Maybe Tomorrow: 'As heartbreaking as it is uplifting'--the new novel from the author of Home by Penny Parkes

Author:Penny Parkes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2023-06-22T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Willow was curled up in the kitchen window seat with a magazine when they walked in and, once again, Jamie felt that irrational twinge of annoyance in her presence. Her wafty ethereal presence somehow pressed Jamie’s buttons. Whatever Willow’s history – and clearly there were so many more layers to the story than Ruth had alluded to – Jamie still felt a knee-jerk resentment that it was Willow, and not her and Bo, who now lived in that little house with the yellow door.

Childish, possibly. Mean-spirited, perhaps.

It was not something she would ever admit to, to anyone.

And it made no rational sense to be territorial about this space – for God’s sake, Willow’s arrival predated her own – yet still Jamie felt disconcertingly irked that an easy conversation with Henry over hot cross buns would now – inevitably – evolve into a morning tea party.

Everything at the house was seemingly an excuse for a gathering – morning coffee, afternoon tea, bridge games, long lunches, cocktails at six and suppers that lingered into the night, conversation and laughter wafting through the annexe’s open windows.

Never an empty room.

It was no easy adjustment from the small world that she and Bo had inhabited these last few years. And in many ways, if she were honest with herself at least, their cocoon had been so much simpler at times. Without the draining need to be interesting or entertaining, she had felt some of her old sense of self return. Without the pull of invitations, necessitating juggling of childcare, wardrobe and work, she’d been able to fully breathe. To relax, rather than startle at an unexpected phone call.

But she couldn’t deny there were days, weeks possibly, when she’d felt lonely.

Alone.

Waiting for Bo to come home from school just to hear the sound of his voice and revel in his excitement and joie de vivre. She breathed out slowly and managed a friendly smile as she filled the kettle, reminding herself of Willow’s kindness to Kath and the curiously emotional cost it seemed to have taken Willow to do it. ‘Fancy a cuppa with us, Willow? We’re having buns too.’

Willow glanced up from her magazine. ‘Buns? Yes, please.’ Quietly reading, her slender arms wrapped snugly around herself and the sun catching on her blonde hair, it was hard to reconcile the gentle ease of this young woman with the tightly wound, tech genius who had given Kath such peace of mind last night.

‘What do think about layering some Euonymus in the herbaceous borders along the south side, Henry?’ Willow asked, turning the magazine she was reading so that they could all see the coloured array of shrubbery. ‘If you timed it right, you could have colour all year. See—’ her whole face glowed with enthusiasm, ‘this one is a beautiful rhus. You could use it in flower arrangements and whatnot too. And if you had more dahlias and alyssum in the borders too, then you would have three tiers of planting.’ She caught her breath.

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