The Last Time I Saw Paris Read Online Free PDF

Paris, where they had stayed at the Ritz, a wedding gift from her mother. From Paris they had driven to visit the châteaux of the Loire, then down through the middle of France to the Dordogne. They had crisscrossed the country, ending up in Avignon, then plunged south to the blue Mediterranean and endless sunshine.
    She remembered clearly the cities and villages they had visited, the hotels and auberges where they stayed, the restaurants they had dined in, even the places they had picnicked. Everything had gone like clockwork: perfect locations, perfect weather. Perfect lovemaking. And Bill was her first and only lover.
    They had flown home from Nice three weeks later, sated with love, gorged on fine foods and wines, their eyes dazzled with vistas of châteaux and ruins and rivers and the bluest sea she had ever seen. It had been the most perfect time in their lives.
    Now, she could not recall when they had last managed to spend three days together, let alone three weeks. But soon they were to retrace their honeymoon path through France, and she was counting on this trip to bring the old Bill, the one she used to know, back to her.

CHAPTER 4
    W hen the cold morning fog finally began to unravel, leaving only scarves of lavender mist, Lara called Dex and they went for a long walk along the narrow strip of beach left uncovered by the tide. By the time they got back the sun was burning its way through and the day promised heat. She showered and changed into baggy white linen shorts and a black T-shirt, thrust her bare feet into Keds, hustled Dex into the car, and drove to Carmel in search of a newspaper, a cup of coffee, and a lemon poppyseed muffin.
    Carmel’s pretty tree-shaded Ocean Avenue was already filled with slowly drifting tourists and Lara ambled along at their same slow pace, gazing in the windows of antique shops and gift shops, clothing boutiques and art galleries, ending up at a cafe where she drank a double cappuccino and fed most of the muffin to Dex, who sat drooling at her feet. She knew it wasn’t good for him, but thought, what the hell, every life had to have some forbidden little treat. Even a dog’s.
    Afterward, she bought a
USA Today
so she would have the TV listings, then browsed the Pilgrims Way bookstore, where she picked up a copy of the latest Michelin guide to France as well as a biography she had been meaning to read, and a copy of Noel Coward’s
Diaries.
Reading other people’s diaries seemed like peeking into their lives, and she asked herself ifshe had become a voyeur now instead of a participant in life. Angry at the thought, she marched out of the bookstore and into the grocery, where, defiantly, she purchased Wonder Bread, brown sugar, bananas, a packet of Oreos, and a quart of milk. Then she returned to the car and drove slowly back along the highway.
    The house was filled with sunlight and the sound of the sea, and she ran upstairs to put on the new red bathing suit. She rubbed a 15 sunscreen into her pale skin and tied her long curly hair up in a ponytail, then stared critically at her reflection, seeing how she truly looked in the bathing suit in the harsh light of day instead of in the store’s flattering mirror that she could swear had taken five pounds off her. She saw soft pale skin in need of sunshine and free weights, round breasts spilling out of the top, high-cut legs that left more of her exposed than she had thought. She shrugged. What the hell, there was no one to see her. Grabbing a towel and the
Diaries,
she headed out onto the deck.
    She was dragging the teak chaise into the sun when the wooden deck gave an ominous creak. There was a sharp, splintering sound and she watched astonished as the chair’s back wheels sank into the hole that suddenly appeared. Dex jumped back, barking as though it were alive, making her laugh. But it was dangerous; the whole deck might be rotten. She tried to think when it had last been repaired but it was buried so