Out Now
- Another Glass of Champagne
Following on from the bestselling novel, Another Cup of Coffee, and the seasonal
Christmas novellas Another Cup of
Christmas, Christmas in the Cotswolds, and Christmas at the Castle, Jenny Kane brings you the final instalment
in the Pickwicks Coffee House adventures.
Blurb
A warm-hearted,
contemporary tale about a group of friends living in a small corner of busy London
Fortysomething Amy is shocked and delighted to discover she
s expecting a baby not to mention terrified! Amy wants best friend Jack to be
godfather, but he hasn’t been heard from in months. When Jack finally
reappears, he s full of good intentions but his new business plan could spell
disaster for the beloved Pickwicks Coffee Shop, and ruin a number of old
friendships...
Meanwhile his love life is as complicated as ever and yet
when he swears off men for good, Jack meets someone who makes him rethink his
priorities...but is it too late for a fresh start?
Author Kit has
problems of her own: just when her career has started to take off, she finds
herself unable to write and there s a deadline looming, plus two headstrong
kids to see through their difficult teenage years...will she be able to cope?
A follow-up to the runaway success Another Cup of Coffee.
Extract
‘My goodness, woman, you look like the proverbial
beached whale!’ Amy grinned at the teasing smile on her former boss’s face.
‘Thanks, Peggy. I know I can rely on you to be
ready with a huge compliment!’
‘Huge is the word, and you are more than
welcome!’ Taking advantage of a lull in custom, Peggy followed Amy to where Kit
was working, and pulled out a chair for her friend before sitting down herself.
‘So how long have you got to go now?’
‘Only two months, which is nothing like as long
as I need to get ready, or even get my head around what's happening to me! I
have far too much to do before the baby comes, although we’ve almost finished
decorating the nursery at last. I haven’t even managed to find anyone to cover
my job at Home Hunters yet.’
Amy thanked Megan, Pickwicks’ chief waitress, as
she delivered a tray of drinks and half a huge carrot cake for the three
friends, before asking Kit, ‘I don’t suppose that lovely husband of yours
fancies coming back to the business while I’m on maternity leave?’
Kit shook her head. ‘Not a hope. It did cross my
mind after Phil gave up running Home Hunters that he might have withdrawal
symptoms and want to go back, but he took to running the bookshop like a duck
to water. I can’t see him ever going back. And he wouldn’t have the time, to be
honest. Did I tell you that they’re so busy now, he and Rob have employed a guy
to help them with their new educational courses at Kew?’
Amy beamed. ‘No, you didn’t. That’s fantastic! I
bet Jack would be thrilled for them if he was here.’ Suddenly pensive, she
picked up her cup, ‘I don’t suppose either of you have heard from Jack?’
Peggy shook her head as Kit said, ‘Not a word. I
thought he’d keep in touch with you though, Amy, even if he went quiet on the
rest of us.’
‘Paul says he’ll turn up eventually, but I’d
rather like to be able to tell Jack about this bundle,’ Amy patted her stomach,
‘before he or she stops being just a bump in my jumper. I might ask him if he
wants to be godfather.’
Kit nodded. ‘Jack is godfather to the twins, and
although he’s a dreadful role model on the morals front, both Thomas and Helena
have always found him great fun, and say that having a gay godfather is, and I
quote, “Well cool”.’
Peggy had never understood the loyalty Jack’s
two ex-girlfriends felt for him considering how appallingly he’d treated them
both. She certainly wouldn’t want anyone who’d stood her up on her wedding day
– albeit only in the role of usher – to be a godparent to her child, but she
simply asked, ‘How long has he been AWOL for?’
Amy frowned. ‘It must be more or less four years
since I last saw him, and about twelve months since I last spoke to him. It’s
not so much being AWOL as missing in action. How about you, Kit?’
Peggy and Amy exchanged glances as they saw Kit
staring blankly into her soup bowl-sized cup of black coffee. ‘Kit? You with us?’
‘What? Oh, sorry, guys. I didn’t get much sleep
last night, I phased out for a minute. What was the question?’
Peggy had noticed how distracted Kit had been
lately, although instinct told her that she shouldn’t ask her friend about it
yet. ‘When did you last hear from Jack, honey?’
‘I’m not sure, must be at least a year. That is
very Jack though, isn’t it. I bet he’d get a kick out of the fact that we’re
all back here wondering where he is and if he’s OK.’
Amy, who’d had similar thoughts herself,
grimaced. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised – although I’d like to think that at his age
he’s finally grown out of playing those games.’
Kit and Peggy laughed in unison. ‘No chance!’ ‘I
assume he’s either still travelling around the world – or working in someone’s
garden, using that horticultural qualification he got after Paul and I got
married.’
‘Sounds possible, and of course,’ Kit let her
inner storyteller go in a way she wished she could on paper, ‘if Jack has spent
all the inheritance his grandfather left him, he could have got a job in the
grounds of some posh house, had a torrid affair with the heir to the manor, and
be in the middle of a society scandal.’
Amy smiled as Peggy divided the carrot cake into
mountainous slices. ‘That sounds entirely possible, and I sort of hope it’s
true! The boyfriend bit, I mean, rather than the scandal bit.’
Pulling her cake plate closer, Kit shrugged.
‘I’m not sure he’d risk another relationship, not after Toby hurt him like
that. I suspect he’s reverted to full-on sleeping around mode.’ Realising she
had sounded rather curt, she added, ‘I’d like to be wrong though. If he settled
down a bit, he might come home...’
Bio
Jenny spends a large
part of her time in the cafe’s of Mid Devon, where she creates her stories,
including the novels Another Glass of
Champagne, (Accent Press, 2016), Abi’s
House (Accent Press, June 2015),
Romancing Robin Hood (Accent Press, 2014), the best selling contemporary
romance Another Cup of Coffee (Accent
Press, 2013), and the novella length sequels Another Cup of Christmas (Accent Press, 2013), Christmas in the Cotswolds, (Accent Press, 2014), and Christmas at the Castle, (Accent Press,
2015).
Her next full length
novel, Abi’s Neighbour, will be
published by Accent Press in Summer 2017. She is also working on a short
historical novel, which will be published in November 2016.
Jenny Kane is also the
author of quirky children’s picture books There’s
a Cow in the Flat (Hushpuppy, 2014) and Ben’s
Biscuit Tin (Hushpuppy, 2015).
Keep your eye on Jenny’s
blog at www.jennykane.co.uk for more
details.
Twitter: @JennyKaneAuthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JennyKaneRomance
