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Before I even met Donovan Decker, I knew his shoe size.<\/p>\n
You see, I\u2019d gone away for a few days, and in my haste to get out of the airport, I\u2019d grabbed the wrong suitcase.<\/p>\n
After checking out the expensive footwear and tailored clothes, I dialed the number on the luggage tag hoping maybe Mister Big Spender might have my bag.<\/p>\n
A deep, velvety voice answered, and as luck would have it, he had my suitcase, too.<\/p>\n
Donovan and I met at a coffee shop to do the exchange.<\/p>\n
Turned out, it wasn\u2019t just his voice that was sexy.\u00a0 The man holding my luggage was absolutely gorgeous, and we had an immediate spark.<\/p>\n
He got me to admit that I\u2019d snooped in his bag and then convinced me to make it up to him by letting him buy me coffee.<\/p>\n
Coffee led to dinner, dinner led to dessert, and dessert led to spending an entire weekend together. Donovan wasn\u2019t just handsome with a panty-dropping voice.\u00a0 He was also funny, smart, and surprisingly down to earth for a man who wore seven-hundred-dollar shoes.<\/p>\n
Did I mention he also\u00a0did my laundry while I slept<\/em>?<\/p>\n Definitely\u00a0<\/em>too good to be true.<\/p>\n So what did I do to repay him for his kindness?<\/p>\n I waited until he was in the shower, then ghosted him.<\/p>\n My life was too complicated for such a great guy.<\/p>\n In the months that passed, I thought about Donovan often. But New York City had eight-million people, so what were the chances I\u2019d run into him?<\/p>\n Then again, what were the chances I\u2019d run into him a year later\u2026when I\u2019d just started dating\u00a0his boss<\/em>?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add to Goodreads<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n CHAPTER 1<\/strong><\/p>\n Autumn<\/strong><\/p>\n I tossed a pile of mail on the couch and plopped down beside it. It was barely six o\u2019clock, and I wouldn\u2019t have minded climbing into bed and calling it a day. I needed a vacation from my four-day mini vacation. Thank goodness I\u2019d scheduled myself a weekend to recover. My girls\u2019 trip\/early bachelorette party in Vegas for my friend Anna\u2014the one where we were all going to relax by the pool and get spa treatments\u2014had turned into all-night clubbing and almost missing my flight home earlier today because I\u2019d overslept. It had definitely been a while since I drank more than two glasses of wine in the span of a week, and I was feeling my ripe old age of twenty-eight before the sun had even set this Friday night. Thank God I didn\u2019t have to work tomorrow.<\/p>\n I briefly considered going the hair-of-the-dog route and sucking back a vodka cran while zoning out on Netflix, but then my phone rang, crashing me back to reality.<\/p>\n Ugh\u2026<\/p>\n Dad<\/em>\u00a0flashed on the screen. I should\u2019ve just gotten it over with and spoken to him, but I didn\u2019t have the energy. Nonetheless, allowing myself to avoid the stress speaking to my father would inevitably cause reminded me of the other thing I needed to do that I\u2019d been avoiding all afternoon.\u00a0Laundry<\/em>. One of my least-favorite tasks\u2014mostly because it required me to sit downstairs in my building\u2019s dingy basement laundry room. Up until a few months ago, I would start my laundry and come back forty-five minutes later to make the switch to the dryer. But that practice had come to a halt after one of my loads went missing\u2014an entire load of wet bras and underwear. Who the hell stole wet clothes? At least nab dry ones. Nevertheless, it was an expensive lesson, and now I didn\u2019t leave the basement until my clothes were washed and dried.Sighing, I begrudgingly went to the bedroom, where my suitcase still sat on the bed, and unzipped it. I\u2019d packed a linen skirt on top that I hadn\u2019t wound up wearing, and I figured I\u2019d hang it in the bathroom and hope the wrinkles worked themselves out over the course of a couple of steamy showers. I hated ironing almost as much as I hated doing laundry downstairs.<\/p>\n But when I flipped open the top of the suitcase, my linen skirt wasn\u2019t on top. At first I thought my bag must\u2019ve been selected for search, and things hadn\u2019t been put back in order\u2026 Though the wingtip shoe I lifted was most definitely not mine.<\/p>\n Shit.<\/em><\/p>\n I rummaged through the suitcase in a panic.<\/p>\n Slacks, running clothes, a men\u2019s dress shirt\u2026 A sickening feeling washed over me, and I scrambled to look at the luggage tag. I\u2019d never filled out the identification card inside, but the leather had my initials embossed on the outside.<\/p>\n And this one\u2026had no initials.<\/p>\n Crap. Crap. Crap.<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019d grabbed the wrong bag off the luggage carousel. I started to sweat. All of my makeup was in that bag! Not to mention a week\u2019s worth of my best outfits and shoes. I needed to get it back. Rushing to the kitchen, I grabbed my cell from the charger on the counter and Googled the number for the airline. After wading through a half-dozen prompts, I reached a recording.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you for calling American Airlines. Due to unprecedented call volume, your estimated wait time is approximately forty-one minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n Forty-one minutes!<\/em>\u00a0I blew out a rush of air.\u00a0Great. Just great.<\/em><\/p>\n In the meantime, while I waited on hold on speakerphone, listening to staticky music, it hit me that whoever\u2019s luggage I had might very well have mine. I hadn\u2019t even checked the luggage tag to see if, unlike mine, the identification information was filled in.<\/p>\n I zipped back down the hall to my bedroom.<\/p>\n Bingo!<\/p>\n Donovan Decker<\/em>\u2014kind of a cool name. And he lived here in the city! Thankfully, Donovan even had his phone number listed.\u00a0It couldn\u2019t be that easy, could it?<\/em> I doubted it, but considering I still had forty minutes before I could speak to someone at the airline, I wasn\u2019t losing much for trying. So I swiped to end my call. I started to punch in the numbers on the tag, and then decided to hit *67 first to make my number private. With my luck, the guy wouldn\u2019t have my luggage, but he\u2019d be a total creeper.<\/p>\n I was caught off guard when a man\u2019s deep voice answered on the first ring. I hadn\u2019t yet figured out what I was going to say.<\/p>\n \u201cUhhh. Hi. My name is Autumn, and I think I might have your luggage.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat was quick. I just hung up with you guys two minutes ago.\u201d<\/p>\n He must\u2019ve thought I was calling from the airline. \u201cOh, no. I don\u2019t work for American. I traveled home this morning and must\u2019ve grabbed the wrong bag at JFK.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are your initials?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy initials?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, you know, the first letter of your first name and the first letter of your last name.\u201d<\/p>\n I rolled my eyes. \u201cI know what initials are. I just don\u2019t understand why you would ask\u2014Oh!<\/em> Does that mean you have my luggage? I have my initials embossed on the luggage tag.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat depends on what your initials are, Autumn. The first letter matches.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy initials are AW.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, then it seems you are indeed the thief who clipped my luggage.\u201d<\/p>\n Sure, I hadn\u2019t checked my luggage tag, but it offended me that he was calling me a thief. \u201cWouldn\u2019t we both be thieves? Since you\u2019re in possession of\u00a0my\u00a0<\/em>luggage?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI only took yours because it was the last one left rotating around the carousel. You see, unlike you,\u00a0I\u00a0<\/em>checked the luggage tag the first time it passed, and when I saw it wasn\u2019t mine, I left it for the rightful owner to claim. But the line at baggage customer service was twenty deep, and I had a meeting I was already late for. So I took the one I have hostage until the airline could sort it out.\u201d<\/p>\n My shoulders slumped. \u201cOh. Sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fine. Are you here in the City?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am. Could we possibly meet to swap bags?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSure. When and where? I\u2019m out now, but I\u2019ll be back in an hour or two.\u201d<\/p>\n The tag had an address on the Upper East Side, but I lived on the West Side, farther downtown. \u201cCould we meet at the Starbucks on 80th\u00a0<\/sup>and Lex?\u201d That was closer to him, but at least I\u2019d only have to drag the suitcase onto one subway.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t think of any\u00a0excuse<\/em> not to. What time?\u201d<\/p>\n That was sort of a weird way to phrase a yes, and the way he emphasized the word\u00a0excuse<\/em> seemed odd. But hey, I was getting my bag back. So what if he turned out to be a little strange? At least I\u2019d hidden my phone number, and we were meeting in a public place.<\/p>\n \u201cHow about eight?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll see you then.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read the rest of chapter 1 here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Vi Keeland is a #1 New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestselling author. With millions of books sold, her titles have appeared in over a hundred Bestseller lists and are currently translated in twenty-five languages. She resides in New York with her husband and their three children where she is living out her own happily ever after with the boy she met at age six!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Facebook Profile\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Facebook Page<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Facebook Group<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Website\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Twitter\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Instagram\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Goodreads<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Excited about\u00a0Vi\u00a0Keeland\u2019s upcoming release,\u00a0The Spark? Check out this SNEAK PEEK of CHAPTER 1! The Spark releases 12 July Apple Books\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback Sign up for Vi\u2019s mailing list now and be the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[290],"tags":[432,349],"class_list":["post-60275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-news","tag-excerpt-reveal","tag-vi-keeland"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/The-Spark.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-fGb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/59214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/The-Spark-Teaser-1.jpg?resize=438%2C438&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n
\nExcerpt<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nI\u2019m definitely getting too old for this.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nAbout the Author<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Vivienne-Vi-Keeland-HeadshotPrint-3.jpg?resize=200%2C300\")
<\/p>\nCheck out our\u00a0Vi Keeland Author Spotlight<\/a>\u00a0for more fantastic reads!<\/strong><\/h4>\n