Lack of time...so I'm posting a scene for you!

So sorry...blogging time has been cut down to nothing this week...so much to do...so little time...story of our lives, right?

I will get to drawing the winners for my Chicken Soup for the Soul giveaway...I promise I will! :)

In the meantime, here is a scene from one of my WIPs. It's the opening chapter to something I've titled The Greener Grass.

I'd love some feedback...are you interested in reading more??? Does this opening grab you and make you wonder what happened???



“You can’t marry him, Mia.”

“I can and I will,” she replied and peered into the antique mirror above the vanity in the dressing room of the small chapel. She adjusted her necklace then smoothed a simple ivory satin dress. Mia looked to the clock, fifteen minutes till ceremony time. She then reached for her bouquet, an elegant arrangement of miniature calla lilies.

“He doesn’t love you like I do.” Josh took the flowers and placed them back on the vanity. He brought both her hands to his lips while his sad eyes pleaded with her.

“He’ll never treat you like I did.”

Mia didn’t know what else to say to him. They’d been on this merry-go-round for months. She’d explained her feelings to him over and over again.

“I love him. I’m sorry. We were meant to be together. Why do you keep making me say things that hurt you?”

“He’s an asshole! You’re meant to be with me!”

She sighed and pulled away from him then walked to the mirror and checked the stability of her simple up-do. This was a second wedding for her and her groom, no veil, no poufy gown—just the two of them and about fifty of their closest family members and friends.

“Please don’t do this.”

Mia looked into Josh’s teary eyes once again. He stood there in sneakers and faded jeans. A wrinkled button-down shirt pulled slightly in his mid-section and his dark hair showed bits of gray on the sides. “I think you need to leave now.”

“Daddy!” they heard from behind and Olivia rushed into her father’s arms. Her ivory chiffon flower girl’s dress shimmered in the sunlight that shone in through the window.

“Hey, Peanut! You look gorgeous!” Josh hugged his little girl then put her down and twirled her.

“Mommy,” Olivia said and turned to her mother. “Grandma said you need to come out now.”

“Okay. I’ll be right there. Go get your flower basket and get ready!”

She ran off and Mia took one last glance in the mirror. She was ready to walk down the aisle to her new life. Sean was waiting for her. She didn’t want to make him wait any longer than she had to. They’d spent far too much time apart as it was.

She grabbed her bouquet and walked toward the door.

“Mia, please. Think about what you’re doing.”

“I have,” she said then left the room, leaving Josh there alone.

* * *


Mia stood in the vestibule, the doors leading to the church were closed. She could hear the gentle sounds of harp music from inside. It was two minutes to three. She called Olivia over and fixed the bow that was tied in the back of her dress. She fluffed the soft fabric then gave her a gentle kiss on the nose.

Mia nodded to the church attendants and they opened the doors for her. Olivia glided down the aisle tossing the lavender and white rose petals just as they had practiced at home for weeks.

Mia stood in position, waiting for Olivia to finish her grand walk. She could see Sean, a sexy half-smile on his face—the same one she’d fallen head-over-heels in love with so many years ago. Seeing that smile gave her all the courage she needed to take that first step onto the worn hardwood aisle of St. Mary’s Chapel. She remembered the joy and fun of a teen summer and how alive his kisses had made her feel.

Mia took a few more steps as the harpist played a simple Canon in D. It was those same kisses years later that brought Mia out of the depression of just existing. Sean had awoken every cell of her being and she remembered what it was like to soar and fly and have excitement in her life once again.
She knew what she was walking towards when she stepped forward that afternoon. She was stepping into the life she should have had.

* * *


Josh waited ‘til Mia had started her journey down the aisle before he took a seat in the very last pew. She’d told him to leave but he just couldn’t. How could he walk out and let the woman he loved, his wife, marry another man? But Mia wasn’t his wife any more. She’d made her decision regardless of his promises to change. She told him she didn’t believe he could change and it didn’t matter if he did. She didn’t love him anymore.

Josh watched Mia take her place in the front of the chapel, a glow surrounding her. He looked to the people sitting in the pews in front of him, the people he used to call “family”. These same people gathered in a grand cathedral many years ago for a similar reason. Now, there were fewer decorations and this bride’s dress was much plainer than the one she wore the day of her first wedding, but Mia looked just as beautiful, just as excited.

Mia wanted Sean and Josh couldn’t understand why. More than a decade earlier it was Sean’s indifference that pushed Mia into Josh’s arms. Did she forget what he was like back then—a conceited rich boy who did whatever the hell he wanted? But once again Mia was under his spell. She insisted that he’d become a different person, he’d matured. Josh still saw the same asshole, but this time Sean had mesmerized his daughter as well as his wife.

Josh remembered the smug smile Sean often wore when he and Mia dated for the first time, that look of entitlement. Josh sat in the shadows then, invisible to Mia. Until that one day. One day changed everything and Mia saw the man that Josh was, or at least the man he used to be.

Josh blinked back to reality just in time to hear the pastor say “Speak now or forever hold your peace.” In the few seconds of silence that followed, Josh saw the last thirteen years of his life sit waiting to be erased, Mia’s finger hovering over the delete key. He debated on standing and proclaiming his love for her, begging her to come back to him. But he looked to her face. A smile reached from one side to the other and he realized it had been a long, long time since he had given her a reason to smile like that. Her arms were outstretched, hands resting in Sean’s. His face carried an expression Josh had never seen. Was this a sincere smile? Maybe Mia was right; maybe she was where she was supposed to be. It didn’t matter what he wanted. Her happiness was more important. Josh slowly stood and crept from his seat, exiting the church. The day was sunny and warm—the perfect day for a wedding.