For Peggy and all the years we have to catch up on.
‘I don’t understand,’ she mumbles.
Ed slides his hand over to Allie, clasping her fingers. Joe takes a deep breath. Gerald simply smiles at her. It’s the strangest of gestures, a look that says ‘I love you’ and ‘I’m here for you’ and a kaleidoscope of other things between.
‘Turn around, Peggy,’ Joe says.
She places her napkin on the table and shuffles in her chair, until she is facing the doorway. It’s the woman that Peggy notices first. She’s in her mid-fifties and strikingly stylish, with generous lips and thick auburn hair swept back off her face. The woman sees Peggy and steps to the side, turning to invite someone to walk in front of her, touching him tenderly on the arm as he passes.
And suddenly there he is, right there in front of Peggy: a man dressed like Cary Grant, with a gap-toothed smile and the darkest hair she’s ever seen.
Acknowledgements
Thanks first and foremost to my agent Sheila Crowley, whose unstinting energy and expertise remain perfectly unbeatable.
I’ve always loved working with the team at Simon & Schuster and that remains as true with this, my eleventh novel, as it did with my first back in 2008. Special thanks to Jo Dickinson, Suzanne Baboneau, Sara-Jade Virtue, Dawn Burnett, Rich Vliestra and Laura Hough.
My lovely friend, Dr Helen Wallace, taught me everything I never thought I’d need to know about physiology, life as an academic research scientist and the search for a cure for cystic fibrosis. I’m immensely grateful for the time she spent with me on this important storyline.
I’m indebted to Claire Nozieres, Abbie Greaves and Luke Speed at Curtis Brown, with a special mention for Enrichetta Frezzato, who went above and beyond the call of duty in translating the Italian passages for me.
Thanks also to Donna Smith, whose explanation of police procedure was both thorough and invaluable.
Finally, a shout out to the messy, wonderful lot that I’m lucky enough to call my family: Mark, Otis, Lucas, Isaac and my mum and dad, Jean and Phil Wolstenholme.
CATHERINE ISAAC was born in Liverpool and was a journalist before she became an author. She wrote her first novel, Bridesmaids, under the pseudonym Jane Costello and her eight subsequent books were all Sunday Times bestsellers.
You Me Everything was her first work writing as Catherine Isaac. Translation rights have been sold in twenty countries and it has been optioned for a film by Lionsgate. She lives in Liverpool with her husband Mark and three sons.
www.catherine-isaac.com
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ALSO BY CATHERINE ISAAC
You Me Everything
Catherine Isaac
You Me Everything
‘Wow. Just wow. If you liked Me Before You, you’ll love You Me Everything’ Clare Mackintosh
Jess and her ten-year-old son William set off to spend the summer at Château de Roussignol, deep in the undulating hills and lush vineyards of the Dordogne. There, her ex-boyfriend Adam runs an exquisite hotel in a restored castle and has had little to do with his son’s upbringing.
But Jess is in France for a more urgent reason than a holiday: she’s fulfilling the wishes of her mother who, in the late stage of a neurodegenerative disease, is determined that William needs his father in his life. Over one heady, sun-drenched summer, bridges are built and secrets uncovered, but there is one truth that nobody – especially William – must discover.
You Me Everything is the critically acclaimed love story about finding every bit of joy in life, no matter what.
AVAILABLE NOW IN PAPERBACK, EBOOK AND AUDIO
First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2019
A CBS COMPANY
Copyright © Catherine Isaac, 2019
The right of Catherine Isaac to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Hardback ISBN: 978-1-4711-7804-7
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4711-7805-4
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4711-7806-1
Audio ISBN: 978-1-4711-8040-8
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Messy, Wonderful Us Page 31
