Just a last-minute reminder that LOVE MATCH releases tomorrow.
Running away from a public scandal may be cowardly, but to Layla Warton, it’s her best option.
After her politically connected fiancé is indicted for a laundry list of crimes, Layla wants to put the public ridicule and shame of her guilty-by-association status behind her. Not easy to do when all her supposed friends and supporters lose her number and the taint of scandal-adjacent destroys the successful design business and life she’s built for herself.
Happy childhood memories and the blessing of a local friend push her toward the tiny New England town of Heaven where she spent summers with her loving grandparents. Hiding out in the town until the scandal dies down is the perfect plan.
With the paparazzi hot on her tail, an ancient family home she needs to get livable, and a contractor too hot for her sanity, Layla worries she’ll never be able to get her old life back.
This week, we are back to my upcoming Heaven’s Matchmaker Book 2, LOVE MATCH, releasing on 5.21.24. Here’s the meet cute!
After moving from the outer office, Layla glanced down at her phone to note the time and while walking through the opened elevator doors barreled straight into someone alighting from it.
The someone was built like an army tank and Layla, literally, bounced off it like a coin dropped on a military-made bed.
“Oh.”
Just as she was about to fall backward and – mortifyingly – land on her ass, hands wound around her upper arms and squeezed to keep her upright.
Incredibly strong hands.
Layla’s gaze shot to those hands, which were tanned and sun-kissed, then traveled up the arms encased in a thick brown leather jacket to land on a jaw covered with a half week’s worth of ash-colored whiskers. A tiny vertical crevasse under the bottom lip, sitting squarely in the center of the chin peeked its way through the stubble.
Layla’s mouth watered. A chin dimple was her sexual kryptonite.
A long pair of legs ensconced in faded jeans hugged thick thighs and tapered down to rough-and-ready work boots covered with old paint splotches. His head was bare despite the cold of the day and the shock of unruly and errant wavy brown hair covering it made her fingers twitch for a touch. While she’d always liked a man with a chin dimple, the rough and ready workman look didn’t ordinarily strike her fancy. All the men she’d ever dated, including her now infamous ex, had been suit, tie, and pocket square guys who had monthly manicures, doused themselves in expensive cologne, and rarely – if ever – had unruly hair.
To say she had a type wouldn’t be wrong. To also say she finally realized that type was a bit of a douche would be equally true.
“Excuse me.” His voice was deep and tinged with a seductive rasp that Layla felt reverberate through her.
Ignoring the words, she concentrated instead on the lips they sailed through. Thick and full, their dusky rose hue reminded her of the color of tropical sunsets. Lifting her gaze up to the rest of his face she encountered a perfectly straight nose and a pair of Hershey’s Kiss-colored eyes shaped like almonds.
Layla had a weakness for almonds. And an absolute penchant for chocolate.
The unusual jealousy that bounded through her at the length and fullness of his eyelashes stunned her. She wanted to press her fingers against them, see if they were real, while at the same time rub her lips against that fabulous mouth to taste him.
She blinked a few times, then shook her head back and forth to rid it of the alien thoughts taking up residence in her brain.
“You okay?” he asked as he flexed his hands around the sleeves of her coat.
Peggy Jaeger, Author 