Search This Blog

Monday, May 30, 2016

TUESDAY TALES - picture prompt - beach scene - #football #nfl #romance


Welcome! This week we have a picture prompt and a 300-word limit. My snippets from my WIP, "Overtime" will continue for another few weeks. It's the last book in the First & Ten series and will be published soon. 
This week we have Griff's story. His wife, Lauren, has sprung a surprise vacation on him. They headed to the beach in Florida. Seems there was a bigger surprise in their future than either had anticipated.

*************************

He’d made plenty of mistakes in his life, but marrying Lauren wasn’t one of them. He blew  up an inflatable beach ball and bounced it to the kids. After a lively game of catch, they ran to the ocean, where Griff took their hands and waded into the surf, ankle-deep. They shrieked with joy and ran up on the warm sand, then back into the water over and over.
He layed out a blanket. The kids sat long enough to eat the food Lauren had packed. They pelted the quarterback with questions, which he answered as best he could. Where did the ocean go? Where did pelicans come from? He didn’t know the answers. Their curiosity charmed him.
As their beach time edged toward two hours, Chip and Gracie slowed down. His daughter crawled into her stroller and Chip lay down on the blanket. Griff knew it was time to head home. He brushed the sand off them as best he could then layed them in their beds and covered each with a light blanket.
Lauren’s face had appeared drawn when they got in the car at the airport. Concern knitted his brows as he wondered if she was coming down with the flu. He had hoped not as this vacation was her idea and he wanted her to enjoy it, too.

Feeling pooped, he popped a beer and sat in the shade outside on the deck. Lauren often took naps, but never quite this long. On a hunch, Griff climbed the stairs to the master bedroom. Before he arrived, the sight of a bloody towel on the floor stopped him cold. He picked it up. The blood hadn’t completely dried yet, but it wasn’t fresh. Something had happened to Lauren and not in the last hour. 

Thank you for coming.