Hump Day Happy

Hello All,
It is Wednesday and it has been a loooooooooong week so I am going to share some pretty to help me (and everyone else) get through the rest of the week. Also, check out a brief scene from the story that I am writing for Goodreads M/M Romance Group's Love Has No Boundaries event. I am not meant to reveal names or title yet so those are blocked out.
Happy Hump Day!
Kathleen

Excerpt:

As I saw Man's Name squatting down to wipe up splatter from a fallen tray that had reached to the corners of the room, I was instantly, almost violently, reminded of the first time I had met him. 

Back then the bar had been a dive – dark booths, dark corners, dark alley behind. I had stumbled in after storming angrily out of a family function a few blocks away. The rain outside had just started coming down hard. I looked up from the bar where I was nursing a pout and my beer when the side door had slammed open. It was almost like one of those horror movie scenes – lightening flashed, rain streamed down in heavy sheets and a huge dark shadow centered itself in the doorway. An instant later, the shadow had crumpled to the floor, the door had slammed shut and I had shot off my bar stool.

In the dark of the bar, it was hard to make out details but the large shadow was sitting, collapsed in the corner next to the door. As I approached I was able to make out wild red hair and an untamed red beard. Almost before that registered, I saw a different red staining most of one side of his face and down his shirt. He was bleeding from cuts on his cheek and forehead and had a few choice bruises starting to form across his face and neck.

I held back for a moment - after all, I didn’t know this man. But my eyes met his pain filled blue ones and any hesitation fled my mind. I held out my hand.

“Need a hand?”

He looked at me a little funny, then cracked a wavering smile. “You trying to pick me up?”

I marveled that he could crack a joke while bleeding on the floor but beyond the words, I could hear the wavering fear, the panic held at bay and the need to pretend everything was normal.

I smiled back at him and gamely pretended he hadn’t just had the bloody crap beaten out of him. “Yup. My place or yours?” I winked.

He reached up and grabbed my hand.