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, Śandor is taking Bianca out to lunch to learn more about her. He’s the first one to speak.
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“So, on the subject of why you came back to Cloudburst—is it closed or is there more?” He opened his menu even though he knew what he wanted already. Tatiana brought water but noted their open menus and strode away to help other customers.
Bianca sipped her water as she let her gaze rest on the street outside the window. “I guess I wanted to start over—a do-over, if you will—in a familiar place. Of course, now that I’m here, I realize just how much Cloudburst has changed since I was a kid.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. I mean, the Cliffhanger Bar was here, but the Sears and Kmart are gone. We now have the Cloudburst Coffee & Spa, this café, the music store, and the post office has moved over to what used to be Mr. Daley’s dairy farm.” She shook her head. “I know things never stay the same, and I didn’t expect it to, but I thought I’d be more familiar with town than I am.”
Śandor nodded. “I can see that. Maybe it’s giving you both the opportunity to start over new, while keeping a few of the old familiar places. New without being strange.”
She shot him a warm smile. “That’s a good way to think about it. My daughter Izzy would say the same thing.”
He blinked as surprise worked through him. She had kids? Of course, she has kids. She’s got an ex-husband and had a whole life before coming back here. He mentally rolled his eyes himself. This wasn’t one of those romance novels his lieutenant Sophie Forrest liked to read, where he was Bianca’s first and only love. No, but it could be one where the hero and heroine get a second chance at love. Not that he’d had a first chance, but Bianca had already been around this block.
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Yes, she has. 😉 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 relate to the changes in your hometown. So much of mine has changed that it feels both familiar and alien every time I go there.
Yes – go for it! I hope the daughter approves of him.
It’s true that familiar places change, even while you live there.
I like it! And the little dash of cold reality that of course she’s had an entire life before he met her. And vice versa, one assumes. So true it’s hard to go back to a place you used to live because things will have changed, which is bittersweet. All in all a terrific snippet!
Oooh, a dragon shifter. I love it!