Following on from the bestselling novel, Another Cup of Coffee, and the seasonal
Christmas novellas Another Cup of
Christmas, Christmas in the Cotswolds, and Christmas at the Castle, Jenny Kane brings you the final installment in the Pickwick's Coffee House adventures.
Blurb
A warm-hearted,
contemporary tale about a group of friends living in a small corner of busy
London, by bestselling author Jenny Kane.
Fortysomething Amy is shocked and delighted to
discover she s expecting a baby not to mention terrified! Amy wants best friend
Jack to be godfather, but he hasn’t been heard from in months. When Jack
finally reappears, he s full of good intentions but his new business plan could
spell disaster for the beloved Pickwicks Coffee Shop, and ruin a number of old
friendships...
Meanwhile his love life is as complicated as ever and
yet when he swears off men for good, Jack meets someone who makes him rethink
his priorities...but is it too late for a fresh start?
Author Kit has
problems of her own: just when her career has started to take off, she finds
herself unable to write and there s a deadline looming, plus two headstrong
kids to see through their difficult teenage years...will she be able to cope?
A follow-up to the runaway success Another Cup of Coffee.
Buy
Link: http://mybook.to/AGOChampagne (universal Amazon link)
Excerpt
‘My goodness, woman, you look like the
proverbial beached whale!’ Amy grinned at the teasing smile on her former
boss’s face.
‘Thanks, Peggy. I know I can rely on you
to be ready with a huge compliment!’
‘Huge is the word, and you are more than
welcome!’ Taking advantage of a lull in custom, Peggy followed Amy to where Kit
was working, and pulled out a chair for her friend before sitting down herself.
‘So how long have you got to go now?’
‘Only two months, which is nothing like as
long as I need to get ready, or even get my head around what's happening to me!
I have far too much to do before the baby comes, although we’ve almost finished
decorating the nursery at last. I haven’t even managed to find anyone to cover
my job at Home Hunters yet.’
Amy thanked Megan, Pickwicks’ chief
waitress, as she delivered a tray of drinks and half a huge carrot cake for the
three friends, before asking Kit, ‘I don’t suppose that lovely husband of yours
fancies coming back to the business while I’m on maternity leave?’
Kit shook her head. ‘Not a hope. It did
cross my mind after Phil gave up running Home Hunters that he might have
withdrawal symptoms and want to go back, but he took to running the bookshop
like a duck to water. I can’t see him ever going back. And he wouldn’t have the
time, to be honest. Did I tell you that they’re so busy now, he and Rob have
employed a guy to help them with their new educational courses at Kew?’
Amy beamed. ‘No, you didn’t. That’s
fantastic! I bet Jack would be thrilled for them if he was here.’ Suddenly
pensive, she picked up her cup, ‘I don’t suppose either of you have heard from
Jack?’
Peggy shook her head as Kit said, ‘Not a
word. I thought he’d keep in touch with you though, Amy, even if he went quiet
on the rest of us.’
‘Paul says he’ll turn up eventually, but
I’d rather like to be able to tell Jack about this bundle,’ Amy patted her
stomach, ‘before he or she stops being just a bump in my jumper. I might ask
him if he wants to be godfather.’
Kit nodded. ‘Jack is godfather to the
twins, and although he’s a dreadful role model on the morals front, both Thomas
and Helena have always found him great fun, and say that having a gay godfather
is, and I quote, “Well cool”.’
Peggy had never understood the loyalty
Jack’s two ex-girlfriends felt for him considering how appallingly he’d treated
them both. She certainly wouldn’t want anyone who’d stood her up on her wedding
day – albeit only in the role of usher – to be a godparent to her child, but
she simply asked, ‘How long has he been AWOL for?’
Amy frowned. ‘It must be more or less four
years since I last saw him, and about twelve months since I last spoke to him.
It’s not so much being AWOL as missing in action. How about you, Kit?’
Peggy and Amy exchanged glances as they
saw Kit staring blankly into her soup bowl-sized cup of black coffee. ‘Kit? You with us?’
‘What? Oh, sorry, guys. I didn’t get much
sleep last night, I phased out for a minute. What was the question?’
Peggy had noticed how distracted Kit had
been lately, although instinct told her that she shouldn’t ask her friend about
it yet. ‘When did you last hear from Jack, honey?’
‘I’m not sure, must be at least a year.
That is very Jack though, isn’t it. I bet he’d get a kick out of the fact that
we’re all back here wondering where he is and if he’s OK.’
Amy, who’d had similar thoughts herself,
grimaced. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised – although I’d like to think that at his age
he’s finally grown out of playing those games.’
Kit and Peggy laughed in unison. ‘No
chance!’ ‘I assume he’s either still travelling around the world – or working
in someone’s garden, using that horticultural qualification he got after Paul
and I got married.’
‘Sounds possible, and of course,’ Kit let
her inner storyteller go in a way she wished she could on paper, ‘if Jack has
spent all the inheritance his grandfather left him, he could have got a job in
the grounds of some posh house, had a torrid affair with the heir to the manor,
and be in the middle of a society scandal.’
Amy smiled as Peggy divided the carrot
cake into mountainous slices. ‘That sounds entirely possible, and I sort of
hope it’s true! The boyfriend bit, I mean, rather than the scandal bit.’
Pulling her cake plate closer, Kit
shrugged. ‘I’m not sure he’d risk another relationship, not after Toby hurt him
like that. I suspect he’s reverted to full-on sleeping around mode.’ Realising
she had sounded rather curt, she added, ‘I’d like to be wrong though. If he
settled down a bit, he might come home...’
About the Author
Jenny spends a
large part of her time in the cafe’s of Mid Devon, where she creates her
stories, including the novels Another
Glass of Champagne, (Accent Press, 2016), Abi’s House (Accent Press, June 2015), Romancing Robin Hood (Accent Press, 2014), the best selling
contemporary romance Another Cup of
Coffee (Accent Press, 2013), and the novella length sequels Another Cup of Christmas (Accent Press,
2013), Christmas in the Cotswolds,
(Accent Press, 2014), and Christmas at
the Castle, (Accent Press, 2015).
Her next full
length novel, Abi’s Neighbour, will
be published by Accent Press in Summer 2017. She is also working on a short
historical novel, which will be published in November 2016.
Jenny Kane is also
the author of quirky children’s picture books There’s a Cow in the Flat (Hushpuppy, 2014) and Ben’s Biscuit Tin (Hushpuppy, 2015).
Keep your eye on
Jenny’s blog at www.jennykane.co.uk
for more details.
Twitter: @JennyKaneAuthor
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