#WIPpet Wednesday - Reunions - liquid fire - #amwriting

What is WIPpet Wednesday?

WIPpet Wednesday is a blog hop where authors share from their current works in progress - expertly organised/hosted by Emily Witt - and the excerpt has to relate to the date in some way. For links to other fabulous authors' WIPpets, visit: http://www.inlinkz.com/wpview.php?id=355404

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It's a long one, but I wanted to post the full scene. I wrote this part of Reunions a while back, but I've missed Josh and Shaunna, so I thought I'd post something about them. Plus, the maths works:

(2016+10)/27=75 sentences

In this scene, it's Christmas Eve, and Shaunna is on Josh-sitting duty whilst George (his husband) is attending a neurology appointment.

Here's the WIPpet:

It was a prime viewing spot; from his location, at one end of Shaunna and Andy’s kitchen table, Josh could see all the way to the bottom of the garden, although his focal point was far closer than that.

“Didn’t you put up the fences at your old place?” he asked Shaunna but with his gaze still fixed on Andy.

“Yep,” Shaunna said, also watching Andy, who presently stopped working, pulled off the thick woolly pullover he was wearing and used it to mop his sweaty brow. Throwing the pullover to one side, he picked up the next fence panel. His jeans slipped down, his t-shirt rose up, his back muscles tensed, and Shaunna and Josh gave a mutual, dreamy sigh.

“According to him, I’m not allowed to do it in my condition.”

Josh nodded thoughtfully, on the outside a calm, contemplative veneer, underneath it a swirling blur of ponderings about how George was doing with Rab McAvoy, if Libby was coping, whether they’d got enough food for all their Christmas guests, if Sean had remembered to mark the third-year essays before he left for— “What condition? Are you pregnant again?”

“Not a chance.”

“He’s being sexist?” Josh’s hair bristled, and he narrowed his eyes.

Shaunna glanced his way and laughed. “I’m too hot for fence-fixing, apparently. I’ll distract the neighbours.”

“Oh!” Josh blushed. “What are your neighbours like?”

“This side—” Shaunna tilted her head to the left “—is Mrs. Lane. She’s lovely, but a major nosey parker. She knows everything about everyone. That side—” Shaunna thumbed to her right “—is the Cousins family. Jo and Mark and their three kids. They’re OK…mostly.”

“Why only mostly?”

“They have…” Now Shaunna blushed. “You know how our house is joined to theirs?”

“Hm?”

“Their bedroom is on the other side of the wall to ours.”

“Oh. Erm, well…music?”

Shaunna grinned. “Yeah, that does drown them out. It’s more…if we can hear them, then…”

“Oh! I meant were they playing loud music, but you mean you can hearing them doing…it?”

“Yep. And they aren’t that noisy. It’s the bed banging on the wall, and—” Shaunna noticed how pink Josh was and burst out laughing. “Sorry. But you did ask.”

“Ah. Hm. Yes, I did. Why don’t you ask Jason where he got the soundproofing for the studio?”

“I would, but it might weird him out.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s my daughter’s best friend.”

“She knows you have sex.” Josh rolled his eyes. “Obviously. She wouldn’t exist if you didn’t.”

Shaunna gave him a funny look.

“What?”

“Nothing.” She’d seen Josh in this kind of mood a few times now. It was so different to his usual quiet seriousness that sometimes she didn’t know what to say. Now being one of those times. And he was starting to fidget. She reached up and unclipped her hair. “Here. This’ll keep you busy for a while.”

Josh was already on his feet. Moving to stand behind her, he lifted Shaunna’s long wavy locks and ran them between his fingers, smoothing out any knots before he separated her hair into two sections and began plaiting.

“Have you ever considered a career as a hairdresser?” she asked.

“Not even once. Do you think I’d be good at it?”

“You’ve got the listening skills, and a…fascination with hair.”

“Obsession. Yes. But only with your hair.” Josh sighed in contentment, and Shaunna chuckled. She knew what was coming before he said it. “Liquid fire.”

Thanks for reading!
Deb x