I'm participating in a Blogfest today! So cool!!!!

This is my first Blogfest, to pardon me if I make any faux pas!

Make sure you check out this post at Fiction Groupie to view the list of participants!!!

This is a dialogue Blogfest, so here is a scene! This is a novelette I wrote- Paradise Cove. Hopefully it will find a publishing home at Lyrical Press, my publisher, who is publishing my debut, A Bitch Named Karma, next month. This scene is between Shelby, my MC and Gabriel, the Grandson of the the old couple who'd sold their Cancun resort to her. Shelby is in the middle of renovating the property and has just fallen head-first into a dumpster. Gabriel just happened to be there and pulled her out.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing.”

“I can see you’re in pain.” His impatience came charging through. “Is it your ankle?”

Shelby sighed and continued to move forward. “Yes. I must have twisted it.”

Gabriel set the ladder down and stepped to her. “Come here.”

“I’m fine. I can do it.”

“No, you’re not fine.” He wrapped his arm under hers and supported her weight. A flock of butterflies and ice water surged through her body as his hand curled around her, every one of his fingers pressing into her side as he held her tightly.

They hobbled into the lobby and he set her down on the rattan sofa, its floral patterned cushions no longer having any fluff to them. Gabriel retrieved a first aid kit from behind the front desk.

First he surveyed the damage to her legs, riddled with cuts, scrapes and bruises. “I don’t think any of these are too bad.” He rummaged through the rusty metal box. “How is your head?”

“It’s fine.” Shelby ignored the throb at the back of her head. “Um, thank you, again. For helping me out there. And for getting all this.” She motioned to the kit.

“I didn’t even realize there was a first aid kit behind the counter.”

“Well, I’ve spent nearly my entire life at this resort,” he stated coldly. “I know everything about The Paradise Cove.”

“I hope to learn.” She took an antibiotic wipe packet from him and tore it open. He then handed her a few large bandages.

“You sure you know what you’ve gotten yourself into?” he asked while taking out a long stretchy bandage then wrapped her ankle with it.

“I think so. I’m going to put everything I’ve got into this place.”

“You better. This resort is very special to my family and I’m not happy about it being owned by an outsider.”

Shelby sat quiet as she cleaned her wounds but could feel Gabriel’s eyes on her. And she started to wonder. If this place was so special to his family, why were Mr. and Mrs. Espinoza here all alone? Surely they needed help taking care of guests and doing repairs. Where was the family when the resort was going downhill? And if this place was so special to Gabriel, why was he in San Antonio instead of Cancun?

“Well, I care about this place enough to give it the attention it deserves, even if I’m not an Espinoza.”

“Are you implying that I don’t care?”

“If you did, why weren’t you here years ago, helping your grandparents take care of the place?”

“I was making a career for myself.”

Shelby could see the smoke starting to billow out of Gabriel’s ears. Apparently she had nicked a nerve.

“If I had the sweetest grandparents on the planet, I would have dropped everything to be at their side when they needed me.”

“I was doing what I had to do. You have no idea what you’re talking about!”
He slammed the first aid kit onto the table and she watched as the sweat beads on his forehead began streaming down. The constraints of a suit, dress shirt and snugly fitted tie had to be excruciating.

“If you had minded your own business and left my grandparents alone, none of this would be happening right now. I’ll be shocked if you don’t run this place completely into the ground!” He stood up.

Shelby stood too, matching the fire in his ocean blue eyes, set off by his bronzed skin and onyx black hair. “You just wait! I’ll make your grandparents proud!”

He marched past her, got in his rental car and sped away.