Re-Release Available December 2013
ISBN B00HGYIPGY
Review
Teaser
Excerpt
Behind the Scenes
Order
Amazon Kindle: https://amzn.to/338Mcdu
Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/3eRKLWx
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tori-got-lucky-south-beach-sizzles-contemporary-romance-series-book-3-charity-pineiro/1119045730?ean=2940149484355
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id846126960
Kobo
Also available as part of the South Beach Sizzles Collection:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3e89Ehg
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/south-beach-sizzles-collection/id906723468
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/south-beach-sizzles-collection-charity-pineiro/1120064824
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/south-beach-sizzles-collection
Reviews
“Couldn’t put it down — fun, sassy, sexy, and honest . . . ” Jennifer Green, USA Today Bestseller!
“Chocolate with a cayenne pepper kick!” Eloisa James, NYT Bestseller
“You’ll laugh and cry and cheer on these fun, gutsy and very real friends! Caridad’s South Beach is so real I could smell the Cuban coffee. I wanted more!” Bestselling Author Berta Platas
RT BookClub: “With a tropical setting, many mojitos, a dash of intrigue and plenty of romance, this book is perfect for a day at the beach. . . Pineiro does a good job of giving each character a complete story arc. . .”
FreshFiction.com: “…(A) marvelous view into the woven threads of female friendship. . . It’s very good.”
ONCEUPONAROMANCE.NET: “(Y)ou will find yourself identifying with and cheering on as she deals with the hurdles life sends her. You will also find yourself entertained by the friends and scenarios caused by that friendship. . . Caridad handles these interchanges very well – thoughtfully and yet quite real.”
Cataromance.com: “(A) delightful story full of emotion and romance, which has a lively setting and dynamic characters.”
Singletitles.com: “Caridad Pineiro has created an appealing story, complete with memorable characters and a fun Latin locale.”
Romance Reviews Today: “Who says that beautiful and sophisticated women only live in New York? . . . These are women who will not be swallowed up by marriage or family expectations, and any happily-ever-afters must include not only men, but satisfying work, and friends as well.”
Teaser
Finding Mr. Right wasn’t what she had in mind . . .
When Tori got lucky, she never imagined that her one night fling would turn into something more. But her birthday surprise turns out to be “the one” and before long, she and Gil are talking about making it something a little more permanent.
There’s just one problem. Okay, maybe more than one. Like Tori’s three best friends who fear that once Tori gets married, she’ll disappear as so many of their friends have over the years. And her mother and father who are making all kinds of noises about Tori and Gil’s plans for a quick and simple wedding. Not to mention Tori’s perfect sister with her new little baby. . .
With pressure building from all sides, Tori and Gil do the only possible thing: Elope. But can their new marriage survive the demands of friends, family, and their own insecurities?
Only time will tell whether Tori truly got lucky.
Excerpt
Chapter 1
The Friends
Tori got lucky.
She was sure that was what her friends had wanted to happen six months earlier on the night of her thirtieth birthday, only they hadn’t really expected that it would.
But it had.
Boring and predictable Victoria Rodriguez had thrown caution aside and indulged in a night of incredible, she wanted to say sex only it had been more than that, with Gil, who so totally lived up to her and her friends’ requirements for the title of Extreme Boy Toy or as he had playfully become known, Mr. Man Candy. His moves on the dance floor were nothing like Ricky Martin’s, but his moves in bed . . .
Not to mention eyes as blue as the waters in Biscayne Bay and a body as sculpted as Brad Pitt’s. But what really did her in was the most scrumptious Freddie Prinze little boy grin that just made her want to eat him up when he used it and exposed the cutest damn dimple on the side of his mouth.
So now, six months later, she was not only living in sin with him, albeit lusciously rewarding sin, but considering that she possibly wanted to spend the rest of her life with Gil.
And Gil, her delicious bit of Man Candy, appeared to feel the same way.
This usually meant a ring and an engagement and a shower and a rehearsal complete with dinner followed by a wedding with lots and lots of friends and family, only the Tori that had emerged after that big birthday night didn’t want to deal with all those conventions and the problems they usually wrought. Not to mention, she had concerns about her family’s reaction to the news since nothing she did ever seemed to please them. More than anything, she wanted to get her friends’ impressions on what to do.
But since her cousins Carmen and Connie Gonzalez had just gotten married along with one of their last high school friends, she worried her friends might not be ready for her upcoming revelation that she and Gil were thinking about making the big leap as well.
Lost in thought, her pace slowed as she walked from Gil’s oceanfront condo on Collins, where she now lived, toward her friends’ restaurant on Ocean Drive.
Since the condo lay just beyond the end of Lummus Park, the first block was relatively free of the tourists and party animals that crowded the central portion of the Art Deco district. But a block away, more people lingered before the Tides and after, their numbers increased by the Cardozo.
A strong ocean breeze blew across Lummus Park. The colorful pennants atop the Cardozo snapped with the breeze as did the trim on the awnings over the veranda. A bit further up, the over-sized umbrellas protecting the al fresco dining area of another restaurant fluttered ominously.
The breeze made it a little chilly for her and she slipped on her suit jacket and glanced across the street to the mansion where Gianni Versace had once lived and died infamously. Before the black gates with the fanciful golden Versace emblems, fans and curiosity seekers posed for photos.
She stayed her course along the opposite sidewalk where there was less activity. Normally she would have turned up 13th Street to meet her friends at the Washington Avenue gym where they worked out on Monday nights. But tonight Adriana and Juliana had a meeting, forcing them to pass on the workout, but not their usual Monday night dinner afterward.
A dinner they were having at her friends’ place because of their prior engagement. Not that she minded. A goddess of the kitchen, Juli could make day old bread tasty. Her skills, combined with Adriana’s business savvy, had earned the nearly three old restaurant its share of both local and national awards.
As she slowly strolled to their building, one of the Mediterranean revival structures along Ocean Drive, the breeze shifted direction and blew at her back as if to hurry her along, but she took her time, enjoying the view of South Beach’s sizzle. The myriad of people. Bronzed gods in muscle shirts and tourists in black socks and sandals. On the road beside them, car after car cruised along, from the latest luxury models to lovingly restored vehicles from the Fifties and Sixties. Their polished paints and gleaming chrome reflected the dazzling colors of the neon signs identifying the businesses along the street.
Close to the low wall separating the park from the beach, inline skaters rolled along beside the others that were using the winding path through Lummus Park to reach their destinations. Lovers with their arms wrapped tight around one another. A family at one of the small playgrounds tucked beneath the palms and sea grape trees.
She ambled past the Clevelander Bar, Edison Hotel and Lario’s to the heart of the Ocean Drive strip and her friends’ restaurant. As she crossed the street, she noticed they had dropped down the vinyl windshields to protect the patrons on the outdoor dining veranda.
When she neared the hostess’s podium, the young woman smiled in recognition and invited her to a table close to the windows along the veranda. “Juli and Adriana are almost done,” she advised.
She could see her friends at the back of the restaurant, seated at a table with a bunch of business suit types. Suits much like hers, she thought as she glanced down at her conservative Brooks Brothers ensemble. She’d had time to drop off her car, but not to change before coming over to the restaurant. A complicated case had gotten even more complicated at the last minute, so the later time of this Monday night had proved helpful.
She had just taken a seat when the group at the back of the room broke up. The suits headed out of the restaurant while Juli and Adriana came her way.
They were chattering happily and she assumed it implied good news for the additional loan amount her friends had requested to finish the renovations to the hotel above the restaurant.
Her friends were clearly dressed for business. Adriana wore an absolutely gorgeous dark green suit that perfectly accented her curvaceous but slender physique. Her precisely trimmed auburn hair framed the clean oval of her face, emphasizing her hazel-green eyes. As always, Adriana’s public face flawlessly represented the class and elegance of the restaurant and hotel.
Adriana being the brains of the business, while Juli’s amazing culinary creations were the heart of it. A heart which rarely ventured into public and when it did, like tonight, often seemed drab and tasteless. Totally unlike the food Juli prepared.
They embraced and were about to sit when Sylvia arrived.
Draped in an eye-catching golden gown that delineated her every asset, Sylvia made heads turn. Long blonde hair swung in a curtain to mid-back, its silky texture reflecting a hue of gold and paler blonde highlights. She appeared ready for a bigger adventure than tonight’s dinner probably because she needed to cover a story at one of South Beach’s hotspots for the monthly magazine for which she worked as the After Dark and Gossip reporter.
Tori couldn’t help but glance at her own 5’4″ size 6 body, trying not to feel intimidated by her less than ample, but still perky, breasts and curves which were . . .
She stopped herself right there. Gil seemed to have no problems with her body. On the contrary, he couldn’t keep his hands off her, truly fine since the feeling was decidedly mutual.
“Tori. Mother ship to Tori,” Adriana said and waved a hand in front of her face, ripping her from thoughts of her and Gil.
She shook her head, realizing she was going to that sexy but dangerous place again. “Sorry. Just thinking about stuff.”
“Obviously not work stuff. Not with that googly-eyed look you just had on your face,” Sylvia teased as she air kissed all three of them and then slinked into the chair beside her and next to Adriana.
She nodded, but said nothing else, still a little anxious about giving her friends the news that things between her and Gil were getting serious. As in “to-love-and-cherish-for-the-rest-of-our-lives” serious.
A waiter came by, sparing her from thinking about it further. He handed them menus and asked if they cared for drinks. Like always, they ordered a round of ice cold mojitos and after, deferred to Adriana’s and Juli’s choices about what to order.
When the mojitos arrived, she held up the glass. “To life, love and always being friends,” she said, much as she had said at every Monday night gathering for as long as she could remember.
As they toasted, a raucous crowd from the street distracted them.
In front of the restaurant, a large group of people clustered around one individual. As a space opened up when a shoving match began, she noticed a familiar face: a hot hip hop personality who had recently opened a store for his new fashion line on Washington. If she hadn’t recognized him, the billboard bling would have tipped her off. His name glittered in silver and diamonds on a large chain dragging down from his neck.
The group jamming the sidewalk grew bigger, creating a problem, but the singer’s entourage quickly dealt with it, hustling him across the street and into a stretch Hummer limo that waited for them.
“Another typical crazy night,” Adriana teased and shook her head.
“I’m surprised he hit this part of the Beach so early. I expect him at the party I’m covering later tonight,” Sylvia replied just as the waiter came by with the appetizers.
“Speaking of expecting, didn’t Josie look nice yesterday?” Adriana said.
Josefina Maria de las Nieves Reyes, now Mrs. Josie Johnson, had been the last of their high school friends to be wed. With her Gonzalez cousins Carmen and Connie now also married, only the four of them remained single out of all the girls that had once hung out together.
“Expecting?” she blurted out as Adriana’s comment finally registered. “As in with a bun in the oven?”
“She had to marry the guy,” Sylvia confirmed.
She almost dropped the small piece of chorizo she had speared from the appetizer plate. “Did it even matter? Josie’s been living with him for what?”
“Three years. You’d think she’d be beyond the guilt factor by now,” Juliana mused out loud, but softly, seemingly embarrassed by the discussion.
Adriana spooned up some garlicky shrimp and continued the conversation. “It must have been a massive dose of guilt for her to give in. Josie was always the most stubborn of us.”
“And one of the most independent,” Sylvia acknowledged as she finally helped herself to some of the appetizers.
Tori perused her friends as she took a sip from her mojito. She had never been one for bucking the status quo, her relationship with Gil having been the biggest risk of her entire life. Before the night she had become Sinfully Sexy Tori with Gil, she had been Toe the Line Tori. Always ready to do what everyone asked of her, but not anymore. Well, at least not as often.
Since she wanted to share her news, she decided to take another risk. “Maybe she wanted to. Maybe it was time.”