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One Last Greek Summer – Mandy Baggot
About the book
Beth Martin is 31, newly divorced and wondering just what life holds for her…
Best-friend, Heidi, is adamant that all the answers lie in Corfu – the island where the girls’ partied away their youth.
So cue a trip to a sun-drenched Greek island, ouzo cocktails, a trip down memory lane…and Alex Hallas, the man Beth has never quite forgotten.
As they dance under the stars, the sand beneath their toes, old feelings begin to resurface and Beth might just have a chance to take back her life. If they can learn to love the people they’ve become…
EXTRACT
‘Please say it was a good surprise,’ Heidi said, throwing herself down next to Beth on the office sofa Charles had had shipped in from India. Nearly everything Charles bought had to be shipped halfway across the world, Beth remembered. Even some of his groceries. His needs were anything but basic, the delivery costs sometimes being more expensive than the actual product, but his lavish living didn’t stop with himself. One of his best traits was his generosity. That’s how Beth had ended up here in the beginning.
The party was still in half-swing, crisps all but eaten, music a muted Paloma Faith, expensive champagne finished and cheaper plonk opened, Happy Divorce Day cake cut into and sliced up. Tilly was dancing, wearing the penis hoopla headgear they had taken it in turns to don aprèsBollinger. Beth smiled at her friend. ‘It was a good surprise.’
‘But…’ Heidi said, poking a root vegetable crisp into her mouth and crunching it up.
‘No buts… apart from the ones on those napkins,’ Beth said, indicating the pile of serviettes featuring cartoon men pulling moonies. ‘You do remember it’s a divorce party not a hen party.’
‘And if we were in America, where they have occasion-wear for absolutely every life scenario, you could complain about my lack of due diligence but… Asid’s Party Store was all I had to work with and it could be worse, I could have bought the Grim Reaper funeral bunting.’
‘There’s funeral bunting?! That seems so wrong,’ Beth told her.
‘Doesn’t it? I mean there’s Tin-Star-style black comedy and there’s black comedy.’ Heidi smiled, passing Beth the bowl of snacks. ‘But… you’re looking good today.’
‘Meaning I’ve looked less-than-good prior to today?’ She touched her now slightly frizzy shoulder-length hair as if stroking it would revive any lost lustre. At the height of the break-up she had actually shed hair and worried she would be using caffeine shampoo forever. She’d tried a bit, not enjoyed the smell and decided to drink more coffee.
‘No… well… a bit. But we all have our off days, don’t we?’
‘Thanks, Heidi.’
‘I’m simply saying that today you look composed and together and ready for—’
‘Fresh starts and new beginnings?’ Beth answered on an out-breath. ‘You sound like Kendra. Someone who was confident that I would be leaving Mountbatten Global before my name has been changed on my driving licence.’
‘God! Aren’tyou?!’ Heidi exclaimed, almost coughing out a beetroot chip. ‘I thought you had interviews lined up.’
‘I did,’ Beth replied. ‘I didn’t get any of the jobs.’
‘So you’ve given up?’ Heidi doffed her friend on the shoulder. ‘You can’t bear to leave me, can you?’ Heidi said. ‘Well, I want you to know that I will still come to your house with crappy movies and air-fried snacks. Anyway, you hate the job.’
‘I don’t hate the job.’ Did she? Did she hate what she did? Looking after investments and helping people with too much money make the most out of it. Yes, maybe it wasn’t raising funds for the Samaritans or helping to rescue a Thai boys’ football team from a cave, but it was a job… and a job that had paid her when she had needed it most.
‘And it’s not like you need the money,’ Heidi stated, grabbing another crisp. ‘I mean, you made sure of that when you signed the pre-nup, right?’
Beth smiled at her friend, wanting not to answer. She hadn’t been stupid going into her marriage. She had just seen no reason to sign up to anything. What was Charles’s was Charles’s. And she had nothing he could claim. Anyway, it was unromantic to make a marital union about paperwork and their marriage did need to be in some wayromantic. Because, as much as Beth had wanted it to be, as much as she had told herself that it would begiven time, it had been more about safety and security… and her mum.
About the author
Mandy Baggot is an international bestselling and award-winning romance writer. The winner of the Innovation in Romantic Fiction award at the UK's Festival of Romance, her romantic comedy novel, One Wish in Manhattan, was also shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists' Association Romantic Comedy Novel of the Year award in 2016. Mandy's books have so far been translated into German, Italian, Czech and Hungarian. Mandy loves the Greek island of Corfu, white wine, country music and handbags. Also a singer, she has taken part in ITV1's Who Dares Sings and The X-Factor. Mandy is a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association and the Society of Authors and lives near Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK with her husband and two daughters.
Follow Mandy:
Facebook: @mandybaggotauthor
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