Afternoon Delight
"This book is incredible..." ~ 5 stars, Heather, Goodreads
Freshly divorced and nearing forty, Meg regrets making all the safe choices. When her best friend needs surgery, Meg puts her accounting career on hold to run her friend’s racy adult toy shop—but her vanilla life never prepared her for this!
At thirty-two, Zak leaves the tech world for his dad’s antique store, wanting time with him before dementia erases his father’s memories. He’s Meg’s landlord, but she becomes his confidante, distracting him from his troubles with her suggestive puns and amusing misadventures.
Flirty banter leads to test-driving toys together, but Meg knows they won’t last. Their age-gap puts them in different life-stages and she lives in Toronto. A few afternoons of delight can’t change her life. Can they?
Afternoon Delight is a slow-burn, neighbors to lovers, reverse age-gap romance with heat and sparkle and laughs. Cheating is mentioned in Meg's past, but she knows she deserves better (and gets it.)
350 Pages | 6.5 Hours | 81K words
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EXCERPT:
I was regressing into prom-night Meg, smiling dopily because he wore his flannel sleeves rolled back, showing off his muscled forearms. His jeans hugged his thick thighs, and his sturdy work boots were oddly reassuring, like he knew how to take command of a situation.
I dragged my attention back to his crooked smile and straight dark brows. The combination made him seem both approachable and stern.
Too young, I cautioned myself. He didn’t look like he’d collected my level of disenchantment with life. People in their thirties tended to fall into two categories—those like me, creeping up on forty and punch-drunk with family responsibilities, or those like him, who still had the bandwidth for clumsy soccer on a soggy day.
His eyes were really blue. They brimmed with amusement, and I wanted to fall right into them.
I was staring. Damn. I’d caught a case of insta-lust, and he knew it.
“So, um.” I’m due to step into traffic. “Georgia said her landlord had a daughter. Zara? Is that your wife?” Did I really just ask if he was married? Yes, I did. I wanted to bite my tongue off.
“My sister.”
Right. Duh. He had just told me his father was Dale. Could I be more uncool?
He scratched his beard, possibly trying to hide the fact that he was struggling not to laugh.
“We own the building with Dad,” he said. “Fun fact—when he signed this lease, he told us the new renter was a toy store. It wasn’t until Zara stopped by after it opened that we learned what kind of toys.”
“Oh.” I widened my eyes. “Is that a problem?” Was he here to break the lease? Nooo.
“The neighbors aren’t thrilled. But we’re only hanging onto the building for Dad, so…” He lifted one well-built shoulder.
“So don’t get comfortable?” My heart was sinking on Georgia’s behalf.
“I honestly couldn’t tell you.” He shoved his hands into his back pockets, palms out, and braced his weight between his widely set feet. “At first, we thought it was funny that Dad had missed such an important detail. Then Georgia told Zara that Dad was coming in here and getting confused. Zara got him to the doctor, but she has kids and works full-time. She can’t run point on him, too. I moved back after Christmas to live with Dad and…” He shrugged again. “I don’t know how long this will work.”