Taylor Finn aspires to be a stunt driver, but driving a limo is what pays the bills. When she finds herself chauffeuring a drunk guy harassing his date, she leaves him stranded and is sure she’s going to get fired. Maybe it's finally time to pursue her dream.
Iris Fleming’s flight to Atlanta was a scene from a disaster movie, the scariest landing ever. She’d desperately wanted a part on a new sci-fi series, until the director made a pass at her. Now Iris doesn’t want the role and has no intention of getting back on a plane.
Making their escape from Atlanta, Iris and Finn end up at Hideaway Haven, in neighboring cabins. Iris isn’t sure what’s scarier, sexy Taylor Finn or woodland nighttime noises. But maybe they can help each other out. There are schools for stunt drivers in LA, and Iris needs a ride. Wrong turns and roadside hijinks ensue as Iris and Finn set off on a road trip, chasing the sunset and falling for each other along the way.
What Reviewers Say About Missouri Vaun’s Work
Spencer’s Cove
“Just when I thought I knew where this story was going and who everyone was, Missouri Vaun took me on a ride that totally exceeded my expectations. …It was a magical tale and I absolutely adored it. Highly recommended.”—Kitty Kat’s Book Reviews
Take My Hand
“The chemistry between River and Clay is off the charts and their sex scenes were just plain hot!”—Les Rêveur
“The small town charms of Take My Hand evoke the heady perfume of pine needles and undergrowth, birdsong, and summer cocktails with friends.”—Omnivore Bibliosaur
Love at Cooper’s Creek
“Blown away…how have I not read a book by Missouri Vaun before. What a beautiful love story which, honestly, I wasn’t ready to finish. Kate and Shaw’s chemistry was instantaneous and as the reader I could feel it radiating off the page.”—Les Reveur
“Love at Cooper’s Creek is a gentle, warm hug of a book.”—The Lesbian Review
Crossing the Wide Forever
“Crossing the Wide Forever is a near-heroic love story set in an epic time, told with almost lyrical prose. Words on the page will carry the reader, along with the main characters, back into history and into adventure. It’s a tale that’s easy to read, with enchanting main characters, despicable villains, and supportive friendships, producing a fascinating account of passion and adventure.”—Lambda Literary Review
Birthright
“The author develops a world that has a medieval feeling, complete with monasteries and vassal farmers, while also being a place and time where a lesbian relationship is just as legitimate and open as a heterosexual one. This kept pleasantly surprising me throughout my reading of the book. The adventure part of the story was fun, including traveling across kingdoms, on “wind-ships” across deserts, and plenty of sword fighting. …This book is worth reading for its fantasy world alone. In our world, where those in the LGBTQ communities still often face derision, prejudice, and danger for living and loving openly, being immersed in a world where the Queen can openly love another woman is a refreshing break from reality.”—Amanda Chapman, Librarian, Davisville Free Library (RI)
“Birthright by Missouri Vaun is one of the smoothest reads I’ve had my hands on in a long time.”—The Lesbian Review
The Time Before Now
“[The Time Before Now] is just so good. Vaun’s character work in this novel is flawless. She told a compelling story about a person so real you could just about reach out and touch her.”—The Lesbian Review
The Ground Beneath
“One of my favourite things about Missouri Vaun’s writing is her ability to write the attraction between two women. Somehow she manages to get that twinkle in the stomach just right and she makes me feel it as if I am falling in love with my wife all over again.”—The Lesbian Review
All Things Rise
“The futuristic world that author Missouri Vaun has brought to life is as interesting as it is plausible. The sci-fi aspect, though, is not hard-core which makes for easy reading and understanding of the technology prevalent in the cloud cities. …[T]he focus was really on the dynamics of the characters especially Cole, Ava and Audrey--whether they were interacting on the ground or above the clouds. From the first page to the last, the writing was just perfect.”—AoBibliosphere
“This is a lovely little Sci-Fi romance, well worth a read for anyone looking for something different. I will be keeping an eye out for future works by Missouri Vaun.”—The Lesbian Review
“Simply put, this book is easy to love. Everything about it makes for a wonderful read and re-read. I was able to go on a journey with these characters, an emotional, internal journey where I was able to take a look at the fact that while society and technology can change vastly until almost nothing remains the same, there are some fundamentals that never change, like hope, the raw emotion of human nature, and the far reaching search for the person who is able to soothe the fire in our souls with the love in theirs.”—Roses and Whimsy
Writing as Paige Braddock
Jane’s World and the Case of the Mail Order Bride
“This is such a quirky, sweet novel with a cast of memorable characters. It has laugh out loud moments and will leave you feeling charmed.”—The Lesbian Review
Chasing Sunset
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Chasing Sunset
© 2019 By Missouri Vaun. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 13: 978-1-63555-455-7
This Electronic Original Is Published By
Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
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First Edition: August 2019
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Credits
Editor: Cindy Cresap
Production Design: Susan Ramundo
Cover Design By Tammy Seidick
By the Author
All Things Rise
The Time Before Now
The Ground Beneath
Whiskey Sunrise
Valley of Fire
Death By Cocktail Straw
One More Reason To Leave Orlando
Smothered and Covered
Privacy Glass
Birthright
Crossing The Wide Forever
Love At Cooper’s Creek
Take My Hand
Proxima Five
Spencer’s Cove
Chasing Sunset
Writing as Paige Braddock
Jane’s World: The Case of the Mail Order Bride
Acknowledgments
People ask me sometimes, where do you get your ideas? Most of the time I have no idea. It’s just this magical thing that happens, usually in the shower when I have nothing to write on, or when I’m driving to work. But in this case, I remember the exact place the idea for Chasing Sunset happened.
I was sitting at the base of the Eiffel Tower (not the one in Paris, the one in Vegas). A group of us were having drinks near Paris Las Vegas one night during the annual GCLS convention. There were no novels in the pipeline for me so I turned to my friend and beta reader, Jenny Harmon, and asked…what should I write about next? Jenny immediately said, a road trip romance. Being someone w
ho loves cars and road trips I thought this was a terrific suggestion. So, thank you, Jenny!
Many thanks to the BSB team for making these stories real and sharable. Rad, Sandy, Cindy, Ruth, and Paula, thank you for all the support.
There are a couple of other people I should mention with gratitude in my heart. One of them is Brian Miller for always answering my questions about sports cars and for being an all-around great guy. And thank you to Connie Ward, who shared photos and some details of her 1962 MG Roadster.
A big thank you to Rachel Black. You generously shared your experience as an actor and that was invaluable. You made this story so much better.
Thank you to my beta readers, Jenny, Vanessa, and Alena.
I’m grateful for my supportive and loving wife, Evelyn, who always supports me through the creative process. Thirty thousand words in, when I worry none of the plot points are going to come together, she’s always there for me with encouragement.
I’ll just add one note in closing. In case anyone wonders when you get to this portion of the story. Yes, I did drive across the Mississippi River three times, all in a row, on two different occasions—once in Vicksburg and once in Memphis.
On a road trip, once you’re west of the Mississippi, anything can happen.
Dedication
For my grandfather, who taught me to drive. I’ve loved road trips ever since.
Chapter One
Somewhere over Nebraska, halfway through the second Diet Coke, Iris Fleming began to question all her life choices. Possibly it was the generally unpleasant experience of modern air travel in coach. Maybe it was simply that she’d expected to be somewhere else in her life at this point.
Her mother would love it if she moved back to New York, found a nice investment banker, and settled down to have kids. But Iris wasn’t quite ready to give up on her acting career, or Southern California. She hadn’t broken the news to her mother yet, but after her most recent failed relationship, she might be ready to give up on men. As for the kid thing, she was moments away from turning thirty, and her biological clock hadn’t started chiming yet. There was a possibility it never would. The idea of motherhood was a concept she might like to explore, someday.
Iris had always thought she’d stick with acting and try to make a successful go of it, until she turned thirty. Now that thirty had almost arrived, she was pushing that timeline back, at least another five years. This role she was about to test for might just be the game changer she’d been waiting for. This was the last stage before getting the role. She’d be on camera in front of the people who would have the final say, the producers, creator, and showrunner. This could be the part that finally elevated her career beyond spots on TV shows and the occasional national commercial.
Some people got into acting seeking fame. That wasn’t why Iris had originally gotten into the business, but she wouldn’t say no to a little fame. Especially if it had a side dish of fortune.
Fox and Friends rudely and abruptly cut into her thoughts.
The elderly woman next to her kept accidentally hitting the video controls for Iris’s monitor with her elbow. The mildly amusing sitcom she wasn’t really watching switched to Fox News abruptly every twenty minutes whether Iris wanted it to or not.
Iris touched the woman’s arm to get her attention.
“Oh dear, I’ve done it again. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s all right,” Iris said for the tenth time.
Equally bothersome was the guy across the aisle who wouldn’t stop talking to his seatmate about his 5 Series BMW or his numerous ski trips to Europe. Iris had resorted to watching TV with headphones simply to drown him out. He’d insisted on talking to her while they queued up on the Jetway to board the plane, even though she’d been wearing earbuds. A clear indication that she didn’t really want to talk to anyone. It wasn’t that the guy was terrible looking. Although, a few hours a week at the gym wouldn’t hurt. But after her ex, Kent, she was done with men for a while. Not in the mood.
Yeah, air travel in coach pretty much sucked.
Iris wanted to make this cross-country flight as stress free as possible. She’d dressed for comfort in boyfriend jeans and an oversized T-shirt and tried her best not to stress over the reason for the trip.
They were only moments away from starting the descent into Atlanta.
“Are you flying home?” Her seatmate was searching through her purse.
“No, I live near LA.” Iris removed her headphones. She’d missed too many gaps in the sitcom to follow the story anyway.
“I was in Los Angeles visiting my daughter.” The woman’s eyes lost focus, as if she were visualizing something. “I love the weather, but everything is just too perfect there.”
The woman was right. The only problem was that perfection was an illusion. Iris had the perfect career, the perfect rental house, and the perfect boyfriend. In reality, none of it was perfect, especially the boyfriend part. She’d chosen to ignore all the red flags, all the weird uneasy stomach twinges that let you know something wasn’t quite right.
Denial was her only excuse.
Denial was a great place to visit. Denial could easily justify finishing a pint of ice cream all by yourself or that French fries were technically a vegetable. Yes, denial was a great place to visit, but you shouldn’t live there. Bad things happened when you stayed too long. But that was the problem wasn’t it? Denial was only obvious from the other side, after you passed through it. Denial’s talent was disguising itself as confirmation that everything was okay. Thus, the rethinking of life choices. Iris sank into the headrest and closed her eyes. She took a few deep breaths and tried to relax.
As if it wasn’t stressful enough to read for casting agents in LA, now Iris had agreed to fly to Atlanta to meet the creative team for a new series. This way she could be nervous and jet-lagged at the same time. Great plan. Normally, everything happened in LA, but they were filming this show in Atlanta, and the creative leads were big shots from some dystopian Netflix miniseries that had won every award possible. Iris and the other actor in consideration for the female leads were being flown to Atlanta to read for the producer and the director.
She’d considered spiking what was left of her Diet Coke with something stronger, but the drink cart never materialized, and now the tray tables were stowed. She craned her neck from the aisle seat, but it seemed no one was coming to claim her empty soda can.
“We’ve begun our initial descent into the Atlanta airport. Please remain in your seats for the—” The captain’s announcement cut off abruptly as the aircraft jolted sharply.
The almost empty Diet Coke slipped from her loose grip. It rolled past her seat toward the back of the aircraft. Iris grabbed for the seat’s armrest as the plane lurched violently downward. At the edge of her peripheral vision, she saw the Diet Coke can whoosh across the carpet toward the front of the plane. Several other free-range beverages joined the fray, toppling along the carpeted aisle.
The plane was falling from the sky!
Not in a nosedive, but rather, belly first, it dropped like a cement block. Iris sensed the heaviness of the Boeing 737 in every fiber of her being as gravity yanked the aircraft toward the ground in a free fall.
Had the plane encountered a wind shear?
Had the engines stalled?
No, she could feel the vibration of the turbo jet engines through her fingertips as she white-knuckled the armrest. Her stomach lunged upward and lodged in her throat, threatening to eject everything she’d eaten earlier.
They’d been close to the Atlanta airport. Seatbacks were in their upright and locked positions. Touchdown was so near. Five minutes out, the runway was a dark asphalt line cut through a sea of broccoli topped hardwoods.
The deafening whine of the engines invaded her senses. She squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath as the torque of the descent caused the seat belt to cut sharply into her lower abdomen. They were going to crash. Surely, they were going to crash. The plane was fall
ing too fast, too close to the ground. Iris’s twenty-nine years of life flashed like heat lightning through her mind, silent and searing. Had she done anything important? Lasting? Obit-worthy? Probably not.
Then suddenly, the landing gear made contact. With bone-jarring finality and air brakes screaming, they hit the tarmac. A duffel bag ejected from the overhead bin, narrowly missing her head. Mr. Chatty across from her wasn’t as lucky. A rolling bag struck the side of his face wheels first, and blood ran down his cheek, soaking into the collar of his white dress shirt.
They were alive; the plane was on the runway.
The deafening wind noise across the braking flaps seemed louder than usual. A moment of stunned silence filled the aircraft cabin as the plane slowed, then the joyful sounds of relieved passengers. Some wept, some cheered, somewhere at the rear of the compartment an infant cried. Lots of luggage had haphazardly tumbled from the overhead bins upon impact. The pilot was saying something now, but Iris couldn’t hear the words above the white noise of panic that still swirled inside her head.
The drop toward the runway had probably lasted less than a minute, but Iris was sure she’d lost a year of her life. She closed her eyes and took several deep, slow breaths.
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