Read Someone Like You for Free Online Page A

father’s job?”
    “Sara.” Her tone held a gentle warning. They had been over this territory a hundred times before. “We both do what’s right for Annabelle. She’s our first priority.”
    “Darling, she’s not your child.”
    “I know that.”
    “Loving her isn’t a crime, but—”
    “Sara.” The warning was less gentle this time.
    Sara waved away the warning. “If Hugh and I weren’t heading down to London tomorrow, I’d take Annabelle and send you off to Japan right now. What you and our William need is some time alone.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.”
    “When was the last time you two went on holiday alone?”
    “Never,” she said after a moment.
    “That’s not good.”
    “It’s not bad either. We’re a family,” she said. “We don’t need to escape on holiday.”
    “Every couple needs to escape.”
    “Sara, is there a point to this?”
    “I’m British, darling. We ease our way slowly toward personal revelations.”
    “You’re wondering why William isn’t here tonight.” He had, after all, made loud and enthusiastic promises.
    “Why isn’t he here tonight?” she asked.
    Next to Cat, Sara probably knew her as well as anyone on earth, and even Sara knew very little. “No big secret. He’s off to Kyoto to fill in for a sick colleague.”
    “Bugger all.” Sara plucked a salmon roll-up from the picnic basket and popped it into her mouth.
    She laughed out loud. “Yeah,” she said. “Bugger all.”
    “I meant what I said. You and our William need some time alone. You’ve never had the chance to be simply the two of you.”
    She shook her head. “I’m afraid your William and I need more than time alone.”
    “It’s come to that, has it?”
    “I think so.”
    Sara opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again.
    “Oh go ahead,” Joely said with a wave of her hand. “I can take it.”
    “I know you’re the practical sort, but would you mind awfully if I held a good thought for the three of you?”
    It would take much more than a good thought, but Sara was her friend and she already knew that.
    “What was his wife like?” Joely asked as they divided up a piece of cake layered with lemon curd. “I’ve seen pictures, but they don’t really tell you anything.”
    If the question surprised Sara, she didn’t let on. Her brow furrowed ever so slightly as she considered her answer. “Thoughtful. When I think of Natasha, that’s the first thing that comes to mind. She knew how to listen.”
    “Was she funny?”
    “Obliquely.”
    “Obliquely? You’ll have to do better than that.”
    Sara rolled her eyes. “You Americans are so literal.” She was silent for a bit. “It’s been a very long time, but when Annabelle laughs, it’s Natasha I hear.”
    This was one of those times when Joely longed for the plain talk of her old hometown. Pretty words, but they told her nothing beyond the fact that Annabelle was her mother’s daughter. “Where did you meet? How did you all become friends?”
    Sara and Natasha met in an obstetrician’s office near Kensington Park. They were both there for their first postnatal visit, both accompanied by their husbands and brand-new offspring. The men worked in finance. The women were delighted to be stay-at-home mums. It had been a heady time. They were all young and beautiful and healthy, and the future went on forever.
    “How did she die?” Joely asked, making sure Annabelle was out of earshot. “I mean, I know she was sick, but I never asked William for details.” Natasha had never seemed real to her, and so she had been content with what little she knew.
    “Pancreatic cancer,” Sara said. “Forty-five days from diagnosis until her funeral.” She met Joely’s eyes. “She was buried a week before Annabelle’s first birthday.”
    Once Sara started, she couldn’t stop, and Joely listened, first in fascination and then in despair, as William’s wife, Annabelle’s mother, suddenly became a flesh-and-blood woman.
    William and