An exceptional storyteller, #1 New York Times bestselling author Robyn Carr beautifully captures the emotionally charged, complex dynamics that come with being part of any family. Readers will laugh and shed a few tears as they discover what it means to be loved, supported and accepted by the people who mean the most.
When a woman notices a young pregnant woman attending her husband's funeral she realizes his mid-life crisis went far beyond his weekend warrior lifestyle. But Carr's story of a family dealing with their grief is full of surprises and as everyone examines their own beliefs and behavior, they become closer than they ever thought possible. Carr tackles the serious issues women face with humor and heart.Buy
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The celebration of life was not held in a funeral parlor
or church but rather in a fancy clubhouse in an upscale Mill Valley community.
It was furnished with comfortable sofas, chairs, small round accent tables,
thick carpet and carefully chosen art. Its primary purpose was for hosting
parties. Residents in the community could rent it for events, which Anna had
done. There was a huge viewing screen upon which the pictures of Chad’s life
played, a hundred and fifty of them, carefully and lovingly chosen by Anna with
a little help from the kids. Every picture had Chad in it, starting from old
childhood prints she’d inherited from Chad’s mother years ago. She’d glance up
to see one of him in a high school football uniform looking the worse for wear
with a big grin on his dirty face; she caught a huge blowup of their wedding
picture; there was one soon after of him with baby Jessie asleep on his chest.
There were many pictures of Chad alone, a few of Chad and Anna, one of a young
Anna gazing lovingly up into Chad’s face, several family groupings. The focus
was Chad, his life, his accomplishments, his achievements, his happiness, a few
of the important people in his life. Chad, Chad, Chad. Just like before he
died.
Things had been tense lately, but she remembered those
younger years fondly because, although it hadn’t been easy, they had been
deeply in love. They met through what can only be described as fate, as
destiny. In fact, their meeting was a legendary family story. Anna had been in
San Francisco, shopping on her lunch hour down at Fisherman’s Wharf. Shopping
but not buying, which was typical for her as she had been and still was very
frugal. She loved the sea lions, enjoyed watching tourists, sometimes found
bargains at Pier 1, enjoyed the occasional meal on the pier.
On that day, something strange happened. She heard a panicked
cry rise from the crowd of tourists on the pier, saw a food truck trundling
across the pier without a driver, picking up speed. A man in work clothes and
apron was chasing the truck. She only had seconds to take it in. It seemed the
food truck, its awning out and moving fast, was headed toward a group of
people. Right before her eyes the truck knocked a man off the pier before the
truck was stopped by a barricade.
The man, completely unaware, flew off the dock and into
the water below, startling a large number of fat sea lions who had been sunning
themselves nearby.
The sea lions scrambled into the water and the man was
flailing around in a panic. Someone yelled, “He can’t swim!” Hardly giving it a
thought, Anna dropped her purse, kicked off her shoes and jumped off the pier,
swimming to the man. Getting to him was no challenge; she practically landed on
top of him. But he was hysterical and splashing, kicking and sputtering. “You’re
okay, come on,” she said, grabbing his shirt by the collar. But he fought
harder and sank, nearly pulling her under with him.
She slapped him in the face and that startled him enough
he could let himself be rescued. She slid her arm around his neck and began
pulling him to the dock where a couple of men seemed to be standing by to pull
him in.
There was a lot of commotion, not to mention honking
noises from sea lions. Anna was shivering in her wet clothes and all she could
think at the time was how was she going to locate a change of clothes for her
afternoon at work. Then there were emergency vehicles and a handsome young
police officer draped a blanket around her shoulders and took a report. The
near drowning victim was taken away in an ambulance and Anna was given a ride
to her apartment by the cute policeman. She was delighted and surprised when
the police officer called her a week later. She almost hyperventilated in hope
that he’d ask her out.
“The man you pulled out of the water has been in touch.
He wants your name,” the officer said.
“He isn’t going to sue me, is he?” she asked.
“I don’t think so,” he said with a laugh. “He seems very
grateful. He won’t have any trouble tracking you down but I said I’d ask. He
probably wants to thank you.”
The man’s name was Chad. He was finishing up his PhD at
Berkeley while she was working in a law office in the Bay Area. She was
twenty-three and he was twenty-seven and she was not prepared for how handsome
he was and of course much better put together than when he was dragged out of
the water.
He took her to dinner and, as she recalled, their first
date was almost like an interview. He wanted to know everything about her and
was utterly amazed to learn she’d had a job as a lifeguard in a community pool
for exactly one summer when she was a teenager and yet jumped in to save him
with total confidence. They fell in love almost instantly. The first time they
made love, he asked her to marry him. She didn’t say yes right away, but they
knew from the start they were made for each other. What they didn’t know was
how many fights they’d have. Very few big fights but many small ones; she
thought of them as bickering. They fought about what was on the pizza; a scrape
on the side of the car that was not her fault, not even remotely; what kind of
vacation they should have and where they should go. As Anna recalled, they
always went where Chad wanted to go. They fought about what movie to see, where
to eat, what was grumbled under his or her breath.
They fought seriously about his affair. That was in the
distant past but it took a long time to get over. Years. But when they finally
pledged to stay married, to do their best to make it good, they fell into bed
and had the best sex of their lives. And they had Elizabeth.
That experience was how she knew that all the excuses for
this current marital rift, no matter what he called it, was probably about
another woman and not them growing apart or having divergent needs. He wouldn’t
admit it and she had no proof, but she had better than average instincts. She
believed he’d gotten all excited at the prospect of falling in love and was
rewriting their history to make that acceptable. He was looking for an excuse
that would make it reasonable to step outside the bonds of marriage. She could
feel it; he’d been involved with someone else.
Excerpted from
A Family Affair by Robyn Carr. Copyright © 2022 by Robyn Carr. Published by
arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
Robyn Carr is an
award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than sixty novels,
including highly praised women’s fiction such as Four Friends, The Summer That
Made Us, and The View from Alameda Island, as well as the critically acclaimed
Virgin River, Thunder Point, and Sullivan's Crossing series. Virgin River is now
a Netflix original series. Robyn lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. You can visit her
website at robyncarr.com.
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