To Have and to Hold by Jane Green Read Free Book Online Page B

she met in a bar in Paris one busy, drunken night), traveled down to the Côte d’Azur to stay with Laurent’s family in their fabulously luxurious home, from where they both crossed the border at San Remo into Italy, and traveled to Naples, before driving down the Amalfi coast to Sorrento and Positano.
    It was the most romantic and exciting time of Emily’s life. Laurent had to leave after Positano, had promised to start working in his father’s business, and there were rivers of tears when they said good-bye. Emily was tempted to follow him back to the south of France, but she had been planning this trip for months, years, and although she loved Laurent, she knew that if she didn’t do everything she had planned she would regret it for the rest of her life.
    So from Italy she went to Greece, and in Greece she hooked up with a bunch of rowdy Australians, and, thankful that she had saved enough money to be able to do this, she booked a cheap flight to Sydney and spent the next eight months working as a waitress in Australia, taking off the last six weeks to travel around and see the country.
    She’d write Alice long letters about the adventures she was having, the people she was meeting, and Alice wrote back, trying to make her course at catering college sound as exciting as Emily’s life, but failing miserably. How could she possibly compete?
    By the time Emily returned to London she had had two flings and three relationships with large, tanned Australians, and Laurent had been well and truly forgotten.
    Alice and Emily’s friendship continued as if Emily had never been away. “That’s the mark of true friends,” Emily always used to say. “That we might not see each other for a year but when we do it’s as if we were never apart.”
    That was until that fateful night when Alice ran into Joe. Alice had phoned Emily the next day, so excited she could barely breathe, let alone talk.
    “You won’t believe it,” she said. “You won’t believe who I saw last night, who”—Alice paused in disbelief—“took my number!”
    “It better be good or I’m putting this phone down,” Emily groaned, never her best first thing in the morning, particularly at 8:15 A.M. when she hasn’t got to bed until two. “It’s the middle of the bloody night.”
    “It’s not. It’s 8:15. I thought it would be okay to call now.”
    “Of course it’s not bloody okay. You know I try to lie in on the weekends.”
    “Oh God. I’m really sorry.”
    “Don’t be sorry, just tell me and then I can go back to sleep.”
    “Joe Chambers.”
    “Joe Chambers. Gorgeous Joe Chambers?”
    “Yes!”
    “Noooo!”
    “Yes!”
    “And is he still gorgeous?”
    “Yes!”
    “Noooo!”
    “Yes!” Alice giggled in delight.
    “And he asked for your number? Are you serious?”
    “Yes!”
    “Noooo!”
    “Oh, fuck off!” And they both started laughing.
    “Did he really ask for your number?” Emily thought back to the years of Alice waiting for Joe at the bus stop after school.
    “He really did. And, Em, he’s so lovely. Really. And I can’t believe he asked for my number.”
    “Did he remember you then?”
    “I don’t think so, but he said he did, and he remembered my brother. Actually I hope he doesn’t remember me. God, I was a horror at school.”
    “Everyone was a horror at school. Remember how they called me Afro Girl?”
    “I wasn’t much better. I was Big Bird.”
    Emily started laughing.
    “Fuck off, Em. It’s not funny.”
    “Sorry. But we were all ugly.”
    “Except Joe Chambers.”
    “Except Gorgeous Joe Chambers. Jesus. I can’t believe he asked you out.”
    “He didn’t ask me out. He just asked for my number. Do you think he’s going to ask me out?”
    “How old are you? Twelve?”
    “What? I’m just asking.”
    “Of course he’s going to ask you out. Why else would he ask for your number?”
    “Duh! To cater a dinner party.”
    “Oh.” Emily had forgotten about that.
    “Bugger. He probably