It's July 4th. To me, that means summery foods, maybe a water gun fight and glow sticks, fire flies in the yard, hopefully a fresh tomato from my garden. And fireworks! I love fireworks. Sure, it's usually hot and sticky and swarming with mosquitoes. But there's something amazing about watching the explosions in different colors and shapes and sizes, all orchestrated to make the biggest awe. Maybe that's why fireworks scenes end up in my books every now and then. One ended up in Faith and Hope, deep in the heart of Texas. Needless to say, it's got some heat to it, and if you want to check it out, I shared it here. The one from today is from my book No Place Like Home. It's set at Tom Lee park, right on the Mississippi River in Memphis. My characters have been chatting about her past and he finally gets her to tell him the rest of the story. And, well, there might be more than one kind of firework going off before the end. Check it out. A rocket whistled to their right, and they turned to see the explosion of red sparkles. It was almost completely dark now. She hadn’t even realized the sun had gone down. Gray pulled her closer to him, and she didn’t complain despite the heat. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.” He had to speak right in her ear to be heard over the fireworks. “But you have to remember that the church is made up of people. They’re not perfect, and they make mistakes. You can’t blame God for the decisions people made.” She turned to look at him, wanting to argue. “You don’t understand.” “No. I don’t understand exactly what you went through. But it sounds like most of your hurt came from people, not God.” His face was so close to hers, his breath on her cheek. He reached up to wipe a tear from her face she hadn’t even realized was there. Before she knew what was happening, the hand that had caressed her cheek so gently to wipe away her sadness pulled her just a little closer, and his lips touched hers. Her eyes fluttered closed, her breath caught in her throat. The kiss was only a few seconds, but time might as well have stopped. She jumped as a particularly loud firecracker exploded overhead. His eyes held hers for a moment longer before they mutually looked to the sky. Had that just happened? Her racing pulse told her something had moved her, and she knew it wasn’t the patriotic music playing in the background. They watched the rest of the show in silence, standing for the end with everyone else, cheering as the last round of fireworks made the sky almost as bright as day for a few splendored seconds. It was almost deafeningly quiet when the bursts ended. She rubbed her bare arms, not really cold but lonely for the heat his arms had provided. So, what do you think? Do you like fireworks scenes in books? Do you like them in real life?
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