Back First Comes Love Save as PDF
Chapters (92)
  1. First
  2. Love Connection
  3. Zero
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. One Month Later
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Six Months Later
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-one
  27. Twenty-two
  28. Twenty-three
  29. Twenty-four
  30. Six Months Later
  31. Twenty-five
  32. Twenty-six
  33. Twenty-seven
  34. Twenty-eight
  35. Twenty-nine
  36. Thirty
  37. Thirty-one
  38. Thirty-two
  39. Thirty-three
  40. I Have Never
  41. One
  42. Two
  43. Three
  44. Four
  45. Five
  46. Six
  47. Seven
  48. Eight
  49. Nine
  50. Ten
  51. Eleven
  52. Twelve
  53. Thirteen
  54. Fourteen
  55. Fifteen
  56. Sixteen
  57. Seventeen
  58. Eighteen
  59. Nineteen
  60. Twenty
  61. Twenty-one
  62. Twenty-two
  63. A Christmas Date
  64. One
  65. Two
  66. Three
  67. Four
  68. Five
  69. Six
  70. Seven
  71. Eight
  72. Nine
  73. Ten
  74. Eleven
  75. Twelve
  76. Thirteen
  77. Fourteen
  78. Fifteen
  79. Sixteen
  80. Seventeen
  81. Eighteen
  82. Nineteen
  83. Twenty
  84. Twenty-one
  85. Twenty-two
  86. Note from the Author
  87. Sneak Peek – To the Stars and Back
  88. Two
  89. Three
  90. Four
  91. Also by Camilla Isley
  92. About the Author

Blair doesn’t respond. She removes her coat, kicks off her shoes, and slides onto the couch next to me, taking me into her arms. She pets me and cuddles me as I tell her everything: the lunch at Big Mama, the announcement, Jules’ stupid doubts, my lone walk through the streets of Manhattan, and the hair salon.

“Do you really like my hair this way?” I ask at the end.

“Love it!” Blair smiles sincerely.

I hug her tighter. “Distract me. What was your big news?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I catch her throwing a guilty look at the champagne bottle. A thick layer of condensation now covers the dark glass. The wine’s got to be warm by now. Great, I ruined her celebration.

“Oh, nothing,” she says, brushing my question off. “Let’s talk about it another night.”

“You bought the bubbly,” I insist. “Don’t tell me it’s nothing.”

She chews on her index nail, undecided.

“Did Richard propose, too?”

“No,” Blair says and, still biting her nail, adds, “but he asked me to move in with him.”

I try to smile, I really try, but my lower lip starts trembling. I manage an, “I’m so happy for you,” before I start sobbing again.

Blair pulls me back into her arms and tries to console me. “It won’t be super soon. I told him we would need time to figure things out, and I’m not going anywhere until you’re okay. Listen, I know the holidays are hard for you, and I’m here. Richard is going back to England over the break, but I’m staying in the States. We’ll go home together, and whenever it gets too hard at your place, you can come and crash in my room, I promise. It’ll be just you, me, and Chevron. A girls’ club.”

I calm down a little. Blair coming home to Connecticut with me is the lifeline I need to survive this Christmas. Knowing she’ll be there is the only positive piece of news I’ve gotten all day. Also, for the first time, I notice Chevron—Blair’s semi-golden-retriever dog—didn’t come home with her.

“Hey, where did you leave Chevron?”

“At Richard’s. I took the subway back. With traffic, it would’ve taken forever in his car, and it was too cold to walk, even for me.”

“Oh, I could’ve used the extra cuddles.”

Chevron is the most empathic and only dog I like.

“I thought you were a cat person.”

“I am, but Chevron is basically a cat born in the wrong body.”

Blair smirks. “If you say so.”

“At least when the two of you move out I’ll be able to adopt a real cat, body and soul.”