Tess Gold – the current wife.
When Tess married Drew Gold, she knew his two ex-wives were still in his life.
Now Drew has planned a luxury cruise to celebrate his birthday … and the former Mrs. Golds are all coming too.
Mona Gold – the second wife.
When it comes to style, fashion editor, Mona, never puts a Louboutin wrong.
Now it’s time to reclaim the only man she ever really loved … if she can tempt Drew away from his new wife for a second time.
Sarah Gold – the first wife, the original.
When Drew left her for Mona, Sarah’s emotions went into hibernation.
Now she’s decided to shave those legs and start living again…
EXTRACT
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1. All Booked Up
Tess Gold
Tess put her coffee cup down with a sigh. ‘Mum, I have to go – an email has just popped into my inbox that I have to reply to.’
‘OK, lovely, I’ll call you tomorrow or the next day. And if I can find a hotspot I’ll scoop you.’
‘Skype, Mum. It’s Skype.’
‘That’s what I meant. Stupid name. Anyway, hasta la vista baby, as they say here.’
Tess smiled. ‘They don’t say that anywhere, Mum.’
‘Well, your dad does. Every time I leave the van. He thinks he’s hilarious.’
Tess suddenly pictured her mother’s slightly sunburned nose wrinkling with affection as she said that and felt a distinct tug on her heartstrings. Retirement had been an adventure for Evelyn and Alan Campbell. A former nurse and policeman, they’d quit at fifty-five, jetted off to Brazil and were currently travelling around the nations of South America in a camper van. Tess tried not to think about it. It went against the natural order of things. Her parents should be fretting over their twenty-eight-year-old daughter having wild adventures, not the other way around. The only thing that was likely to catapult her into mortal peril in Anderson & McWilliam Marketing were the rock cakes that Beryl the cleaner insisted on inflicting on them every Friday.
‘Bye, Mum. And give Dad a hug from me. Miss you.’
‘We miss you too, sweetheart. Love to Drew.’
As Tess put the phone down and reread the email, she was overcome with an urge to head straight to Glasgow airport and catch the first flight out to join her parents.
It was sure to be more enjoyable the current plan. Ten days on a cruise with her husband, celebrating his fiftieth birthday. So far, so fabulous. Add in two adult children by one of his previous marriages. Could potentially be a little uncomfortable, but still bearable. Add one ex-wife, and the dread factor started to rise. Add in another ex-wife, her husband and step-kid and the shivers ran all the way to her toes.
Suddenly, taking on gangs of brutal drugs smugglers in the hills above Bogota seemed like the preferable option.
“Civilized” Drew called it. Modern. Functional. ‘‘We’re all grown-ups,’’ was his favourite saying, as he surveyed his multi-generational extended family at birthdays, Christmases and assorted special occasions. He was proud of the fact that he still worked with Mona, ex-wife number two, and took Sarah, ex-wife number one, out for lunch on the anniversary of their divorce every year.
Tess would be lying if she denied that it had taken a while to get used to. But then, she’d known what she was in for. Marrying Drew Gold, a newspaper editor, a man almost twenty-two years her senior, was always going to come with a set of unique baggage.
And now it had come to this.
For his fiftieth birthday, she’d envisaged a romantic week in Venice. Or perhaps a gorgeous, intimate weekend in Rome. But no, Drew had ambushed her – yes, ambushed was the right word – with a two-week Mediterranean cruise with both his previous families, and no matter how much she tried to persuade herself that she should be grateful she was going on such a luxurious break, she was still anticipating the trip with all the excitement of, say, ten days with chickenpox scabs.
‘You’re thinking about it again, aren’t you?’ Cameron put a fresh coffee in front of her and sat down on the corner of her desk, squashing the artwork for the Doggie Doo Bags campaign. She’d slaved over a concept for the print ads, but the truth was that if she just put Cameron in a shot, surrounded him with cute puppies and wrote the name of the product along the bottom, every female in the country would be lining up to buy them whether they had a pet pooch or not.
If genetic scientists found a way to combine the DNA of Orlando Bloom and Channing Tatum, the prototype would look something like Cameron. Razor-sharp cheekbones, a thoroughly masculine jawline and dark eyes so intense that only the fact that he was always laughing kept him from looking like a brooding yet undeniably attractive serial killer.
‘I am,’ she admitted. ‘It’ll be fine though. Great. Sun, sea, and apparently the ship is gorgeous. I know I’m really lucky to be going.’ There was a tone of conviction that didn’t necessarily reflect how she was feeling.
