BooksBarbecue
Back Escape to the French Farmhouse Save as PDF
Chapters (79)
  1. COVER
  2. About the Author
  3. Also by Jo Thomas
  4. DEDICATION
  5. ONE
  6. TWO
  7. THREE
  8. FOUR
  9. FIVE
  10. SIX
  11. SEVEN
  12. EIGHT
  13. NINE
  14. TEN
  15. ELEVEN
  16. TWELVE
  17. THIRTEEN
  18. FOURTEEN
  19. FIFTEEN
  20. SIXTEEN
  21. SEVENTEEN
  22. EIGHTEEN
  23. NINETEEN
  24. TWENTY
  25. TWENTY-ONE
  26. TWENTY-TWO
  27. TWENTY-THREE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. TWENTY-SIX
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. TWENTY-NINE
  34. THIRTY
  35. THIRTY-ONE
  36. THIRTY-TWO
  37. THIRTY-THREE
  38. THIRTY-FOUR
  39. THIRTY-FIVE
  40. THIRTY-SIX
  41. THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. THIRTY-NINE
  44. FORTY
  45. FORTY-ONE
  46. FORTY-TWO
  47. FORTY-THREE
  48. FORTY-FOUR
  49. FORTY-FIVE
  50. FORTY-SIX
  51. FORTY-SEVEN
  52. FORTY-EIGHT
  53. FORTY-NINE
  54. FIFTY
  55. FIFTY-ONE
  56. FIFTY-TWO
  57. FIFTY-THREE
  58. FIFTY-FOUR
  59. FIFTY-FIVE
  60. FIFTY-SIX
  61. FIFTY-SEVEN
  62. FIFTY-EIGHT
  63. FIFTY-NINE
  64. SIXTY
  65. SIXTY-ONE
  66. SIXTY-TWO
  67. Epilogue
  68. Acknowledgements
  69. RECIPES
  70. Lavender shortbread
  71. Apricot jam sponge cake
  72. Lavender lamb
  73. READ MORE
  74. Prologue
  75. ONE
  76. TWO
  77. THREE
  78. FOUR
  79. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

‘No,’ I say. ‘I’m here to stay. I’m going into business with Henri. I was never going back to Ollie. Our journey ended a long time ago. It just took me a while to realize it.’

‘Then what?’ He looks confused.

‘We …’ I hesitate. ‘I couldn’t have children. We spent years trying diets, alternative therapies, and then IVF, which left me depressed, as if the old me had moved out and left just a shell of me behind. I felt I’d been excluded from a club that everyone else was allowed to join. But out here, on my own, I started to find me again, and I like her.’

‘I do too.’ He smiles gently. My heart and stomach shift and resettle.

‘And then … I met you. And I … fell in love and made love for the first time in years. I felt loved.’

He says nothing.

‘It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have let myself fall in love with you.’

‘But I fell in love with you too!’

‘But I can’t be with you, Fabien.’

‘I don’t understand!’ The candle flames flicker and light his face.

‘Because I can’t give you the one thing you really want, and that’s a family. You have to meet someone who’ll give you everything you want in life, and that isn’t me. It’s best we stop this now, before we—’

‘Fall in love? Isn’t it a bit late for that?’ he asks. ‘Del.’ He stands up and looks across the lavender field, breathing in the night air, then turns to me. ‘I loved you from the moment I met you, when you arrived at the brocante. When I heard you were here alone and trying to make life work for yourself.’ We both laugh. ‘Then you set up the stall, gave Stephanie a home, took on the bistro and the riverside clearing project, and you took on Cora. My love for you has grown.’

‘But you need to be with someone who can—’

‘Give me a family? Carine told me what she said to you. She hadn’t realized we were together for the short time we were. When I thought I had finally met and got together with the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.’

I’m hot, my heart racing, and I feel like I’m looking down from a cloud at the life I want to have but can’t quite reach.

‘Yes, it’s true, I have always wanted a family. But you have shown me that you don’t need a baby to have a family. You, Stephanie, Tomas, JB, that’s family, isn’t it?’

I nod slowly.

‘And you, Stephanie, Tomas and JB are all the family I need. Everything I want in life is right here, right now, with you. I want you as my family. Isn’t that enough?’