I’m so excited!  Rannigan’s Redemption has been nominated for the 2016 Summer Indie Books Award for Favorite Erotica. Like all my books, Rannigan is an emotional, deeply character-driven romance punctuated by sexy love scenes.  There are parts that will make you laugh and some that might make you cry.  A little like life, I suppose.

Today, I’m in the mood for a scene that makes me smile.  Here’s a little snippet.

At precisely 6:00, Maggie knocked on Michael’s door before using her own key to unlock it and let herself and Ben and Nate into the apartment.  “Hello, Michael?  We’re here.”

“In here, Mags,” Michael called from the living room.  She directed Ben and Nate to put the pizza and beer in the kitchen as she continued on to where Michael sat propped up on the couch watching preseason baseball.

“It’s a party in the house!” Maggie teased.  “How are you doing?”

“I’m super excited to have a party in the house,” he grumped.  “I was up very late.  Some oversexed couple was making out on my veranda last night.”

“Oooh, pray tell,” Ben gushed.  “Who was out there on your veranda last night?”

Michael flashed a wicked smile.  “Why, it was our very own Mary Margaret Flynn.”

Ben gasped.  “Flynn?  You’d better spill, girlfriend.”

Maggie blushed furiously.  “It was a kiss.  A very simple kiss.  And thanks so much for opening up this can of worms.”

“This whole ‘payback’ thing isn’t quite turning out the way you thought it would, is it Mags?  You what they say…when you set out intent on revenge, first dig two graves.”  Michael beamed at her proudly.

“So who were you kissing?  Inquiring minds want to know.”  Ben sat on the coffee table and Nate wandered in from the kitchen.  All eyes were on Maggie.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!  So I met a guy.  His name is Bobby, and he happens to be a neighbor of Michael’s.”  She looked accusingly at Michael.  “We had dinner together last night, here, and that’s a long story, but we kissed a little.  End of story.”

Michael rolled his eyes.  “‘Bobby’ is known to the rest of the world as Beau Beaulieu.”

Nate’s eyes went wide.  “Beau Beaulieu of the Texas Rangers?  I saw him play a couple of times at Tulane.  He’s up for the Hall of Fame.”

“Is he?  I didn’t know that,” Maggie murmured.

“Please tell me that he’ll at least go down on you,” Ben said.  “After that last bitch…”  The trio stared at him in shock.

“What!  That Neanderthal she almost married would never…”

“Shut up!  Just shut up right now!”  Maggie was livid.  “I swear I will never tell you anything ever again!”

“Yeah, Mags, is this going the way you imagined?” Michael asked, stifling a smile.

“Fuck off!” she said, retreating to the kitchen.  “Ben, come give me a hand.”

Michael knew she’d find a way to force him to face Nate.  He knew that Nate, and everyone else at Murphy, Rannigan, had been in a bind when he’d unceremoniously pulled the rug out from under them a few years back.

“So, Nate, how’s it going?”

Nate nodded.  “Not bad.  I know Maggie engineered this awkward moment.”  He looked at Michael.  “I’m not mad.  I was, of course.  But I kind of landed on my feet in a firm that does a lot of civil rights cases.  It’s not as much money but I’m doing work I believe in, and that wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t broken up the firm.”

Michael shifted his jaw uncomfortably.  “I’m glad to hear it, but even so…I owe you an apology.  I’m sorry.”

“Thanks, man.  I appreciate it.”  Nate smiled at him.

“Unh-uh, don’t even think about hitting on my big chocolate bear,” Ben simpered as he entered the living room with plates and pizza boxes.

An hour later, they were sitting around Michael’s dining room table which was scattered with plates of half-eaten pizza, beer bottles, playing cards, and poker chips.  The television played quietly in the background.

“Look, there’s Beau now,” Nate said.  Everyone turned and saw a split screen of Bobby in Arizona and some other commentators in New York.  Michael grabbed the remote and turned up the sound.

Maggie smiled in spite of herself.  Bobby looked amazing in a charcoal suit with a deep purple shirt and paisley tie.

“That man is yummy,” commented Ben.  “I’d do him.”

“Excuse me?” Nate asked.

“Oh, you know what I mean,” Ben grinned.

“I want to send him a picture of all of us,” Maggie said.  They gathered by Michael as Maggie held out her phone, managing to get all of them plus the television in the shot.  She quickly sent the photo to Bobby.  On television, they saw him look down at his tablet and smile.

“Look!  He just saw it,” Ben said.

“Oh, there’s probably some kind of ten-second delay or something,” Maggie said.

They watched as he seemed to type something into the tablet.  Shortly after, Maggie’s phone blipped.  She checked the screen.  “It’s from him.”

She read the message.  “He says hello to everyone.  And he says tell him something to say on the air.”

“Oooh, let’s tell him something!” Ben said.

“No, let’s not.  I don’t want to get him into trouble,” Maggie said.

“Trouble?  We won’t tell him to say something dirty.  Just something…” Ben thought.

“Pineapple,” Nate said.  “Tell him to say ‘pineapple’.”

Maggie rolled her eyes.  “Nate says to say ‘pineapple’,” she texted back to Bobby.  “You know that’s the dumbest thing I ever heard.”

The group abandoned the table to gather near the television.  They watched as Bobby looked down at his tablet again, a grin spreading across his face.

“You know, Chet,” he said to one of the commentators in New York, “I’d like to thank the good people of Arizona for making me feel so welcome here.  What you might not know is that one traditional symbol of welcome is the pineapple.”

Michael’s living room erupted into gales of laughter.  “I give up.  You’re all absolutely impossible,” Maggie said, shaking her head.

Rannigan’s Redemption is available at this link: books2read.com/RannigansRedemption

AND, if you would, please consider voting for Rannigan’s Redemption for Favorite Erotica.  Here’s the LINK.  Thanks so much!