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Here’s the deal. Sonny James and Luki Vasquez run into a great big problem in Finding Jackie. An existential problem, you might say, because identity—especially Luki’s identity—lies at the heart of it. So it almost seems the problem was lying in wait for unsuspecting Luki and Sonny to trip over it. It rears it’s head (as problems often do) when Luki decides to be a bit sneaky about something he’s pretty sure Sonny won’t be happy about. Like this:
As he walked into the Federal Building—a skyscraper downtown on 2 nd Avenue—Luki’s thoughts returned to the reason for his visit, and the fact that he was deceiving Sonny. A little. For a good cause! He reviewed his justification. Carrying a badge isn’t necessarily a bad thing. And hell, Sonny doesn’t ask my permission. If he can do his seminar all day long and into the night, I can meet for a half hour with the guy who sought me out because he wants me to work for him. No harm, no foul… He wondered where the cliché came from, and then moved on to considering his scheme for the evening. He planned to attend Sonny’s lecture. He thought Sonny would be pleasantly surprised, and it would be fun to see him in action, too. If peace needed to be made about his Schwarz interview, he’d make it then. For now, he put any Sonny-based fallout out of his mind as he stepped inside the building and opted for the elevator, rather than the stairs.
The excerpt attached shows what happens a little later, when it becomes all too clear that Sonny knows all about Luki’s little sneak. I personally love the passage because Sonny is so quintessentially Sonny here, and ditto Luki. Everything they love about each other is exactly what comes between them.
The reason I happened on this subject for this guest blog, is that early on in the book’s making, someone, a professional, voiced their opinion that it would be unacceptable for this problem not to be completely resolved by the end of the book. I argued that it couldn’t be completely resolved, ever, that it’s the sort of thing that is going to haunt them for the rest of their lives. This mirrors life, mirrors the difficulty two people—regardless of gender—face when they try to merge their lives. Sometimes there are things so basic to the people involved—not bad things usually, just differences—that they only way people can move past them is to decide they love each other too much to let that difference push them apart.
So let the lovers have their problems. In Finding Jackie Luki and Sonny just might find a way to dance together around that difference. And that just might help them love each other all the more.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject? Should all the problems the couple faces come from outside? When they argue, should it always be fixable? Can love be stronger if a couple agrees to disagree?
Click HERE to read a PG EXCERPT!
Finding Jackie
Sequel to Delsyn’s Blues
Vasquez & James: Book Three
Luki Vasquez and Sonny Bly James finally have their Hawaiian wedding, and it’s perfect, almost. But their three-phase honeymoon is riddled with strife. Luki’s status as a working badass spells discord for the newlyweds. A former informant from Luki’s days with ATFE brings a troubling message (or is it a warning?) from a Mob hit man. When Luki’s sixteen-year-old nephew, Jackie, is lured into capture and torture by a sadistic killer, the honeymoon is well and truly over.
The couple put aside their differences and focus on the grueling hunt, which takes them from leather bars to dusty desert back roads, and calls on Sonny’s deep compassion as well as Luki’s sharpest skills. Their world threatens to fall apart if they fail, but their love may grow stronger than ever if they succeed in finding Jackie—before it’s too late.
Click HERE to read a PG EXCERPT!