Writing on Wednesday... Operation: Endgame

For National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I am working on Operation: Endgame. 

I shared an excerpt from this book a couple of weeks ago. 

The scene below is the continuation from that excerpt above 

(so you may want to read it if you haven't already done so.)

Excerpt from Operation: Endgame

Suddenly, a doorbell rang from inside the house. “Oops, no more maudlin anymore. Like I said, I am sure it doesn’t mean anything. Come on girls, it’s the start of summer. Drink up and I will go see if whoever is at the front door wants to join us.” Cassie bounded into the house, while Julie and Penelope shared a look of concern.

As Cassie ran through the house, she swiped at her eyes, smoothed over the top of her ponytail, and glanced down at the very miniscule top of her orange polka-dot bikini and the matching sarong to make sure that everything was covered. She wasn’t expecting anyone, but with the semester ending the day before, any of their colleagues knew that the girls would be hanging out at the pool today and celebrating the end of the semester. So it was a huge shock to see Jake standing at her front door in his blues when she opened the door.

Cassie flung herself into his arms. “Jake? What are you doing here? When did you get back into the States?” She suddenly realized that he was standing very stiffly at the same time that she spotted the Chaplain and another high ranking officer both in blues standing behind him. Her gasp came out before she even finished processing her thought and she yanked back from Jake to look into his eyes that were filled with tears.

 A guttural, “Cassie…” crossed his lips, but she didn’t want to hear what he had to say.

“No, no, NO!” Cassie was shaking her head viciously back and forth while she tried to escape back into the house, but Jake wouldn’t let go of her hand. This couldn’t be happening. She refused to accept this.

“Cassie, sweetheart…” Jake tried to clear his throat. “I’m so sorry, hon.” Cassie watched as a lone tear dripped down Jake’s cheek. “Chris...”

Cassie wailed, “No! Chris is fine! No, you can’t do this to me Jake Madsen! No! He’s fine! Don’t you think that I would feel it if he wasn’t? I always know. You know that about us. He may be hurt, but he is NOT GONE! NO!” Cassie was shaking her head wildly back and forth and kept trying to escape from Jake’s grasp, but he refused to let her go.

He reached up, cupped her cheek, kissed her forehead, and then looked directly into her eyes. “Cassie, hon, I am so sorry, but he was in a crash and we couldn’t get to him in time. Cassie, Chris is gone.” Jake pulled her into his arms to try to comfort her, but Cassie didn’t feel it.

Cassie just stood there within Jake’s embrace with her arms hanging to her sides. This couldn’t be right. Chris could not be dead. That is not the way that things worked between the two of them. She was his twin and she would know if he had died. She would feel it in her soul. This simply could not be happening. Cassie looked over Jake’s broad shoulder to the two men looking at her with sympathy in their eyes. They didn’t understand, but she knew better. Chris was not dead.

These are my words so you are not allowed to copy, alter, or re-print them anywhere else without my permission. ;o)