Missionary Position (36 page)

Forever and always would come later.

Writing and publishing a novel doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Life keeps going on around me while I live inside my head, writing about my imaginary friends and their adventures. Not that I’m complaining. Being a romance writer is the best profession—I get to fall in love over and over with each new book.

Huge thanks to my husband and favorite travel companion, who rarely complains about a lack of homemade baked goods while we chase this dream together.

Special thanks to friends and family, who continue to support me despite cancelled dinners, slow replies to texts and emails, and general writer craziness. To the Lost Girls, who are the best friends a person could have, thank you for all the great adventures.

The past year of publishing has been an incredible journey. I’ve been blessed to meet many wonderful authors, bloggers, agents, publishers, and readers. The Indie world is a supportive community that feels like a big family. A big thank you to Heather Maven, who beta-read MP as it was written, giving me the feedback and the support needed to make this story the best it could be. Thank you to Kelly, Dianne, Marla, and Nadine for pre-reading; your honesty and enthusiasm were invaluable. Amanda, thank you for your help and input regarding all things Ghana. It was important for me to get those details right to honor the country and it’s people. Thank you to Melissa Ringstead and Jenny Sims for polishing drafts and correcting my sins against grammar. (Any remaining errors are my own.) Thank you to Sarah Hansen for a gorgeous cover and to Angela at Fictional Formats for making the inside of the book beautiful. Many thanks to ARC readers and bloggers, who shared their early enthusiasm and love for this book, including Vilma, Denise, Kandace, Lisa, Neda, Tiffany, Cindy, Diana, Hootie, Dympna, Becca, Stacy, Jessica, Denise, Daiana, Charlene, Mandy, and Missionary Sue. Special thank you to my agents, Flavia Viotti Siqueria and Meire Dias at Bookcase Literary Agency, for believing in my work and wanting to bring it to the rest of the world.

Biggest thanks of all to the readers who bought this book. I appreciate your support of Indie authors, including me. Thanks in advance for writing a review, telling a friend about MP, or reaching out to let me know you enjoyed
Missionary Position,
or any of my other books. Hearing from readers is the best part of publishing!

Happy Reading!

xo

Daisy

Before writing full time, Daisy Prescott worked in the world of art, auctions, antiques, and home decor. She earned a degree in Art History from Mills College and endured a brief stint as a film theory graduate student at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Baker, art educator, antiques dealer, blue ribbon pie-maker, fangirl, content manager, freelance writer, gardener, wife, and pet mom are a few of the other titles she’s acquired over the years.

Born and raised in San Diego, Daisy currently lives in a real life Stars Hollow in the Boston suburbs with her husband, their dog Hubbell, and an imaginary house goat.

She has published three novels,
Geoducks Are for Lovers
,
Ready to Fall
, and
Missionary Position,
along with a Pirotica novelette under the pen name Suzette Marquis.

To learn more about Daisy and her writing visit:
www.daisyprescott.com

Or find her on social media:

Twitter: @daisy_prescott

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/DaisyPrescottAuthor

Pinterest:
http://pinterest.com/daisyprescott/

Instagram:
http://instagram.com/daisyprescott

Google+:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DaisyPrescott/posts

The symbols that appear in this book are Adinkra from the Asante tribe. These graphics can be found throughout many areas of Ghana and West Africa on buildings, fabric, carvings, jewelry, and metal castings.

“Love never loses its way home.”

Represents the power of love.

“Change or transform your character.”

Contains the Morning Star symbol (new start) inside the wheel representing movement.

Special thank you to
http://www.adinkra.org
for the graphics and definitions of these symbols.

Two of my favorite recent reads…

Love Hacked

by Penny Reid

There are three things you need to know about Sandra Fielding: 1) She makes all her first dates cry, 2) She hasn’t been kissed in over two years, and 3) She knows how to knit.

Sandra has difficulty removing her psychotherapist hat. Of her last 30 dates, 29 have ended the same way: the man sobbing uncontrollably. After one such disaster, Sandra—near desperation and maybe a little tipsy—gives in to a seemingly harmless encounter with her hot waiter, Alex. Argumentative, secretive, and hostile Alex may be the opposite of everything Sandra knows is right for her. But now, the girl who has spent all her life helping others change for the better, must find a way to cope with falling for someone who refuses to change at all.

This is a full-length, 110k word novel and is the third book in the Knitting in the City series. All books in the series can be read as a standalone.

CHAPTER 1

HE WAS BALD in a way that made me think of both melons and sex. Tan suit, green tie, white shirt—Chuck was a honeydew.

I met Chuck standing in the concession line at a Cubs game. I saw him and just knew that this was the guy. He was
the one
mentioned in my Sunday horoscope. As all very important and highly intelligent females do, I read my horoscope every morning—right after finishing the obituaries, and just before I peruse the comics.

That morning my horoscope read,
Be watchful; today you will meet the catalyst of your future life.

When I basically accosted him in line and forced him to talk to me, he was wearing a baseball hat. I’d liked his face and his friendly smile. Though I sensed he was bewildered and a bit overwhelmed by my attention, he readily agreed to the date.

But now, without his hat, and illuminated mostly by a single candle on the table, his jaw appeared to mirror the top of his head, which had become a rounded, shiny, nondescript curve of yellow, melon-colored flesh.

“The Bella Costa is an excellent vintage. Light on the nose, but a spicy palate with notes of blackberry and cracked pepper.” He smiled at me. He was looking for approval.

My left eyebrow arched all on its own. “Cracked pepper? In wine?”

“Yes.” He chuckled. “Forgive me. I’m a bit of a connoisseur, really a student of the grape. Last summer I spent a week at the Louis Martini sommelier workshop in Napa.”

“Is that so, Chuck?”

He chuckled again, nodding his big round head.

Chuck, the chuckling honeydew.

“You’re very funny, Sandra.”

“Am I? I wasn’t aware that I’d said anything humorous.” I laughed with him, scrunched my nose, but didn’t know why we were laughing. This often happened to me, people finding me funny for no reason I could discern. Therefore, I’d learned long ago to just smile and nod, yet continue to speak with sincerity. That usually made them laugh even more.

Most people strike me as disappointingly predictable in their normalcy.

However, I wasn’t about to let Chuck’s potential predictability derail my optimism. I’d bought a new dress for the date—crime scene red, strapless, indecently tight, lifting my modest bust up and out to
well, hello there, how are ya?—
and dolled myself up in expectation. Perhaps the zebra print stilettos I’d borrowed from my friend Janie were a bit much, but I had high hopes for Chuck.

The horoscope had said he would be a catalyst for my future life, and I was beyond ready for my future life to begin.

I tried not to daydream about it, but I couldn’t help myself. Even as I was getting ready for the date, my mind provided Instagram-style status updates of our future together: Cubs season tickets, screaming profanities at Cardinal fans, sharing a hot dog at Portillo’s, watching horror movies every Friday night while naked on the couch, reading the paper together on Sunday mornings, and a cornucopia of impressive bedroom acrobatics.