Hot Mama Friday: Maggie Lawless
Hi
everyone! Vicki’s asked me along as part of her Hot Mama Friday series to tell
you a little about Maggie Lawless, the heroine of my novel, A Different Kind of Honesty. I’m really
glad to be here!
What can I tell you about Maggie? Well, she’s funny, she’s brave, she’s honest,
and she’s very much the kind of girl I’d love to have as a friend. She knows how to look after herself, she’s
very independent. In fact, if she has a
fault, it might be that independence of hers – she probably relies on herself a
little too much, and forgets that she has friends who’d help her out, do
anything for her, if she’d only just ask.
Sometimes, she needs a gentle little reminder that she doesn’t have to do
it all by herself.
Then again, I can’t
blame her for being that way. Losing her
mother while she was still in her teens, and then losing her father just a few
years later – it’s no wonder Maggie became so self-reliant and single-minded. She threw herself into her work. Having followed her Dad into the Metropolitan
Police in London, she pretty much gave up everything for her career. At least, that’s how it seemed to everyone
else. Having made it all the way to
Detective Sergeant, everyone assumed she’d carry right on along that old career
path, maybe right up to Chief Inspector and beyond. But then, out of the
blue....
“I don’t want it. I
was thinking you might.”
Incredulous, Danny stared at her. “You don’t want it? Why
the heck not? I thought that’s what you were after, all that fast-track career
advancement stuff.”
Maggie spread her hands out in a gesture of helplessness. “I
don’t want it, Danny. A year ago, hell, yes, I’d have been in like Flynn for
that cherry, but now…” Her words tailed off as she searched for the
explanation. “I don’t know why, but it’s just not what I want any more.”
Believe
me, that was totally out of character for Maggie Lawless, but once she’d got
that little bee in her bonnet, nothing anyone could say or do would change her
mind. Then things began to happen very
quickly. There was a guy....and then just as quickly, he was gone. Maggie found herself with a few decisions to
make – and some made for her.
“Too much happened,” she said. “The same wheel, round and
round, over and over. And me, just letting it go on. My pattern. I couldn’t
carry on that way. But you’re wrong. I
didn’t quit. I took control.”
Oh, she took control alright! But don’t be
fooled into thinking she’s serious about life all the time. She loves a good laugh, and she can give as
good as she gets – you need to see her with her best friend Danny to see what I
mean! Pushing the door open further, Danny stood aside to let a
young female constable pass, eyeing her curvaceous bottom appreciatively as she
scuttled by in too-tight uniform trousers. Maggie folded her arms and watched
his undisguised lust with an amused smile.
“You never miss a shot, do you? What are you now,
thirty-two, thirty-three? You're the youngest dirty old man I know.”
The quick-fire stuff!
-Short or Tall? Right in the middle, about 6’5.
-Hair color? Brown-auburn.
-Jeans or LBD? Jeans 99%, LBD 1%. Just waiting for the excuse for the 1%!
Favorite color? Blue. Red. Em, lilac. Er...no, blue.
-Car? Didn’t have one for years, living in London
you don’t really need one. Now driving a
new model Fiat 500. Cute and practical!
-Flipflops, sneakers, or
heels? Yes to all three!
-Favorite music? Partial to a bit of opera, can rock out to
Green Day, but is most likely to be singing along to Italian singer-songwriter
Laura Pausini. Very passionate and romantic.
And being me, it’s also helping my Italian language study. See above, cute and practical!
-Favorite drink? Can’t beat something long, cool and Italian!
-Favorite meal? Grilled sea bass, cherry tomatoes, fresh
spinach, followed by affogato,
vanilla ice cream with a shot of espresso coffee poured over.
-Bestfriend? Danny Chang.
Let’s face it, somebody had to love him!
Excerpt: A Different Kind
of Honesty
“Okay.
Danny, when I was in New York, I, um…had a fling. A brief thing, a onenighter.”
“What?”
Danny looked incredulous. “You told me you were only actually in
New York
for
one night! Bloody hell, you didn’t hang about, did you?” He started to laugh.
“I thought you gave up one night stands after the college days.”
“I
did,” Maggie squirmed. “But this was sort of…different.”
“Oh,
I see. Different.” Danny nodded in an annoyingly superior, knowing way. “A head
over heels, caution to the wind, never to be repeated, special offer kind of
different, right?”
Maggie
gave a short, embarrassed laugh. “Something like that. Actually, a lot like
that.”
“Aw,
so sweet, my little chicky!” Danny reached out a hand and patted hers. “But
it’s
not
as if it was your first time, or your last, let’s hope. So why all the panting
ingénue stuff?”
Maggie
sighed, a mix of wistfulness and longing that surprised her. “Because here’s
the
thing,”
she said, her thumbnail between her teeth. “And you are not going to believe
this.”
“Ha!
Try me, girlfriend.” Danny took a swig of Bud. “There’s something hot about
this
one,
I can tell.”
“It
was him.”
Danny
creased his brow as he pretended to think hard. “Nope. I’m going to need a
little more than ‘him’, I’m afraid.”
Maggie
cleared her throat, suddenly feeling nervous. “Okay. It was the guy we met
today.
Valentino. Tony Valentino.”
Danny’s
lips wiggled around an ooo. “You are kidding me! Absolutely no way!”
“Yes,
way,” Maggie said miserably.
“I
don’t believe it. Are you sure?”
“Of
course I’m
sure, it’s not like I do it every day!”
Danny
was opening and closing his mouth like a demented goldfish. “Why the hell
didn’t
you tell me? You spend one night in New York, you sleep with the FBI, and you
keep that to yourself?
You selfish cowbag! I may never speak to you again.”
Maggie
shook her head and kept her voice low. “No, Danny, listen,” she said urgently.
“I didn’t tell you because I shouldn’t have done it.”
Danny’s
elbows slipped off the table in mock astonishment. “What are you talking
about,
you shouldn’t have done it? What, with that hunk? Good God, I’d shag him, and
I’m straight.”
Picking
up her water, Maggie paused with the bottle at her lips. “Somehow, I suspect
you’re
not his type. What with you not being a girlie and all.”
Find A Different Kind of Honesty at:
Thanks, Maggie and Jane,
for being on Hot Mama!
