Coco’s Somewhat Excellent Adventures:Hawaii is available on Kindle Unlimited
New short story release is available
Coco’s Somewhat Excellent Adventures, a contemporary short story
It’s New Release Tuesday, and my latest short story is available exclusive to Kindle Unlimited.
Go here to purchase: http://amzn.to/1Ufb75F
Sometimes you’re up, and sometimes life grinds its heel in your face.
Coco Trueheart is feeling down and out. Her husband divorced her for a bimbo half her age. Her business is taking a direction she doesn’t like. And her only child is leaving the nest forever.
Her life takes a further dive when she’s forced to travel to Hawaii. I know, like, right?
As she begins her odyssey from an unsure divorcée to the creator of a new, vibrant life, she encounters star-crossed lovers, a series of misadventures and seat companions who range from obnoxious to merely dead.
Coco’s Somewhat Excellent Adventures: Hawaii is the first of ten planned short stories.
Read an excerpt:
Coco Trueheart ran her thumb over her ring finger then remembered she’d removed her diamond when her rat-bastard husband had run off with a twenty-year-old barista.
I hope she kills him with sex. She hoped he’d heave his pasty-white, flabby body onto the anorexic, little gold digger and pump her until his heart exploded. It would be great if it happened before he climaxed, leaving him as frustrated as she’d been during their twenty-two-year marriage. Better still if a full-length mirror was part of the decor and he could watch himself flop around like a dead chicken.
“Why, no, doctor, what makes you think I have anger issues?” she muttered to the empty office of Trueheart Destinations, the travel agency she’d started with her best friend, Rose. “No anger at all. Nothing here but good times.”
She flicked her keyboard and frowned as she noticed a chip in her Bleeding Heart red nail polish. It had taken six months after the divorce to screw up her courage and face embarrassment at The Nail Garden, and what good had it done? Three chips within a week.
“Damn, you, Mr. Maxwell.” She wondered if rumors of his diluting bottles of clumpy polish were true.
Find new salon; she scribbled into the moleskin notebook that went everywhere with her.
Coco turned back to her keyboard. The specialized and personalized service of Trueheart Destinations continued to pay the bills, and she had a honeymoon to plan.
Several minutes later, the back door to their strip mall store jangled shut, and Brannigan sauntered in.
Saunter was the only description for how Levi Joseph Brannigan moved. Tall, loose-limbed, and still handsome at forty-nine, he eased around corners as smooth as smoke.
Coco, who strode everywhere, sighed and shook her head at her partner’s husband. His easy-going personality was a boon and a bane. It rubbed her the wrong way, but he connected with people in a way she didn’t and brought in new clients.
She and Rose had temporarily folded him into the business after he’d lost his job when the economy had tanked. Temporary had changed to permanent as Rose’s cancer worsened and finally took her life.
It had been a devastating time. Two years later, neither Coco nor Brannigan had recovered.
Coco pushed away the memory and greeted her partner.
“How did it go with the Deboers?” One of Grand Rapids’ leading families, their wealth had started in lumber, segued to furniture and had taken a right turn toward technology as the new millennium started. The upcoming nuptials of the youngest son, combined with a milestone anniversary, would pay a healthy chunk of Trueheart Destinations’ expenses.
Brannigan slapped a folder onto his desk. A grin split his face, emphasizing the smile brackets around his mouth.
“Terrific. They’ve added an inter-island cruise for the whole family.” His dusky blue eyes twinkled.
“That’s great!” The Deboers continued to add extras to their Hawaiian excursion, due to Brannigan’s efforts.
“Yes, it is.” He moved to loom over her, the charm that had captivated Rose oozing out of him.
Coco tilted her head. “What are you up to?”
“Me?” he said in mock horror. “I just want to make everything perfect for our number one client.”
A sense of doom skated down Coco’s spine. “No.” She rose and faced him over the expanse of her desk. “You are not sending me to Hawaii.”
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