Author Archives: Peggy Jaeger

So LOVE MATCH releases 5.21 and today seems like a good way to kick off a few teasers to whet your preordering appetites, LOL. You can preorder it through Amazon, or get a print copy, autographed, directly from me, here: DIRECT ORDER

Before she could answer him the overpowering aroma of a familiar cloying perfume hit him square in the face as a pair of hands slid around and covered his eyes. Incredibly close to his ear, so close the lobe got wet from the breath expressed next to it, a sultry voice, the product of too many nights drinking and too many morning hangover cures said, “Guess who, handsome?”

He didn’t need to guess. He’d know that perfume and voice anywhere. In all honesty, he’d tried to forget it as much as possible. He didn’t get a chance to reply, though, as the hands flew from his eyes and the smacking sound of wet kiss hit his jaw. He knew without the need for a mirror, his chin was covered in Cherries in the Snow red, the wearer’s favorite lipstick shade.

“Boo!” the woman said, wrapping her arms around his neck and laughing.

“Hey, Rachel.” He cast a furtive glance at a still wide-eyed Layla, then tried to extract the hands of the woman he’d dated briefly from around his neck. It was like trying to uncoil a hungry boa constrictor from a meal. “Didn’t know you were back in town.”

Ignoring Layla, the woman shifted so she was facing his side of the table and leaned an ample hip across it. “Got back yesterday.”

He nodded then said, “Meet Layla Warton. She’s Effie Mason’s granddaughter. This is Rachel Carmody. We were in school together.”

With the fakest smile he’d ever seen she barely flicked her theatrically made-up eyes toward Layla and said, “Hey.” Turning a real smile to him she asked, “I’m only in town for three days then back on the road again for another four months. Sweet running into you here. I was gonna text to see if you wanted to hook up later. Maybe grab a few drinks at the Love Shack and…whatever.”

He could tell the implications of the whatever weren’t lost on Layla. Her cheeks went beet-red and her lips blanched.

Ignoring the question, he said to Layla, “Rachel’s a backup singer in a country band.”

“Oh, how exciting,” Layla said, the tone in her voice telling him it was nothing of the kind. “What’s the band’s name?”

Rachel gave it and Layla shook her head. “Sorry. Don’t know it.”

For the first time, Rachel looked squarely at Layla. Cody thought she must have been a bit threatened by what she saw, because she stood up from her leaning position and pushed her shoulders back, forcing her more than pronounced breasts to jut forward, perfectly level with his eyes.

“Well, they’re very well known on the country circuit,” Rachel declared. With a flip of her honey-blonde hair – not her natural color, a fact he knew personally – she once again turned to him. “I’ve gotta run. I just stopped in to pick up my mother’s order. Call me later.”

It wasn’t a request.

He didn’t respond since he had no intention of meeting up with her. Rachel had been a mistake from the get-go. They were too different, had nothing of substance in common, not even to talk about, she drank too much and was much too loud for his taste.

With another brazen kiss, this time aimed for his mouth which he avoided by turning a bit to the side, she graced him with a cheeky smile and sauntered to the counter to pick up her to-go bag.

Silence covered the space between him and Layla.

He knew he should say something, but what?

Hey, sorry about that. She’s just a girl I hooked up with during a low point in my life?

Yeah, that wasn’t gonna happen.

He cleared his throat and said, instead, “So. We were talking about—”

What the hell had they been talking about? Rachel’s arrival threw the conversation out of his mind.

Intrigued??? LOL. Watch the trailer …

And add it to your Goodreads WANT TO READ list.