Chat Day at PhazeChatters

Today I’m taking part in an all day chat over at the PhazeChatters yahoo group. Why not pop over there and say hi? There’ll be tons of other great Phaze authors there too.

In case you can’t make it, here’s an extract from “Charlotte’s Secret” that I’ve posted as part of the event.

Charlotte's Secret - Marc Nobbs
978-1-59426-872-4 - Price $3
Contemporary
4/21/08

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mark.everitt/html/charlottes_secret.html

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David put the phone down and wondered what could be so urgent that Charlotte would take this kind of risk. He daren’t think what would happen if Susie caught them together. His train of thought was distracted when Ben snored gently. So often the little boy fell asleep in David’s arms. He studied him as he slept. His face was subtle mixture of pleasure and contentment. People often said that Ben had David’s eyes or his ears, or mouth, or any other feature they could think of, but David couldn’t see it. He thought that the boy shared his eyes with his mother and aunt, but they were the only features he recognised. He certainly couldn’t see himself in him--but he loved him just the same.

Ben stirred at the knock at the door but didn’t wake. David opened the door with one hand while clutching Ben to his chest with the other. Charlotte stood in the doorway, looking as radiant as always. He put his finger to lips to silence her before she spoke. He nodded for her to come inside. “I’ll just take him up to bed,” he whispered. “Then we can talk, okay?”

Charlotte nodded. David could feel her watching him as he carried Ben upstairs. When he returned, she was still in the hallway, waiting for him. He took her into the kitchen and offered her a glass of wine.

“What if Susie finds lipstick on the glass?”

“She won’t. I’ll have time to clean it before she gets back. After all, how long can it take you to warn me not to come to the shop again?”

“Warn you… What?”

“That’s why you’re here isn’t it. To warn me off. I’ll understand if it is. It means you felt it too.”

“What? Felt what?”

“The spark. It never went away, did it? The spark between you and me. I could feel it the moment I stepped into the shop, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. I came in to talk to you about Susie and… I’m sorry, Charlie. I’m so sorry. I know what we did was wrong. But you can’t tell me it didn’t feel right. You can’t tell me that it didn’t feel as good as before--better even because we’d been denied each other for too long.” He looked at the floor. The silence lasted for a few awkward seconds but seemed much longer.