by Zara Keane
“Oh, I bet she was.” Fiona’s grin was wide. “Thank you, Gavin. It’s perfect.”
“I love you, Fiona Byrne. You can regard this ring as whatever you want—friendship ring, engagement ring, or wedding band. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to stay in your life this time.”
She grabbed him and smacked a kiss on his lips. “And I love you, Gavin Maguire. I’ve loved you for years. And as for where we live, well… I’ve kind-of sort-of enjoyed reconnecting with people here. In fact, the principal of Glencoe College asked me if I was interested in a teaching position starting next academic year.”
“And what did you say?”
She gave him a wink. “I said I’d think about it.”
At the sight of his faltering smile, she laughed. “I’m teasing you. Of course I said yes. You’re stuck with me whether you like it or not.”
Gavin drew her into his arms and kissed her thoroughly. “I’m thrilled to be stuck with you. So,” he whispered into her ear, “Shall we go tell Aidan Gant the divorce is off?”
Epilogue
Two Months Later—Wilsons Promontory, Victoria, Australia
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Hi Liv,
I’m sending you this e-mail from Wilsons Promontory, an Australian national park south of Melbourne. The picture I’ve attached is of a wombat. One of those little suckers snuck into our tent last night and scared the bejaysus out of me. It was just like being back in Ballybeg and dealing with Wiggly Poo’s stealthy schemes to get into our bed.
So far, Australia’s exceeded my expectations times a million. The weather, the people, the wildlife—and my travel companion! Gavin and I haven’t had one single fight since we got here. LOL! Okay, he begs to differ. When he produced a flask of Long Island iced tea on what was supposed to be a romantic picnic on the beach, I reacted by gagging. Even after all these years, I can’t smell that stuff without feeling sick. So he downed the lot himself and was deservedly hungover the next day.
Thanks for your gossipy e-mail. Ruairí MacCarthy has a secret American wife? Holy crap! I did not see that one coming. He was kind of cagey about why he left Manhattan, but that’s wild. I need more details!
Hope you’re surviving Aidan’s mayoral campaign and haven’t strangled any political wives. We’ll go out for drinks when I get back, okay?
Love and Kisses from Down Under,
Fee xoxoxo
Thank You!
Thanks for reading Love and Shenanigans. I hope you enjoyed it!
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Reviews mean a lot to authors, regardless of grade. If you are kind enough to leave a review of Love and Shenanigans on Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, your blog, etc., please email me the link and I’ll send you a free copy of my upcoming novella, Love and Blarney, as soon as it’s ready.
Love and Shenanigans is the first book in the Ballybeg series. Find out what’s next by checking out my website at http://zarakeane.com
You can also turn the page to read the blurbs for Love and Blarney (Ballybeg, #1.5) and Love and Leprechauns (Ballybeg, #2).
Don't miss a release! Join my mailing list and be the first to know when there’s a new Ballybeg story.
Love and Blarney (Ballybeg, #1.5)
Coming September 2014
Married in Manhattan…
Ruairí MacCarthy left his wife behind in New York to deal with a family crisis in Ireland. Twelve months later, Ruairí’s replaced his three-piece suits and Wall Street career with jeans and a job managing his family’s pub. When his estranged wife breezes back into his life looking for a reconciliation, Ruairí must decide if home is really where the heart is.
…True Love in Ballybeg
Jayme King won’t take no for an answer. She wants Ruairí back, and she’s prepared to risk her designer shoes in an Irish cow pasture to get him. Discovering her husband lied to her about his past was a shock, but Jayme’s had a year to come to terms with Ruairí’s betrayal. A brush with death has given her a new perspective, and she knows letting Ruairí go was the biggest mistake of her life. Can she persuade him to return to America and give their marriage a second chance?
Love and Leprechauns (Ballybeg, #2)
Coming November 2014
Tattooed in Tipperary…
Olivia Gant is determined to escape her abusive marriage and live life on her own terms. Desperation drives her to agree to rent premises for her new café from her teenage nemesis, the man who tattooed her arse and stomped on her heart. Can she maintain a haughty distance, or will she succumb to temptation once more?
Jonas O’Mahony is a struggling single father to a child with special needs. The last thing he wants is the beautiful-but-infuriating Olivia under his roof and underfoot, but a childcare crisis forces him to accept her offer to babysit in return for the lease on the cottage. Can Jonas resist Olivia’s allures, or will he finally admit he’s in love?
…True Love in Ballybeg
When Olivia’s ex is clobbered to death by a garden gnome, the fickle finger of suspicion points to Olivia and Jonas. Can they prove their innocence? Or is their happily ever after doomed?
About Zara Keane
Zara Keane grew up in Dublin, Ireland, but spent her summers in a small town very similar to the fictitious Ballybeg.
She currently lives in Switzerland with her family. When she’s not writing or wrestling small people, she drinks far too much coffee, and tries—with occasional success—to resist the siren call of Swiss chocolate.
Zara loves chatting to people. She can be reached by email or you can find her on social media under the following links.
Twitter: @zara_keane
Facebook: Zara's Facebook Page
Goodreads: Zara's Author Profile
Pinterest: The Ballybeg Series
Zara Keane’s Mailing List
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ZaraKeane.com
Acknowledgements
I’m enormously fortunate to be surrounded by family and friends who have always encouraged my writing career. To name them all would take up more pages than anyone would care to read, so I’ll confine myself to those without whom Love and Shenanigans never would have been finished, let alone published.
Many thanks to Kate Garrabrant for suggesting I give NaNoWriMo a shot back in November 2009; to my wonderful critique partner, Magdalen Braden, for always telling me the unvarnished truth; to Janet Webb for encouraging me to write a romance set in Ireland; to Nadia Lee for patiently answering numerous newbie questions over the years; to Rhonda Helms, editor extraordinaire, for her excellent suggestions on story development and character arcs and for reining in my comma abuse; to Gwen Hayes for her wonderful Fresh Eyes Critique; to Trish Slattery, April Weigele, and Michele Harvey for beta reading and proofreading the book; and to Anne and Linda at Victory Editing for the thorough proofread.
Last but definitely not least, thank you to my family for always believing in me and for encouraging me to live my dream.
Copyright
LOVE AND SHENANIGANS
Copyright © 2014 by Sarah Tanner
Published 2014 by Beaverstone Press GmbH (LLC)
ISBN-13: 978-3-906245-01-0
Cover design © Kim Killion
Cover photographs The Killion Group Inc. and Patryk Kosmider at Bigstock
Formatting by Zara Keane
Amazon Kindle Version 1.1.
All rights reserved. Where such permission is sufficient, the author grants permission to strip any DRM which might be applied to this work. Similarly, the author grants permission to share this work with family and personal friends. In all other cases, no part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without prior written permission from the author, except in the case of brief q
uotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.