Reading romance novels isn’t always easy. There are so many great books coming out all the time and it’s hard to keep track, which is a lot like Frequent flyer.
This second novel by Noué Kirwan is all about timing, organization, and making the right choices for yourself. Although Frequent Fliers is a love story, the focus is very much on our two characters: Lanie and Ridley.
However, if you’re like me, you probably saw the cover of this book and immediately wanted to pick it up. However, if you’re not so easily convinced, we have an excerpt for you that should give you the push you need to pick this book up.
I would like to thank both Noué Kirwan and Harlequin for sending me this excerpt to share, and hope it makes you as eager to pick up this book as it did me.
This excerpt is a little further into the book and we follow Lanie as she jets back and forth to help plan her cousin’s wedding to her best friend. If that sounds dramatic and saucy, that’s because it is. I won’t give too much away though, so without further ado, here’s a look at Frequent flyer.
As she made her way to the departure gate, Lanie felt the stress of overseeing every little detail of Gemma’s wedding taking its toll. She’d barely thought about anything else for the past few weeks—the perfectionist in her, a side she struggled to keep in check, had reared its uncompromising head. If she wasn’t careful, she rarely took the time to eat herself. In fact, she’d forgotten to eat today, she realized as her stomach growled loudly. Never had it been clearer to her than at that moment that she needed to get home. With a supermarket sandwich in hand, she arrived at her departure gate, relieved as always to be the first there. She was alone.
Well, apparently not completely alone. There was someone else sitting right at the gate. Almost directly in front of the customer service desk.
Lanie stopped mid-step, speechless.
She didn’t know how long she stood in the hall as people walked past her in complete shock. Now that she was closer, the person was clearly visible. She was sitting there all alone with her rolling suitcase, casually reading a newspaper and sipping from a paper cup. It was Ridley.
Lanie walked slowly towards him and looked around in surprise. He was supposed to be in New York. “Ridley?”
He put the newspaper on his lap and looked up. He pushed his tortoiseshell glasses up the bridge of his thick nose and his gaze wandered to her face as if she was the one who shouldn’t be there. “Hey,” he answered. “Are you OK?” On the seat next to him was a coffee can with a cup in it, which he took away and handed to her as she nodded.
She picked it up, confused, and opened the lid to examine the contents. The heavenly scent of coffee beans, hazelnut, caramel and toffee sauce filled her nose. She took a sip. “Ooooh, and it’s still kind of warm! Magic! Thank you.” She exhaled in relief and almost collapsed into the seat next to him. “What are you doing here?”
“I told you I was coming this morning.”
“Yes, but that was this morning.” She looked at her phone. “It’s twelve o’clock in the evening.”
“Yes, I realized that a lot of work can be done in the quiet of these airline club lounges.”
“You got into the TransContinental lounge?” The fact that she was a little impressed by this said a lot about the airline culture she had already slipped into.
“Since I flew business class today, I was apparently entitled to it.” He shrugged.
“Ridley, what are you doing here?”
“It seemed like too much of a coincidence and a missed opportunity to arrive on the exact same day you were leaving and not see you.”
Okay, that’s sweet. She’d dated men who’d done less. “But three hours, Ridley?”
“What are three hours among friends?” His face was still inappropriately serious.
She cleared her throat as he continued.
“You said it would be a shame if we missed each other. And you also said that you don’t like being all alone at the airport with nothing to do, right?”
He hadn’t lied yet. She nodded. In all their writing back and forth, she might have said many of those things.
“Seriously, Ridley, aren’t you tired? Don’t you have to go home to your daughter?”
He frowned and pulled back slightly. Lanie hadn’t noticed until then that they were slowly leaning towards each other, their shoulders almost touching. She immediately regretted having said anything and wished she could lure him and his delicious bergamot and vetiver scent closer to her again.
He shook his head. “She has athletics all afternoon.”
Lanie wasn’t sure she understood what that meant.
His gaze wandered over her face. “Athletics?”
Lanie formed a small O with her mouth.
“Well, she won’t be home until around six,” he continued, watching her face as if it could tell him things her mouth couldn’t. And reminded her of the last time he had looked at her like that. Just before he had kissed her.
“A-and your work?”
“Lanie.” An eyebrow rose behind his glasses. “Do you want me to go? Because just saying that would probably be faster than going through every supposed item on my schedule for the day.”
Lanie was speechless for a moment. Slightly magnified by the strength of his lenses, she could see all the swirls and curlicues of his dark brown irises in the light from the huge window right next to them. The rich cognac brown of his eyes drew her in like a tractor beam from a science fiction movie.
“Lanie?”
“N-no,” Lanie replied when she could finally speak again. “No. I’m sorry. I just thought you had better things to do than sit around the airport and run into me.”
“Run across you?” His eyes narrowed as he studied her face again, as if trying to decipher something. “I didn’t run across you. I was waiting for you.”
At these words, Lanie’s heart raced like one of those out-of-control hansom taxis that circled Central Park, galloping wildly like a skittish horse.
He didn’t mean it like that, he didn’t mean it like that. He didn’t mean it like that, Melanie!
“You gave me your flight information, remember?” His voice was expressionless as always. But then he sat up straight. “Wait, I just heard myself say that. Was that scary? It sounded scary. Oh my God.” Ridley put a hand to his face as if he was just realizing it.
She let out an embarrassed laugh, sniffed and nodded. “I mean…”
“I just thought it would be nice. You know? I also know how much I hate waiting at the airport. I miss the days when you could sit with people at the gate and say goodbye to them. Are you too young to remember those days? Anyway, I thought since I was coming and you were going -”
“Ridley,” Lanie giggled, putting a hand on his arm. “It’s okay. I appreciate it. That was really cool of you.”
OUT OF Frequent flyer by Noue Kirwan. Copyright 2024 Noué Kirwan. Published by Canary Street Press
As you can see, this is further evidence for my view that this is a great vacation/airport read. Plus, Ridley’s performance in bringing Lanie a hot cup of coffee at the airport is a swoon-worthy performance. This feels like the ultimate image of their dynamic and how much their invisible bond held together.
If you want to know more, Frequent flyer by Noué Kirwan arrives on August 13, 2024.
Continue. Everand tells you great reading material for your next vacation. Everand tells you great reading material for your next vacation. dark
