Back on the wagon! Or…something. Well. Anyway. Because I’m trying not to be lame, here you go, more from the next Guardsman’verse book, which has the very lame working title “Parker”, and is currently at 70k words and is probably going to clock in at around 100k when finished. Ahem.

KEEP IN MIND: Sunday Six pullouts are by their nature spoilery. So if you don’t want to know, don’t read!

This is from early in the book, Part 1,  Chapter 4, wherein the lead character Greg, who is a veteran suffering PTSD, wakes up from a nightmare about the death of his military dog companion:

Greg woke up screaming her name, gasping for air, his hand blindly reaching out and slapping at Parker’s nose. The sensation of it startled him fully awake, and he sat up, sucking in a huge breath and trying to calm himself down. Parker barked a few more times, his front half stretched over the bed, paws out and not quite touching the line of Greg’s legs under the soaking wet sheets.

“Damn it,” Greg wheezed. Parker tilted his head but did not move. “Hey, buddy, thanks. Thanks.” He ran his fingers through Parker’s fur, over his head and down his neck. “Maybe I should have listened to the VA counselor and put in for a therapy dog, huh?”