Kinsale Kisses Sneak Peek

Since Kinsale Kisses releases on Monday, I thought I’d give you a sneak peek at the start of chapter one. It’ll be available on Amazon (and for now, only on Amazon) on the 13th. I’ve also got a newsletter scheduled to arrive in subscriber inboxes on Monday morning – and there are some special things in there. So if you’re not signed up and you’re thinking about it, do it before Monday!

Without further ado…the promised snippet.

Rachel Sullivan hitched up her backpack, tugging the shoulder strap tighter to fix it in place and dragged her suitcase through the automatic doors of Ireland’s Shannon Airport. Maybe she should have taken her Aunt Siobhan’s advice and flown into the Cork airport. But flying direct was simpler than dealing with changing planes in Amsterdam, London, or Paris. She glanced at the tag dangling from the key in her hand. Her rental car was in spot E37. Large lettered signs identified rows, and Rachel angled toward the bright green E half-way across the lot. As she crossed the pavement, she read the white numbers painted at the end of the parking spaces. Thirty-five. Thirty-six. She stopped in front of a tiny silver car, her jaw falling open. She’d said compact but this was…miniscule. At five-foot-nine, Rachel wasn’t huge, but she doubted there’d be more than two feet left over if she were to stretch out on the ground with her head at the front bumper. Reaching over the top of the roof she could touch the seam of the passenger door.

Shaking her head, she pushed the trunk release on the key fob. It looked like there was room for her luggage, though it was good she’d packed light. She heaved her suitcase up and wiggled it into the space between the wheel well bumps. After pushing the hatchback down, she pulled open the door, tossed her backpack to the other side, and sat.

“Wrong side.” Muttering, she stood and cast a furtive glance around the lot. No one seemed to have noticed her. That was something at least. She circled the car, moved her backpack from the driver’s seat, and settled behind the steering wheel. Everything looked straightforward. At least the turn signal and windshield wipers weren’t backward too. But…her gaze landed on the gear shift. A manual. Great. Dad had insisted she learn to drive a manual in high school. A pang shot through her heart as images of their driving lessons flitted through her memory. She’d switched to an automatic when she bought her first car and hadn’t looked back. Was it too much to hope it was like riding a bike?

She studied the shifter and took a deep breath, pressed down the brake and the clutch, and turned the key. The engine purred like an anemic cat. She wasn’t going to be doing any racing in this thing, that was for sure. With only the tiniest crunch of the gears, Rachel shifted into reverse and backed out of the parking spot. She wasn’t going to think about how she’d rolled down the window the first time she’d tried to shift. Now she just had to make it the rest of the two hour drive to Kinsale on the Southwestern coast in County Cork.

Horns blared at her as she turned right out of the parking lot onto the main road and directly into oncoming traffic. Rachel swerved into the left lane, her heart accelerating past the speed limit as her stomach dropped. Shaking, she gripped the steering wheel. Left. They drive on the left. Glancing in the rearview mirror at the friendly beep behind her, she sped up, unrolling her window when she reached for the gearshift. With the car finally cruising along, she let her gaze roam, ever so slightly, around the countryside.