A Walk in the Park Read Online Free Page A

Bonnie and Ray?
    From the foot of the stairs, Bonnie yelled up, “Toast and marmalade, darling? Or croissants and cherry jam?”
    â€œOoh, croissants please.”
    â€œMimosa?” This from Marina. “Or orange juice and champagne in separate glasses?”
    â€œSeparate glasses please.”
    â€œMoët et Chandon or vintage Bollinger?” Marina paused. “Or lovely sparkly cava from the supermarket?”
    Evie knew the proper stuff was being saved for the toasts at the reception. She grinned. “Cava.”
    â€œGood girl, cor- rect answer! OK, just give us a few minutes…”
    Imagine it, in a few hours she wouldn’t be a Beresford anymore. She’d become Evie Barber instead. One of the family. Oh my.
    She’d first seen Joel in a nightclub in Bath, shortly after the Barbers had moved down from London. That had been fifteen years ago. She’d been nineteen, on the gawky side, never a member of the cool set. Whereas Joel, at twenty and without even trying, had been the epitome of cool. Handsome, charming, reckless, and impulsive, everyone had fallen under his spell and Evie had been content to watch from the sidelines. She didn’t mind that he didn’t notice her; Joel Barber was way out of her league.
    But as time went on, their paths had continued to cross. Bath wasn’t a huge city and there were only so many clubs and bars. Eighteen months after that initial sighting, Joel was leaving a pub just as Evie was on her way in and he accidentally swung the glass door shut in her face. He’d apologized profusely, made sure she was OK, and insisted on taking the blame even though it had been as much her fault as his.
    Which had been nice.
    Then, a couple of years later, she had been jostled carrying a couple of drinks across a crowded bar and accidentally spilled one of them down the back of Joel’s shirt.
    This time it had definitely been her fault and she had been the one to apologize but he’d been lovely about it, assuring her it didn’t matter a bit.
    Another year or so after that, a friend of hers had started seeing a friend of Joel’s and their social circles had begun to intersect, then merge. He finally learned her name and treated her as a girl-who-was-a-friend. It felt fantastic, despite the fact that she’d far rather have been his girlfriend in the proper sense.
    But Evie kept her true feelings hidden. That was her secret and hers alone. Joel was still out of her league. At least he wasn’t breaking her heart and leaving her in bits, like he was doing to the stream of pretty girls who passed through his life and did get involved with him.
    And ended up regretting it.
    Then an astonishing thing happened. At the age of twenty-nine Joel fell in love with an older woman who did the unthinkable and turned the tables on him in a spectacular fashion, losing interest and returning to her older richer lover.
    Joel was devastated and hopelessly unprepared. For the first time in his entire charmed life he learned how it felt to be rejected. Many sniggered and reveled in his downfall but Evie’s heart went out to him. Joel repaid her sympathy by confiding in her and sharing his pain.
    A fortnight later they ended up in bed together. It was a toss-up which of them was more surprised. But Joel told her he loved her, that he was turning over a new leaf, that she was the one for him. He was done with drama and high-maintenance females. It was time for a change.
    Time for a change for him, a dream come true for Evie. They became a couple and miraculously turned out to be better suited than either of them had thought. Their different characters complemented each other. Evie wasn’t temperamental, attention-seeking, and overly dramatic. In short, she wasn’t hard work and Joel truly appreciated that. Their affection for each other was genuine.
    And when he introduced her to his family, her joy was complete.
    Ray and Bonnie were the