I am so excited to welcome Denise Robbins to my blog today! She is without a doubt of of the most down-to-earth and entertaining authors I have read as well as networked with. As part of her Never Tempt Danger Tour I requested a very special interview between two of my favorite characters. Charley a human intelligence specialist from
Connect the Dots puts Maureen (Gilly) a robotics genius with a special gift from from
Never Tempt Danger on the hot seat.
So without further ado lets join our heroines for some fun...
Dressed in a calf-length skirt and silk top, Charley stepped into the Irish pub and paused. She spotted the fiery red hair and knew she found Maureen Gillman AKA Gilly. With a small box tucked under one arm and her bag over the other, Charley strolled, if you called shuffling in a pencil-cut skirt and spike heels strolling, to the bar and set the package on it in front of Maureen.
“Hello, Charley,” she said and turned glittering green Irish eyes on her. “So you’ve come to interrogate me and this is a peace offering?” Gilly asked with a lifted brow.
Charley chuckled. “Hardly. Like that would work with you.”
Gilly bobbed her head then slid off the stool and embraced Charley in a quick hug. “It’s been too long.”
“Agree with that.”
“You want to do this at a table or does the bar work for you?”
Charley shrugged. “Whichever is more comfortable for you?”
Before she could answer the wooden door to the kitchen slammed open and Maureen’s grandfather shoved through the door. “Charley me girl!” Despite his old age, Frank Gillman could give a bear hug that would squeeze the life out of the squeezee.
“Pops, put Charley back on her feet.”
When her spiked heels touched wood again, Charley leaned in and gave Gilly’s grandfather and the owner of the Irish pub a kiss on his cheek. “So nice to see you Mr. Gillman.” His cheeks flushed and when Charley glanced over at Gilly she rolled her eyes and grinned.
“Oh, call me Pops. She does.” He waved a bony finger at his granddaughter. “Now, what can I get you?” he asked as he moved back behind the bar.
“I’ll have whatever Maureen is having.”
“A Guinness and stew.”
Pops poured her a pint of Guinness then went off to the kitchen. Charley pulled up a stool at the end of the bar and sat and without a word she reached into her bag and pulled out pen and paper.
“You’re taking notes?” A shiver of apprehension trickled up Gilly’s spine. Did she really want someone prying into her life, her gift/curse, into her? She shoved at her red hair and when it spang back she blew at it in frustration.
Charley set her pen on the pad and glanced up at her. “What? Do I scare you that much?”
Gilly’s spine snapped taught and she straightened on the wooden stool. “I’m not afraid.” Much, she thought.
“Good. Now open the box.” Charley shoved it closer.
Gilly eased the lid open then flipped it all the way back when she saw what was inside and gave a roar of laughter. “Pizza! You brought me pizza.”
“Not just any pizza,” Charley said grinning. “The best pizza according to the man who made it himself.”
“Waldo’s pizza,” she murmured with reverence. “Forget that Bowl of Irish, Pops!” Maureen yelled to the kitchen. “We’ve got Hot and Sassy pizza.”
Gilly started to slide off the stool. “I’ll get us some utensils.”
“Are you kidding me?” Charley reached across the mahogany wood bar, snatched up a handful of napkins and slapped them down next to the box. “That’s all the utensils we need,” she said and went in for a slice.
“I like your style,” Gilly told Charley and followed her example and slid a slice of pizza on a napkin. At the first bite of pepperoni, prosciutto, feta cheese, green olives, and jalapenos, her mouth hummed in delight and her stomach growled in appreciation.
“Waldo must love you if he made a pizza for you to bring here and share with me.”
“He’s my pseudo father,” Charley answered with her mouth full and picked up her pen. “So what’s with the green lace panties?”
Guinness spewed out of Gilly’s mouth and nose. “What?” she asked in mortification as she swiped a napkin across her face and then wiped up the bar.
Charley chuckled and Gilly narrowed her gaze at her co-worker and friend, a former CIA human-intelligence specialist.
“So? Why green lace?”
She felt the heat crawl up her neck and murmured, “I’ll kill him.”
“Who?” Charley asked with the sweet voice of an innocent. Gilly knew better.
“Lucas. He told you.”
“Told me what?”
“About the green lace panties he gave me as a gift and how I modeled them for him and of course how he maneuvered me out of them.”
Charley’s pen scribbled across the pen in rapid, jerky movements.
“Are you really writing that down?”
“Hm?” she answered without looking up.
“Are you really writing down how Lucas made love to me with the green panties tied around my wrists as if they were handcuffs?”
Her pen paused over the paper, and Charley’s lifted her head. Beneath arched brows her blue eyes glittered. “Do tell.”
Maureen’s mouth dropped open, closed, and then opened again. A soft moan escaped her lips before she spoke. “Lucas didn’t tell you that part did he?”
“Nope, but you did. Remind me to ask for more details after a few more beers.” Charley tilted her glass to her lips and drank.
Gilly took another bit of her pizza and ordered herself to clam up.
“Read my mind.”
She placed her slice of pizza back on the bar and stared blank-faced at her friend. This she could handle. “I don’t read minds.”
Charley’s lips curved up at one corner. “Okay.”
Gilly glared straight back at her friend, didn’t flinch, didn’t squirm. Nothing.
“Let’s talk about your robot. What did you name him?”
“DANGR. Lucas thinks I named him after him, but the truth is his name is an acronym for Defense Air Naval Ground Robot.”
“Cool,” Charley whispered as she scribbled. “What does the robot do?”
Gilly lifted and dropped her shoulders. “He can do anything. He can go in water, go airborne, shift to get real skinny or small in order to get into narrow spaces, and he can even crawl up stairs or buildings.”
“He does this because?”
Gilly leaned in and lowered her voice. “DANGR was built to morph into various shapes so it could go into the military theatre and help our troops by delivering payloads in places that our guys couldn’t come close to without detection.”
“And he morphs by responding to brainwaves?”
“Yes.” She slapped a hand over her mouth and tried to bite her tongue. As soon as the word was out of her mouth she wished she could reel it back in. Charley was too damn good at her job. The answer just slipped out.
“Can DANGR respond to just anyone’s brainwaves?”
Gilly tugged on the collar of her shirt. Was it just her or had the pub just gotten hotter?
“How come you didn’t know before it was too late that your partner was going to die?”
“I don’t know.” The tug of guilt in her heart had her rubbing at her chest.
“When did you get the vision?”
“An instant before he died.” Gilly’s head snapped up. Her green eyes went wide in disbelief at the same time they shot daggers at Charley’s pompous grin. “Bitch,” she muttered without true malice.
Charley reached out and slid her hand over hers. “We’re friends. I don’t think you’re a freak. I think you have a very special gift.”
“Curse,” she stated flatly just as an image flashed in her mind. Then her tight lips curved up at the corners and a full grin crossed her mouth. “Boy or girl?” she asked.
“What?”
“Does Jake know?”
Charley jerked her hand back, dropped it in her lap, and stared at her. “How did you. . . I mean. . .Am I?”
Gilly bobbed her head and grinned. Now it was her turn to chuckle. “For once, I flummoxed the interrogator.”
“Oh! Oh my! Jake is going to have a heart attack.”
“You didn’t know?”
Charley shook her head and blonde hair spilled over her shoulders. “We wanted, hoped, but . . . “ She shook her head again then leaped off the bar stool and grabbed Gilly in a hug. “Gift, Gilly. You have a gift. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.” Charley kissed her cheek then stepped back and hooted.
The kitchen door swung open and slammed against the wall. “What’s all the racket about?” Pops demanded.
“Charley’s having a baby.”
Her 80-something year-old grandfather practically leapt over the bar, snatched Charley up from her chair, and wrapped her in a hug. When he leaned back, he eyed the half-empty glass of Guinness on the bar. “Tsk. Tsk.” He reached for the glass. “Milk, my dear. You need milk. Those twins need milk.”
Before he could walk away, Gilly grabbed her grandfather’s arm and planted a loud, sloppy kiss on his cheek. “You’re the best, Pops.” He gave her a wink then walked away to get the mother-to-be a large glass of milk. The man who had always been there for her, who half raised her, and who she inherited her gift from.
“Twins?” Charley screeched. “Did he say twins?”
Gilly slung an arm over her friend’s shoulder and grinned. “I sure hope Waldo is willing to make late night deliveries for those cravings.”
When Charley’s mouth opened and closed as if a fish, Gilly threw her head back and laughed. “Twins!”
Bravo, Denise. Spectacular. But I knew it would be. Thank you so much for guest posting.
Want more Gilly? Please visit my Never Tempt Danger Review.
See Denise's website for more great reads!
Contest: The prize is a fantastic new, SIGNED copy of Never Tempt Danger! All you need to do to make this book yours is comment on this post! It is that easy. Contest ends October 26th.
The fine print: Only one comment will be counted toward entry. I will try and contact the winners by email, twitter, etc. Reply must be made within 48 hours of the winners announcement. I announce the winners within 3 days of the contest end. Each entry will be assigned a number and random.org will be used to generate the winners. Personally owned copy.
