The 6 pm doggie play group in Jersey City…
Author Archives: Peggy Jaeger
A July recap…what a month! #writinglife
I don’t usually do recap blogs because I’m always moving forward and looking in my rearview, but July 2022 was a BIG Month for me, so I decided to take a quick look back just so I could bask again in everything wonderful that happened to me, career-wise.
Indulge me, please, lol.
ROMANTICON 2022 was held on July 15th and I had the best time. It’s been a Covid-minute since I was able to attend a book signing and this one was fabulous, so fab, I’m already signed up for next year’s event!
July saw the publication of my first KISS romance book. A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: RICK & AIDEN became KISSapp-worthy, opening my work up to a whole new subculture of romance readers.
Another wonderful honor for A PRIDE OF BROTHERS: RICK was to have it be turned into an interactive romance game under the Chapters App – and again, I now have an entire new fan/reading audience who are romance gamers. Who cool is that??? They changed the title to UNDER HIS PROTECTION and I’ve had a ball playing the game so far. New chapters are uploaded every Sunday morning.
I had a Cover reveal for my upcoming Dickens Holiday romance, SASHA’S SECRET SANTA with NN Light’s Bookheaven this month. It was so exciting introducing this cover because I lovelovelove it so much! Preorder links will go up soon!
And finally, I’ve got a Goodreads Giveaway for THE HAUNTING OF WILTON JUNE that will end tonight at midnight, so if you haven’t entered yet to win one of 5 print copies, here’s your last chance: Goodreads Givaway
Goodness! I can’t even imagine what August will bring. LOL
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Photo of the day, day 212
Maple and Kelly swimming again. This time Maple has the lead…and sole possession of the stick!!
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#SaturdaySnippet CHANCE (Last Man Standing) #sweetromance #fakedating #commitmentphobe
From the upcoming CHANCE ( Last Man Series) addition:
Chance had the limo wait while he rode the elevator up to Freddie’s third-floor apartment. The building, a post-second world war brick edifice had seen some wear on the outside, but the interior was well-maintained and clean. No doorman stood duty so he located the apartment buzzer next to the name Poole, as she’d instructed, and once bid entry, found the single elevator.
The apartment door opposite the elevator opened as soon as he alighted from it.
“You must be Chance,” a woman he knew without a doubt was Freddie’s mother said. “I’m, Annika, Fredrika’s mother. She’s running a little late and asked me to greet you. Come in, come in.”
The apartment ran true to the original design. Railroad track rooms, one after the other off a long, spacious hallway. Hardwood floors that had seen many feet trample over them were, surprisingly, shiny, the wood glowing brightly. Photographs lined the hallway walls from one end to the other. He recognized a teenaged Freddie with her arm slung around a sullen, younger Lindsey.
“Well, look who it is. Mr. French Roast and a corn muffin.”
Chance grinned at the teen as she sashayed into the wide living room Annika had led him to. At her side she held the hand of a small girl with red hair mimicking her mother’s and grandmother’s and startling blue eyes now wide with interest as they perused him from head to toe.
“You’re tall,” she told him. “I’m Dawn. I’m five.”
He crouched down in front of her and held out his hand. “How do you do, Dawn? I’m Chance. I’m thirty-nine.”
She glanced at his hand, but didn’t shake it, instead declaring, “You’re old.”
“I know,” he said, rising and sighing theatrically. A tiny tug pulled on his lips. “Some days it’s a wonder I can get out of bed.”
“Mommy says you’re taking her to a party.”
“I am.”
“And that I can’t come ‘cuz it’s a grown-up party. That’s not fair.”
“Life’s not fair, peanut,” Lindsey said as she lifted the child in her arms. “Get used to it while you’re young.”
“Lindsey Marie, the things you say.” Annika shook her head. To him, she said, “Fredrika will be right out. She got involved with something and lost track of the time. Would you like something to drink? We have water or I can offer you beer.”
“He drinks coffee, ma,” Lindsey said. “Buckets of it.” She rolled her eyes as she plopped down on the couch with Dawn still in her arms. The child giggled as they bounced.
“I’m fine, thanks,” he said.
“So, Fredrika tells me you’re a lawyer.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I think I would have made a good lawyer,” she said, nodding, a smile tripping across her face. “I like a good argument.”
From the couch, he heard a muffled, “No lie,” and clamped down on the laugh that threatened to seep from him.
“Okay, I’m ready. Sorry.”
He turned and simply lost his breath.
Gone was the ponytailed, overall-wearing, sneaker-shod barista he’d come to know. A vision in deep green had taken her over.
The simple, short-sleeved dress fell from her shoulders to cascade in a simple line to her waist, then flared out to billow just below her knees. Since he’d only ever seen her hair pulled up and back, high on her head, he was shocked at how long it was hanging free and loose about her in a tumble of waves. She’d gone simple on her makeup but managed to look fresh and utterly alluring. A tiny-heeled shoe completed the outfit.
She’d never looked less like someone named Freddie.
“You look lovely,” he said, finally finding his tongue.
Releasing 9.12.2022.
Filed under Last Man Standing
Photo of the day, day 210
I want to draw your attention to the black oval at the top of my phone. This is how long I was on hold with my credit card company when I decided to document this. The call timed out at 60 minutes and then I had to call and start all over again. I really miss being able to talk to live people and not automatrons.
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#ThursdayTease CHANCE #preorder #Fakedatingromance
I haven’t done one of these in a while and when I woke up I remembered today was Thursday, so…
From my upcoming addition to the LAST MAN STANDING series, CHANCE, dropping on 9.12.2022. Here’s a little something between the h/h to whet your preorder appetites!
“I’m so sorry about this,” Chance told Freddie as he pulled the car into traffic. “Nothing short of coming down with the bubonic plague was going to be a good enough excuse to get out of today. And if I told her I was sick she would have come straight to my apartment to check on me. Probably would have sent her private doc to visit you if we’d said you were afflicted. I’m so sorry,” he said again.
A quick glance across the front of the rental car showed him she wasn’t showing any signs of being angry or put out. In fact, he ventured to think it was the opposite. She looked resigned to it and content.
“Don’t worry about it.” She turned to glance at her daughter who was secured in the booster seat behind them, holding an iPad and with earphones in place. “I wasn’t doing anything today buy baking for tomorrow anyway, and I already got a head start on that this morning.”
“Still, I feel, well, guilty about all this. If I’d never asked you to pretend to be my girlfriend in the first place you wouldn’t have been ambushed into coming along today. My only hope is that after this they’ll leave me, us, alone.”
He remembered saying the same thing after the anniversary party and look how that had backfired.
“It’ll all be fine,” she said. “Where’d you get the car, by the way? I thought you didn’t keep one in the city.”
“I don’t. I rented it for the weekend. It was easier than depending on car service, plus, this way we can leave as soon as we want without having to wait to be picked up.”
Freddie’s laugh filled the cab. “We haven’t even gotten there yet and already you’re planning your escape.”
“It pays to plan ahead,” he muttered.
Why wasn’t she angry? Or at least put out by the situation? He was. In spades.
But saying no to his family wasn’t something he could do. He felt obligated to abide by his aunt’s wishes no matter how much they inconvenienced him.
Freddie, though, had no obligation to his family. And yet, here she was, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, going to a dinner that was sure to be emotionally trying, her daughter in tow, and acting like it was no big deal at all.
The more he came to know the woman the more intrigued he was by her.
Traffic, unfortunately in his eyes, was sparse and they made it over the bridge to his aunt’s Brooklyn brownstone in record time.
When he found a parking spot on her street he started to feel like some cosmic force was conspiring against him, making everything easy today so he’d be forced to stay longer than he wanted.
Freddie took Dawn out of the booster seat and once the child was on the sidewalk between then, she slipped her tiny hand into his, the other in her mother’s. Something shifted in his chest when he looked down at the little redhead and she smiled up at him.
“Mommy,” she said as they made their way up the stoop steps to his aunt’s front door. “Did you make enough cupcakes for me to have two?”
“We’ll see,” Freddie said. “It depends on how many people are here and how well you do with eating your dinner.”
“I’ll be good. Promise. I just hope they don’t have carrots.” She looked back up at Chance. “I don’t like carrots. I don’t like any orange food.”
He pressed her hand and said, “Me, neither.”
“Really?”
Her wide, blue-eyed wonder, made him laugh. “Can’t stand them.”
“Wow. I thought all grownups ate carrots.”
Chance rang the doorbell. “Not this one.” He took a deep breath when the lock shifted.
“Relax,” Freddie said.
“Impossible.”
The door was thrown open wide and his aunt pulled him into her arms, then pushed him away to do the same to Freddie. When it was Dawn’s turn to receive the exuberant welcome, he felt her body press against his leg, her little hand still holding tight to his. In a heartbeat, he picked up her so she wouldn’t have to be engulfed in his aunt’s killer grip and said, “It smells great in here. When are we eating?”
He caught Freddie’s dramatic eye roll as she presented the box filled with the cupcakes she’d baked to his aunt.
Filed under Last Man Standing
Photo of the day, day 209
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Photo of the day, day 207
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Peggy Jaeger, Author 