{Excerpt Tour & Review} Chaser (Dive Bar #3) by Kylie Scott (@KylieScottBooks @SMPRomance)

CHASER
A Dive Bar Novel
By Kylie Scott
Release Day: April 17th, 2018

Given his well-earned bad boy reputation, Eric is having a tough time scoring.. When single Jean moves to town, she seems heaven sent by the sex gods. Only problem is, she not only wants nothing to do with him, but it turns out that she’s pregnant.

Starting over in a small town, Jean is determined to turn her wild lifestyle around and be the kind of mother she always wished she’d had. Since local bar owner and all round hottie, Eric Collins, is now determined to steer clear of her pregnant self, it should be easy. When she goes into labour during a snow storm and her car slides on some ice, it’s Eric who comes to the rescue.
​
There seems to be a bond between them now, but is it enough? And can Eric give up his manwhore ways to be the man Jean needs?

​Eric Collins isn’t known as the most responsible person at Dive Bar.  Between random hookups and constantly showing up late, he’s quickly becoming the resident screw up.  
 
Until the day when a girl that he’s never seen before walks into the bar.  She’s drop dead gorgeous, whip smart and speaks her mind with no holds barred – and she’s also very pregnant. 

“Come on, man,” said Joe, being serious. “It’s Thursday night, you’re behind the bar, and the place has been pumping all night. And you look like a kid whose puppy died. What gives?” 

I sighed again, my shoulders slumping. “I don’t know … just something Nell said today. Well, she’s been on me for a while.” 
​
Joe and Alex exchanged looks. 

“It’s nothing really. Stupid. Don’t worry about it.” 

“Okay,” said Alex before taking a sip of beer.
​
“But, you know … just out of interest,” I said. “Do you think I’m a manwhore with no concept of responsibility, incapable of having a meaningful relationship, who just uses women because I wouldn’t know real commitment if it bit me on the ass?”

​Jean Antal came to Coeur d’Alene to start over.  Being single and pregnant didn’t exactly go over well with her conservative parents back in Florida so with a little encouragement from her friend Nell, she now calls the small town home.
 
The very last thing she needs is to get involved with a player like Eric.  But there’s just something in the way that he looks at her that makes her question everything that people say about him.  He was the one to stand beside her during the birth of her daughter and she has to admit that seeing them together does some serious things to her heart.  
 
But what starts out as something purely physical between them soon becomes an obsession that they cannot live without.  And it’s something that they both want to hang on to – forever.

“You don’t constantly think about us having sex, do you?” I asked, already knowing the answer. Because Jean might have flirted with me at first, but those days were long gone. “I rest my case.”

Her mouth opened, then closed, her brows drawing closer together. “I’m too tired to think about sex.” 

“Exactly.” 

“Besides, look what sex did to me.” She stroked Ada’s cheek with a finger. “It gave me this beautiful, wonderful, incredibly high-maintenance baby girl. Excuse me if I take a break from all things naked and horizontal for a while. I only just got to stop sharing my body with a little being. I’m not sure I want to open it up to anyone else anytime soon.” 

“Fair enough,” I said. “Now stop saying ‘sex.’” 
​
“You stop saying ‘sex.’” 
​
“I swear, it’s all you ever think about, you ladies.”

​Chaser is the perfect ending to the Dive Bar series!  It’s both sweet and satisfying with just a touch of Kylie’s special heat that will have fans swooning from the very start.  
 
But it’s the bonds between the characters that prove to be the most memorable. Through thick and thin, they have endured and found a way to love each other in spite of it all.  And that’s a very rare thing indeed…

Exclusive Excerpt ~

​I’d been tricked. Betrayed.

After Andre and Jean ate their lunch, we headed outside to deal with her stuff. The cold wind suited my mood to perfection.

Talk about disappointed.

“Don’t lift that, it looks heavy,” I snapped.

Jean blinked. “It’s a pillow.”

“The world’s largest pillow ever. You can’t be too careful.” My gaze roamed over her swollen middle. “You’re . . .”

“Pregnant?” she asked with a voice dripping poison and sugar.

“Are you having trouble with the concept?”
​
“Absolutely not. I was just going to say huge, that’s all.”

She blew out an exasperated breath. “Thanks, Eric. That makes me feel so much better.”

“I just . . .”

“Don’t bother.” The woman turned back to her sensible, medium-sized SUV and got busy riffling through the contents. I was surprised she’d been able to squeeze into the driver’s seat.

Boxes and stuff took up almost every inch inside the vehicle. Each and every box seemed to have been neatly labeled with the contents.

The woman took her organization seriously. She looked over her shoulder. “You know, I can’t help noticing that Eric-the-smooth-moving-flirt has been suddenly replaced by Eric-the-awkward-jerk.”

“Well, you said you were single.” I folded my arms defensively across my chest.

“I am.”

And then there was an awkward silence.

“Yeah, but . . . I mean, in your condition . . .” I fumbled to a halt.

She turned, face all scrunched up. Like I was the one with the problem.

“Just hop out of the way so I can grab some boxes,” I said, voice gruff.

Still nothing from her. “It’s a second-story walk-up and you have a lot of stuff to get up there. You should be taking it easy.” Hands on hips, I tapped my black leather boot against the sidewalk, waiting her out. “Jean, I’m not trying to insult you. It’s the truth.”

She swore quietly, going back to fussing with the contents in the vehicle. I don’t think any woman has ever given me the silent treatment quite this quickly. Usually I’m good for at least a couple of hours after seeing them naked.

Man, I still couldn’t believe this was happening. God hated me or something. Pregnant women and me were enema. Anathema. Whatever. Now that I’d seen her out in the autumn light, however, she looked younger than I’d first guessed. Despite her tired eyes, her skin was smooth, soft looking. She was likely closer to her early twenties than mid.

“How old are you?” I asked.

“Why do you care?”

I shrugged one shoulder. “Just curious.”

“How old are you?”

“Nearly thirty.”

She sniffed. “I’m twenty-two.”

Young, like I’d thought. She was probably too immature for me, anyway.

 “Come on, Jean. Let me get some of the boxes.”

Boyd ambled out of the Dive Bar, turning his head this way and that, looking up and down the street. I raised my hand and he started over in our direction. The big cook would make short work out of moving all this stuff. Behind us, Andre and Nell came out of the tenants’ entrance to the Bird Building. The place was a big brick building about a hundred years old. Just past the door was an entryway with stairs leading up to the second floor, followed by two empty shops, their windows covered in flyers about local events. Concerts and parades and shit. They’d been vacant for a while, unfortunately. Andre’s Guitar Den came next, then Pat’s tattoo parlor Inkaho, and the Dive Bar on the corner.
​
“Everything’s good to go. Alex and I gave it a cleaning last week just to be sure,” said Nell, smacking a kiss on Jean’s cheek.

“You’ll meet Alex later. She’s probably busy working or something now. She’s sort of a shut-in.”

“You two didn’t have to do that,” said Jean. “Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

Andre leaned against the SUV. “Your furniture got delivered yesterday too, so it’s all good to go.”

“Excellent,” said Jean. “I can’t wait to sleep in a decent bed again. Road trips when you’re seven months’ pregnant kind of suck.”

“I bet.”

“Who’s minding the kitchen?” I asked.

“Lydia will text Boyd if they need something,” said Nell.

“We’re only going to be a few feet away from the place.”

I frowned.

“I own the kitchen, Eric. Not you,” she said. “You’re in charge of the bar, that’s all.”

One of Jean’s eyebrows inched up slightly. So I might have implied that I was the sole owner. Shit happened.

I crossed my arms. “Fine. No need to bite my head off.”

“My best online friend just moved to town. We’ve been texting and skyping for months. She’s been an absolute rock for me through all the nerves of being pregnant again,” said Nell. “Stop messing with my happy.” 
​
And then there was an awkward silence. Great. If only there was some way to get out of helping without looking like a raging asshole. The possibility of anything happening between me and Jean had been buried six feet deep, never to be spoken of again.

About The Author ~ 

Kylie is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author. She was voted Australian Romance Writer of the year, 2013 & 2014, by the Australian Romance Writer’s Association and her books have been translated into eleven different languages. She is a long time fan of romance, rock music, and B-grade horror films. Based in Queensland, Australia with her two children and husband, she reads, writes and never dithers around on the internet.

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