It’s time for Snippet Sunday. A TIMELESS HEART is the second story in the ELEMENTAL HEARTS series, is now out and available for an older heroine’s second chance at love. Just check out that beautiful cover!
A TIMELESS HEART is Captain Śandor Halmi’s story and he’s the captain of the Cloudburst Hot Shots, the local wildland firefighters in Cloudburst, Colorado. In this snippet, we’re in Bianca’s POV, and Captain Halmi as come to her place for a visit. He’s the first one to speak.
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“Do you paint?”
Bianca shook her head. “No, and it’s a good thing, because apparently I have no natural ability to do so.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “It was a watercolor of my backyard in the sunlight. It ended up looking like dirt with extra drips.”
He laughed and the sound rippled across the workshop, making the light sparkle and her heart flutter. What’s that about? She grinned and leaned a little more, shoving the plate with her sandwich off the edge of the desk. She gasped and dove for the plate, but it was a lost cause. The stoneware shattered on the concrete floor, sending shards of pottery and sandwich everywhere.
“Oh no, my lunch!” She shook her head as she crouched to clean it up.
“Are you all right?” He stepped closer and she could smell the fresh pine after the rain and sunbaked leaves. Both reminded her of her adventures when she was a child in the hills around Cloudburst, and she sighed a little. “Bianca?”
“Oh, yeah, yes, I’m okay. I’ve just been distracted lately.” She waved at the mess on the floor before she crouched to clean it up. “I almost sliced my fingers open earlier, and now I’m knocking things off the counters.”
His intense green-gray gaze met hers. “You haven’t hit your head recently, have you?”
“No, no, just had a lot on my mind.” She grimaced as she collected the pieces of broken plate.
He crouched beside her and grabbed bits of sandwich. “I didn’t mean to interrupt. I can come back another time.”
The idea of Śandor leaving made her scramble to find something to keep him there. “No, no, it’s fine. I mean, what better way to get to know someone than to drop a plate of food in their company?”
He rumbled a laugh and her heart fluttered harder. “It definitely makes an impression.”
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Yes, it does. 😉 There are several great authors on the Weekend Writer Warriors list, the Snippet Sunday Facebook group, and the Rainbow Snippets Facebook group. A few of my favorites are, P.T. Wyant, Karen Michelle Nutt, Veronica Scott, Karysa Faire, and Iris Blobel.
Blurb for A TIMELESS HEART:
When Bianca Pearce left Cloudburst, Colorado at eighteen, she swore she’d never come back. She moved to L.A., got married, and created a successful antique and modern clock repair business. But time mellowed the hurts of the past, and with a divorce and two kids in college under her belt, Bianca is ready to move back to the small town to have a quiet life in a familiar place. At her age, she knows who she is and what she wants, and figures love is better left to the young.
Captain Śandor Halmi is the commander of the local Hot Shots squad—and a Zomok, a Hungarian Forest spirit that most often takes the shape of a dragon. His main goal is to take the whole weekend off to relax, ignore his phone as much as possible, and generally disappear now that the Colorado fire season has ended. Love is not on the agenda…until he sees Bianca at the local farmer’s market. He’s struck dumb by her beauty, bearing, and experience, and now he can’t get her out of his mind.
Despite growing up in Cloudburst, Bianca doesn’t believe the stories about the town having non-human residents, and she definitely doesn’t believe in love at first sight. But something about the silver fox firefighter sets her desire ablaze, and she can’t seem to stop thinking about him. Not even when he shows her his true form.
I can sympathize. I’m prone to develop ‘dropsy’ under stress.
Me too, plus I talk with my hands so I tend to sweep things regularly. Thanks for commenting, Aurora.
Could save to break the ice with her ‘how to impress a guy’ joke. 🙂 I intrigued to know more about both characters,
If clumsiness was considered a desirable attribute, the men would be lining up around the world for a date with me!
LOL nice! I say we make it a thing. Thanks for commenting, Owl.
Loved this scene today. I feel as if we got to know her better and for sure I sympathize with her! I can get clumsy under stress too…great snippet.
She paints like I do…
And I can relate to doing something like knocking my sandwich off the edge of the desk.