Peggy Jaeger's Blog, page 27
May 28, 2024
May 27, 2024
#Tuesdayteaser
Love Match has been out for a week now and the reviews are so wonderful I thought I’d give you another insight into the storyline.
Cody’s divorce hit him hard because he thought, erroneously, everything was fine with his marriage. He had no idea what was really going on with his wife, Cassidy. Once she left him, his entire life changed and with it, he lost some of his confidence and became a bit of a cynic. In this scene, he is talking with his mom and you can tell she is the person he can reveal his true self to without fear or worry.
“Shit. I knew something happened. Layla pulled a complete one-eighty by the time she came home.”
Sally’s eyebrow lifted. “And Cass was, obviously, the cause. Layla believes what she said.”
“How could she?” he cried. “It’s not true. I never sle—” he stopped short. It was one thing for your mother to suspect you had sex, quite another to talk about it, openly.
Sally sat next to him at the table and slid a hand on top of his fisted one. “I know you, Cody Angus Fonda. You’d never sleep with a woman just to gain an advantage. It’s not you. It’s simply not. Your head, not to mention your heart, would never let you do something so wrong.”
The tips of his ears felt like they were on fire.
“Apparently Layla doesn’t share your high opinion of me.”
Jane laid her head down on his lap, her eyes tracking his face. Absently, he petted her.
“Did you ever tell her you were interested in buying the house?” Sally asked.
After another gulp of coffee, Cody shook his head. “I kept meaning to. I should have from the very beginning. I know that.” He dragged a hand through his hair. “But after working on the house, spending time with her and then, well.” His mother didn’t need details about their sleeping together. “I was more focused on getting her to stay. I thought she was going to, I really did. But yesterday,” he shook his head, “she told me she’s considering leaving. That the house is too big for one person. Too much upkeep.”
“Did you tell her you wanted to buy it, then?”
“No.”
Sally tilted her head and regarded him for a long while with that all-knowing look inherent in every mother he’d ever known. She was so focused on him, in fact, he started to fidget.
“What?”
“You are one of the smartest men I have ever known, and every day I’m thankful you’re my son.”
“Okay, there’s a but screaming in that sentence, loud, clear, and terrifying.”
Sally reached over and ticked him on the head.
“Hey! OW!”
“Respect your mother, Cody.”
He shook his head, closed his eyes and mumbled something that he knew she couldn’t hear. Then, “What were you going to say?”
She took a breath. “For someone so smart you can be dense at times. Did it ever occur to you that Layla was hurt by what Cassidy said not because of the words but because of the truth that you didn’t tell her, up front, you wanted the house? I’ve got a feeling trust is hard for Layla, with her mother being the way she is, and everything that happened with the loser fiancé. How do you think she must have felt when Cassidy screamed the only reason you were with Layla was because you wanted her house when you never mentioned a thing to her.”
“I would have hoped she’d ask me directly, not just assume Cass was right. I thought she knew me better than that.”
Sally’s phone chimed just then and she tugged it out of her purse.
“Grandma,” she told him. “Hey, Ma. What’s up?”
Cody tuned her out, considering what she’d told him, instead. How many times had he berated himself for not telling Layla his feelings about the house? How many excuses had he given himself why he hadn’t shared his desire to buy it, fix it, flip it? And now look; his silence on the subject had caused her to pull away from him just when things were heating up between them. And now she was considering leaving town.
What a mess.
He had to figure out a way to get her to understand what he’d done, why he’d been silent, and get her to forgive him.
He needed to come clean, but how? She wasn’t exactly speaking to him and the texts had been so chilly his hand had gotten cold holding his phone when he read them. He supposed he could drive over to her house, take the chance she’d be home and – even more of a chance – she’d let him in.
Cody closed his eyes after finishing his coffee.
“Okay, well, wait until you hear this.” Sally disconnected the call. “It wasn’t only Cassidy who told Layla about you wanting the house. Gran did, too.”
“When?”
“She must have driven over to the Arms right after seeing Cass yesterday. Effie and mom were together, and she asked Effie if you’d ever approached her about selling the house.”
“I never have.”
Nodding, Sally said, “That’s what she told Layla. But then Gran told her about the times you mentioned how much you’d like the house and wished you could buy it so you could fix it and resell it for a profit.”
“Oh, Jesus.” He swiped his hands through his hair again. “No wonder she thinks I’m such a douchebag—”
“Language, young man.”
Cody’s face heated like he’d placed it in a hot oven. At forty years old he shouldn’t feel chastised like a toddler when his mother scolded him.
“This is a nightmare.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, shook his head, and cast his eyes downward.
After a few moments, Sally cleared her throat. “Can I ask you a question?”
He shrugged.
“Promise you won’t brush me off, but really answer it? Truthfully?”
“Okay, now I’m getting scared.”
Sally shifted and ran her hand across his forearm. “I know you better than you think I do, son. I gave birth to you, wiped your tears when you skinned your knees, watched you with pride when your sisters came along and you vowed to be their protectors. It’s been a pleasure and an honor to witness you grow into the amazing man you are today.”
“Still hearing that but.”
She squeezed his arm, then patted it, a small smile tugging at the corner so of her mouth. “I remember the day you told me and your dad you were gonna marry Cassidy. Even though we knew you were too young and had reservations about her, we never said anything, just supported you, loved you, and welcomed her into our family.”
Touched, Cody placed his own hand over the one she still had across his arm.
“I know, mom. And I love you both for it.”
“That’s what family is for.”
“So what’s your question?”
Her eyes, twins to his own in color and shape, ping-ponged between his. She tugged her lips inward and pressed down on them, then, after releasing them again, asked, “You’re in love with Layla, aren’t you?”
The full weight of emotions seeped through his voice when he responded, “More than I ever thought I could love a woman again.”
“Oh, baby.” Sally shifted and pulled him into a hug.
All the sadness, rejection, even the feelings of loss and disappointment he’d been holding in for over three years, pretending didn’t exist, leached from deep down in his soul. He buried his face in her neck as she simply held and rocked him like she had when he was a boy.
“I didn’t think I’d ever feel this way again,” he said against her shoulder. “But somehow, somewhere along the way, she kinda…snuck in.”
“That’s how love works,” Sally said. “When you least expect to find it, wham, there it is.”
Add it to your Goodreads want-to-read list
Write a review
May 26, 2024
#mondaymusings 5.27.2024
If you know me, then you know this is my favorite quote of all time and I pull it out often. Sometimes, too often.
May 24, 2024
Memorial Day book sale!
Hey kids, just wanted to let everyone know that from today, May 24, until Monday, May 27th, RETRIBUTION is on sale in Kindle for only 99 cents! The sale starts at 8 am PTD, so that’s 11 am on the East Coast.
If you haven’t read this book reviewers are calling “Gripping” and “a must-read,” now is the best chance to do so for such a low price. The cost goes back to $2.99 on Monday. But even at that price, the book is so worth reading!
If you’re going to the beach, or sitting poolside, or planning on a long drive in the passenger seat to a friend’s house for the weekend, reading this book will be a great way to pass the time.
6 teenage girls have been kidnapped, brutalized, and murdered in the Washington DC area and the FBI’s SPCD Unit – the Sexual Predators of Children Profilers – are nowhere close to finding the monster responsible. How are the victims chosen? How does the killer find them, contact them, lure them into his sick web? Questions the team has no answers for.
When a high-ranking US Senator’s daughter is the next victim, SPCD team leader, Tucker Petrie, is forced to call upon retired profiler — and his last partner — Kella O’Brien for help. Kella’s been out of the game for 10 years, but her expertise and insights into a serial killer’s mind are unparalleled. If anyone can discover who this madman is, it’s Kella.
But as the team rushes to prevent another young girl’s death, clues the killer leaves behind have Kella wondering if his endgame is all about…her.
Add to GOODREADS want to read list
Buy an autographed print copy from me, directly: Retribution
Happy reading!!!
May 22, 2024
#tbt #tbThursday 5.23.24
this one is from 2018 which seems like a lifetime ago…
Week 4 of the #MFRWauthor 52 Week blog challenge brings us a topic that should be fairly easy to write about, because most of us didn’t spring from the womb with a pen in our hands and a publishing contract in our arms, but had other lives and occupations before being published. At least, I think we all did!! Maybe I should just speak for myself. Hee hee.
Anyhoo…
If I wasn’t devoting myself full-time to writing, I imagine I’d still be employed as a Nurse, or a Contact Lens technician. But I’d like to take that thought a little bit further. If I couldn’t write AND I wasn’t a nurse/CLT/ what would I be doing? I think I’ve mentioned before how nosy I am. Several times, in fact. So nosy that I’ll talk to a rock. And the nice thing is that people never seem to mind my obvious inquisitiveness, especially when I preface a question with, “Now, I’m only asking because I’m nosy so don’t think you have to answer me if you don’t want to…”
Yup. They answer me. Every time!
So I think if I wasn’t a writer, I’d be a perfect Private Investigator.
I can see it now… Me, in a well-tailored black trench coat ( because Khaki washes me out!), thigh-high leather boots under the coat, and over them a large men’s white tailored shirt cinched in at the waist and that comes to mid-thigh. I can even see myself with a fedora atop my golden (Bottle blonde) hair, looking uber sexy and all mysterious as I grill bad guys and follow suspicious perps in cars with my own hot, fast, ride.
Everyone would, of course, talk to me. After all, I’m charmingly nosy. And sexy!
Neither does Mrs. Peel.
I’d be the chick who discovers the identity of the master jewel thief, or where the hidden treasure is kept. I’d help the police solve the unsolvable cold case, or figure out who killed Major Barret in the solarium with a gun…oh, wait, that’s something else!
Hee hee.
I think I’d make a pretty cool P.I.
Now, I just have to find a trench coat on sale…..
May 21, 2024
May 20, 2024
#tuesdayteaser RELEASE DAY FOR LOVE MATCH!
Well, it’s finally release day for LOVE MATCH and I am sososo happy.
I just simply adore Layla Warton and Cody Fonda and I hope you do too. For today’s tease, their first “meeting.”
Layla turned and hugged her old friend one more time before nodding. “See ya later.”
After moving from the outer office, she 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.
Amazon link for print, kindle, ku
My website link for a personal, autographed copy.
Add it to you GOODreads want to read list
Read it and enjoyed it? WRITE A REVIEW!
TOMORROW!!!
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.
But would that really be such a bad thing?
Order your print, kindle, or KU copy from AmazonOrder a print autographed copy from me
Add it to your GOODreads want to read list
If you read it and loved it, write a review
May 19, 2024
#mondaymusings 5.20.2024
I am a natural redheadI have had 9 skin cancer surgeries in the past 5 yearsI bite my nails.Answers:
natural hair is jet black4 on my face, 1 on my shoulder, two on my legs, 1 on my back, 1 on my stomachUnfortunately, this is still true at 64 years of age. Habit and nerves.May 18, 2024
3 day countdown to LOVE MATCH release
Preorder on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3wfkyOe
Order a signed print copy from me, directly: https://bit.ly/44FStw8
