U got the 'Look'

Thanks to the lovely Susi Holliday, I’ve been tagged in this blog game which involves searching your current WIP (Work in Progress) for the word ‘look’ and posting the surrounding paragraphs, then tagging another 5 writers to do the same. It can be a short story, a poem, a novel, whatever you’re working on.

I was a little daunted by the amount of times 'look' came up in my WIP, my soon-to-be-finished novel, Jade (working title), but I decided on a piece that hopefully tantalises!

***

 Kate silently studied Michael's face and he simply smiled in return. She knew she wasn’t going to get anything more from him than that; she had seen that look in his eyes before - it was so blank she couldn’t decide if he was being guarded or totally open. It made her wonder if she was just trying to connect dots that were on different pages and reach for something that wasn’t there, but ever since Michael’s reaction when meeting Donny and Donny asking him if they had met before, her suspicion had been raised – about what she had yet to figure out.

Michael waited for her to say something else, but could see she was at a loss for words. He knew her suspicion had been peaked. She was clearly starting to pick up on some things; his tension around Donny, Donny finding him familiar, and now a name connection. And even he was a little thrown by Donny making such a connection, but while the BBQ was still going on, he had to keep it together – he didn’t dare to even think about the implications of the conversation he had just had with Donny, not yet, not until it was all over.

Michael put his arm round Kate and pulled her into him, kissing the top of her head. “Stop worrying. That call was nothing but a wrong number. But I have to say I do find it a bit disturbing that I remind Donny of an ex-girlfriend!”

This comment cracked a smile on Kate’s face and she finally loosened, responding to the hug saying, “Yeah, I know, I’m grabbing at straws, aren’t I? I’m just being silly.”

Michael pulled her away from him slightly so he could look her full in the face and said in a serious tone, “No, you’re not being silly, you’re being insecure. And I need to do something about that – it’s just I’m not sure what yet.”

Kate saw genuine intent in his eyes this time, along with deep emotion for her. It reassured her and it made her want to kiss him hard and passionately – so she did. He responded, but tried to keep it short as they were on public display in the garden and the hosts of the party. Unfortunately it was too late there were a few whistles from the male counterpart and general cheering all round.

He raised the bottle of beer he still had in his hand as acknowledgement while they finished their kiss, and smiled round at them when he broke away. Kate laughed, feeling mildly embarrassed. He then said loudly, “I’d better get back to serving up the beer!”, which brought a renewed round of cheers. 

 ***

I have tagged this lot of awesome writers (there are so many) and hope to get a 'look' at what they are working on!

@falcon_feathers

@wokingwriter

@flickimp  

@laurahuntley

@DionneLister  (if only to get a sneak preview of the sequel!)