Title: A Timeless Kiss
Author: Judy Kentrus
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Book Blurb:
Jordan Bishop loves her job as a US Park Ranger. Her days patrolling the New Jersey side of the Delaware Water Gap satisfies her fascination with the Delaware View House. The former inn built in is a victim of the devastating Tocks Island Dam project.
As a single mother, she spends her free time leading her daughter Emma on adventures where Jordan snags pictures of the old inn. She doesn’t know what she expects to find in developing her latest photos, but it’s not the apparition in the attic window or the onset of dreams about the same young girl.
On the mend from an injury, Foster Scanlon’s going stir crazy away from his job as a Forensic Odontologist. To fill his mundane days, he leaves the city for the former bed and breakfast he inherited from his aunt. Nosing around the nooks and crannies of his new home, he discovers boxes of pictures and journals from his eccentric Aunt Daisy, a lifelong activist who had a penchant for making enemies.
The deeper he digs, the more he calls into question everything he knew about her and her death. His sanity is taxed as mysterious dreams about a soldier in the Union army plague him at night.
When a gruesome discovery thrust Jordan and Foster together, they’ll have to work together to uncover the truth, while confronting hidden secrets that threaten the foundation of the powerful attraction growing between them.
Excerpt:
At ten-thirty on a weekday morning, Jordan was lucky to get a parking space at the Forklift Café. The locals knew a good thing. Come Memorial Day, six weeks from now, tourists would return to the area to camp, hike, visit waterfalls, take out canoes and tube down the Delaware River. Her job would start in earnest.
Jordan, stop thinking about work. This is family time.
She released the clips on her daughter’s car seat. “Now, behave. No running around.”
“Me color,” Emma announced.
Lori, one of the waitresses, was standing behind the counter. The moment she saw Emma, she came out from behind the display counter.
“Here’s our favorite little girl!”
“Color and biscuits.”
“She knows what she wants,” Lori said. “Two tables are open, help yourselves. Regular drinks?”
“Lori, you’re a wonder, always remembering what we like to drink.”
Emma had a tendency to be loud, so Jordan chose a table in the corner. Lori hurried over with a cup of very used crayons and a place mat with farm animals. In the center was a cow. Emma’s eyes widened before she emitted, “Moo.”
Jordan had a Forklift Breakfast. Lori already knew to note a single order of biscuits and gravy for them.
Lori brought Emma’s food first. Jordan went to help her daughter, but her obstinate two-and-a-half-year-old shook her head and jabbed the fork into a silver-dollar pancake swimming in maple syrup.
“I do myself.”
The jerking momentum between mother and daughter created a pancake flying saucer that landed on the head of the man sitting behind them.
“Emma!”
Jordan grabbed a stack of extra napkins that Lori had known to place on their table and hurried over to face the victim of the flying pancake. He wore the maple-soaked disk like a badge of honor, while syrup ran down his cheeks. Embarrassed from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, she just stared. And stared.
NO! It can’t be!
Foster considered himself lucky to get the last parking spot in front of the Forklift. Since moving here a few weeks ago, he was delighted with his discovery of a local favorite.
One of the waitresses was taking an order over the phone. She smiled and pointed to the dining room, indicating he should take any table available.
Mary Ellen set a cup of coffee in front of him and took his order for a Forklift Breakfast with a side of biscuits and gravy. He was used to eating alone, but the chatter among the other diners was dominated by the child sitting at the table behind him.
The little girl named Emma was entertaining and had making farm animal sounds down pat. She definitely had a mind of her own when it came to feeding herself. He’d just placed his knife and fork crosswise on his clean plate to indicate he was finished eating when something plopped on his head, followed by an unknown substance oozing down his forehead.
“Well, of all the…”
Before he could reach for his napkin, the young child’s mother moved to stand next to him. The sight of what her little girl had done was so shocking, the woman’s jaw dropped. With a wad of napkins crunched in her hands, she continued to stare. His eyes dropped to the front of her sweatshirt, and he recognized the letters. FLETC. Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers. Maybe a relative of hers had attended the largest law enforcement training center in the country.
Syrup continued to snake its way down his cheek, so he helped himself to a couple of the napkins in the attractive woman’s left hand. No ring.
“Thanks,” he said and proceeded to eliminate the sticky mess.
The chatter from the other diners drew Jordan out of her shock at seeing the man she’d never expected to see ever again. Foster Scanlon. He looked good. No, he looked great. That bow tie made him look like a sexy professor. He looks even better naked.
To her relief, he didn’t recognize her. Three years ago at her sister’s wedding her hair had been much shorter and a reddish strawberry-blond. Her eyes had been an artificial blue because of vanity contacts. The sequined champagne dress she’d worn had left little to the imagination.
She could blame having too much to drink had swept them both up in the moment, but it was a night she’d long remember. How could she forget? He’d given her a memory of a beautiful night, along with a gift he never knew about. There was so much she wanted to say, but couldn’t. Some secrets were meant to be kept.
You’re acting like a boob. Say something.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
If money were no object and we weren’t in a pandemic, where would you go for a Spring Break vacation and why?
My dream vacation would be to travel to Norway to see the Northern Lights. Unfortunately, the best time of the year to see them is in the winter months. They’re also visible in Canada and Alaska. I’ve been to both, but only in the summer months.
Why is your featured book a must-read this spring?
A Timeless Kiss takes place in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. I live ten minutes away. Ice chunks are floating on the Delaware, but soon they’ll melt, the trees will start to bloom and the world opens up to natural beauty, waterfalls, and hiking trails.
Giveaway:
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Open internationally
Runs April 1 – 30, 2021.
Drawing will be held on May 3, 2021.
Author Biography:
Judy Kentrus, Contemporary Romance, Romantic Suspense, Seasoned Romance,
Historical Romance
I’ve always been a romantic at heart and married my high school sweetheart. I make my home in the Poconos of Pennsylvania. After raising our two children, I followed my dream to publish my books. I love to travel and include some of the places I’ve visited in my books. When I’m not at my computer giving couples their happily-ever-after, you can find me in the kitchen, baking, especially cookies. I’ve been dubbed the cookie queen by my family and friends. My stories are fun, sexy, romances that will make you laugh, cry and fall in love.
Social Media Links:
Website: http://www.judykentrus.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JudyKentrus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/judykentrus/?hl=en
Amazon Author Central: https://author.amazon.com/claim/join?query=Judy+Kentrus