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From USA Today Bestselling author, Stacey Kennedy comes a brand-new series, featuring a moody hero with too much baggage, a spirited heroine who is always game for adventure, and a sexy-as-hell road trip.
Check out the first book in Stacey Kennedy’s
Three Chicks Brewery series . . .
SASSY BLONDE
As the youngest Carter sister, Maisie is the free spirit of the Three Chicks Brewery, preferring to paint nature and have fun than actually show up to work. But she’s determined to prove to her older sisters that she can be just as valuable to their grandfather’s beer legacy as they are. Which means attending Colorado’s craft brewery festivals to turn Foxy Diva, their top beer, into an award winner. Unfortunately, after more than one “beer mishap” on her own, it becomes clear to Maisie that she’s going to need some help.
Enter her longtime friend, Hayes Taylor, a six-foot-three wall of hard muscle with a chip on his shoulder and a traumatic past he has no interest in working through. The last thing he needs is a woman in his life, particularly his dead wife’s best friend, the sweet-as-pie Maisie, who brings out all his protective instincts. This damsel-in-distress couldn’t be more Hayes’s opposite, and yet, no matter how hard he tries to stay away, the cute and lively Maisie is always in his path, tempting him to want things he shouldn’t.
When the two embark on a brewery festival tour, all bets are off when it comes to Hayes keeping his walls up, and Maisie feels certain she can bring her darkly brooding best friend back into the world of love and light. Hayes might have a thousand reasons to maintain his distance, but Maisie has the best reason of all for them risk their friendship and their hearts. Love.
Find out more about Sassy Blonde.
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Read on for an excerpt from the first book in Stacey Kennedy’s DANGEROUS LOVE series:
NAUGHTY STRANGER
Chapter One
The loud rumble of the baby blue Volkswagen Beetle quieted as Peyton Kerr pressed against the brake pedal. Stoney Creek’s Main Street was cute and quaint, with boutique shops lining the skinny road where cars were parked without much space in between them. Through her open window, she tasted the salt in the air coming off the Atlantic Ocean and drove by a young man packing large containers with live lobsters into the back of his old Chevy pickup. On the next corner was a ticket booth for the lighthouse boat tours. Stoney Creek was a far cry from the bright lights, skyscrapers, and pungent busy city aroma that Seattle carried, but it was also a most welcome change.
People came to Stoney Creek for the picturesque views of the coastline on the bay. They climbed the mountain that overlooked the town and the ocean. They ate fresh fish at the restaurants near the marina, walked the beaches, and sailed the open waters. Peyton came for those reasons too. Well, and a laundry list of others, including that Stoney Creek was the last vacation spot she visited with her late husband, Adam, just over a year ago. She’d been her happiest here. They swam the waters, ate too much, laughed hard enough to
cry. That’s what brought her back to the small Maine town. She’d left Seattle a heartbroken twenty-six-year-old widow, and she returned to Stoney Creek determined to find happiness here again.
Her heart clenched at the reminder of all she’d lost, threatening to expose all the weak spots. She forced the emotion back with a deep swallow, refusing to go to the dark place again. The past was behind her. That’s where it’d stay.
Up ahead, Peyton recognized the dark-haired slender woman waiting beneath a withered store sign as Isabella, her real estate agent. Peyton squeezed her used—but new to her—car into one of the parking spots.
Before she could even get out, Isabella was already at the passenger-side door. “You made it.”
“I’m so glad to finally be here.” Peyton smiled, turning off the car and exiting. She’d done a nine-hour flight with a layover in Philadelphia, then landed at the Portland International Jetport. That’s where she found her new car, which she thought suited small-town living. After a good night’s sleep in Portland, she drove three hours, taking the scenic drive along the coast to her fresh start. “Thanks for meeting me.”
“It’s no problem. I’ve got your keys here for both your house and your shop.” Isabella reached into her purse, then handed Peyton two sets of keys. “You’re all set to move in and open shop.” She handed her a slew of business cards. “I’ve given you some names of handymen around town if you want to give the store a makeover.”
Peyton glanced up at the old sign again and took in the cracked windowpane and peeling white paint on the exterior. Both the shop and her new lake house needed work, but so did she. “Great,” Peyton said, feeling like a fish out of water. “Thank you so much for everything. You’ve been so helpful.”
“Call if you need anything.” Isabella smiled and, shocking Peyton, threw her arms around her like they were friends. “You’re going to love it here.” With a final wave, she was off, practically skipping her way down the sidewalk.
Okay, so the people were the nice, touchy-feely sort.
Peyton turned back to her new shop and exhaled the breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding. Set in a historic redbrick building, in between Whiskey Blues, a jazz club on the right, and an empty store on the left, was her little lingerie shop with the French-style storefront. Two large display windows hugged the dark maple door with the original brass handle. The store might not be much in size, but the charm of the shop made up for it.
It was also 100 percent hers. Paid for with the insurance money from Adam’s death. Two weeks ago, in her lowest of lows, a Facebook ad for the Stoney Creek B&B, where she and Adam had stayed at when they’d vacationed there, had popped up on her screen. After that, she’d fallen down the Internet hole until she discovered the local lingerie shop was for sale. Everything from there happened so fast; she’d up and bought the shop on a total whim. Because if anything could make her feel happy again, it would be found in the place she felt the happiest. She also kept thinking that if she could make other women feel beautiful, then she’d feel that way again too.
This past year, she had no reason to wear gorgeous lingerie, let alone find a reason to get out of bed. She wore cotton bras and underwear for comfort. But she’d had a blast selling lingerie during her nursing school days. She couldn’t help but think that buying a lingerie shop was a good step forward to finding the fun parts of herself that had disappeared with Adam’s death.