Tag: Cleaving

Six(ish) Sentence Sunday

Almost done with the draft of this chapter.  Here’s another snippet.  From Cleaving.

“Hey, Little Man,” he cooed, taking Nathan from his mom.  “What happened?”

Nathan just clung to him as Margo explained, “He had an accident, and I forgot to take the diaper bag with me.  He was almost asleep.  I’m sorry we’re back so soon, I meant to give you boys more time.”

“It’s fine,” he said, carrying his son up the stairs.  “Let’s get you cleaned up, okay, Nathan?  Did you see some nice lights?  Anything fancy?”

Nathan nodded as Zach laid him down on a pad on the bed.  “Snoopy.”

“Snoopy!  That sounds cool.  Did he have a little Christmas tree like in the movie?”

Nathan nodded again as Zach made quick work of the dirty diaper.  His mom handed him a clean pair of pants and Zach was soon fastening up the dozen little snaps.

“Better?”  Zach asked as he picked Nathan up and held him.  He was already calm, but clearly tired.  Nathan nodded into Zach’s neck.  “Can you take a nap?  Then we can play with your new toys when you wake up?”

Nathan paused but then nodded again, too tired to put up even a mild protest.  Zach kissed his cheek and then laid him down in the Pack-and-Play, handing him Gustafer.

“Babbo hug?”

“Oh, Babbo’s taking a walk.”

“Bar?”

“You want to sleep with Gustafer and Bar?”

Nathan nodded, and his mom signaled him that she’d collect it from downstairs.

“His boots are kind of hard, and his hat doesn’t come off.  He’s not snuggly like Gustafer.”

Margo handed the bear into the crib and Nathan arranged his stuffed toys how he wanted them, an arm flung over both as if to prove Zach wrong.  “Bar and Guster.”

Zach bit back a smile, tempted to pull out his phone and take a picture, but not wanting to rile Nathan when he was so close to falling asleep.  “Okay, you’re right.  Have a good nap.  We’ll play when you wake up.”

Nathan closed his eyes and murmured, “Love daddy.”

Maybe it was the emotional roller-coaster of the last hour, but tears pricked Zach’s eyes.  “Love you too, Little Man.”

FW whatever day this is…

There’s so little of this chapter that I can share without completely spoiling it, but here’s a short out-of-context snippet.  From Cleaving, but referencing Bleary.

Chris took a deep breath.  “To get that feeling for Steve, that terror and exhilaration and sense of being almost sure you’re right and this kiss is welcome, but oh if you’re wrong it’s so, so bad.  To get all that, I was thinking of the first time I kissed you.  

“You were… man, you were just not hearing what I was trying to tell you, and I remember this moment, I could almost hear a voice in my head whispering ‘jump!’  So I did.  I leaned in like I’d wanted to a hundred times before, but had always not, and when our lips touched my stomach actually flipped like I was falling.   I poured everything I had into that kiss — everything that I didn’t seem to have words for… or maybe the words I had didn’t reach you.  And there was this horrible moment that lasted an eon when I was sure I’d made a terrible, terrible mistake.  And then, suddenly it wasn’t a mistake at all.  I wasn’t falling.  I was flying. And it was perfect.”

Six Sentence Sunday

From Cleaving:

“I just really hate Skype.”

Wait, what?  “What?”

“Skype.  I hate it.  After filming all day and finally getting some food and a shower, I hate seeing myself all green and from a strange angle looking literally ill in the corner of my laptop screen.  I always end up shifting around, trying to hold myself differently to make myself passable for… whoever I’m filming this for.”

“But we don’t care what you look like.  We just want to see you.”

“I know, I know, and I like seeing you guys, but after long filming
days, when I’m thinking literally for 14-16 hours about how my gait and
posture and expression are being captured by the camera, it’s just really
hard to turn it off.  And there’s no way for me to not look green and
tired and ill in that little camera in the laptop.  You still look good
green, maybe because I’m used to thinking you look hot as Spock, but I
really don’t.”