Maybe This Time, a Second Chance Romance is up for Pre-Sale

I am in Portage Michigan, awaiting the birth of my second book, Maybe This Time which is currently up for pre-sale on Amazon.

To encourage the birth process my publisher, Debby Gilbert, creator of Soul Mate Publishing, put up Time and Forever on Amazon as a freebee for July third thru 5th.

Last night I checked before bed and Time and Forever was #1 in Time Travel, #14 in Romantic Comedy and #10 is Whispersync (current audio-book price is 7.49 and the narrator, Stephanie Bentley is fabulous!) What a glorious moment.

In Time and Forever  two sixty-year-old women time travel to 1969 London and Los Angeles

#TimeTravel #Chicklit #2ndChanceRomance, 

The companion book is Maybe This Time 

Blurb:

Their Happily-Ever-After is over before it begins unless they can change time.

London 2001

Forty-nine-year-actress Jennifer Knight would rather eat worms than face her first husband. But when her niece Kat accidentally time travels them to 1988, she needs his help.

Computer guru, Lance Davies is more comfortable with machines than people. He never knew how to handle his beloved, mercurial Jen. But now her future self is here in front of him and he wants another chance.
Jen’s torn. Her traitorous body insists that home is in Lance’s arms, but her heart has trust issues

Can two people whose timelines are thirteen years apart find a future where they can be together?

Here's an excerpt.

Jen ran to the living room to retrieve the papers Mrs. Flannery was talking about. No way was she going to hang around waiting for He Who Must Not Be Named. The last person she ever wanted to see again was . . .

“Hello, Guinevere.”

Jen froze at the sound of that well-loved, well-hated, husky voice. “It’s Jen. And don’t you forget it.” The words sounded far away in her head. “You didn’t knock.”

“I have a key. I’m helping Jeremy with a project he’s working on. He left me some papers. You’re supposed to be swanning it in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in New York. I wouldn’t have stopped by otherwise.”

Jen swayed. Her brain was on overload. Strong hands caught her and turned her around.

“What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

Jen looked into the face of the man she’d adored since she was nine, and actively avoided for the last twenty years. Lance looked almost the same as the day they’d parted. A few more lines framed his hazel eyes, now sea-dark with concern. His brown hair showed no trace of gray. It was still too long, with the same stupid lock falling over his forehead. She automatically reached to brush it back. Stopped herself. Her throat was so dry. Where was a cough drop when you needed one? “You’ve aged well.” Jen’s knees buckled.

Lance kicked out a chair and sat, pulling her into his lap. “It’s okay. Whatever it is, we can fix it.”

His warm, strong hands sent shock waves shivering through her body. She shook her head mutely.

Lance’s voice sharpened. “Is it Jeremy? Kathryn? Has something happened to them?”

“Uncle Lance!” Kathryn stopped in the living room archway, eyes child-solemn. “Why are you hugging Aunty Jen?”

Jen slipped out of Lance’s arms and landed on the floor. Could this get any worse?

“Aunty Jen says you are a stupid head with a big brain and no feelings.”

Jen rose with all the dignity she could muster. “You shouldn’t repeat things grownups say, Kitty-Kat. It’s not polite.” She reached for the packet Mrs. Flannery left behind, willing her hands not to tremble. “Here are the papers, you came for. Nice to see you. Goodbye.”

Lance glanced from Kathryn to Jen. “Where’s Jeremy? I know he and Kitty-Kat went to Sussex. Why is she back without him, and what are you doing here?”

“We couldn’t get home, Uncle Lance. So we came here.” Kathryn scuffed her foot, now shod in a plastic Jelly shoe, against the wood floor. “I thought Jen would like the machine, but I don’t like being young again. My brain is too small. I want to go home.”

Lance’s hand tightened on the papers he held. “Kathryn,” he said carefully. “How old are you?”

“I’m nineteen and I want to go home.”

Lance catapulted out of the chair. “It worked. By all that’s good and beautiful, it worked. I didn’t think he could do it.”

“You knew? You knew what he was working on?”

Lance’s grin changed to the expressionless mask she used to hate so much. “Of course, I knew. I divorced you. Not your brother. I was helping him with the theory. He probably would have told you about it, had you been interested in anyone but yourself and your career.”

Jen resisted the urge to punch him. One of them reverting to childhood was enough. Too bad. Her boxing trainer said she had a fantastic right hook. She kept her tone smooth and even. “I don’t know when we are, but I turned forty-nine yesterday, Lancelot, and you don’t know half as much about me as you think you do. I am very interested in my niece, and she’s standing there listening to every word we say.”

Lance turned to Kathryn. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. Your aunty and I won’t fight anymore.” He crooked his little finger at Jen the way they used to do when they were children. “Pax?”

Resisting the temptation to break it, Jen hooked her little finger in his. “Pax,”

Kathryn curved her little finger around theirs. “Pax. Now can we get ice cream?”

Lance drove them to Holby’s 1950’s Diner. Kitty-Kat had declared it her favorite place after Jeremy had taken her to see Back to the Future. They ordered Kathryn a hot fudge sundae and sent her off to play Holby’s vast selection of Arcade games.

Lance wrapped his hands around the mug of coffee he’d ordered. “Tell me exactly what happened.”

Jen wished she didn’t know Lance so well. He was obviously torn between despising her and the attraction which sparked between them every time they were together. Until the last time.

“Kat said she had a birthday present for me and she took me to Jeremy’s lab, which, by the way, Jeremy never invited me to even though I asked what he was working on. I was quite prepared to show an intelligent interest.”

Lance’s expression said it all.

“Look, I know I’m not a genius, but I’m not stupid. I would have tried if either of you could have ever gotten past your incredibly superior attitudes.”

Lance ignored her perfectly justifiable complaint. “Tell me what happened.”

Deep breaths. That was the key. No use losing her temper. She reached for her inner Zen and held onto it during her factual recounting, right up to the moment she and Kat stepped through the door.

 “The street was full of people dressed as though they were going to a costume party. Big hair. Shoulder pads. Men wearing mullets. Possibly the worst haircut ever invented. I turned to make a joke about it to Kat, and child Kathryn was standing next to me.” Jen fought to keep her voice from shaking. “I don’t know what happened, and I don’t know what year it is right now, and I have absolutely no idea how to fix this.”

 “Calm down.” Lance put his hand over hers and for once he didn’t sound superior. “It’s going to be okay.”

“I don’t see how.” Jen sniffled.

He handed her a handkerchief. “Tell me about the cards. What happened to them?”

 “Kathryn’s body shrank, but her clothes didn’t. She pulled up her jeans to look through the pockets, and the card blew into the street under a bus. I tried to get it, but it must have stuck to the bus’s tire.”

Lance’s voice sharpened. “You said there were two cards? What happened to the second one?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she left it in the door when we came through.”

“Here you go, love.” The server wearing a soda jerk’s paper cap set Kathryn’s sundae in front of Jen. Jen automatically dipped her spoon into the fudge sauce.

Lance’s lips curved into a wry smile. “Some things are immutable. I see you love chocolate as much as ever, Guinevere.” He turned to the server. “Bring us another sundae, please.”

“Stop calling me that.” Jen could feel her face growing warm. He shouldn’t have smiled at her. It did funny things to her insides. “Did we really travel back to the 1980s?”

“1988. Thursday, the thirty-first of March, to be precise.”

“By all means. Let us be precise.” Stop looking at him. Concentrate on the chocolate. “April Fool’s Day would have been more appropriate. I wish this were a joke.”

“This year April first is also Good Friday. That’s why Jeremy and Kathryn are in Sussex with your parents. You are in New York.”

Jen shuddered. “This is worse than those horror films you used to drag me to. 1988 of all times. Why would she bring me here?”

“I have no idea. The better question is why would you come?”

“I didn’t know what she was doing!” 
I am in Portage, Michigan for rest of July. Best things about Portage?  I get to play with my beautiful five-year-old granddaughter and with amazing son. Fireflies. And walks in the park just across Lover's Lane. I hope your Fourth is glorious.

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