GREETINGS FROM THE FULLERTON VALLEY!
Dear Charlotte and Lydia,
Whose idea was it, anyway, to look up our first loves?
Guess what? Iâve already found mine, and Ryanâs just as gorgeous as I remember and, better yet, heâs still single!
He lives on a ranch near Stoney Creek with his aunt (a sweetie), his brother, Cameron (whoâs really kind of a mystery man), and his darling little niece.
Guess what else? The hotel here is closing for the winter, so Iâm going to be staying at an apartment the Donnellys have at their ranch. I should be there till Christmas.
Wish me luck! Will let you know how it all turns out.
Love,
Zoey
P.S. See you both on New Yearâs Eve!
Dear Reader,
Have you ever sat around a table with your best friends, talking about old times, and someoneâs said, âHey, I wonder what happened to so-and-so?â The first guy you had a crush on, the first love of your life. Did he become the doctor or astronaut or bus driver he always wanted to be? Did he get married? Have children? Does he ever think of me?
Three best friendsâZoey Phillips, Charlotte Moore and Lydia Laneâtake up the challenge in my new miniseries, GIRLFRIENDS. We start with Zoeyâs story, when sheâs invited back to the small town in British Columbia sheâd once called home. Sheâs there to help with a friendâs wedding. And sheâs bound to run into the boy she lost her heart to at sixteen. What happens then? I think the results may surprise you!
Like girlfriends everywhere, Zoey keeps in touch with Charlotte and Lydia while sheâs awayâand discovers that Charlotte has set out on the same quest, while Lydia⦠Well, youâll see.
I hope you enjoy GIRLFRIENDS, the stories of three best friends who met as eighteen-year-olds just out of high school while working at a wilderness resort in the Rocky Mountains. Now, ten years later, they set outâeach on her ownâto track down that elusive first love.
And all the while, their friendship remains an important part of their lives. Old friends, best friendsâ¦GIRLFRIENDS!
Warmly,
Judith Bowen
P.S. I love to hear from readers. Write to me at: Box 2333, Point Roberts, WA 98281-2333 or check out my Web site at www.judithbowen.com.
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
WHOSE IDEA HAD IT BEEN to look up everyoneâs first love, anyway?
First love, first crushâ¦whatever.
The challenge, as Zoey recalled, had been tossed out last spring at the ten-year reunion of the Jasper Park Lodge female summer staff. Zoey and her best friends, Charlotte Moore and Lydia Lane, both of whom sheâd met at the lodge that long-ago summer, had flown from Toronto to Calgary for the big event, rented a car and driven through Banff and the glorious Alberta Rockies to Jasper. Last time theyâd been there, theyâd been swabbing out bathrooms, changing sheets and peeling vegetables. This time, they were paying guests.
About twenty girls had shown up. SomeoneâJenny Springer?âhad announced that they all ought to look up their first crushes, just for the fun of it, even if heâd been the cute guy with the freckles in kindergarten. Simple curiosity. Just to see what had happened to that first heartbreaker in a girlâs life. Probably bald, boring and hopelessly unappealing now. Thenâhere was the testâtheyâd all report back at next yearâs reunion.
Zoey hadnât given the suggestion a thought, but later, when she and Charlotte and Lydia were floating under a clear midnight sky in the outdoor pool overlooking Lake Beauvert, the topic had come up again. Lydia, naturally, had sneaked in a bottle of bubbly and some plastic glasses and theyâd each had a glass or two. There were so many events and memories to toastâ¦.
âIâve made up my mind. Iâm going to do it.â Charlotte raised her glass to the others. âWish me luck.â
âDo what?â Zoey had been idly watching the tattered balloons of her breath hanging in the cold air over the heated water and thinking of bears. Wondering if they were still hibernatingâit was late Aprilâand if they ever came out of the woods and wandered down to the lodge pool to check out the contents.
âLook up my first crush.â Charlotte was delicate and fragile in appearance, with blue eyes and perfect skinâin fact, everything about Charlotte was perfectâbut Zoey knew what kind of energy was hidden beneath that remote, hands-off exterior. The three of them had run a business together, the Call-a-Girl Company, nearly eight years ago. Theyâd done childrenâs birthday parties, house-sitting, gardening, last-minute catering, pet-walking, what-have-youâand no one had put in more hours or devised better, more off-the-wall money-making schemes than Charlotte.