Tuesday Tales Like a Stone

Ahoy Fellow Fathomers! It's time for Tuesday Tales.

A group of writers gather together and give our interpretation of a specific word prompt each week. Once per month, we even write to an image.  You never know what you might encounter when you get inside our minds. This week our group writes to the word-stone.  This will be an excerpt from my new WIP for a new romance contemporary, What the Storm Didn't Take.

Enjoy!~

 

“When are you moving?”

Now, he took on a truly perplexed expression. “Moving? What are you talking about?”

He answered a question with a question. I tripped him up. “Sheila wanted to move back East. You’ve now been here for over six months, in Dallas I mean. Surely, your rotation has been long overdue. Isn’t she chomping at the bit for you to move?”

“It’s…complicated. I don’t have any answers for you right now. I’m here for your project idea, can we focus on that?”

I didn’t think so. Sheila was suddenly the large elephant in the room, disguised in a beautiful feminine form. “I haven’t talked with you about your life, your wedding, your job. I’ve monopolized our relationship with my needs. I’ve been selfish, actually.”

Pushing his empty plate away, Conner rubbed his hand over his face- his tell. “It’s not selfish. Rachel, you’ve had so much happen in this past year. You’ve endured more struggles that some people double your age. We needed to help you get into a good place.”

Oh, I understood. I was a distraction. Not in a bad way, but, I was his distraction. He could help me and put his own personal life on the back burner. “You didn’t want to move to the East Coast, did you?”

Closing his eyes, and tilting his head back, Conner released the biggest sigh ever. He didn’t sigh very often, only when he seemed frustrated or couldn’t control a situation. “No, I didn’t. My home is with my mom and…here, in Oklahoma. I had to move once. I got the chance to come back, so, I didn’t want to blow it.”

“What does that mean about Sheila?” Wait a minute, I didn’t want to know. This conversation was taking the darkened fork in the road. The place I avoided. “Never mind, let’s get back to why you’re here.”

Why was he here?

I mean really why was he here?

Finally smiling, he appeared as relieved as I felt. We needed to get away from such personal conversation. “Yes, let’s get back to the priority. If I’m digging holes, I need time to get it done. I’ve got to get back to work Monday you know.”

He meant temporary rotation. He didn’t move to Dallas permanently. He wasn’t on a stepping stone to move back here. He had his own life to live.

I think talking about Garrett was easier than talking with Conner about his personal life.

That’s messed up.

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