Body Surfing by Anita Shreve & Laurel Lefkow

Author:Anita Shreve & Laurel Lefkow [Shreve, Anita & Lefkow, Laurel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Fiction, General, Audiobooks, Talking Books, Divorced women, Widows, Tutors and Tutoring
ISBN: 9781405502276
Publisher: HACHETTE AUDIO
Published: 2007-03-28T22:00:00+00:00

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They took the rest of their evening meals with Hélène and Julie, who were caught up in a sexual bliss of their own making. Sydney had a vague notion of what might be happening in the bed in the apartment with the seventeenth-century Dutch windows but did not dwell on the details. Though Julie was not a child and had every right to sexual fulfi llment — indeed, she had never looked more luminous — it might take more than a week and a few indisputable facts for Jeff and Sydney to adjust to Julie’s new life.

And indisputable facts did emerge. After Julie’s foray into the water the day Sydney had taken her by the hand (and Julie’s odd shout I’M OKAY, the repetition of which, in Julie’s note, had jogged Sydney’s memory), Julie had dressed and gone back out to the beach. There she had sat, arms wrapped around her knees, watching Hélène surf. As inarticulate as ever, Julie could only report, “It looked so beautiful,” a reference either to Hélène in the wet suit or to the act of surfi ng.

When Hélène beached herself, the pair struck up a conversation.

A party was discussed.

“Where?” Jeff asked, still smarting from his futile search.

“The cottage on the beach where all the surfers go,” Hélène answered politely.

That Julie had gotten drunk had been unintentional and unfortunate. Hélène had extracted Julie’s address from the girl (more information than Julie had given Sydney that night) and had driven Julie home. She’d walked her to the door, trusting in Julie’s body to do the rest.

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Anita Shreve

And there it might have ended had not Julie repeatedly sought out Hélène on her walks along the beach. ( What walks? Sydney wanted to know. Had Julie left the house each day just minutes after Sydney had?) It wasn’t clear if the sexual relationship had started that fi rst drunken night or had developed over time, but neither Jeff nor Sydney felt inclined to ask.

When it was time for Hélène to return to Montreal after her vacation, Julie begged to go with her. Hélène had at fi rst demurred but then fi nally had said yes. (Had happily said yes, Sydney imagined.)

Hélène had not known that Julie’s suitcase contained canvases and paints until the smell of turpentine and linseed oil had made its way from the trunk of the old Peugeot to the front seat. By that time, the pair were in Burlington and in no mood to turn back.

Julie’s happiness was palpable, tangible, destined to eclipse the happiness of anyone nearby. Though Sydney had no doubt that Hélène was truly fond of Julie, the French Canadienne’s joy seemed subdued by comparison.

Jeff and Sydney’s happiness, too, seemed muted in Julie’s presence, a fact that bothered Sydney, as if in the realm of rapture, she and Jeff could never quite measure up.

Alone with Jeff, however, Sydney’s life felt complete. The food, the wine, and the constant feeling of lassitude resulting from frequent and spontaneous sex contributed to a sense of pleasure and of ease.

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