Tuesday Tales: From a Picture

Good morning. Welcome to Living the Dream. It’s time for this week’s Tuesday Tales. Since I picked up a few new followers last week, let me explain what I do here.

From one week to the next, a group of very talented ladies allow me to participate in a blog hop designed to stretch the imagination and a writer’s creativity. Most weeks, we are given a word, but one a month we are provided with a picture and on those weeks, we have to limit our posts to 300 words. In the past, two of my Tuesday Tales have ended up as published works–Forever and Always, a novelle and Hello Again, a paranormal romance suspense. My current wip for this activity is entitled, Wedding Bell Blues.

This week, we had to choose one of three photographs provided by our fearless leader, Jean Joachim.Most of the time, I’ve been able to make the word or image fit my current manuscript, and I did it again this week, but I might’ve stretched the intent of the image just a little bit. As the announcers say in baseball–just a bit outside.

Here is the image I chose:

What do you think of the way I used it?

While it was true this civil marriage wasn’t legally binding, it was just too real. Part of him wanted it to be,  but his conscience screamed that, knowing what kind of man he really was, he didn’t deserve someone as wonderful as MJ in his life. He was broken, unlovable, and incapable of loving anyone. The last time he’d cared about someone and that person had trusted him, all hell had broken loose. People had died.

Paul swallowed and pasted what he prayed was a reassuring smile on his face, determined not to blow this. He’d do whatever had to be done to protect her and get even with the schmuck who’d broken her heart and caused her so much pain.

“Cold?” he asked, realizing it was an inane comment since it was at least eighty degrees out since the sun wouldn’t set for another three hours.

“Not cold—maybe a little nervous,” she admitted, her gorgeous sea-green eyes begging for reassurance. “Isn’t a girl supposed to be anxious on her wedding day?”

“Only if she’s marrying a frog,” he said and winked. “There’s nothing to be antsy about. It’s like slicing bread. Think of that loaf they gave us at lunch. You don’t like crust, but once I cut off the heel, the bread was perfect—manna from heaven.”

She burst out laughing.

“You’re comparing our wedding to bread? Seriously?”

“Sure. Why not. Bread’s a staple of life. The Achilles Heel was the crust, and I’m the white, fluffy interior. It works for me.” He reached for her hand and entwined his fingers with hers. “I’ll be by your side the whole time, just like I was this afternoon. You had fun then, you can have fun now. The ceremony takes about ten minutes max.”

That’s it for this week. Please take the time to check out the other selections on  Tuesday Tales.