The Promise of Provence (Love in Provence Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

overnight.”
    “That’s good,” Molly said with a sigh of relief. “Nobody better. She’s the Goddess of Serendipity, and I mean that sincerely.”
    Katherine nodded into the phone. “Why don’t you come for breakfast with us tomorrow? I’ll be in better shape by then . . . maybe. It’s hard to think straight, but crazy as it sounds, I’m actually having some lucid moments. It’s just totally bizarre.”
    “Fuckin’ right it’s bizarre, and a whole lot worse!” Molly added, issuing some highly unpleasant suggestions about James’s health and safety before they said good-bye.
    That was done. Her mom, Andrea, and Molly knew. Somehow it made the whole mess seem more real.
    No one else really mattered. The neighbors on both sides of the townhouse were young married couples who seemed busy with their lives. They occasionally enjoyed a drink on one patio or another from time to time, and she figured they would eventually realize what had happened. There were people at the cycling club she knew well who would be placed in the most horrid position with this affair. She would prefer not to have to talk to anyone there for quite a while and hoped no one would call too soon.
    Of course she would have to say something at work, even though no one there had ever met James. Dr. Henderson treated his staff extremely well, but didn’t believe in socializing with them, so there were no personal connections there. He had once explained how years earlier, before her time, he had found it simply too upsetting to get to know spouses who were later replaced by others. At the time she had agreed wholeheartedly, even though her experience in that regard had been limited to a few of James’s colleagues. It was awkward and weird.
    Now it was happening to her, she considered with a sorrow that felt like grief as she flopped onto the couch. She was being replaced. Slumped in the cushions for quite a while, that single thought rolled around in her head.
    Slowly she began to do something her mother had taught her long ago. As a youngster, if she was unhappy or crabby, Elisabeth would hand her a pencil and a piece of paper with a line drawn vertically down the middle. Katherine would make a list on the left side of all the things that were bugging her and on the other, all the good things in her life.
    The good list was always much longer.
    Tearing off a sheet from the grocery list pad, she wrote:
Fifty-four not young
Healthy
About to be divorced
Capable
Alone
Have a wonderful mother
James has left for a younger woman and is having a child
Financially fine, no debt
Wounded
Menopause over, no hot flashes
Angry
Andrea and Molly
Deceived
Confused
Frightened
Heartbroken
    The good side isn’t outweighing the bad at the moment , she berated herself. I’m obviously having a bit of trouble seeing the positives. Will I ever? Are there any?
    Squeezing her eyes shut, she tried to will herself not to cry but knew it wasn’t going to work. Maybe it’s best anyway to get rid of these tears before Andrea gets here. She lay on the couch as the wetness slowly washed over her face, streaming down her neck and onto the cushion behind her. There was almost a sense of calm that came with them this time. A letting go of something, although she wasn’t sure what.
    Her mother’s words came filtering through the debris floating around in her head. Every day is a gift.
    The past few days didn’t feel as if they had been gifts or anything close to that, she thought.
    I’ve got a lot of work to do .
    After a while, she went upstairs to the office and sat at her computer. She hadn’t checked e-mails for the three days since her world had fallen apart. Normally she only looked at them in the evening anyway, as she didn’t have much of a contact list. In fact, James, Molly, Andrea, the Toronto West Cycling Club, a couple of charities for which she volunteered, her yoga studio, and her colleagues at work were the only people who had her address.
    A message