And Jeanie said to Frankie, ‘Right you are then’ and marched off to the kitchen, looking oddly pleased with herself.

Seeing all of this, Harry Mortimer winked across at his younger daughter and decided it was definitely time to pop open some celebratory champagne.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgements

Love and thanks to Lizzy Kremer, Caroline Hogg, Anna Bond, Mel Four, Stuart Dwyer, Kate Tolley, Sarah Arratoon and the whole Pan Mac team. You’re all superstars.

Thanks to Amanda Crutchley who patiently talked me through family law, and to Janette Pearson for answering my piano-related questions – any mistakes within the novel are most definitely my own.

Cocktails all round for the SWANs, my funny, clever, brilliant author colleagues – it’s always such a pleasure to see you.

All the love to Martin, Hannah, Tom and Holly for being the best people I know.

And thanks to you for picking up this book. I really hope you enjoyed it.

Read on for an extract from the brand new book from Lucy Diamond

An Almost Perfect Holiday

Coming January 2020 – available for pre-order now

Prologue

The women were still sitting by the swimming pool, even though it was almost midnight. Up above, the stars were a handful of silver glitter against the inky black while the moon cast glimmering ripples of light into the water. The air smelled of wine and chlorine, with just a faint hint of ozone from the distant sea carried on the breeze.

A collection of empty glasses and plates around them signalled that this had been a long night. At an earlier point, as the sun vanished and the temperature began to plummet, one of the women had suggested bringing their duvets out to keep themselves warm, and now they were comfortably rugged-up and cosy on the sun loungers, laughing and exchanging confidences like girls on a sleepover.

‘This has been such a strange holiday,’ said the first woman just then. Strange but also surprisingly good in a lot of ways, she was thinking. Everything had changed. Even she had changed. For the first time in years, the future felt . . . interesting.

‘You’re telling me,’ said the second woman. Her mood wasn’t quite so optimistic. In fact she’d go as far as to say that the holiday had been a complete disaster. Would she ever get over what had happened this week?

Silence fell, except for the faint glugging of the water in the swimming-pool filter and the soft bumps of an inflatable flamingo against the metal steps as it cruised in slow, blind circles.

The third woman had been gazing up at the night sky, turning things over in her mind. Now she spoke. ‘I might regret this tomorrow,’ she said after a moment, ‘but I was wondering . . . can I tell you guys a secret? Like – something really big?’

Chapter One

Five days earlier