He was sliding between two old stripped-down pickups when he heard a shriek. The chain on the gate here was cut, too, and he stepped through into the concrete backyard of the clubhouse to find two dark shapes crouched over two felled ones, and a third boy, still on his feet, running for dear life. In the glow of the security light, Carter registered Reese belting one guy’s hands behind his back, standing, a boot braced between his shoulder blades.
Tenny smacked the other one’s head off the pavement, rendering him limp, and sprang lightly to his feet.
“Jesus, don’t kill him,” Carter admonished, storming toward them. “I want them conscious.”
Tenny turned to him with a mild expression, not even winded, and lifted a single brow. “You’ll be wanting that one to run away, then?”
Carter glanced at the kid’s retreating back, the hood of his jacket slapping as he sprinted for the grass, and the gate, and the river.
There was a rock at Carter’s feet, small, ping-pong ball size.
With a sigh, he bent, picked it up, and drew a bead on the retreating teenager. Felt his body settle automatically into the old stance, the one he’d revived and been exercising during his workouts with Elijah.
Tenny snorted. “And you worried about me killing this one, hypocrite.”
Carter threw. The rock disappeared into the darkness, but a moment later, the kid tripped and went face-down, skidding across the grass with a quiet yelp.
“Still got it,” he muttered, and went to collect his captive.
Homecoming, Dartmoor Book VIII
Typically, there's a little bit of me in all of my books - but generally in very small, hard-to-spot ways that would only be noticed by someone who knew me well. Sometimes it's something as little as a song, or a favorite pair of boots. Sometimes something as big as a horse. One of Carter's internal struggles in Homecoming was personal for me: the struggle of having thought your life would go one direction, and realizing, ten years later, that you've wound up somewhere different instead. I thought I was going to make a proper career of farm management and horse training. Carter thought he'd be in the NFL. Our goals - er, teenage goals - were different in scale, but I can relate to that sense of displacement. Wondering if you'll ever get to employ those hard-earned, long-practiced skills again. Wondering if where you've landed, professionally, is perhaps not the best place for you.
That's the emotional crux of the story. Making peace with where you are. I don't feel "settled" yet, but Carter is settled by the end of the book. In a better romantic relationship, and if not thrilled, then at least content with his place in the club.
It was important to me, with this book, that Jasmine never be painted as some sort of villain. Really, she deserves better than her relationship with Carter, too, and she's well on her way by the end of this book, with a new boyfriend, and a new job
Carter is rather on the fringes of the big Abacus takedown. He's an essential part of the club, but not one of the specilists within it, and so Reese and Tenny's evolving relationship is the second main thread of the novel. My favorite scene of the whole novel is the one at dawn, between Tenny and Fox on the picnic table. If you've read the book, you know the scene. That one still sticks with me, and carried me straight on into The Wild Charge.
Romance-wise, this book steps back a little from the relentless forward momentum and allows for a quieter, more down-home relationship between two old friends seeing one another in a new light. I enjoyed getting to bring Leah back into Ava's life on a more permanent basis, and also, through her, letting Carter be the young guy he is. Leah sands his newly-harsh edges a little, strips down the melancholy and gets him thinking future thoughts again. I also really enjoyed getting to work the football storyline in, his mentorship of Elijah. That felt really wholesome and positive for Carter, and a way to stay connected to the sport he loves, even if he isn't playing it professionally himself.
Book by book, we're working our way toward the latest entry, Nothing More, which is available to read now!
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