Out With The Old, In With The New

Out With The Old, In With The New
Nancy Robards Thompson

Ask your husband what he's been doing all those nights he claimed to be at the hospital…The aforementioned suggestion would never be welcomed by any woman who'd been married for the better (well, mostly) part of twenty years. But for Kate Hennessey, who was celebrating turning forty by taking a fabulous vacation with her two best friends, the timing was not the best.Does she go, or does she stay?She'll get the answer soon enough. And though her world may be rocked, maybe she can cope better than we think. Because design is her business, after all. You know, changing things around and putting the pieces together in a whole new way….

So the big four-oh looms right down the pike

For each of us, one right after another. Boom, boom, boom. I’m the first to cross that dubious threshold in May. Alex turns right after me in August—

Turns? That’s horrible. It sounds like one day we’re light and lively and the next day we’re soured milk. I’d never thought of it that way and wish I hadn’t because it gives me yet another reason to dread turning forty. Anyhow, Rainey, the baby of the bunch, is the last to outlive her shelf life. She turns in November.

And we started the annual girls’ getaway the year of our thirtieth birthdays. So in a sense this year is a double celebration.

But I can’t go. Because I don’t trust my husband enough to leave him alone for two nights….

Nancy Robards Thompson

Nancy Robards Thompson has reinvented herself numerous times. In the process, she’s worked a myriad of jobs, including newspaper reporting; television show stand-in; production and casting extras for movies; and several mind-numbing jobs in the fashion industry and public relations. She earned a degree in journalism, only to realize that reporting “just the facts” bored her silly. Much more content to report to her muse, Nancy has found nirvana doing what she loves most—writing romance fiction full-time. Since hanging up her press pass, this two-time nominee for the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart struck gold in July 2002 when she won the award. She lives in Orlando, Florida, with her husband, Michael, their daughter, and three cats, but that doesn’t stop her from dreaming of a life as a bohemian writer in Paris.

Out with the Old, In with the New

Nancy Robards Thompson

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

From the Author

Dear Reader,

I read recently that forty is the new thirty. What does that mean? That forty was considered over the hill and is no longer as old as once perceived? Or is it reflective of a new attitude? That chronological age is irrelevant, and a woman can reinvent herself at any age?

The latter is the premise of my story Out with the Old, In with the New. When forty-year-old Kate Hennessey discovers her marriage of twenty years is over, she’s faced with the horrifying realization that she gave half her life to a man who doesn’t want her anymore. At first, she worries the breakup means the best years of her life—and all she’s accomplished in that time—are null and void. Learning to stand on her own two feet, she embraces her new path and the opportunity to grow into her full potential.

I hope you enjoy Kate’s journey of self-discovery. Here’s wishing you a lifetime of love and happiness…and the strength to look deep inside yourself and discover where those qualities live.

Warmly,

Nancy Robards Thompson

This book is dedicated to the transforming

power of friendship and to my good friends

Katherine Garbera, Mary Louise Wells,

Teresa Brown, Elizabeth Grainger, Catherine Kean,

Debbie Pfeiffer, Robin Trimble, Joanne Maio,

Carol Reiss, Evelyn Sechler and Christina Mancia.

Ladies, your friendship makes my life very rich.

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I’d like to thank two wonderful

women—Michelle Grajkowski, my agent, and

Gail Chasan, my editor. Michelle, thanks for having the

foresight to get this manuscript

into Gail’s hands. Gail, thanks for everything.

I look forward to many years of collaboration

with both of you.

Heartfelt appreciation (and a long overdue dinner) to

Robert Trimble for your sage advice on divorce law (for

the book, thank God, not for real life!).

Finally, love and thanks to Michael and Jennifer.

I couldn’t do this without your love and support.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10