Today's prompt is flying. Let me set the scene. Melody recognizes she feels an attraction to Levi that she puts down to being single and without a man. She can't believe the two of them could be romantically involved without it ending badly. Her solution is to develop an online dating profile. Her only problem is she needs some photos and her camera is in the living room where Levi is.  She catches Levi in the process of viewing the photos on the camera and decided to pretend it's Roy's camera.

EXCERPT


Levi raised an eyebrow as if he knew something. He handed the camera to her. “Go ahead and take a look. I think you’ll be surprised how Roy made you look so natural and relaxed.”

She snatched the camera from him. What was that supposed to mean? Pivoting sharply she marched back to her room leaving the traitorous Charmer behind.

Levi’s voice followed her. “I especially like the one with you in the boat, but the close up with the trees behind you is great too.  If I saw those two photos on a dating profile it would definitely peak my interest.”

How did he know?  “What are you some sorta peeping tom? How did you know what I was doing?” She yelled her questions, not caring that they were insulting or that frustration coated every word. Putting the camera in her room, she stomped back to confront her nemesis. Fisting her hands on her hips., she lowered her chin and tried to imagine heat seeking missiles flying straight at the aggravating man.  

 A grinning Levi had the nerve to wink at her.  Did he actually wink at her? “I didn’t know. I was taking a shot in the dark. You’re single. You admitted to the esteemed lawyer you weren’t seeing anyone. Obviously, you’re horny.”

A gasp escaped her mouth before her hand could stop it. “I can’t believe you just said that.” Could it get any worse.

“I heard you pounding away on your laptop.  I wondered if you might be filling out a dating profile then. I’d understand the thought of a partial man like myself isn’t that attractive.”

She rolled her eyes at his words. “You’re not going down that path again. Plenty of women would find you attractive if you’d give them half a chance.  Instead, you make up their minds for them.”

“Listen to you, I bet you do the same thing. Sure, there are men who are jerks out there like the last loser you dated. Sometimes, they just might be overwhelmed because you’re such a strong woman.” The smile had vanished from his face as he worked his way to  the chair's edge as if preparing to stand.

It was hard to tell what he might do. His words confused her. “I don’t pick up my dates so I doubt they know just how strong I am.”

He waved one hand as if attempting to erase his previous words. “That’s not what I meant. You have a career, a pet, an interest in photography, and you know what you’re going to do with your life. Some men might find that intimidating.”

Her mouth dropped open when he mentioned photography. The skunk knew it was her camera all along and he still looked at the photos.

As if realizing what she was thinking, Levi smirked. “Your name is on the camera in silver permanent marker.”

The name was an remnant of living with a roommate who often picked up things and claimed they were hers. Luckily, Linda had no interests in cameras.  “You knew,” she managed to hiss the words a little late as far as replies went. Enough, there was no talking to him. The sooner she got her profile up, the better.

Turning, she gave him her back signalling the conversation was finished. Levi kept talking demonstrating he missed the cue. 

“Go on, make your profile if that will help you forget about your inappropriate attraction to me.  Hell, I’m hot for you and I won’t deny it. Be more honest, if you’d acknowledge your attraction. Roy raised me to be enough of a gentleman that I’ll wait for a sign from you.”

Today's prompt is the Rocky Mountains. We left off when Melody and Levi were taking a walk. Actually Melody was walking Charmer and Levi was following. Charmer decided to lay down giving Levi time to catch up. Melody is sitting  and waiting with Charmer as Levi navigates his way down the hill.














Don’t look. Her fingers plucked at a nearby wildflower. Twirling the tiny flower between her fingers, she contemplated the job she could have taken in the Rockies until Levi’s shadow touched her.

“Dog already tuckered out?” He paced the words indicating the dog wasn’t the only one feeling it.

Melody leaned back on her arms to look up at Levi. From this position, he went on forever rather like a tree. The sun’s angle lengthened his shadow allowing it to cover her. It felt intimate. Shaking the strange thought off, she answered, “Apparently.”

Charmer hearing his name, opened one eye, gave a tail thump and closed his eye again. It didn’t look like the dog was going anywhere. His failure to bark or growl didn’t say much for his guard dog skills, but then again they both knew Levi was behind them. Strangely, the bitter veteran somehow endeared himself to the headstrong mutt.

Just my luck. I adopt the dog on death row and he prefers someone else over me. The story of my life. Her sign was audible attracting Levi’s attention.

He nodded indicating the ground next to her. “Mind if I sit?”

 “Suit yourself.” Melody tried for a casual smile that signaled both a carefree attitude and a certain flippancy she never possessed. Levi’s beetled eyebrows assured her she’d achieved neither.

Using his cane as a tripod, he kept his artificial leg straight as he lowered himself to the ground beside her. His biceps bulged as he concentrated the majority of his weight onto the cane.  Her eyes went to the tip in the cane buried into the loamy ground.

Thanks goodness for that, if it had been on a rock it could have slipped. Concern and experience working with patients whose bodies had failed them caused the words to slip out without thinking about the consequences.

“Your prosthetic leg bends too and can carry your weight.”

His body an inch or two above the ground dropped suddenly as his swiveled to pin her with a glacial glare. “Do you think I don’t know how to use my own body? “

Prompt: The word prompt is savage. Our story is at the point were Levi and Melody are in the garage. Levi offends Melody with a comment , she stride off to ride walk her dog. Charmer decides to wait for Levi to join them.  We start with the two of them walking and talking.





Excerpt
( Levi's POV)

It was probably the way she lived her life considering death was an everyday thing to her. “Um, were you with my uncle when he died?”

“Yes.” She replied, but didn’t offer anything else.

Yeah, this was as hard getting information from his uncle had been. Despite spending his teenage years with the man, he felt like there was much he didn’t know.  The sun was on its descent causing the trees to throw long shadows.

He’d need to watch the ground carefully because sometimes shadows hid holes or uneven ground. The question was on the tip of his tongue to ask if his uncle ever talked about him, but he stopped it. It would be better not to know. He could have savagely cursed him with his dying breath.  “Did he die at home?”

“Yes.”

Oh, great another lengthy answer, but she surprised him by looking at him.

“If you are wondering if he died in the bed you’ll be sleeping in tonight. The answer is no. He rented one of those easy lift chairs so he could get out of it on his own. Independence was very important to him.”

Levi nodded, keeping eye contact with her. They were at the stairs to the lake, he gestured for her to go ahead. The stairs would be easier than rambling down the hill, but he’d prefer not to have her see him manage the stairs in case he stumbled.

Charmer took the lead plunging down the hill while she negotiated the ground behind the canine. The view was very fine behind, another reason he let her go ahead.  There were things he might not be able to do, but he could still appreciate a nicely rounded pairs of hips.

Her voice drifted over her shoulder softer for facing away from him. “The place he rented the chair from came and retrieved it.”

“Makes sense. Roy was always a frugal one.” He understood the sense in renting a chair for a short time.  A pang of guilt still twisted his gut. His uncle would value being able to do for himself as long as possible. The bachelor was not in the habit of depending on anyone else. It must have hurt his pride to have a hospice nurse rooming with him.

The feminine ponytail bobbed and swayed in front of him as Melody and Charmer negotiated the sloping terrain. No doubt, his uncle appreciated a pretty girl fussing over him too. What man wouldn’t? At least Roy hadn’t died alone. His cane dug into dirt with a little more force than necessary when he realized he owed Melody some respect for being there when he couldn’t.

The stairs beckoned him with a promise of an easier walk while the other two plowed down the hill. Melody’s voice floated on the wind as she sang to the dog something old fashioned about a valley and a true love. Her lilting voice touched something he thought long dormant. No, it couldn’t be. Get that thought out of your head, soldier. That type of thinking leads to danger.

The same words his field sergeant used to train him, he used to lecture himself.  One foot was on the wooden platform leading to the steps. A breeze slid across the lake bringing coolness and a mist as it wafted up the slope. The familiar landscape comforted him, but it didn’t clear his head as he hoped. Instead, his eyes drifting over to where Melody waited as Charmer investigated a fallen branch, before baptizing it.

For Pete’s sake, he was only in his twenties, was he going to spend the rest of his life watching other people live. The thought caused him to step off the platform and scramble after the disappearing pair. Luckily, no one looked back to see his ignoble half slide down the hill. His cane and a convenient sapling or two slowed his descent. His pride remained intact since he managed to stay upright this time.

 Charmer decided he’d walked enough and settled in a low mossy spot as an impromptu bed. Melody tugged on the leash. “C’mon, boy. You can’t just stop walking. You have to go back up the hill.”

In answer, the dog rested his head on his paws.  Not getting any response, Melody eased down beside the dog, dropping the lease and stretching out her long legs on the spongy greenery. 

My picture prompt is deer.

A shadow hung over the corner where Melody stood making it hard to determine her expression. Flustered might be the best description since her right hand rested at her chest holding her heart in place.

“I was,” she started, shrugged her shoulders and tried again. “I was trying to make the chair less noticeable.  Roy took a lot of pride in his garage. He wouldn’t appreciate a chair like this right in the middle of it.”

A thought occurred to him as she spoke. All the tools were in place in their numbered outlines. There was a key for it, but after a while, it wasn’t needed. The woodworking tools were expensive, but they were all  there.  Could have sold them or lent them out to friends, but she hadn’t.

His hand rubbed his aching neck. Carried his troubles in his neck and back according to the physical therapist, he definitely had his share. It sounded like she was trying to preserve the house exactly the way Roy liked it. “You do know that Roy isn’t coming back? He’s not going to check to see if the garage is in tip top shape.”

He heard her sigh, almost felt it.  “Yes, you’re right.” She covered her face with both hands for a heartbeat, then dropped them. “I am not sure what I am supposed to do so I kept doing what I did when Roy was alive, except for the caring of him, of course.”

“No wild parties, skinny dipping or orgies on the front lawn?” He asked, knowing the answer, but her shocked expression amused him.

Her hand fluttered back up to her heart. “Good heavens, where would you get that idea? As a hospice nurse, I’ve several patients. Most of the time, I’m gone.”

That tidbit of information would make life easier if they weren’t running into each other all the time. Apparently, all he did was scare the daylights out of her. Half the time she looked  like a deer caught in  the headlights. The other times she reminded him more of a wildcat, an angry one. 

We left off with Melody cleaning the room in preparation for Levi's arrival. He startled her when she was trying to pull out a commode chair out of the small bedroom. She lost her grip on the stuck chair and fell backwards knocking Levi down and falling on top of him. For a moment, she had some warm, pleasant thoughts about Levi, but he ruined it all making a remark about her not controlling the dog. 

We start today's excerpt with Levi still on the floor  and the word prompt, hug.


Melody held her hand out to him knowing it would be hard for him to get upright easily.

Levi ignored the hand and used the footboard of the bed to pull himself up. His refusal of help was another mark against him. It irked her. “What where you doing sneaking around the house and scaring me?” No way, she was admitting she thought he was a ghost.

“Sneaking around? “ Both eyebrows shot up, as he balanced himself on both legs.” First of all, I wasn’t sneaking around. You had the music blasting. You weren’t singing you were cursing the chair.”

Her face reddened. Cursing a chair, didn’t that make her sound like the fool. Yeah, real stable person.  She felt a need to defend her actions. “I was trying to clean up the room for you. I wanted to get rid of all the signs of your uncle being invalid. That stupid chair,” she stopped to glare at chair, “won’t fit through the opening.”

Levi looked at the chair, and then gave it a hard kick that sent it backwards freeing it from its trap. Lifting it as if it weighed nothing, he moved it up over the end of the bed.

“That’s how they did.”  She marveled aloud wondering why she hadn’t thought of doing the same. “Thanks.” Placing her hands on the chair back, she pushed it through the door and headed toward the garage.

“Where are you headed with that chair?” Levi asked as he followed her.

“The garage,” She answered without looking back at him. It made it easier. She already felt the fool falling on him like a ton of bricks. The man probably thought she was crazy. With any luck,  he didn’t notice the few seconds she stole enjoying the feel of a warm blooded male beneath her. If she were in one of those made for TV movies, the two of them would have ended up hugging and confessing their attraction to one another.  It might be wise to give up those movies as long as Levi was her roomie. The last think she needed was to think about the handsome veteran in a romantic fashion.

Chapter break ( POV  change)

Levi watched her determined stride as she pushed the chair.  She wouldn’t even look at him when she talked.  Couldn’t stand the thought he was only part of a man. Although, before she complained his manners were the only thing wrong with him. Of course, she’d say something like that. Nurses were taught to do that. All the time he spent recovering and learning to use his new leg, a few of the nurses pretended to flirt with him.

Like he'd fall for that.  He didn’t attract the women when he had two healthy legs unless he had a fat enlistment bonus to go with it. A grimace crossed his face as he thought about his money-grubbing ex-wife. What ever happened to her? He had started the paperwork for the divorce, but getting blown to kingdom come kinda wiped that thought from his mind. Mental note to self: check on the divorce paperwork. Didn’t need to know if he was divorced because he’d start dating as he implied to Melody, but because the last thing he needed was Angelique showing up. His life was complicated enough.

His eyes followed Melody’s hips as she pushed the chair in front of her. The woman certainly packed a pair of shorts.  Didn’t mind the feel of her on him either. His lips tilted up slightly, almost breaking into a smile. What bothered him most was he should have caught her as opposed to collapsing underneath her like a cheap card table..