One French Summer

Gillian Harvey

Description

The uplifting escapist read from the author of Top 10 bestseller, A Year at the French Farmhouse.

It was just supposed to be a holiday, but could it become the second chance she didn't know she needed...?

Life isn’t quite going as planned for Katy. With her only daughter living in Australia and a husband who has asked for a break, she is suddenly at a loss.

Her best friends, Sam, Vicky and Ivy have always been there for her through thick and thin and they’re not about to leave her all alone now. Whisking her away to glorious France for a last minute retreat is the perfect escape, and just what Katy needs to get her life back under control.

As Katy unwinds in the beautiful French countryside, surrounded by her friends, the pain of her past slowly begins to melt away under the warm summer sun. Will this reset give Katy a new lease on life and help her win back her husband? Or could there be a new love on the horizon where she least expects it?

Escape to the French countryside this summer with top 10 bestseller Gillian Harvey, for the perfect uplifting second chances romance.

Praise for One French Summer

'As delightful as it is moving – a true gem of a novel... enchanting, wise and wonderfully uplifting.' Isabelle Broom

'Uplifting, feel-good and hilarious... for anyone who has ever had their heart broken. This is escapism at its best. Every page felt like I was on holiday with my best friends. Gillian has done it again!' Tim Ewins

'A funny, moving and wonderful story about love and second chances... A hymn to friendship... I was cheering Katy on from the very first page.' Nicola Gill

Sujets

• Mashups
• Wholesome
• Siblings
• World Literature
• Humorous
• 21st century
• Friendship
• Contemporary history
• Romantic Comedy
• Sibling
• General officer
• Animals
• Summer
• General
• Clean
• Contemporary
• Family Life
• Romance
• Fiction
• France

Informations

• Publié par: Boldwood Books
• Date de parution: 14 février 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781804269787
• Langue: English

Extrait

ONE FRENCH SUMMER


GILLIAN HARVEY
For my sister Jenny – thank you
CONTENTS



Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34


Acknowledgments

More from Gillian Harvey

About the Author

About Boldwood Books
1

‘Five! Four! Three! Two! One! And rest!’ Toby bellowed, checking the stopwatch. The group near-simultaneously collapsed in a variety of heaps. Katy felt the heat of her sweaty skin touch the cool, dewy grass and sighed with relief.
‘Remind me’, Ivy muttered behind her, ‘why we do this again?’
‘Beats me,’ said Sam. ‘I’m pretty sure my pelvic floor’s going to give up the ghost if we do any more star jumps this session.’ She sat up and removed her hairband, shaking her hair free messily, before gathering it back into a scrappy bun. Her face was flushed from the effort of the past twenty minutes.
‘Exercise?’ Vicky suggested. ‘Health?’
Sam shook her head. ‘No, that doesn’t sound like me.’
‘The fact that the instructor is pretty easy on the eye.’
‘Ah, you’ve got me.’ Sam laughed. ‘Sadly I doubt he’s into middle-aged mothers who come with twin boys and a kangaroo pouch for a stomach.’
‘Plus there’s the fact you’re happily married,’ Ivy added with a raised eyebrow.
‘That,’ said Sam, with a grin, ‘is a very good point!’
‘Well, eye-candy or no eye-candy, I’m exhausted,’ said Vicky, taking a swig from her bottle. ‘I thought exercise was meant to give you MORE energy?’
Katy grinned. She was exhausted too. But nothing could spoil her good mood today. Twelve hours , she thought. Twelve hours until I have everything I’ve ever wanted! ‘Oh come on,’ she said. ‘You’re doing great!’
‘Anyway,’ said Vicky. ‘What else would we be doing at 8 a.m. if we weren’t here?’
Sam snorted. ‘I’d be making breakfast for two hollow-legged and ungrateful boys,’ she said. She extended a leg and began reaching forward, stretching her abdominal muscles, grimacing at the effort.
‘Exactly.’ Vicky tucked a strand of her miraculously neat hair behind her ear and gave a nod.
‘Well, I’d obviously be working, boss ,’ said Ivy, with a wink. ‘Preparing for the new term. It’s only six weeks away, after all.’
‘Oh God. I do hope you’re joking,’ said Sam. ‘I haven’t even taken my folders out of the car boot yet. I’m thinking of leaving the keys in the ignition so that someone can steal it and burn it out.’
Katy laughed. ‘Yeah – is it just me or when you’re a teacher does everyone talk to you constantly about holidays? Yet you never seem to have any!’
‘Don’t remind me,’ said Vicky. ‘I’m not sure whether headteachers are actually meant to get a holiday. I’m working on the timetable this afternoon.’
The others groaned. They were only a few days into the summer break from school and the last thing anyone wanted was to be reminded about the piles of planning that awaited them all. ‘Poor you,’ said Ivy, touching Vicky’s arm.
‘Ah, enough teacher talk,’ she said. ‘At least, right now, we’re officially on a break.’
‘Although not sure “break” is the right word,’ said Sam, as she stood and started running on the spot, warming up for the next set of exercises.
They all laughed. Katy joined in, although she didn’t tell them that if things went to plan later, she’d be ditching the 8 a.m. starts altogether. There was no way she’d be leaping out of bed at 7 a.m. once she was sharing it with Will again.
‘Remember, you’ll all be thanking me for dragging you here when you’re swanning on the beach in your bikinis this summer,’ added Vicky.
Sam laughed; she had the kind of deep, throaty laugh that somehow consumed the whole of her body. It was impossible not to join in. ‘I haven’t worn a bikini since 1994 and I’m not likely to start now,’ she said. ‘If I let it all hang out on a beach, someone will probably call Animal Welfare!
‘Yeah, I think my bikini days are over too,’ said Ivy, mournfully. ‘Last time I went to the pool I saw half my Year 11 class mucking about in the shallow end. It was embarrassing enough in a one-piece!’
‘Oh God,’ Vicky groaned. ‘Nightmare.’
‘To be fair, it was probably worse for them than it was for me,’ Ivy added. ‘The last thing they expected was to be confronted with their music teacher’s wobbling arse.’
‘As if,’ Vicky said. ‘You haven’t got a scrap on you after all those kettlebells.’
‘Ha! I wish.’
‘You OK, Katy?’ Sam asked. ‘You’re very quiet today.’
‘She’s thinking about her hot date later,’ said Vicky. ‘Where’s he taking you again? Somewhere fancy, I hope?’
‘You’d better make him grovel,’ Sam added. ‘I want pictures.’
‘Sam!’ said Ivy, then smiled at Katy. ‘So?’
‘Oh, just Pizza Palace down the road,’ Katy said. Then quickly added: ‘I know it’s not the most… well, classy of venues. But it’s one of the places we used to go when we were first dating. I reckon… I mean, that’s pretty romantic, right?’
They all made various affirmative noises, although nobody actually said anything.
‘Well, I think it is,’ she said.
Vicky reached and squeezed her gently on the upper arm. ‘Have you thought…’ she began, but was interrupted by a new bellow from Toby.
‘OK, ladies and gents! One more lap in five!’ he cried.
‘Oh God, will someone make him stop ?’ Ivy muttered, clambering to her feet.
‘What was that?’ Toby barked. He was ex-army and fond of playing the part of sergeant major, even if he did have a twinkle in his eye. ‘Careful, or you’ll be on press-ups!’
‘Honestly, you really don’t want to see us trying to do those,’ Sam called back. ‘You’ll be calling the emergency services within the first minute.’
Toby laughed. ‘Come on,’ he said, inclining his head towards a few of the keener members of the group, who were already stretching and starting to gently jog away. ‘You can do it! Final push!’
‘Yes, sir!’ Sam said back, giving him a mock salute.
The rest of the group struggled to their feet. A man to Katy’s left wearing a shirt that said, ‘Just Do It!’ in neon writing staggered slightly and grabbed her arm to steady himself. ‘Sorry, love,’ he said.
‘That’s all right.’
‘Hey,’ Sam whispered quietly as they began to jog side by side around the park’s periphery, ‘I think you’ve pulled.’
Katy grinned. It was easier to smile at those sorts of jokes now. Six months ago, when Will had asked for a trial separation any inadvertent joke or remark about dating or being single had set her off. And until recently, she’d still felt a stab of hurt at any suggestion of moving on. But everything was different now.
She was glad she’d kept her faith even when the girls had been sure she ought to give up. Sam had even spent the past few weeks trying to get her to join Tinder. ‘Come on,’ she’d said. ‘Aren’t you curious?’
‘Curious about what?’
‘About what might be out there?’
‘No, I’m not,’ Katy had replied. ‘Why, are you ?’
Sam had been married for over a decade, and although she and her husband Jon had their moments, their relationship always seemed pretty solid. ‘Oh, I’m relatively happy with him indoors,’ she’d said. ‘But I can’t help wondering sometimes if there might be something better out there, you know? I wouldn’t do anything about it. But women these days are so lucky – they can choose from millions of virtual dates, scroll through “man menus” online. When Jon and I got together, you had to choose from the three blokes you met down the local pub. Sometimes I wonder whether I might have made a different choice, you know, if there had been a bigger pool to choose from. Don’t you ever?’
‘Well, no! I never really think about it.’
In fact, Katy and Will had met at the local pub. He’d asked her to play a game of pool, and the rest had been history. But she wouldn’t swap him for the world.
‘Maybe there’s too much choice now, anyway. A bit like when you’re ordering a takeaway. Harder to decide,’ she’d added.
‘Always wondering if you’d be better off with what your friend ordered,’ Sam had said.
‘Changing your mind…’
‘Asking for something spicier.’
They’d both laughed.
‘Maybe you’re right,’ Sam had said. ‘It’s just I was so hoping you’d start online dating and give me the chance to live vicariously through your wild, uninhibited sex life.’
‘Sorry,’ she’d said. ‘But as far as I’m concerned I’m still very much married.’
Before Will’s call last week, when even Katy’s resolve had begun to fade, every mention of a possible future beau, of a date with someone else, had been like a stab to the heart. As if everyone was affirming her worst fear: that maybe the temporary split might become permanent.
It would be wonderful, she thought as she neared the final 200 yards, not to have to think about this sort of stuff any more. She and Will could just pick up where they’d left off, with the summer together to rediscover each other properly.
Perhaps they’d splash out on a second honeymoon – somewhere sun-drenched. It would be one of the first times in almost two decades they’d be able to get away without having to worry about Adrienne – their daughter was currently halfway around the world and wouldn’t be back until her uni course started in September. They could do one of those adults-only resorts.
Whatever they decided it would be worlds away from the summer she’d worried she might have before Will’s call the other night, inviting her out for a meal to ‘talk’. She’d accepted with a smile, knowing exactly what ‘talk’ meant. She’d forgive him, they’d get back together and all would be well.
She’d do something nice to celebrate with the girls once the dust settled, she decided. It had been her friends, after all, who’d kept her going when she’d rung them crying at 2 a.