One Summer Between Friends

by Trish Morey

  ‘Best friends in the universe!’ said Floss.

  There was moisture in her eyes as they shook their linked hands three times, the way they’d done since they were in Year 1, the way they always would.

  Sarah smiled as the words left her lips. ‘Best friends forever.’

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  A funny thing happened on the way to getting this book to publication. Well, maybe not in a tickle-your-funny-bone kind of way, more a peculiar case of life imitating art.

  It was July of 2018 and I’d just handed in the first draft of this story, and, giddy with relief and the pressing need to catch up on life, the universe and everything I’d been neglecting for way too many months, I set about tackling the round of duties and appointments I’d been putting off. The usual but necessary stuff. Like taxes. The dentist. Along with dealing with the pink BreastScreen reminder that had been sitting on my desk glaring at me. Given Jules’s brush with breast cancer in the book, there was a reason I wasn’t going there while writing it. I didn’t want to jinx myself. Ha!

  When the ‘possible abnormality’ recall notice arrived a week or so after my screen, I was more than a little miffed. It was my eighth mammogram after the seven before had come back clear, and I had no lumps or bumps to suggest anything was wrong. I was determined to be in and out of that appointment in no time. I wasn’t. A double biopsy followed and a week later came a diagnosis of DCIS—Ductal Carcinoma In Situ—and I was duly handed a ‘My Journey’ kit. Welcome to the club.

  What followed was a referral to a surgeon, an MRI, a lumpectomy, and the follow-up radiotherapy course to blast any of those remaining little suckers into kingdom come. With complications, the whole experience took around seven months and was a steep learning curve, and certainly more a pain in the proverbial than any kind of ‘journey’, but I was lucky that it was caught early which meant I dodged the chemo bullet, and for that I will always be grateful to BreastScreen for all those free regular screening mammograms. (And if you haven’t had yours lately, or you’ve been putting it off—take it from me, call and make that appointment. Far better to deal with it before it becomes something a whole lot more sinister.)

  Readers often ask how much hands-on research is needed to write a book, and whether it’s okay to use the internet rather than going somewhere or experiencing something for yourself. I’ve always said the internet is great, but that nothing beats being there. I’d been to Lord Howe Island twice—in 1988 on my honeymoon and again in 2016 on a research trip with fellow author Fiona McArthur, and I couldn’t have attempted to capture the island’s magic without those visits. But never once had I expected to experience breast cancer for myself. Hands-on research. You can’t beat it. Though if I’m going to tempt fate, next time I might just write me a book about a woman winning the lottery ...

  While all the aforementioned was going on, I was lucky enough to have the amazing support of so many people. To the crew at Harlequin/HarperCollins, to my editors Rachael Donovan and Julia Knapman, who made so many fabulous suggestions and edits, thank you for your support and for hanging in there while the sodding ‘journey’ took its course. To Kylie Mason, structural and copy editor extraordinaire, to Christine Armstrong for my sublime cover, to proofreader Annabel Adair (and my sister, Toni, who did an awesome job!) and all the other amazing people in the team, thank you!

  To my fabulous agent, Helen Breitwieser, who was there every step of the way and so supportive, thank you. I am really looking forward to working with you on our upcoming books.

  To Pat at Somerset Apartments who was a wealth of information, thank you! To Dr Frank Reed at the Gower Wilson Memorial Hospital on Lord Howe who gave me amazing info about what a woman presenting with a lump would encounter and how her case would be managed, to Ros who happily showed both fellow author Fiona McArthur and me around her amazing facility when we popped in unexpectedly, and to Kara who kindly read an early version of this story, thank you—the story is enriched by your contributions. Anything I got wrong on hospital or medical procedure is my mistake!

  To the people of Lord Howe Island, thank you for your warm hospitality, your generosity and kindness, and thank you so much also for being the guardians and caretakers of this most gorgeous island, a jewel in Australia’s crown and a credit to you all. Please be assured, I never once met anyone like Dot on my visits there—she was purely a figment of my own (admittedly warped) imagination.

  While I’m here, I’d like to thank Robert Parkyn, surgeon par excellence. Thanks to you and your team for your expertise, your humour and your advice, because what’s the good of being a patient if you can’t ask what-ifs about your fictional patients as well?

  To my amazing writing family, the Maytoners, who made me laugh and cry as they card-bombed my letter box with well wishes and knick-knacks and even a rainbow-coloured flamingo (that I’m still trying to work out what to do with), I love you all, you crazy, mad, amazingly talented bunch of women. So blessed to count you among my friends.

  To my long-suffering husband and four amazing daughters, who are my everything, thanks for still loving me after the complete insanity that is this writer on deadline. I love you all so much.

  And last, but certainly not least, to the readers. Authors would be nothing without readers picking up books and turning the pages. Thank you so much for picking up this one.

  Trish

  x

  BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS:

  1.Which of the main three characters, Sarah, Jules or Floss, did you most relate to or empathise with? Did that change over the course of the book?

  2.Dot is a difficult and judgemental character. Have you ever known anyone like this? How did you cope with them?

  3.When Floss reaches out to Sarah and confesses what she’s done, how does Sarah respond? Do you agree? What advice would you give Floss?

  4.Jules knows she has done a terrible thing. Did your view of Jules change during the book? In Sarah’s place, could you have forgiven her?

  5.There is a parallel made during the book that getting to forgiveness, like dealing with grief, has five stages to negotiate. What are they and do you agree?

  6.Leaving aside the question of the characters being able to forgive each other:

  a)If you were Jules, could you forgive yourself?

  b)If you were Floss, could you forgive yourself?

  c)If you were Sarah, could you forgive yourself?

  7. If Jules hadn’t been diagnosed with breast cancer, how do you see this story playing out? Would the one-time friends have found their way back?

  8.If someone asked you to do something you didn’t want to, because you knew it would destroy at least one friendship, would you do it?

  9.Infertility is a major cause of stress in relationships that can take a terrible toll. Do we, as a society, place too much faith in modern medicine to provide all the answers?

  10. One in seven women in Australia will be diagnosed with breast cancer by the age of eighty-five. Have you had your free breast screen lately?

  Turn over for a sneak peek.

  1

  Sophie

  Nan started playing ‘Here Comes the Bride’ on the organ up front, while the words going around and around in Sophie Faraday’s head marched to a different tune.

  I’m just not that into you.

  Sophie swallowed against the lump in her throat. A fine time for Jason to realise that little fact, the night before her brother got hitched. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, but she wouldn’t cry, not now, not when she was about to walk down the aisle at Dan and Lucy’s wedding. Even if she had blown five hundred dollars on a spa suite at Mount Lofty House, where she’d now be spending the night alone.

  Five hundred dollars!

  She lifted her face to the blue sky and breathed deeply. Oh God, don’t cry! If she started now, she’d never stop.

  She blinked hard as Siena started down the red carpet, barely registering the oohs and aahs over how grown up her ten-year-old niece looked
today in her lilac-coloured junior bridesmaid gown. A gentle puff of spring breeze, the air sweetly scented, sent white cherry blossom drifting over the congregation, their petals landing on shoulders and in hair.

  And even from the depths of her own personal hell, Sophie had to hand it to Dan and Lucy. It was genius to get married in the orchard in springtime. It was the perfect venue for a wedding. So beautiful. So utterly romantic.

  So unlike Jason.

  Sniff.

  What had he told her when she’d asked him why? That she was too demanding. Too needy.

  Of course she’d been needy!

  She’d needed him to get on that plane and arrive back in Adelaide from his fly-in-fly-out job like they’d arranged. She’d needed him to be her sexy, loving partner today, to pull her against him and tell her how much he’d missed her these last three weeks they’d been apart. She’d needed him to smile down at her and laugh at her jokes like she was the only woman alive.

  Most of all, she’d needed not to be dumped the night before her own brother’s wedding.

  And that somehow meant she had a problem?

  Siena reached the front and peeled off to the left, and Beth was the next to follow her daughter down the aisle. The organ kept right on pumping out the notes and Sophie watched her sister as if on autopilot.

  Three months they’d been together. Three months and four days to be exact since Jason had seen her profile on the dating site, HEA.com, and messaged her, wanting to meet up on his next break. The start of a beautiful relationship, he’d told her as he’d gazed into her eyes the very first time they’d met, he was sure of it. And she’d believed it was, meeting every break since, bar one, until that beautiful relationship had crunched to a sudden halt less than twenty-four hours ago.

  So much for happy-ever-after-dot-com. More like happy never after, the way her luck was going.

  She gripped the posy in her hands that much tighter, imagining her fingers wrapped around Jason’s throat right now. He might have waited until after the wedding. Could have left his ‘I’m just not that into you’ speech for another time. Surely he could have pretended to be into her for just one more day, not to mention one more very expensive night?

  Five hundred dollars!

  ‘Sophie!’ her older sister Hannah hissed behind her. ‘Get going!’

  She snapped to with a start, saw Beth already at the front and everyone looking expectantly her way. Even Nan missed a couple of notes because she was looking over her shoulder. Crap!

  She took off too fast and wobbled on her heels. Whoa, she thought, clutching onto her posy like a lifeline and using all of the pause before the next step to steady herself. Maybe she shouldn’t have downed that last glass of champagne. Or the one before it, for that matter. But then, it was a day for celebrating.

  Not to mention a day for drowning her sorrows.

  Still, it wouldn’t be a good look if she fell flat on her face during the bridal procession. She almost snorted at that, though snorting would hardly be a good look, either. But at least now she didn’t have to force a smile. The mental image of herself face-planting into the red carpet during the wedding march saw to that.

  Wagner’s famous processional sounded through the valley, and the soft air rippled the silk of her gown and sent another sprinkle of cherry blossom raining down onto the proceedings, as Sophie methodically—meticulously—put one foot in front of the other, and slowly made her way forward. By the time she got near the front without disgracing herself, her confidence was building and she was grinning in triumph. Dan was frowning a little, but that was no surprise—he was her older brother after all, and he’d have found something to be annoyed about—probably Nan missing those notes. She sent him a wink, and only then noticed the best man standing beside him, almost missing her next step. Because Nick Pasquale, she couldn’t help but notice, had scrubbed up well for the occasion, so well she almost hadn’t recognised him. She added a few more watts to her smile and aimed it in his direction in appreciation.

  There was definitely something sexy about a man all gussied up for a wedding.

  Hello …

  The lightbulb smacked her right between the eyes, her realisation sparking a new resolution.

  Stuff Jason!

  Because this was a wedding and there had to be lots of eligible men here, and all of them dressed up for the occasion. Not Nick, of course—he’d always treated her like a little sister, and she had a spa suite going begging and wasn’t planning on being treated like anyone’s little sister tonight—but it was a wedding and she’d dropped four kilos in the last month, and she was a pretty hot-looking bridesmaid if she did say so herself. And if she couldn’t get a shag at a wedding when she was a bridesmaid and looked this good, she really was hopeless.

  Fired up with her new resolve, she winked at Beth as she took her place alongside, but her sister was staring into space, lost in her thoughts, Siena in front of her busy plucking at her unfamiliar skirts.

  So when Hannah arrived, Sophie grinned at her instead. Now there was only Kate, Lucy’s friend and matron of honour, to walk down the aisle before the bride made her entrance. Before long, the formalities would be over with and Sophie could get stuck into the serious business of finding herself a suitable candidate for the night.

  She caught Hannah peering strangely at her before glancing back over her shoulder down the aisle. Leaning closer, she whispered, ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Yup,’ Sophie said, ‘never better,’ and Hannah was already straightening, seemingly convinced, except Sophie hiccuped and Hannah must have caught a whiff of alcohol because her eyes opened wide in disbelief.

  ‘Oh God. Please tell me you’re not drunk!’

  This time she did snort, just a little, because the idea was so ridiculous. Of course she wasn’t drunk. A little tipsy maybe …

  ‘How could you be so stupid?’ her sister hissed.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ whispered Beth, who’d suddenly decided to pay attention.

  ‘Sophie’s drunk.’

  It was Beth’s turn to look appalled. ‘What?’

  In front of them, Siena turned, her big brown eyes blinking up at the three sisters. ‘What are you all whispering about? Who’s drunk?’

  ‘Shhhh,’ Sophie said, putting a finger to her lips, loving how it would be damn near impossible for anyone to tell if she was slurring that, while her twin sisters either side glowered at her. Then, Kate took her place at the front, and Sophie welcomed the new arrival with another grin and shrugged at the question in the other woman’s eyes, as if she didn’t know what was going on. Meanwhile, the collective gasp behind them told her that the bride was on her way.

  Saved by the bride, Sophie thought, thoroughly amused by her own wit. What was Hannah’s problem? Clearly, she couldn’t be that drunk. She turned to watch the woman who would soon be their sister-in-law, and swayed a little as she did, earning herself another glare from Hannah in the process. She raised her eyebrows and grinned back, before the approaching bride snagged her attention.

  Because wow, what a bride. Lucy looked amazing as she walked down the aisle on the arm of her mother. Dressed in a cream-coloured lace sheath over a miniskirt, and with cherry blossom artfully woven into a circle on her head, Lucy had never looked happier or more gorgeous. The bridesmaids had all helped Lucy get dressed and played fetch for the hairdresser and makeup artists, who had arrived early in the morning, but none of them could take one shred of credit for how radiant she looked right now. It was all down to Lucy herself, and the love that shone from her eyes and radiated from her smile.

  The love she felt for Dan.

  Sophie sighed wistfully. And to think her crazy brother had let Lucy walk away when last cherry season was finished and risked losing the love of his life forever.

  Sophie glanced over at her big brother, saw his eyes similarly full of admiration and love, and wanted to hug him right then and there for putting this right. Getting Lucy back had been like a magician pulling a
rabbit from a hat, and now marrying her—well, that was no cheap trick. That was pure magic.

  The pair reached the front, and if the look Lucy and Dan exchanged wasn’t enough to melt the most cynical of hearts, it sure was enough to peel back the fog of alcohol and let back in the pain of Jason’s betrayal. Sophie choked on a sob, once again fighting back the tears. Was it so unreasonable to want the same kind of love for herself? Was it so unreasonable not to want to wait until she was a crusty thirty-seven years old like her brother to find that special someone to share her life with?

  No, it damned well wasn’t.

  The organ music faded away and Nan took her seat next to Pop in the row behind. It was birdsong that played the accompaniment while the celebrant welcomed everyone. A simple service, Lucy and Dan had planned. Short and to the point, with just the important bits included to share with family and friends.

  It wouldn’t take long and then Sophie could get stuck into the serious business of man hunting. She needed to mingle and check out who else was on the guest list she’d paid only lip service to before today.

  And then she felt a familiar pressure and found another reason for hoping the ceremony wouldn’t take too long. She crossed her legs under her gown and pressed her thighs together as inconspicuously as possible. Because all that champagne was doing more than just kicking in.

  Right now, she really needed to pee.

  2

  Beth

  Beth Faraday watched Lucy take her place by Dan’s side, and swallowed back a lump in her throat. Lucy looked utterly stunning in her gorgeous lace wedding dress. Every girl should wear a wedding dress once in her life, she remembered her mother telling her, through lips loaded with half a dozen dress-making pins, her hands busy pinning seams in the ivory satin, while Beth had held up her arms, feeling like a fraud.