a cloak!”

“What’s a cloak?”

He held out his cloak and shook it around, sprinkling the house with water.  “This is a cloak.  It keeps me warm.”

He didn’t look warm.  He was shivering.

“What do you want to eat?”

“I dunno.”  He was looking around at everything in our house with those wide eyes again.

“I’ll make you a sandwich.  Do you like peanut butter?  Are you allergic?”  My friend Kermit was allergic.

“Don’t think so.”

Good, ‘cuz peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were my specialty.

I pulled myself up onto the counter to get a plate down from the cupboard, pulled bread from the breadbox , peanut butter from the pantry, and jelly from the fridge.  The boy watched me put together his sandwich.  I cut the crusts off and cut it diagonally.

“Here you go.”

He stuffed one sandwich triangle into his mouth, then sat there chewing for a really long time.  I wanted to ask him more stuff about himself, but I couldn’t while he was eating.  It’s not good manners.

His mouth was full of the second half when my mom came in.

“Rebecca Kincaid, what do you think you are doing?” she demanded, her hands on her hips.

I look at the sandwich, then at the boy, then back at her.  I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.

“You know that we have a humongous lunch as soon as your father’s sermon is over.  A sermon he’s starting in five minutes, and there’s no sign of you anywhere.  And here you are, making yourself a sandwich and ruining your appetite.”

“But Mom…”

“No buts.”

“But it wasn’t for me,” I said.  “It was for the boy.”

“What boy?”

I look at him, all blue-faced, his cheeks full of sandwich.  He swallowed hard and said, “Trouble.”

Hope you enjoyed!

Lots of love,

Sage

Surprise Teaser Tuesday – cut scene from Love Sucks

Hey, I thought that in honor of Love Sucks coming out on Friday, I would do a teaser from it.  But I don’t know how my editor would feel about that, so I’m doing a teaser from a scene I cut solely for length.  This is the first half of a scene I loved, but something needed to go from this section of the novel, and this was the scene that was least important.

I feel bad that Eric doesn’t get equal time as Lo, so maybe I’ll tease with an Eric scene next week.  Unless you guys say you want to see the nerdiness that is me posting the actual D&D scene that occurs after this excerpt.

Context: Mailee drains love with her touch and has been on a quest to become human, but she’s taking a break with Logan and his friends, Tyron and Adam. Mai and Lo are pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend as an excuse to keep him touching/feeding her and his friends from touching her at all. Lo has diabetes.  And…I think that’s all you need to know.

The doorbell rang.  When it rang the second time, I realized nobody was going to get it.  I peeked through the peephole.  Pizza delivery.

“Hey, that’ll be 23.98,” the delivery guy said when I opened the door.  Uh oh.  I didn’t have any money.

“I got it.”  Adam sprinted up to the door, wallet in hand.  “Mailee, could you run these down to the guys while I pay.  Don’t let them suck you in.  If you don’t come back in five minutes, I’ll assume they incorporated you into the cult, and I’m not going in after you.”  He grinned.  “Thanks, doll.”

Which was how I ended up carrying three pizzas downstairs to the room across the hall from my bedroom.

“Hey, babe,” Lo said when I entered.  Everyone looked up.

“Oh em gee,” a guy with red hair and freckles said.  It took me a second to figure out he was speaking in letters and not a foreign language.  “You didn’t tell us your girlfriend was a Halfling.”  And I was confused again.  “Look how cute she is.”

The other guy–with a shaved head and stockier than Freckles Guy or Tyron–chimed in with, “Give her a break, Chris.  She’s at least tall enough to be an elf.  Yeah, definitely elf-like.”

The girl with curly brown hair giggled while the one with straight black hair and a pointed nose rolled her eyes.

Tyron snorted.  “Way to be the most stereotypical gamers ever, guys.”

“I brought you your pizza.”

“Here.”  Lo stood up and grabbed the top two boxes.  “Follow me.”

We put them down on a table to the side.  “Do we have to pizza every time, guys?  I’d like for my blood sugar to at least have a fighting chance.”

Tyron ignored him.  “Mailee, you going to play with us?”

“Oh, yes, do,” the curly-haired girl said.  “Let’s try to balance out the testosterone level in here?”

“D&D is supposed to be testosterone-full.  This is already more girls than I’ve ever seen in a game.”

“Don’t give me that gaming is for guys crap.  My Serenity game has three times the girls than guys.”

“Yeah, but that’s Serenity.  I mean the name itself is girly.”

Chris and the other guy threw some dice at him.  “Don’t mess with the Browncoats!”

“Does this make sense to you?” I whispered to Lo.

“Sorta.  Don’t think I’m too much of a geek.  This is more Ty’s thing.  Do you want to play?”

“What do I have to do?”

“She’s playing!”  Chris was way too excited about this.

“I’ll teach you.  And you can eat with us.”  He kissed me before I could flinch.  I’d have to talk to him about that.

“Oo-ooh….  Logan,” said our personal Geek chorus.

“Okay, now you’re the most stereotypical gamers ever,” Lo said.  He took my hand into his to keep me from playing with my fingers.  “It’s okay,” he promised, and only I knew he meant the two of us touching.  “You don’t have to play.”

“No, she has to be an elf.  Come on, Girlfriend of Logan,” the bald guy said.

“Stop pressuring her.  Mai, you don’t have to play, and if you decide to, don’t let them tell you how your character should be.  You can be anything you want.”

And then he said the two little words that got me to play.  “Even human.”

Hope you enjoyed.

Lots of love,

Sage

Teaser Tuesday – A Kidnapping

Here we are.  It’s the last Teaser Tuesday for Taylor-Made (unless I get bored during edits.  You know how it is.)  I looked for something that wasn’t too spoilery for you that I wrote last week, but I think that’s pretty much a lost cause.  So this is slightly spoilerish, I guess.

Context: Taylor is a Simulant, an android built by EDEN to be a boyfriend.  Some Simulants have very little individuality, but he has recently made friends with a group that had more than average.  EDEN has recalled him, and he found out that one of those he made friends with was recalled when he tried to contact Taylor, so he’s trying to save the others.  This is him at Angel’s house.

“You speak Spanish.” He doesn’t look Hispanic. Maybe a little Asian. Maybe. I guess we’re not really anything, ethnicity-wise.

“Yep, they plopped that into my head so I can talk to the help. Not that I don’t know that I’m one of the help too, believe me.”

“Is she going to tell your girlfriend we were here?”

“Nah. Not unless you kidnap me. So what’s up?”

I fidget. “We’re kind of here to kidnap you.”

“Oh. Well, let me make sure she knows I’m going out.” He winks at me and goes back inside.

When he comes back, I ask, “So your girlfriend is okay with you just coming and going during the day?”

“Sure. She’s gone anyway. And nobody really tells her what I do during the day. I watch a lot of movies at the theater, actually. So now will you tell me what’s up?”

Rosie drives us to the next Simulant’s house, while I explain about Geremy. “So you see, we have to stay with my friend.”

“Forever?”

I don’t know how to answer that. “I think so. I mean, not there, obviously, but–”

“Look, I never called you, and I didn’t go on your website. As far as they know, I didn’t do anything connected to you. If I just go back to Caren, everything will be fine. If I stay with you and your friends, there’s no going back.”

“They took Geremy, and he knew your name. I don’t know what information they got, but we all keep logs in our brains. They’re pretty detailed, like a narrative of our every day. Whether Geremy wants to or not, he’s going to tell EDEN our names, he’s going to describe each of us. If they get you or me, it’d be the same thing. We can’t help it. We record our memories and EDEN reads them to analyze their results.”

“So… there’s no going back to Caren.” The sadness in his voice touches me. I know what that feels like. No matter how much individuality he has, he still loves Caren. “Can I call her?”

Angel is my favorite of the non-Taylor Simulants, so I hope you like him too

Lots of love,

Sage

Teaser Tuesday – Hot Kiss

So here’s a fun little teaser.  I’ve written so many different types of things in this novel this week that it’s hard to believe that this was one of them, but once I went back that far I wanted to share with you.

Previously on Taylor-Made: Taylor found out he was a Simulant/BOIS-friend–an android programmed to be the perfect boyfriend.  He is the one and only Simulant recycled from another one, who was named Justin and belonged to Malinda.  Taylor has been having dreams of Justin’s life with Malinda.  Taylor is actually programmed for Rosie.

“Taylor?” Malinda says softly. She’s looking at me now, and her eyes sparkle in the flickering of the TV’s light. She’s closer too, and she folds her knees under her on the couch, leaning in towards me. “This is so stupid, and I know it’s going to ruin everything…”

“No it won’t. Just say it.” My mouth feels dry. I don’t know what I think she’s going to say.

She says nothing at all. She sits up on her knees, putting her face just higher than mine. She pushes my hair back and leans in to kiss my forehead, but before she can, I tip my face up and meet her lips with mine. Her eyes widen in surprise, but she clenches her hands in my hair and practically melts into me. I wrap my arms around her waist, like I’ve been wanting to do all night, to be honest, and I pull her tight against me. Her body against mine, I can’t stop thinking about it that night, her naked body in the moonlight.

She lets out a soft moan, but I push her away. My face is on fire, and my body’s warming up quickly. I push myself off the couch and run to the kitchen for some water. Oh, god, is my body punishing me for kissing someone other than Rosie?

I find a glass exactly where I know it is and pour some water from the faucet. I take a great swig from the glass. It’s not cold enough.

“Taylor?” Malinda hugs the doorway, watching me.

“Malinda, I can’t. I physically can’t. I– God, I’m burning up.”

“Oh,” she says softly. She enters the room and puts her hand against my cheek. Her fingers are cold. “No, Justin did the same thing. It’s okay. You’re okay.”

Justin? I look at her like she’s crazy. There’s no way he kissed another woman. “The same…”

She hesitates and looks around. “Maybe I’m wrong. What… what were you thinking in there?”

I flash back to her body and feel another wave of heat. I get some ice from the freezer and put a cube against my forehead. “I don’t really feel comfortable telling you what I was thinking.” Right now the flush in my cheeks might be unrelated to the rest of the heat in my body.

“O-Oh. No, I mean, that’s right. That’s what happens when you’re not programmed for…for making love.” She twists her hands together and looks down at them, blushing. “When Justin and I– But he was okay after he got some sleep. His system needed to recharge. You don’t want to hear about this, I know, but that’s what he needed. Anyway, that’s what’s happening. I think. I mean, right?” Her eyes flick up to my face.

Sex. Holy smokes, it’s sex.

Hope you enjoyed

Lots of love,
Sage

Teaser Tuesday – Simulant

Oh, hey, it’s Teaser Tuesday and I nearly forgot.  Which would be tragic since I love everything I wrote this week.  But here I am, and here you go.

This excerpt is in no way spoilery, though in most novels you would expect it to be.  But, hopefully, the revelation Taylor makes in this scene has already been figured out by the reader.

Context: In a dream Taylor’s been having of Austin, a soldier Simulant, Austin’s arm was cut deeply, exposing his electronic bits inside.  Right before this scene, Taylor was told that the only Simulant to be recycled was Justin, who he also has been dreaming of.

I pace back and forth, trying to talk some reason into the jumbled craziness in my head. I just keep seeing Malinda over and over, calling me Justin, and the five seconds it took me to remember that I was Taylor.

“I’m Taylor!” I scream and punch the wall between my bedroom and bathroom. I lean my forehead against it and pound it a few more times with the heel of my hand.

I can’t be a Simulant. Because it would mean that Rosie ordered me, and Rosie doesn’t even like BOIS-friends. And she didn’t want me. She made me chase her for months. I can’t be her BOIS-friend. I can’t be a Simulant.

I look up and right above my head is the poster that she defaced ages ago. The pimply faced girl was supposed to be her apology to me. Saying, “look at how I defaced myself.” The girl is hand-in-hand with a Simulant.

It’s supposed to be me. I’m the Simulant in the picture.

“No.” I rip the poster out of its pushpins and tear it up. “No.”

I run into the kitchen and search the drawers for a knife. I’m not a Simulant, and I’ll prove it. I find my sharpest knife in the drawer near the fridge. I cut along the tip of my left pinkie finger, not deep enough to do a lot of damage, but deep enough that it should bleed. I squeeze my eyes shut at the pain, but force them open to look at the blood.

And wait.

It doesn’t come.

I’m practically hyperventilating now. I take the knife to the bathroom and look at myself in the mirror. “Is that you, Justin?” I whisper. I shake my head. But I remember him getting ready in the mirror. Same wild blond hair, same blue-gray eyes. Who has gray eyes?

I bite my lip and put the knife against my left arm. I know about how deep to cut if I have to, but if I see blood, I’ll stop. That’s all. I’m about to pass out at the mere pressure of the blade against my skin, but I force myself to press down. I hope for blood, but there’s nothing. I press harder and cry out at the pain. I clench my teeth and keep going, but there’s no blood, just a clear liquid starting to dribbled down my arm. I stop when I see a flash of silver that isn’t the knife. I stop when I can see a spark of electricity under my skin. My right arm falls limply to my side as my left arm exposes me for what I am.

I’m a Simulant.

Lots of love,

Sage

Teaser Tuesday – Electives

Quite  a lot has happened in the novel since we last saw Taylor.  Like, now he’s dating Rosie.  What?  I know.  Here’s one of their few happy scenes before I send the world crashing down on them again.

Context: When they finally got together Taylor promised Rosie he wouldn’t kiss her until she’s ready and that meant that she could initiate all the kisses.  Oh, and Rosie told Taylor about her current ideal guy, basically describing her ex. BOIS are android boyfriends and soldiers.

I’m lying on my stomach in the grass outside the auditorium, trying to fill out this form. “What classes are you signing up for?” I ask Rosie, peeking at the form she’s filling out on top of a textbook.

“None of your business, nosy,” she says, pulling it away from me.

“Hmm.” I flip through the elective book. Most of this form is easy. We fill out the classes that come next, no problem. But now that I’ve finished my gym requirement, I get an elective next fall.

“Senior year’s soooo hard,” Kara says. Only last week did she start hanging out with Rosie and me at lunch again. Rosie had been spending time with her after school, but she refused to see the two of us together. She still won’t come to PET-BOIS. I don’t think she liked it much anyway.

“Yeah. It’s all about our future,” Rosie says. “As if we don’t have enough to worry about with applying to college and stuff.” I know she’s thinking about her scholarship speech. It’s coming up, and she’s been worrying about it a lot.

“What do you want to do in the future?” I can’t believe I’ve never asked her this before, actually.

“Fight for BOIS rights, of course. So, let’s see. Maybe something social science-y.”

I make a face. I definitely prefer real science to social science. “I hope I get Craig in advanced chemistry. Science won’t be the same without him.”

“He probably wishes the same thing,” Kara says. “He’s always talking about how grateful he is that you’re his partner on dissection days.”

“Not much dissection in chemistry.” But I grin at her because it’s a compliment and because she and Craig are talking even though they don’t share a club anymore.

Then it’s back to business. I stop at the industrial arts section of the booklet, remembering how Rosie wished for a guy who was good with cars. Even though I know she was just listing Graham’s qualities, I still want to become the guy she always wanted. There’s an auto shop class listed, and it’s during a period I have free.

Of course, maybe I should learn to drive first.

“I should join drama,” Kara says.

Rosie grins. “You’d be great at that.”

“You think?”

I let their conversation slip to the background as I continue flipping through the book, slipping in a mental bookmark for that industrial arts page. I don’t find anything else that interests me until I get to the computer science section. “Hey,” I say, lifting myself up on my elbows.

“What?” Rosie asks.

“Computer science. I want to take that.”

“Really?” She wrinkles her nose.

“Yeah. I love our website, and I’d really like to know more about how to make something like it. It’s really interesting the way Alex can make all those numbers and symbols mean something.”

“Oh. Alex.” She snaps her booklet closed.

“What?”

“Nothing. You just seem to like her company a lot.”

“Yeah, she’s nice.”

Rosie glares at me. Oh. “Aw, Rosie, are you jealous?”

“As if.”

“You know there’s nobody for me but you.” I push myself up to kiss her. I know this is okay now because last week she totally told me that if I didn’t pick up the slack and stop making her do all the work kissing, she was going to punch me in the gut. I kind of believe her.

Hope you enjoyed the only happy romance scene I’ll probably ever post.

Lots of love,

Sage

 

Teaser Tuesday – A Little Bit Broken (Justin and Malinda)

This week I did another 10K Saturday challenge, and this time I actually made it!  But with the 10K I typed up that day, it’s another day’s work this week that I really love.  Yesterday I pulled out my notebook and wrote all the Justin and Malinda scenes (and one Taylor and Malinda scene) that I know about.  I love these two so much.  Probably because the book isn’t about them, so they serve as a building block for Taylor and Rosie’s story.  If the book was about Justin and Malinda, I’d probably find them boring

Since I wrote in my notebook, I’m typing this up from scratch, so I apologize for the roughness that comes with typing this up right this second. (I had to type the first four words three times to get them right, sigh)

Context: Justin is a BOIS, a boyfriend android created specifically according to his girlfriend’s wishes.  Malinda’s dad, who was paying for college (Taylor and Rosie are in high school, don’t worry), lost his job, and she’s been working to help pay for it.

“It’s just a little thing.  Nothing to worry about.”  Malinda walks her fingers up my arm to my shoulder as we lay in bed.

“I’m broken? I don’t feel broken,” I say quickly.  I don’t want to spend any more seconds away from her. She’s working at the ice cream parlor and doing school.  I only get to see her a little, and now I have to spend that time at the factory?

“It’s one tiny part.  They say we can bring you in for a quick fix, and we’ll be out in less than an hour.”

She’s watching her fingers instead of my face.  I wish she’d look at me.  I wish she’d promise me it will be okay.  I’d believe her.

I believe her.

“An hour’s a long time.  But we’ll be together forever.  And that’s longer.”

“Yes,” she whispers.  “Forever’s a lot longer.”  She turns over and lies her head against the pillow.  It’s my cue to press myself against her back and wrap my arms around her.  We’ve fallen asleep cuddled like this ever since that first night she came to me.

But tonight she turns in my arms so she’s facing me. “Let’s make tonight last forever.”

I don’t know what that means, but we both stay awake watching each other for a long time.

#

I think I fall asleep first.  But she’s asleep now, wrapped in sunlight and the blankets and me.  I stroke her hair.  She sighs and opens her eyes.

“Good morning.”

She tucks the blankets up to her chin. “Hi.”

“It’s time to fix me forever.”

She squeezes her eyes shut and nods.  “Let’s get dressed, and we’ll go.” She gets up and walks to the door.

“I love you,” I say before she leaves.

“I know,” she says.  But she forgot the most important part.

Someone reading this in the novel knows exactly what’s coming, but I wonder if you can guess from this little excerpt.  Or remember past posts that clue you in (hint: a little birdie could tell you).

Hope you enjoyed it!

Lots of love,

Sage

Teaser Tuesday – Awkward date

I know, I haven’t updated the blog since last Tuesday, but I do have two more days before my blogging week ends (I go Thursday to Thursday) so I promise at least one more post in the next two days. Maybe I’ll do a Workout Wednesday or a Lots of Love Thursday.  Ooh, I think the latter.  I have some things to love this week

It’s Teaser Tuesday.  This weekend I was challenged to write 10K on Saturday.  I didn’t make it because Roomie’s parents came down and distracted me for half the day, but I did get over 8K written in just that day.  So lots of new scenes to choose from this week.  I was considering always teasing with non-Taylor scenes.  Taylor’s been having dreams of two Simulants, one built to be a boyfriend and one built to be a soldier.  I seem to hit one per week, at least, and I think they’re my favorite scenes, but I decided on another scene this week, even though I wrote at least three of those scenes this week.

So instead you get part of Taylor’s date with a girl who’s not Rosie.

She leads me inside. The restaurant is packed and loud. At first I think this is good because she won’t expect us to talk, but then I realize she probably will and we’re going to have to yell at each other to be heard. Not really pleasant.

I give it a try. “People like to come here on dates?”

“Yeah. It’s great, isn’t it?”

I shrug. A hostess seats us at a booth, and we knock our knees together trying to get in the booth. “Sorry,” I say.

“No big.” She turns to the waitress and says, “I want a raspberry Long Island ice tea.”

The waitress writes that down, and I’m too busy figuring out that she’s okay with a seventeen-year-old ordering alcohol to realize that she wants me to give her a drink order next. After a second or two of being stared at, I say, “Oh, I just want a water.”

After she leaves, Kara grabs my hand and grins at me. “You’re so vanilla. It’s cute. I think you might have actually blushed if I had ordered ‘sex on the beach.’”

“She didn’t even card you. Did you see that?”

“And that’s why everyone comes here.”

Oh. It seems like a dumb reason to choose a restaurant. It made more sense when I thought it was because it was medium-level expensive and quality.

“I, uh, need to look at the menu.” I take my hand away to open the menu. It’s true. I have no clue what they serve here. The answer: everything. “What do you usually get?”

“Oh, a salad, usually.”

I look at their salads, but they have so much stuff on them and no guarantee of the quality of produce that I decide against them. There’s sandwiches and entrees that would look like a three course meal to some people. I end up ordering a burger because it’s advertised as grass-fed beef. It does give me hope for the rest of the restaurant’s food.

“What do you usually eat?” Kara asks. “You’re a mystery because you do some healthy stuff like Rosie, but you also make cookies with Hershey’s kisses.”

“I eat all sorts of stuff. I do like to be natural or organic when I can, but sometimes it’s hard, and sometimes it’s good to treat yourself to something a little sugary.”

She smiles at me as she sips her drink through the straw. “Everyone needs a little sugar sometimes.”

I’m reminded of Rosie’s words about the BOIS. All sugar, no substance. That’s what this date is.

“Some people like it better than others,” I say.

“But you like it sometimes. You’re open to trying things out. Not just sticking to your one narrow way of thinking.” She twirls the straw between her fingers, then passes the drink across the table. “Go ahead. Try something new.”

I look down and chuckle. “No, that’s okay. Really.”

“If you say so. But you’re missing out.” She licks her lips, making her lipstick shine rather than weakening it.

I push the glass back to her side of the table, but it taps against the empty bread plate and tips over, liquor spilling all over her half of the table and running into her lap. She screams and jumps out from the booth.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Lots of love,

Sage

Teaser Tuesday – Justin and Malinda

This week I worked on Love Sucks edits instead of Taylor-Made.  Since I don’t know if I can post those, you get an excerpt from last week.  So this is the first non-prologue scene with Justin and Malinda.

(ETA: Context: BOIS are androids built to fight in the place of human soldiers.  The company that created them, also created a boyfriend model to capitalize on the technology.  Girls can create the guy they think will be perfect for them, from looks to personality.)

Her raven black hair falls into her face as she cocks her head to the side and laughs a little. “What are you doing?”

I sigh. She’s moved. She wasn’t supposed to move. For like twenty minutes, she’s been watching the news, her face all screwed up with worry at the list of boys reported missing this week. Only once they started sending BOIS to replace the troops did the full reports come to light. The numbers were staggering, everyone said.

Every night she turns on the channel with the new names. There’s nobody she’s waiting for, she says, but she thinks someone should mourn and pray for all the soldiers.

The news has taken a break to show some feel good movie about soldiers coming home, which is why she’s turned to me, tears still in her eyes, even though she’s smiling at me.

I put down the pad I’ve been drawing her on and wipe a tear off her cheek. “Why do you watch it?” I ask. “It makes you so sad.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she sighs.

“Is there a name you’re waiting for?”

She shakes her head. “No one. Are you worried I have a boyfriend I’m waiting for, hoping he’ll come home?”

“No.” I’m surprised. It had never occurred to me. She bought me, she loves me. She wouldn’t do that if there was another guy she loves. “No, I’m worried you make yourself so sad. Don’t be sad. I’m here.” I cup her cheek and kiss her. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she whispers.

I show her the picture I was drawing.

“Oh, Justin, it’s beautiful.” She’s smiling and it’s the most beautiful thing in the world. More beautiful than anything I can draw, no matter how many times I might try to capture it in a picture.

“I have a good subject. Do you want me to keep drawing?”

“Yes, but…” Her eyes shine at me like stars. “…please make me look happier in it?”

I will do anything to make her happier.

Hope you enjoyed.

Lots of love,

Sage

Teaser Tuesday – Cheesy Romance Style

So, for Valentine’s Day, I worked really hard to finish a scene that’s the beginning of the romance between my MCs, but I’m just not satisfied with it.  So you’re getting a different scene I wrote this week.  If the below doesn’t sound like a cheesy romance novel, I’m not doing my job.  Constructive criticism or even more fun romance novel descriptions of Rosie in the comments are appreciated, really

Here’s what Rosie looks like to me.

We start with her eyes. Her irises are like tiger’s eye in color, varying shades of brown. But under them is a fire that excites me. It shines through the lighter brown, flashing at me when she’s angry or happy. They glow like a lighthouse, welcoming me home.

Her sleek chestnut hair flows down her back from her flowered hair tie like a dark waterfall that fills my soul with desire for her.

Her lips are soft and pink with some sort of sparkly shine. The pink reminds me of cotton candy, and I want to taste them and find out if that’s what they taste like. Hidden behind them, of course, is the jewel in her mouth, today a beautiful sapphire blue.

The cheeks of her heart-shaped face are always as rosy as her name, like a painted doll, but not so fragile, of course. Besides those spots of color, her golden skin reflects the warmth of the sun back to me.

When she talks, she uses her hands a lot, which are soft with elegant fingers. Likewise, I know that inside her combat books there must be dainty, delicate feet. Her petite figure suggests I’m right about this. It makes me wonder how she manages such a confident stride across the room. To be honest, her lithesome body just beguiles my senses with each march across the classroom during PET-BOIS. I love watching her walk.

In all, she has the most perfect figure, face, hands, legs, hair, and eyes I’ve ever seen.

Rosie is perfection.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Lots of love,

Sage

P.S. It’s the last day to enter the Greedy giveaway.  So head on down the blog and bring your songs about greed!