Starling Bay…Small town. Big romance.
Welcome to Starling Bay, a small coastal town filled with memorable characters and places.
Discover what happens when Reed Knight, a wealthy business man from one of the oldest and richest families in the bay, returns from a business trip with a fiancee.
Find out what his friends, Dylan and Rourke, have to say about this surprise new development.
Whirlwind Kisses is a prequel to the Starling Bay series of standalone romances featuring quirky characters in an unforgettable setting.
Come and visit. You won’t be sorry.
Excerpt:
“What’s keeping him in Manhattan?” Dylan asked. “I mean, it was supposed to be a one week business trip.”
Rourke scoffed. “Manhattan is cool. I don’t blame the guy.”
“He’s been gone almost a month.”
“You’re counting?”
“I’m just saying.” Reed liked to keep his trips short, because he also had plenty of interests to take care of back at home.
“Manhattan women are classy,” Rourke remarked.
“That’s your observation, wherever you go.”
The two men looked at one another. Their friend Reed was missing from their usual get-together at the Blue Velvet Bar, a place they often frequented. It was here that they caught up on one another’s news, as well as discussing the goings-on in Starling Bay.
“You don’t think…?” Rourke started.
“Don’t think what?” Dylan had an idea about the lightbulb moment Rourke had just had. His friend seemed to always have one explanation for most things in life, and it almost always had to do with women.
“He might have met someone.”
Dylan considered the option. He’d been thinking the same. After all, Reed was a catch. He was good looking as well as insanely rich. What was there not to like? As the only son of one of Starling Bay’s oldest and wealthiest families, he was wealthy beyond belief, and had many investments and business interests all across the country.
“He might have met someone,” Dylan replied, slowly. While he could see his friend spending a month away due to business, he couldn’t see him doing that just because he’d met someone. For a romantic entanglement?
No.
That wasn’t the Reed he knew.
His friend must have struck some really good business deals because that was what he was focused on.
“I can’t really see it. Can’t see that as being the reason. Besides, he’d tell us.”
“You think?” Rourke didn’t sound convinced.
“He’s no open book, like you.”
“And he’s no closed book, like you,” Rourke stated.
Dylan grinned, then looked around the bar. “Fine, I asked for that.” He didn’t like to discuss these things, mainly because he hadn’t dated for a while, and there was nothing to talk about. The ‘friends of friends’ that Rourke had tried to hook him up with had been failures, as had the dating apps Rourke had forced him to try.
These things weren’t for him.
“He’s just busy. He’s probably busy cutting deals, one after another. I expect he’ll be back soon enough, but, I have to say, it doesn’t feel the same without him.”
“I’m boring you, am I?” Rourke shot back.
“No, no.” It wasn’t anything like that. The dynamics had shifted slightly. With the three of them there was more of a balance. Reed was more the silent, quiet type, analyzing everything, while Rourke was the one who continuously regaled them with stories about his dates with women. As for himself, he wasn’t one to talk about his romantic dalliances. For him, it was always about building up his gift store. The Clearwater Gift Store didn’t exactly have an exciting ring to it—he hadn’t thought it through properly when he had opened, and now he was stuck with it. But it was his pride and joy. He sold gifts and ornaments, many of them handmade by him in the workshop behind the store. He sold well enough to be able to make a living from it.
What neither of his friends worried about was the thing that Dylan worried about the most.
Cash flow.
Rourke wasn’t a businessman as much as he was a ladies man, but he worked in a realty office and at least he had a regular paycheck, plus he worked on commission for selling properties. His commission checks were enviable.
Dylan’s income wasn’t so regular and depended on how good business was from month to month. He needed to invest more in marketing but time was scarce, and there was always so much to do.
“Let’s call him” Rourke suggested. “If he’s with a woman, we’ll soon find out.”
“You want to call him?”
“Why not? We’ll get to see what he’s really up to, especially if we do a video call.”
Dylan didn’t like the sound of this. It sounded intrusive and Reed wouldn’t like it, especially if he happened to be in a business meeting. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“If he’s with someone, we’ll know for sure what’s keeping him in Manhattan.” Dylan grit his teeth. This was typical Rourke behavior. “No. Let’s not.”
“It would have been funny. Another round?” his friend asked.
Dylan looked at his watch. He’d been hoping to make some more dog feeding bowls tonight. His assistant, Laura, had told him that they were almost out of the batch he’d made a few weeks ago. He considered Rourke’s offer. He had been working hard all week, often until the early hours of the morning, but taking time out did him a world of good. He needed to refill his creative well, even if it was just in the form of sitting in a bar and talking to Rourke. “Okay, sure.”
Rourke signaled for the server to come over, and then ordered another round of drinks.
He looked at Dylan, then looked away. Something shifty in his expression made Dylan take notice. “What?” he asked.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You looked like you were about to tell me something.”
Rourke lifted a shoulder. “Did I tell you that the sister of the buyer we have for one of our properties, gave me her number?”
And there it was. “You never said a word,” Dylan replied. But he knew that he was soon to find out all about it.
“Yeah. Turns out, this woman’s getting divorced, and the house belongs to her. She wants to sell it, and she’s at home with her sister, when I go over to do an evaluation.”
“I can guess what sort of evaluation you did,” Dylan noted, dryly. However, it seemed that the comment went completely over his friend’s head.
“Nice house. Great décor, beautifully done. After the lady who owned it had finished showing me around, we discussed prices, and I got ready to leave. The seller’s sister walks me to the door, and then she gives me her number.”
“Is she looking to sell her place, too?”
Rourke grinned. “No, but we’re meeting for dinner next week.”
“I’m surprised you’re going to wait that long. I’m surprised you didn’t ditch meeting me tonight to take her out to dinner instead.”
“Ha ha.” Rourke replied, the sarcasm thick in his voice.
Just then the server arrived with their drinks, and Rourke excused himself to go to the restroom.
Just as he left, Dylan’s phone rang.
It was Reed.
“Talk of the devil,” Dylan said. “We were just talking about you.”
“Is that why my ears are burning?”
“They shouldn’t be. We didn’t say anything nasty about you.”
“I hope not. Listen, the reason I called is because I managed to get a hold of the manager of the home furnishings store. Do you remember the one I mentioned before?”
He did. Reed had told him about a store out of town that sold ornaments, and he was convinced that Dylan’s products would do well there. Upscale products, though, more like handmade coffee cups, maybe even some vases, he was thinking, as opposed to Christmas ornaments. “Yeah, why?”
“Take down this number, and make an appointment with the manager. They’re looking to source more products.”
Dylan got out his pen, and a scrap of paper from his jacket pocket. He wrote down the number. “Thanks. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem. Are you guys at the Blue Velvet?”
“Yup. When are you coming back?”
Reed chortled, and Dylan sat forward. He hadn’t heard Reed chortle in a while. The guy wasn’t exactly uptight, but he was more serious. Not prone to easy banter and jokes, unlike Rourke.
“That depends,” Reed replied.
“On what?”
“On how long we’re planning to stay here.”
“In Manhattan?” And then it hit him. Who the heck was ‘we’?
“I’m on vacation.”
“I thought you were on a business trip.”
“It was a business trip. Ended up taking a bit of a vacation at the end.”
“You said ‘we’”, Dylan pointed out. This was too much to take in all at once. “Where are you, and who are you with?”
“We’re in St Barts.”
“Where?”
“St Barts,” he said, as if it was a place that everyone would know about and visit.
“Who’s—” He looked up to find that Rourke had returned and was mouthing ‘Who is it?’ to him.
Dylan moved his face away from the phone. “It’s Reed. He says they’re on vacation.”
This time it was Rourke who lifted his eyebrow. “On vacation?” Rourke asked. “And who’s they?”