HE
TAKES THE CAKE
by
J. Lynn Rowan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE:
Contemporary romance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Life
is good for Tess Gardiner: Her Savannah, Georgia, bakery and cafe is
thriving. She’s earned Master Pastry Chef status from the American
Culinary Federation. And she’s attending a regional culinary
convention in Charleston, where she’s been invited to sit on a
small business panel discussion. The opportunity to tout her success
will, hopefully, lead to bigger and better things in her professional
life. As for her personal life? The relative contentedness she’s
enjoyed for years receives a sudden jolt when she comes face to face
with Tyler Brinks, the ex-boyfriend she summarily dismissed from her
life eight years ago.
Tyler’s
success as a highly-trained chef has launched him into the
stratosphere. He already owns one ridiculously successful restaurant,
and he’s aggressively working on plans for a second. But he’s
never quite gotten over Tess, and he’s never really been sure what
actually went wrong between them. So when a pastry and baking
competition is announced for the week following the culinary
convention in Charleston, Ty jumps at the chance to tempt Tess with
the challenge of being his partner, giving him the perfect
opportunity to remind her how good they once were together.
As
the competition heats up in the kitchen, it soon becomes clear to
Tess that Ty has more than cream puffs and cupcakes on his mind. And
she can’t deny that her feelings for Ty never truly cooled, but
have been simmering all these years, despite the way their
relationship ended. Now Ty’s attention has her wondering—is this
just the path to final closure? Or could this be a second chance at
true love?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt
Two:
If Ty’s
thinking about the same incidents that lead to our breakup, he
doesn’t let on. “Only about a year or so. It . . . wasn’t what
I thought it would be.”
“I
see.” Though I don’t, especially given his own slight stumble for
words. “Where’d you go in the interim?”
He
relaxes a bit and takes a sip of espresso. “New York for a little
while, working as a sous chef in a Midtown restaurant. That let me
save up for Le Cordon Bleu.”
His
dream.
I smile,
sincerely happy he’d made it come true. “Were you able to go to
Paris?”
“No,”
he says with a short laugh. “But Ottawa was close enough. My mom
wanted me to try and get into the program in Atlanta, but I wanted
the international experience. So Canada it was.”
I make a
noncommittal sound and lift my cup again. “Then you settled on
Charleston to open your first restaurant.”
“Well,
it wasn’t a direct route from getting my Grand Diploma to opening
On the Brink.”
“Nice
name, by the way,” I quip, arching a brow at him.
He leans
forward. “Says the woman who named her own business after herself.”
I give
into the impulse to stick my tongue out at him. “At least mine
rhymes. And we’re not talking about me.”
“Not
yet, anyway.”
“But
you’re opening a place in Hilton Head. Does that mean you’re
moving there, too?”
Ty
shrugs. “I’ll probably have to do a little back and forth for a
while. Can’t exactly be the head chef at two restaurants at the
same time.”
There’s
the opening I need to hint at the topic I’m really curious about.
“Won’t the back and forth thing make it hard for . . . your
girlfriend?”
For a
moment, he freezes, recognizing by my tone that I’m fishing for
information. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Really?”
I force nonchalant surprise, if that’s even a thing, into my voice.
“Guy like you, I’d think you’d have women falling all over
themselves to be with you.”
“What’s
that supposed to mean?” he asks, brows lowering and a look of hurt
defensiveness playing in his eyes.
I wasn’t
expecting that sort of reaction from him. Again, I fumble for words.
“Smart, successful, funny, sexy—”
My hand
flies up to cover my mouth, but it’s too late. Ty stares at me for
a few seconds before he busts out laughing.
“I
didn’t mean that I think you’re sexy,” I insist, dropping my
hand.
His
laughter subsides to internal chuckles. “It’s okay, Tess. I know
I’m irresistible, even to you.”
“That’s
not—”
“For
the record, I still think the same of you.” He sounds like he’s
teasing, but a flash of something serious passes between us as his
gaze softens.
My
retort dies in my throat, coming out as a choked snort instead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR
Bio and Links:
Author
Bio:
J. Lynn
Rowan started writing stories as a small child, usually starring her
favorite cartoon characters. Most of her work through middle and high
school was filled with typical teenage angst and melodrama, and
usually mirrored the books she loved to read. But eventually she
found her own author’s voice and decided to seriously pursue a
writing career.
Historical
fiction remains J. Lynn’s “first love”, but she has enjoyed the
journey to becoming an author of romance and chick lit. She is a
member of Romance Writers of America, the Central New York Romance
Writers, and the Historical Novel Society. She is also a teacher who
tries to instill a love of learning, reading, and writing in her
students.
When
she’s not writing, J. Lynn enjoys travelling, gardening poorly but
enthusiastically, studying various topics in American history for her
own expertise, and channeling Julia Child every time she steps into
the kitchen.
A native
of Oswego, NY, she now lives in Charlotte, NC, with her own Romantic
Hero of a husband and their little rainbow, affectionately known as
Babycakes.
Email:
jlynnrowanliterature@gmail.com
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/JLynnRowan
Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/JLynnRowanLit
Pinterest:
http://www.pinterest.com/jlynnrowan/
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for hosting me today!
ReplyDeleteI want to know how & why Tess & Ty broke up in the first place!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading the awkward moment excerpt!
ReplyDeleteAnd that's a wrap, folks!
ReplyDelete