After returning to Bristol last year, Cricket had been stuck for while living at home, far past the point at which she’d hoped to be under her parents’ roof. Finally this past summer, she and her dad had taken a sledgehammer to the room above the pastry shop, and then got to work creating a cozy apartment she could call her own. It made her heart sing each night when she went upstairs to her very own space. It was all she needed in life and she was finally feeling content.
Which had taken a while, since Fletcher Campbell had crushed her hopes and dreams by blowing out of Bristol in pursuit of some pie-in-the-sky dreams of Hollywood fame and fortune. For the life of her she didn’t understand it, but she also couldn’t stop it. Even though they’d talked for years about their future together—they’d even named their kids!—all of a sudden, poof, he was gone, leaving not a trace behind.
It had hurt at the time, and was part of the reason she took off for Paris to learn to bake, but she learned the hard way that with pain, comes growth, and finally she was starting to feel that she’d gotten over him, and practically grown ten feet tall in the process. And now she was perfectly content not to have any man getting in the way of her happiness. She had her shop, her apartment, and Dingo, so life was full.
As Cricket read the email, she wondered for a moment if she was picking up some snark in between the lines.
“Cricket,” it said. “What a charming name. One of those names the boys probably love to bits.”
Whatever the hell that meant. What a weird comment for someone to make in a professional context.
“But I bet you don’t even think about that, what with your fiancé and all. I’ll look forward to sitting down with you and finding out everything about you.”
Cricket squinted. Fiance? Huh? And why would she have any reason to find anything out about her? Maybe she was talking about her menu options? Or how she planned to serve it all at the film opening?
She shook her head. If there was one thing she’d learned since leaving Bristol for a while, it was that people were strange. Plenty were nice and normal and all that, but there were some weirdos out there, and she was just going to chalk the comments up to that. After all, those rich Hollywood types would no doubt be more likely to be a little eccentric than your average Bristoller. Or was it Bristollian? She never did get that right.
Cricket thought about her name, which she always kind of liked, even though she never really wanted to think about the genesis of it. The story was, she was conceived in a hayfield, with crickets trumpeting their horny mating call to the accompaniment of her folks doing the same damned thing. A fact that always made her roll her eyes. It’s one thing if you’re the one doing it in the hayfield, but your parents? Please. That is so need-to-know basis. Nevertheless, she always thought the name Cricket had a nice ring to it.
Well, she’d just dismiss the weird line of questioning about her name. And the fiancé thing, that woman—Cricket glanced down at her phone to see: Justine Gaynor. Well, then, Justine Gaynor, she must have had that information flat-out wrong. She wondered why she surmised that, but then just figured it wasn’t relevant. As long as she got this kick-ass order in and could fulfill it, the woman could call her The Queen of England.
She gave a whistle for Dingo and hopped into her truck, securing her dog into her seatbelt before fastening her own. She had a huge event to plan for, so she wanted to get home to her mystery fiancé and get started on it, she thought with a laugh.
Cabana Boy
Coming January 8, 2019
Available for pre-order.
About the Author
Jenny Gardiner is the author of #1 Kindle Bestseller Slim to None and the award-winning novel Sleeping with Ward Cleaver. Her latest works are the It’s Reigning Men series, the Royal Romeos series, the Falling for Mr. Wrong series and her new Confessions of a Chick Magnet series. She also published the memoir Winging It: A Memoir of Caring for a Vengeful Parrot Who's Determined to Kill Me, now re-titled Bite Me: a Parrot, a Family and a Whole Lot of Flesh Wounds; the novels Anywhere but Here; Where the Heart Is; the essay collection Naked Man on Main Street, and Accidentally on Purpose and Compromising Positions (writing as Erin Delany); and is a contributor to the humorous dog anthology I'm Not the Biggest Bitch in This Relationship.
Her work has been found in Ladies Home Journal, the Washington Post, Marie-Claire.com, and on NPR’s Day to Day. She was also a columnist for Charlottesville’s Daily Progress for over a decade, and is the Volunteer Coordinator for the Virginia Film Festival.
She has worked as a professional photographer, an orthodontic assistant (learning quite readily that she was not cut out for a career in polyester), a waitress (probably her highest-paying job), a TV reporter, a pre-obituary writer, as well as a publicist to a United States Senator (where she first learned to write fiction). She's photographed Prince Charles (and her assistant husband got him to chuckle!), Elizabeth Taylor, and the president of Uganda. She and her family and menagerie of pets now live a less exotic life in Virginia.
Visit Jenny at her website and sign up for her newsletter, her blog, or find her on Facebook and Twitter. And every blue moon she’ll post adorable pictures of her pets on Instagram as @thejennygardiner.
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Also by Jenny Gardiner
Confessions of a Chick Magnet
Skirt Chaser
Boy Toy
Cabana Boy
Bird Dog (Coming Soon)
Falling for Mr. Wrong
Falling for Mr. Wrong
Falling for Mr. Maybe
Falling for Mr. No Way In Hell
Falling for Mr. Sometimes
Falling for Mr. Right
It's Reigning Men
Something in the Heir
Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
Bad to the Throne
Love is in the Heir
Shame of Thrones
Throne for a Loop
It's Getting Hot in Heir
A Court Gesture
It's Reigning Men - Books 1 - 3
The Royal Romeos
Red Hot Romeo
Black Sheep Romeo
Red Carpet Romeo
Blue Collar Romeo
Silver Spoon Romeo
Blue-Blooded Romeo
Big O Romeo
Standalone
Sleeping with Ward Cleaver
Where the Heart Is
Accidentally on Purpose
Compromising Positions
Naked Man on Main Street
Bite Me - A Parrot, a Family, and a Whole Lot of Flesh Wounds
Anywhere but Here
Slim to None
Watch for more at Jenny Gardiner’s site.
Boy Toy Page 11
