Not one to argue… at least with her… Jack dropped behind the wheel and keyed the Chevy 302 to life.  It didn’t have the roar of his Shelby, and not even the staccato bark of the Boss Mustang, but it had a very satisfying burble coming from the dual exhaust. 

“Walk on the beach, my love?” Jack said… not really intending to drop the L-word.

“Absolutely,” she responded, suppressing a giant grin.  Him using that word had not snuck past her unnoticed. 

As they made their way to Buckroe Beach to take a moonlight stroll, neither noticed the black BMW skulking along behind them.  Paul hadn’t forgotten that he wanted revenge, he just knew he needed to be careful of when he took it.  He had no desire to be caught… and it was something he thought about.  But it wasn’t enough of a deterrent to stop him completely from seeking his revenge.  He was still enjoying the lessons he had taught that stripper and her friend.  These two weren’t going to get the same treatment, but he was still looking forward to it. 

***

As Amy and Jack walked on the beach, she turned to him and said, “Do you remember on the day that we confronted Paul… I was telling you how I felt?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Jack replied with a gentle smile.  “You told me that you liked me and one of the things was that I made you feel like a princess.”

Amy smiled.  “That is probably about what I said… but what I meant was that you made me feel like a valuable person.  I know I shouldn’t have felt the way I did before, but I didn’t feel like I had value.”  She reached her arms up around his neck and Jack wrapped his arms around her lower back.  “But when I was talking to you, I stopped short.”

“I remember… something about what your mom said.  You said you’d tell me later.  You can tell me anything.  I’ve fallen in love with you, Amy.  I knew I liked you.  I knew that in fourth grade.  I’ve known that every time I saw you in the hall at school.  But I didn’t know you would make me feel the way you make me feel.”

“I love you, too, Jonathan.  I always hoped I would have the chance to know you like this… and to love you.  Thank you for giving it to me.”

“So, Amy, what did your mom say?”

Amy smiled.  She kissed him gently on the lips.  Then she laid her head on his chest, looking up at him.  “She told me that night… that very first night when you asked me out…  She told me that after she talked to you, she knew that you were the kind of boy I should marry.  I don’t know what life holds for us, but I know that I want us to spend it together.”

***

In the parking lot, Paul sat in his darkened car.  He was holding a rifle scope in his hand.  From his vantage point, all he could see above the seawall was Jack’s head.  If he thought he could make the shot, he would get the rifle from the trunk and take it.  But he knew better.  He’d been practicing, but he wouldn’t be able to make a head shot at this distance, especially not without even a warm-up shot, or some way to tell how close the shot was and how to adjust. 

***

A block away sat another car.  In the driver’s seat sat a young woman named Melody Jenkins.  She was holding binoculars and watching the driver of the BMW.  She knew his name was Paul and he was her mark.  She had been following him for a couple of days.  She was pretty sure he’d not spotted her.  But she took her training seriously and knew more about him than anyone else.  She had taken one of her shifts off and had a teammate cover for her.  That had given her the chance to gather some other intel. 

Nick glanced around, looking for the big German kid.  Not seeing him, he asked, “Things still going well with you guys, I guess?”

Nicole smiled and nodded at him.  Part of her hoped he still liked her.  She liked Rolf, and sometimes she thought there were fireworks between them, but other times, her mind wandered back to Nick and how much she liked being around him. 

“Are you doing ok?” she asked. 

“Yeah,” Nick replied as the lights started to dim for a couple’s skate. 

“I should let you get back to Rolf,” Nick said as he turned back around.  Kat was only an arm’s length away.  He took her hand and spun her around.  “Waltz?”

Kat took his free hand and positioned herself to start as Kermit the Frog started singing Rainbow Connection. 

“This is not the song I was hoping for,” Nick said as he swung Kat around the floor, “but I have to admit that it’s a perfect waltz song.”

Kat laughed as she spun in Nick’s arms.  He stopped her and she was facing hm.  His hand on her hip guided her so that as she started rolling backwards.  “We should compete with this one,” she said, her grin infectious. 

“It would bring the house down,” Nick laughed as he dipped her. 

When the song ended Kat headed to the snack bar to get a drink, while Nick continued circling the floor.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her wave him over to the wall. 

“Have a sip, you look hot,” Kat said, “and you look like you need a drink, too,” she said with a wink.  He took a quick sip of her drink and she kissed him on the cheek before he turned back to patrolling the floor. 

A couple of songs later he rolled past Nicole again as he was skating backwards.  “I didn’t know you did the figure skating thing,” she said, catching his attention. 

“I don’t really.  I just know that one dance.”

“Well, you and your girlfriend were amazing,” Nicole said. 

“Kat is just a friend.  And she makes me look good.  She has all of the tough moves,” Nick said, smiling.  He thought he caught a moment of jealousy when Nicole thought Kat was his girlfriend. 

“Still humble,” Nicole said, smiling. 

Nick turned around and started to skate away as Brenda White skated up and took his arm.  “Will you skate with me next time?” she asked. 

“Sure,” Nick replied, putting his arm around her shoulder and pulling her toward him to give her a kiss on the cheek. 

Her jeans were tight, without making them look like she was trying to squeeze into tight jeans.  She wore a casual blouse, that accentuated her cleavage, again, without making it look like she was trying.  Looking amazing, while not looking like she was trying to look amazing was her superpower.  Nick thought to himself that at the moment, not looking like a cartoon character with his eyeballs popping out of his head was his superpower.

“Hi, Nicole,” Nick said as she got to the bottom of the stairs.  “You look amazing.”

“Thank you.  You ready?” she replied, giving him a quick and very chaste hug in front of her mom. 

“Where are you guys off to?” Sharon asked.

“Dinner, movie, maybe a little parking,” Nicole said. 

Nick blushed hard enough that Sharon laughed.  She covered her mouth, trying to hide it, but there was no hiding the crimson tide that washed over Nick. 

“They’re messing with you, Nick,” Nicole’s brother, Jack, said as he headed out the front door. 

“I’m sorry, Nick.  I bet my mom that I could make you blush.  I’d never tell her that we planned to go parking.  We’d just go,” she said with a wink. 

“That didn’t help.  I feel like I have a sunburn.”

“Nick, it’s ok.  You kids have a good time, and be glad Ed isn’t home. If she had said that in front of her father, he’d have called in an air strike,” Sharon said, the smile in her eyes letting Nick know it was all in good fun, except the air strike.  He’d met Ed and thought military action might be on the table if he thought Nick was trying to pick her locks. 

Nick and Nicole turned to leave as Jack’s friend Terry pulled away from the curb in his six-cylinder Camaro.  Nick walked Nicole to the passenger side door and held it for her as she slipped in.  A moment later they were pulling out of the Dixon’s neighborhood. 

“Are you going back to your dad’s this summer?” Nicole asked as they drove to the restaurant.

“Yeah.  I head down at the end of June.  I’m working for him for seven weeks this summer.” 

“C’mon, it can’t be that bad.  I bet it’s beautiful.”

“St. Croix is awesome, honestly.  And I have a couple of friends down there.  I bet you’d love it.  I wish I could take you,” Nick said, smiling over at his beautiful passenger. 

“Nick Tower, you are something else,” she replied with a grin.  “You’d be bored of me in a week.  Knowing you, you have a bevy of island girls following you around.  Don’t forget, I know what you look like in a bathing suit.”

“I don’t think I’d get bored of you in a week, though.  I’ve seen you in a bathing suit, too,” Nick said with a grin.  It was Nicole’s turn to blush. 

They pulled up in front of Capri.  Nick parked and met Nicole at the front of the car.  He tried to make it around fast enough to get her door, but she wasn’t waiting.  Capri was a popular spot for high school students on Friday and Saturday nights.  He held the door for her as they walked in, looking for a seat.  The hostess only took a moment to find them a two-top booth.  As they looked around to see who was there, Nick thought he knew half of the kids in the restaurant.  At least, he knew who they were.  Most of his friends were at the skating rink on a Friday night. 

“I think that guy over there is staring at you.  The one with Sherry Cross, that Bobby guy and your brother.  And Bobby is staring, too,” Nick said.

“That’s Terry Gates and Bobby Smith.  Terry is one of my brother’s geek friends.  He’s actually a pretty nice guy, but he has a little crush.  He drives that Camaro that pulled away when you were at the house.  Bobby kind of weirds me out, though.  Speaking of crushes, should we go around the room?” Nicole said, laughing.  “I know of at least four girls in here that would kill to be sitting in my seat right now.”  She leaned over the table and kissed him, “But I’m glad that I’m the one that will be parking with you later.  In fact,” she added with a devilish grin, “I was thinking we might add dessert here, skip the movie, and get a head start on the parking.”

Nick sat in silence for a moment. 

“You are sooo red right now,” Nicole laughed.  “And I was totally not kidding.  I even know what dessert I want.”

The waitress walked up to the table with their food.  Her gaze lingered on Nick for a moment, “Are you ok?” she asked him.

He turned and shot her a questioning look.

“You are just so red.  I thought you might be choking,” she replied. 

“I’m good,” he said, taking a sip of ice water. 

Satisfied that Nick wasn’t dying, the waitress walked away while Nicole laughed. 

“I’ll give you a little mouth-to-mouth later,” Nicole whispered.  “Our secret.” 

After another minute of teasing, they dug into dinner.  They were splitting a calzone.  They also had cheese sticks.  As they were finishing, Nicole ordered tiramisu, raspberry jam bomboloni, and chiacchiere. 

“I love Italian desserts.  I’m working on cooking them on my own, but Maria here is magnificent.  I hope you’re ok with me ordering them,” Nicole said, holding Nick’s hand across the table. 

“You are a puzzle,” Nick said, looking back at her. 

“What makes you say that?” she replied, batting her eyes. 

Nick watched her for a few moments.  She was a complicated girl.  And he was gathering his courage for his answer.  “Steve Hall called me when he found out we were going out.  He said you were a cold fish.  Skip Hodges wasn’t as nice when he gave me his impression of you.  But you are nothing like your PR,” Nick said. 

She leaned across the table again and put her hand on the back of his neck.  She pulled him toward her.  The kiss this time wasn’t a speedy smooch on the lips.  It was a toe-curling, tongue lashing.  When she leaned back, he was glad he had lip balm in his pocket because his lips were burning.  He glanced around and there were half a dozen tables staring directly at them. 

“What do you think?” she asked, her eyes showed the seriousness of her question. 

“They obviously know nothing about you.  That was the most amazing kiss I have ever experienced,” Nick said.  “Ever.”

“Steve and Skip were both cute.  But I figured out pretty quick that they weren’t the guys I wanted to be with.  You, on the other hand, are also pretty cute… I admit it, I have a type… but you are a good guy.  I really like you.  I have for quite a while, too.”

“I don’t know what to say?” Nick replied. 

“This is when you say, ‘Nicole, you are the most beautiful girl I’ve ever laid eyes on.  I want you to be mine until I die.  Run off with me and let’s elope’,” she said in a deep voice, “and then I say to you, ‘we’re too young to get married, but we can date and have a wonderful time and kiss each other like that lip melter a minute ago’,” the last bit in a falsetto voice with an unexplained Southern accent. 

Nick laughed.  “I can’t wait for dessert,” he said. 

“Yeah, I don’t know how to follow that one, either.  Changing the subject was a good call.”

They both broke down laughing as patrons stared at them again. 

***

The long station wagon backed into a spot at the parking lot by the beach.  Nick pulled the rear-facing seat out of the floor in the back, and they climbed in to watch the waves crash on the sand.  She snuggled up next to him as he slipped his arm around her. 

“I want to try that kiss again,” Nick said. 

“I want you to,” Nicole replied with a smile as she folded into him. 

Here I sit, two weeks later and while the basic structure is there, many of the details have changed. I was considering posting up the new excerpts, but decided it was too soon… Just glancing through the posts, one might miss all of the subtle changes.

The reason I’m explaining all of this is because of another story… “The Skater“. That one is closer to publication. But not as close as I thought. Three weeks ago, I thought it was almost ready to pull the trigger, but after getting feedback from a couple of my Beta readers, I knew it wasn’t. I might make my initial goal of having it out in March, but what I thought was a “no-brainer,” getting it out by… now… is turning into a “might” get it out by the very end of the month.

I will, though, post a coupe of excerpts of changes I made here on Wednesday and Friday this week.

What’s funny is how these two stories are connected, though set 40 years apart. The Skater is NOT a mainline Dixon-Prince story. Part of it takes place before Jack and Amy get together, and Amy never makes an appearance, although Jack does slip in and say hi. We have more of Nicole Dixon, and Terry Gates has a significant role. In fact, we have a different set of actions taking place on June 13th, 1981, the night of the party where Jack and Amy finally get together in Planning Vengeance.

It just worked out, and a future release of Planning Vengeance will get a VERY slight adjustment to mesh with Skater. Jack, Terry, Sherry and Bobby show up to dinner somewhere just before the party, and see Nicole with her boyfriend. Most people might not even notice the change, since it isn’t a significant event in the book. But I like having these little Easter Eggs in the books.

And in “The Call”, we have Colt, Jack and Amy’s son, as one of the main characters. When he graduated high school, he needed a little reality check, and Nick (from The Skater) agrees to help out, giving him job and some direction. We spend a chapter discovering the year Colt spent working for Nick in order to learn who Colt was, and why he is the person he is when he is introduced in the story.

Back to the point… As I write, stories evolve. I have posted up a lot of excerpts from works that were yet to be published. And they are always subject to change. Aside from possibly finding a typo, or maybe a better selection of words to describe the same basic action, sometimes there are significant changes. I won’t be posting the excerpt, but the big change in the (current) first chapter of “The Call”, since it was posted here, is that Ed Dixon is starting to suffer the beginning stages of dementia. I hated writing it. But it was needed. The old characters… Ed, Bill, Gunny and so on, are in or approaching their 80s. They aren’t superhuman. Ronny fell down a broke a hip and needed a replacement.

I read a lot. When I switched from reading exclusively paper, to reading on a tablet, I REALLY amped up my reading. Before, I read maybe a book every few months. Then, I kicked it over to a book a month. A few years ago, I decided that I needed to give myself time each day to read, and now I read a book every week or two.

At first, I read a lot of “public domain” books… classics. I could snag them in the Kindle store and they were free. Every once in a while, I would grab a book on a free deal, usually the first of a series, with the author hoping to get me hooked enough to pay for the rest of his books. Sometimes that worked. There were several series I read a dozen books in. Other times, not so much.

But one night, a couple of years ago, I was reading a book that wasn’t particularly good. As a side note here, I have read through some books that were pretty bad. It is a point of pride for me to finish one I start, even if I don’t like it. A handful have been a REAL struggle, but only a couple have forced me to give up. Back to the issue… I was reading a book that wasn’t good. It didn’t completely suck, but it could have been SO much better.

“Lane, you could write a book better than this,” I said to myself.

“Put up or shut up,” I replied.

It took a few months for me to start it, but then… I started it. Three thousand typos later, I had a book. Actually, a book and three-quarters. It wasn’t AT ALL what I intended to write. Another side note: That book might still get written. But I had a story.

I read it again. Found a few hundred typos. Fixed them, and then fixed issues I found with the storyline. I put word out on the socials asking for friends to read it and tell me how to make it suck less. My hopes weren’t high. I got half a dozen volunteers to take it and offer feedback. A couple of them actually read it and gave me feedback.

“Your main character is a wimp and I’m shocked he ever gets the girl… then, poof, he’s the freaking Terminator? I don’t think so.” Ok, that isn’t what she actually said, but it’s close. I sharpened my computer’s virtual pencil and started re-writing. Did I mention that she found several hundred MORE typos? Fixed those, too. And I found some more that we’d both missed.

Back to reading for a minute… I was reading a popular author, one that pays a butt-load of money for editors that look for typos. They were still there. Not many, but a few.

I reworked the story until I thought there was no possible way there could be a mistake left in it. Then I figured out how to publish it on KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), and hit submit. I told a few friends about it… and paid for a copy for me to read on my Kindle.

Guess what? That’s right… there were more typos. I found a few score. Friends that downloaded it also pointed out a few more. Cool thing on ebooks… they can be fixed. I fixed them and reloaded the book. Then, I tried to see if I could sell it. I gave away a lot of copies. Sold a few.

As a side note, a friend of mine read that first book a few months ago. He sent me a list of typos. About forty of those little monsters. Fixed ’em.

Piece of advice, perfect is the enemy of good. You will NOT write a perfect book. You CAN write a good book.

The first step is to write the book. You do NOT need a full outline of everything you are going to write in your fictional story. Ok, the first step is to start. Put something on paper (or virtual paper). Once you start, you can adjust. My story was going to be science fiction… it turned out to be a crime-thriller set in the 80s. That’s fine. I adjusted. But in order to adjust, I had to have a starting point. You can change the plot, the story arc, the characters… EVERYTHING. But you can’t change it if you don’t start it.

So, I said I would help. I’ll write a couple more posts to give you my “secrets” (they aren’t secret) of how I write a book. And if you decide to write one, I’ll be happy to be a “beta reader” for you. I can’t make a guarantee on my timeline, but I will try to read it and get back to you quickly with my feedback. I honestly don’t care who you are… if we are already friends, cool. If I don’t know you at all. Still cool. All I’ll ask in return is that you be willing to beta read for me sometime. Beta readers are WONDERFUL and I appreciate EVERY one of them that has given me feedback.

They have been an incredible gift to me and there is no better way for me to pay that back than to do it for someone else. And like I said last week, I have a bunch of stories in the pipeline.