GREETINGS FROM
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Dear Lydia and Zoey,
I found him!
Tall, dark and handsomeâyes, I suppose so, in a tough sort of wayâbut whereâs the boy I remember? This Liam Connery is nothing like my sisterâs friend at Dunwoody High, the one I fell in love with.
Plus, thereâs something mysterious about him that justâ¦sets me on edge. He didnât know I existed back then, and Iâd say he doesnât really know I exist now, even though Iâm staying in the same house with him and his mother, who is a sweetheart.
Just goes to showâyou canât trust memory. How are you both doing? Find your âfirst loveâ yet?
Love,
Charlotte
P.S. See you New Yearâs Eve!
Dear Reader,
Most women wonder what happened to that first love, the first boy they had a crush on, the one who made them ask what love was all about.
My âfirst love,â the boy I first noticed in second grade and who was my âfirst dateâ in seventh grade and with whom I went to the prom at graduation, is happily marriedâto someone else!âand driving a taxi in a large Canadian city, last I heard. I havenât seen him since our tenth high school reunion, over twenty years ago, although we come from the same hometown and as in all small towns, âthere ainât much to see, but what you hear sure makes up for it!â
Zoey, Charlotte and Lydia have all been on a quest to look up their âfirst lovesâ in my GIRLFRIENDS miniseries. In this story, Charlotte goes to Prince Edward Island on business and just happens to find Liam Connery, the lean, intense boy sheâd lost her young, untried heart to at eleven. Of course, theyâd never spoken back then, but that doesnât mean she hadnât suffered all the agonies of true love.
Charlotte gets a shock. Liam isnât anything like she remembers. But she soon finds that the man he is today holds an entirely different kind of appealâ¦.
I hope you enjoy Charlotteâs story.
Warmest regards,
Judith Bowen
P.S. I love to hear from readers. Please let me know what you think of GIRLFRIENDS. Write to me at: P.O. Box 2333, Point Roberts, WA 98281-2333, or visit me at my Web site at www.judithbowen.com.
HARDWOODS, MOSTLY MAPLES, blazed on the hillsides, elbowing aside, if only for a few weeks, the darker tones of gnarly cedar, abundant spruce, towering white pine. At the turn of the road, poplar or birch gleamedârags of flat gold, tatters of amber, set against the brilliance of the blue October sky.
Wood smoke from kitchen fires hung in the trees, in the dips and gullies. Every hour at least, before turning onto the highway that afternoon, Charlotte had to slow for a farmer drawing a cart loaded with firewood or turnips, sometimes late potatoes, behind his tractor.
This was the best time of year, still weeks away from the winds of winter blowing down from Labrador. It still offered picnicking weather on a good day and, a bonus, the peace and expectant quiet of a tourist area between seasonsâthe summer travelers, families seeking sun, sea and lobster suppers, had all gone home now, and the color âpeepers,â the buses full of second-honeymooners and seniors up from Boston and New York or down from central Canada to gaze at all this autumnal glory, were only just beginning to arrive.
Charlotte loved everything about the Maritimes. She was a city girl through and through, but she always felt completely at home on her annual trips east to the Gaspe, to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, attending village auctions, winkling out estate sales, sometimes just plain exploring back roads and country lanes, as sheâd done this time. She never tired of the scenery, but right now, fall colors and pastoral landscapes were far from her mind.
She couldnât stop thinking about Liam. Liam Connery.
The first boy sheâd ever had a crush on. Sheâd been in grade five at Snowden Elementary, and heâd been a friend of her sisterâs, in grade eleven, at A.E. Dunwoody High in Toronto. Heâd never even known Charlotte existed, of course, but that hadnât stopped her young heart from going pitter-patter whenever he showed up at their house with Laurel and her gang, and happened to glance her way.
What a laugh. She hadnât thought of him in years and years, just assumed heâd gone on and followed his dreams, as everyone tried to do after high school. As she had done. Heâd talked of flying, so maybe he was Captain Connery now, piloting 747s for Air Canada, a handsome, sexy first officer married to a beautiful, sexy flight attendant.
Last spring, sheâd started thinking about him againâand now, six months later, he was still on her mind. The idea of looking up first loves had arisen at last Aprilâs reunion of the summer staff of Jasper Park Lodge. Her curiosity had been aroused by the challengeâwhat had happened to Liam Connery?