Gayle

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors! This is one of several successors to Six Sentence Sunday. I also post it as part of Snippet Sunday:

As mentioned before, I have a new release coming out on April 30th called Purely Relative (The P.U.R.E., #1.5). Weekly eights from that story between now and release date!

One of the key themes in this story is family—Jon’s and Gayle’s. We’ve already had glimpses of several of Jon’s family members–his sister, Jenny and her fiance, Scott, his brother, Jason, Jon’s parents and family friends. But Gayle has a family member who also factors into the story: her oldest brother, Ian, who lives in Houston. She has three older brothers, one whom, Gordon, is her twin.

In Ian’s eyes, I was always the offending party. To a certain extent, I resented him for that blind faith he placed in Gordon. I wanted some of it, too.

On the other hand, Ian was the one who made the most fuss when I did something that amazed him. He was the one who first dragged me out to the gun range, unbeknownst to our father, and had me firing at targets. I think when I behaved more like a boy than a girl, Ian loved me most. When I did girly things or went off with our mother, it was like I gravely disappointed him. Yet, Ian was the only one who offered to come visit me at Thanksgiving, a day late because he’d enjoyed a meal at a “friend’s” house.

So, you can kind of sense Gayle’s underdog roots from the way she describes her sibling relationships.

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors! This is one of several successors to Six Sentence Sunday. I also post it as part of Snippet Sunday:

As mentioned before, I have a new release coming out around April 30th called Purely Relative (The P.U.R.E., #1.5). Weekly eights from that story between now and release date!

Setup: Gayle survived the Thanksgiving meal at Jon’s parents’ house—barely. There was a sort of unfortunate finale in the powder room caused by Gayle’s snooping in the cabinet over the toilet. To her horror, a crossword puzzle magazine fell out and into the toilet. But something slipped out of the book and fluttered to the floor—a receipt from a jewelry store. Gayle has just confessed about the puzzle book to Jon on the way home, but he’s assured her it was no big deal because the book was his. She has not mentioned the receipt to anyone.

On the other hand, if it really was his puzzle book, and the receipt fell out of it, did that mean Jon ordered the ring? OMG, OMG, OMG! I stole a glance at his expression. He didn’t have one. What a time for a poker face! Fine. I’d just have to sniff around the edges a little.

“You do crossword puzzles in your parents’ powder room?” I asked, my arms crossed.

Finally! Not a ‘poor Gayle’ moment, but it’s still a typical nosy Gayle moment.