Sarah Morgan - One Summer In Paris

SARAH MORGANlives near London with her husband and two sons. An international bestseller, her books have been translated into more than thirty languages and she has sold over sixteen million copies. For more about Sarah visit her website www.sarahmorgan.com, and sign up to her newsletter. She loves to connect with readers on Facebook ( www.facebook.com/AuthorSarahMorgan), Twitter (@ SarahMorgan_) and Instagram ( sarahmorganwrites).

Also by Sarah Morgan

How to Keep a Secret

The Christmas Sisters

From Manhattan with Love

Moonlight Over Manhattan

Holiday in the Hamptons

New York, Actually

Miracle on 5th Avenue

Sunset in Central Park

Sleepless in Manhattan

Puffin Island

One Enchanted Moment

Some Kind of Wonderful

First Time in Forever

The O’Neil Brothers

Maybe This Christmas

Suddenly Last Summer

Sleigh Bells in the Snow

Copyright

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2019

Copyright © Sarah Morgan 2019

Sarah Morgan asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Ebook Edition © April 2019 ISBN: 9781474070713

Dear Reader,

If you’ve read my books before (thank you! And if you haven’t, welcome) then you’ll know I often explore themes of friendship in my stories. If we’re lucky we continue to make friends throughout the course of our lives, finding like-minded people in many different places. Our friendship circle more often than not includes people of our own generation, but sometimes we find ourselves with older and younger friends.

For years I enjoyed a friendship with my elderly neighbour, who often shared stories of her life during the war. (When a bomb dropped on the railway line, she jumped off the train and walked the rest of the way into London, refusing to alter her plans. Obviously, I was never able to complain about train delays again.) Our age difference, close to six decades, was never a barrier to conversation. If anything, it made the friendship richer and deeper. Intergenerational friendships bring with them a broader perspective and that was something I was keen to explore in this story.

Grace is in her forties and Audrey is a teenager. They meet by accident at a point in their lives when each of them is struggling and they form a friendship that is both unexpected and life-changing. I loved writing about these characters and discovering what each could offer the other.

If you’re a member of a book group, or talk about your reading with friends - and if you don’t, but you’d like to, you’re always welcome on my Facebook page where we all frequently chat about which books we’re reading and loving - you’ll find plenty of other interesting themes to discuss in this book.

If what you really want is to escape for a few hours into a story that makes you laugh and cry (but in a good way, I promise!), while making you feel as if you’ve had a summer break in Paris, then I hope you’ll find that too.

Happy Reading

Sarah

xxx

For Susan Swinwood,with love and thanks.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

MARCEL PROUST

Contents

Cover

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dear Reader

Dedication

Epigraph

Grace

Audrey

Grace

Audrey

Grace

Mimi

Paris

Audrey

Grace

Audrey

Grace

Audrey

Grace

Mimi

Audrey

Grace

Audrey

Grace

Audrey

Grace

Mimi

Grace

Audrey

Grace

Audrey

Grace

Mimi

Grace

Acknowledgments

Excerpt

About the Publisher

Grace

Grace Porter woke on Valentine’s Day, happily married and blissfully unaware that was about to change.

Downstairs in the kitchen she added slices of cheese to the bread she’d baked fresh the day before, put fruit and raw vegetables into lunch boxes and then checked her list.

Number four on today’s list: remind Sophie about dinner.

She glanced up. “Don’t forget Dad and I are out tonight. Your dinner is in the fridge.”

Her daughter, Sophie, was messaging a friend. “Mmm…”

“Sophie!”

“I know! No phones at the table —but this is urgent. Amy and I are writing a letter to the paper about that development they’re going to build on the edge of town. Dad promised he’d publish it. Can you believe they want to close the dog shelter? Those dogs are going to die if someone doesn’t do something, and that someone is me. There. Done. ” Sophie finally looked up. “Mom, I can make my own lunch.”

“Would you include fresh fruit and veg?”

“No. Which is why I’d rather make my own.” Sophie gave a smile that didn’t just light her up, it lit Grace up, too. “And you’re starting to sound like Monica, which is a little scary.”

Her daughter was like sunshine. She made the world a brighter place. For years Grace had been braced for her to rebel, take drugs, or roll in drunk after an illicit party with friends, but it hadn’t happened. It seemed that Sophie’s genetic makeup favored David’s side of the family, which was a relief. If Sophie had an addiction it was causes. She hated injustice, inequality and anything she deemed unfair—particularly when it related to animals. She was the champion of all dogs, especially the underdog.

Grace was quick to defend her friend. “Monica is a wonderful mother.”

“Maybe, but I can tell you that the first thing Chrissie is going to do when we get to Europe this summer is feast on a ton of fries to make up for all the years her mom wouldn’t let her touch them.” Sophie finished her oatmeal. “Did you say something about dinner?”

“Have you forgotten what day it is?” Grace closed the lunch boxes and put one next to Sophie. The other she slid into her own bag.

“Valentine’s Day.” Sophie slid off her chair and picked up her empty bowl. “The day it becomes public knowledge that nobody loves me.”

“Dad and I love you.”

“No offense, but you’re not young, cool and athletic.”

Grace took a mouthful of coffee. How much should she say? “It’s still Sam?”

Sophie’s smile faded as if someone had hit the dimmer switch. “He’s seeing Callie. They walk around together holding hands. She keeps giving me these smug smiles. I’ve known Callie since I was three, so I don’t understand why she’s doing this. I mean, date him, sure. That sucks, but it’s life. But it’s like she’s trying to hurt me.”