Georgie Capron – The Distance Between Us

About the book

For fans of Marian Keyes, Hurrah for Gin and Allison Pearson. A tear-jerking but uplifting modern love story about motherhood and marriage.

Happy children, happy husband, happily ever after? 

Tasha knows that she should count her blessings: married for eleven years, mother to three healthy children, she should be content with her lot.  However, feelings of frustration have settled over her like a dark cloud.  Despite living under the same roof and sharing the same bed, Tasha has never felt so distant from her husband, Charlie.  She feels worn down by the mental load of motherhood, drowning in the never-ending chores that keep the family and household afloat.  Most of all she worries that her once happy marriage is slipping away from her.

Tasha longs for something to change, but when change comes calling will it really be the answer she was hoping for? And is it possible to fall in love with the same person twice?

A modern day love story about family, marriage and risking it all to have it all. 

Buy now links:

Amazon: mybook.to/TDBUCapron

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2JUK6G4

iBooks: https://apple.co/2JJ2j65

Google play: http://bit.ly/2LNjMLw

About the author

Georgie lives in South West London with her husband and daughter. Alongside her writing she works as a primary school teacher and she particularly enjoys teaching English. She studied Italian and History of Art at the University of Edinburgh and did a PGCE in primary education at the University of London.

Follow Georgie

Website: https://georgiecapron.com/

Twitter: @GeorgieCapron

Facebook: @GeorgieCapron

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Website: www.ariafiction.com

Twitter: @aria_fiction

Facebook: @ariafiction

Instagram: @ariafiction

EXTRACT

Chapter One

Tasha stooped to slip on her black suede heels, trying not to trip on a pile of abandoned sports kit. She picked up the offending articles, swiftly identifying which of her three children was the culprit, walked down the corridor and shoved them in the laundry basket.

‘Bella, is that your games kit I’ve just nearly fallen over in the hall?’ she yelled up the stairs. The house seemed to be permanently awash with possessions, with Tasha fighting an endless one-woman battle to restore order.

‘Oops! Sorry, Mum!’ Bella replied through a mouthful of toothpaste as her younger brother, Max, came scampering down the stairs rosy cheeked from the bath.

Flora was sitting at the kitchen table trying to finish her homework. ‘What are you doing, Max?’ Tasha asked, noticing a mischievous giggle. She suspected he had been up to no good, hoping it wasn’t a repeat of last week’s antics, involving a can of shaving foam and an attempt at graffiti on the bathroom wallpaper. Max’s burst of creativity had left an oily residue in the apparent shape of his favourite animal, a giraffe, which, to the untutored eye, was hard to interpret as anything other than an oversized drawing of male genitalia.

‘Just getting a drink of water,’ he replied, the picture of innocence.

Tasha didn’t have time to suss out any potential mayhem that may or may not have occurred upstairs. She was about to go out and she hadn’t finished putting on her make-up.

‘Where can Daddy be?’ she asked no one in particular, mentally cursing Charlie for being late on the one night of the year she had dared to make plans of her own.

Tonight was the celebratory dinner of her last school friend to get engaged and, as always, the gang had pounced on the opportunity to ditch their children and get glammed up for a night. Tasha was desperate for a few glasses of prosecco and a good gossip. She hit speed dial on her mobile, clenching it between her shoulder and her right ear as she fastened an earring with her spare hand. Straight to voicemail again. She hung up. He must still be on the Tube.

‘Right, Flora, you need to start thinking about finishing up or you’ll be in bed far too late.’ Tasha grabbed a few dirty plates from the counter and loaded them into the dishwasher.

‘It’s too hard!’ Flora moaned, rubbing her head with her hands.

‘Then just tell Mrs Edmundson that you couldn’t do it and I’m sure she’ll help you!’

‘It doesn’t work like that, Mum.’ Flora sighed. ‘I’ve got to get it right or I’ll get in trouble. You never understand.’

Tasha took a deep breath; when it came to Flora she couldn’t seem to say anything right these days.

‘But surely it’s OK to make mistakes, darling!’ Tasha reassured her. ‘It’ll just show Mrs Edmundson that you need more practice. I’m sure you’re not the only one finding it tricky…’ Tasha knew her daughter would be awake all night beating herself up if she thought she was letting herself down. ‘Daddy can have a look when he gets home… which should be any second.’

She surveyed the scene in front of her. For some unknown reason the contents of her handbag were strewn all over the floor. Last weekend’s papers and piles of unopened mail were stacked on one end of the table. Abandoned school bags, PE kits and coats lay slumped against the wall instead of hanging on their designated pegs by the front door. The bins were overflowing and the floor was desperately dirty and long overdue a sweep. Tasha took a deep breath. There was no time to tackle the kitchen – maybe Charlie would do some tidying when he got home? She doubted it, not after such a ‘busy’ day at the office. ‘Right, you little rascal, up to bed,’ she said, ruffling Max’s sandy-blond hair as he rushed past her and back upstairs, still giggling.

She chased after him, pulling her black stretchy skirt down as she went, trying to feel whether her pants might be visible through the material. She had excavated a pretty black top with a lace trim from the bottom of her chest of drawers, which, though crumpled, at least made her look as though she’d made an effort.

Tasha arrived in Max’s room to find him tucked up in bed, for once. ‘What story would you like, little mischief maker?’

‘Aliens Love Underpants,’ Max pleaded.

‘Not again?’ Tasha laughed half-heartedly. It must be the millionth time she had read it. She knew every word off by heart.

‘It’s the best!’ he squealed as he wriggled over to make room for her. She chided herself for being so unenthusiastic.

Tasha checked her phone once again – still nothing from Charlie. Trying to put her mounting impatience to one side, she read Max the story and then kissed his pale forehead and turned off his light. Whilst she was grateful he seemed to have gone to bed without protest for once, she noted that Max never seemed to have one of his full-blown temper tantrums when Charlie was in sole charge. A petty part of Tasha would rather he was climbing the walls and kicking off at the exact moment her other half walked through the door. Bella was already in her room next door, reading a Harry Potter book. She was obsessed with the young wizard and his motley crew. Every night Bella needed persuading to put down whichever well-thumbed book she held and to go to sleep. She was a classic bookworm. Tasha could always tell if she’d been up in the middle of the night reading from the extent of the bags under her eyes the following morning. She frequently received phone calls from Bella’s school enquiring whether she was getting enough sleep. They clearly thought Tasha was too lax to enforce the regulatory 7.30 p.m. bedtime.  How right they were! No matter how early she tried to start their bedtime routine she was lucky if she managed to get them down by eight o’clock.