Chapters (48)
- Cover
- Praise
- About the Author
- Also by Tricia Stringer
- Title Page
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgements
- Excerpt
- One
Natalie’s insides churned and then two words popped into her head – After Anomaly. She’d never said no to Nancy in her life but this was Natalie’s AA life and planning to escape on a holiday on her own made her bold. “Thanks for thinking of me but I can’t do it this time.” She took a breath. “In fact I don’t think I’ll be on the committee at all any more.”
“But—”
“My girls haven’t played netball for years. I think it’s time to let someone else who’s more involved take a turn.” She bent to pick up her handbag. Her fingers trembled. Her initial strength in standing up to Nancy was fading fast. “Must go. I’m on my way to Adelaide.”
“But—”
“Nice to chat, Nancy.” Natalie pressed end, gathered her things and strode quickly from the shop. She’d said no to Nancy Phelps and it felt as if she’d won the lotto.
Sixteen
Sixteen
Thirty-eight thousand feet in the air, Natalie pressed herself against the back of her seat as the man in front flung his seat back, trapping her in the small pocket of space left between it and the men on either side of her. She glanced from one to the other. They’d both said hello then plugged earphones into devices and, apart from accepting refreshments, they’d hardly moved since.
She shifted in her seat, moved her legs up and down, scrunched her toes, and finally took the inflight magazine from the seat pocket and began to flick, disappointed there’d been no time at the airport to browse the bookshop. She still had nothing to read. She’d plucked a copy of the newspaper from the stand in Perth as she’d boarded the second leg of her flight to Broome but it was difficult to open in the small space and she’d given up.
The glossy magazine held little interest either. She flicked past ads for jewellery worth more than her year’s wage, cars that would be useless on rough dirt roads, watches that appeared to do everything but tell the time clearly and holidays to places overseas she knew she was unlikely to take. Opulence had never been her thing. She saw nothing her heart desired, except perhaps the holiday but it didn’t have to be fancy to fulfil that dream. Headlines urged her to ‘Be ready for tomorrow’, ‘Tap in and tune out’. There was even one urging her to buy a ‘sexy ceiling fan’.