by Jana Aston
In any case it’s renovated now, top to bottom. Two-car garage on the ground floor, a kitchen and living space above it and two guest bedrooms above that. Perfect for visiting family to stay as long as they like. Plus that’s just the guest quarters. We’ve got more room in the main house, but don’t get me started on that. No, really, don’t. It took two years to renovate.
I loved every minute of it, of course.
Do you ever look up dream houses on the internet and imagine what it would be like to actually live in them? It’s like that. Only better, because it’s in London and the original details are a design dream come true. Imagine a historical townhouse on one of the best streets in Mayfair and an unlimited renovation budget. I could come just thinking about it and it’s my house.
“Why is that a good thing? We’ll be keeping the baby in the main house, surely.” He grins when he says it so I know he’s teasing.
We’ll be keeping the baby in the nursery adjacent to the master bedroom. I might not have been ready for a baby when I drew up the plans for the remodel, but like any good designer, I planned for the future.
“My parents will want to stay when the baby comes. Plus my sister and her crew.”
“Ah, yes. I look forward to it.”
If I’ve one complaint about the British, it’s that I’m not always certain when they’re teasing. I side-eye Jennings now as I try to determine if he’s sincere or not. And my sister—well, she does love to mention that Jennings fired her any chance she gets. But she’s teasing. It’s not like she’d have been able to go back anyway.
“Are you taking the piss out of me?” That’s British for sarcasm. Taking the piss. It’s not my favorite of the Britishisms but it doesn’t stop me from using it whenever the opportunity arrives.
“Of course not, love. I’m attempting to get into your knickers.”
“Oh. Well, in that case, carry on.”
The End
Acknowledgements
Whew! Another book done. “Done and dusted” as my friend Amy Jennings would say. It’s one of her favorite phrases and it’s fitting that I will start these acknowledgements with Amy. Thank you for letting me lift your last name for Jennings. For the rest of you, in case as you were reading thinking hmm, Jennings isn’t the most usual name that’s where I got it. Naming characters is honestly a lot harder and less fun than it looks. You end up with a page full of scribble and when you finally think you’ve come up with the perfect name you message your friend Kristi and say something like, “I really like the name Camden, I haven’t used it yet right?” Three hours later you remember that you’ve already used Camden as a last name for a major character. #Fail
Anyway, Jennings. I’m picky about names. I don’t normally like anything too different, but I do like last names as first names sometimes. And Jennings just fit. Once I thought of him as Jennings he couldn’t have been anyone else.
So, this book. I first had the idea for this book three years ago—while I was writing Wrong and not expecting I’d ever write another book. I was on vacation—a Christmas Market tour in Germany, which by the way is my JAM. European Christmas Markets are MAGIC. Anyway, it was a guided tour, much like Violet was leading in Sure Thing. They’re very popular in Europe—every place we stopped had large busses/coaches from multiple tour companies. They’re not quite as big a thing in America, but they are available.
My mind instantly went to—what if the tour guide switched places with someone else? How would any of us know? How would the company even know? Because I’m me, I asked questions. “Hey, do you and the driver know each other? Or like, did you just meet?” Weirdo passenger, aisle 3. So that’s where the idea was born. I can’t remember if my initial thought was twins or if that came later, but that’s where it started.
Thank you as always to my editor RJ Locksley & my formatter Erik Gevers for putting up with my up to the last second timelines. I appreciate you both!!! Thanks to Marion Making Manuscripts and Karen Lawson for your early read and feedback.
Kari March—I don’t think thank you is big enough, but thank you for putting up with me and helping me get this cover just right. And not blocking my email from ever contacting you again.
Jade West, you have no idea how much your support and asking for more chapters meant to me. For listening to me obsess over what the next chapter should be. You were a total rock star for me on this book.
Franzi, Jean, Kristi, Bev, Michelle thank you for reading & encouraging.
So now you want to know, what’s next?
Well, there’s Daisy. I think we all deserve to know exactly what she was up to when she dumped the tour on Violet and took off. She had a very good reason, I promise. I envision this “series” as just the two books, one for Violet and one for Daisy.
Then there’s Rhys and Canon. And some other guys I haven’t introduced yet. I envision the Vegas series as a minimum of two books and a maximum of who knows. I’m imagining a whole lot of fun & debauchery with a bunch of bachelors living in a hotel. These books will be interconnected stand alones about different couples.
Finally, dear reader, thank YOU. I honestly can’t believe I’m a writer. I still sorta shrug when people ask me what I do and then I answer like I’m uncertain. “Um, I’m a writer?” Then they reply something like, “oh, that’s nice,” and I’ll say something really chatty like, “yeah.” It’s your support that allows me to be awkward with strangers about my career, and more importantly, it keeps me in my pajamas where I belong. Sipping on a steady stream of iced coffee that I’ve procured from the Starbucks drive-thru, while still in my pajama’s.
XO, Jana
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Also by Jana Aston
The Wrong Series:
WRONG
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RIGHT
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FLING
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TRUST
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Standalone:
Times Square
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About the Author
Jana Aston likes cats, big coffee cups and books about billionaires who deflower virgins. She wrote her debut novel while fielding customer service calls about electrical bills, and she's ever grateful for the fictional gynecologist in Wrong that readers embraced so much she was able to make working in her pajamas a reality.
Jana’s work has appeared on the NYT, WSJ and USA Today bestsellers lists, some multiple times. She likes multiples.