One Perfect Summer

Victoria Parrin, Rachel Kittow and Kelly Clarke from Anglia Ruskin University. I wish I could go back in time and study English Lit with you – I’d join your Literary Society in a flash. Thank you also to Dr Colette Paul for putting me in touch with these three fantastic students. (NB: when Alice went to Anglia Ruskin, it was still called APU, but I’ve used Anglia Ruskin to avoid confusion.)
    Thank you to the very kind Geoff Morley for showing me around Bridget’s and Nightingale Halls and for his brilliant recollections of student life there. I wish there had been room in the book for maintenance man Clive and his legendary spooky stories!
    And immense gratitude to He Who Shall Not Be Named for his assistance with Lukas’s research. You risked the mirth of your colleagues (I still giggle every time I remember you saying you’d ‘never live it down’), but you helped me more than you know and I sincerely appreciate it.
    Huge thanks to Katherine Reid for the proofreading – I will be roping you in for years to come, whether you like it or not.
    Cheers to Sarah Bailey and Tim Snelle (from Cambridge Chauffeur Punts) for their punting advice, and thank you to their son ‘Baby Jack’ for entertaining Idha when my deadline was looming. Thank you also to the punters at Scudamores, and to Mille Rytter and Annabel Diggle.
    Thank you to my sister-in-law Gretta Ford for her teaching guidance, to Karl Molden for his physics feedback (and Matthew Ford for putting me in touch with him!), to Heat ’s film editor, Charles Gant, for the agent-related advice, to fellow S&S author Ali Harris for her support, friendship and the many, many cups of tea, to Vickie Robertson for introducing me to kingmaker all those years ago, to Chenoa Powell for the idea about ‘the brother’, and also to Wendy, Becky and Sarah for keeping me topped up with tea while I’ve been beavering away at ‘my’ table in the corner.
    Thanks also to my friend Lucy Branch and her son Finn for inspiring the ‘China’ punting story. (Oh, and you’re quite right, Lucy, I do think the bronze in the Guildhall could do with a bit of a polish. . .!)
    On a more sombre note, the character of Lizzy was originally called Katy, but I renamed her in memory of my friend Helen’s sister Elizabeth ‘Lizzy’ Angell, who passed away tragically and unexpectedly at the end of 2011. My Lizzy bears no resemblance to Lizzy Angell – she was one in seven billion and I would never attempt to recreate her in print – but she liked my books and we think she would have appreciated the sentiment.
    Thank you, always, to my parents, Vern and Jenny Schuppan, and my parents-in-law Ian and Helga Toon. It’s been a full-on year, and I couldn’t have met the earlier deadline for this book without your help, especially Mum’s.
    And, of course, thank you to my husband, Greg, my son, Indy and my daughter, Idha. I love you all to bits.

 
    Please read on for a taster of Paige Toon’s wonderful summer read

 
    ‘Happy birthday to you,
    Happy birthday to you,
    Happy birthday, dear Barney,
    Happy birthday to you.’
    I’m singing this very quietly so as not to wake him. He’s had a busy day with his nanny, grandad and me, and now he’s crashed out in his cot. He’s going to grow out of it soon. I can’t believe my baby has just turned one. It’s frightening how time flies.
    Bit of a bummer that his daddy wasn’t here today. I say that flippantly, but inside I’m not happy. Not happy at all. Then, suddenly, I’m fine again. It’s the guilt. It balances out the anger. I can’t stay cross with Christian for long. That word: ‘Daddy’. It’s a lie. I’m a liar. And I hate myself for it.
    I can hear my parents clattering away in the bathroom next door. They’ll be in bed soon, and then I’ll have the living room to myself. I’m getting the urge again. My head is prickling with the thought of it. It will be the first time I’ve done it in six months. The last time was when Christian and I had a big fight. That was before I knew. Before I knew for sure. But I’d suspected it for a long time.
    Oh, Christian . . . What have I done?
    One year and nine months ago, I had sex with my boyfriend’s best friend. It sounds horrendous when you say it like that. Don’t get me wrong, it is horrendous. But there was a history there. I was in love with Johnny. I was in love with him first.
    I look back once more to my sleeping baby, who is no longer a baby. I lean over his