The Promise of Provence (Love in Provence Book 1) by Patricia Sands Page B
Authors: Patricia Sands
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left, I’ve thought over and over again how I allowed myself to be controlled by him. I’m not blaming him—it was always ultimately my choice—but for me not to go back to Europe for twenty-two years because he didn’t want to fly is so lame, I can’t believe it.”
Andrea nodded. “We often make choices in life that amaze us when we consider them later. As they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty, huh?”
“Twenty-twenty indeed! You can’t imagine how much my vision has improved in the last few months! Thank you for doing this. I know how I’ll spend my spare time for the next while.”
Grinning at each other, they looked up as Andrea’s husband, Terrence, came into the kitchen from the garden, where he had been taking stock of the winter’s effect. As he washed his hands in the mudroom adjoining the kitchen, Andrea told him what they had been doing.
Terrence chuckled. “Andrea should be receiving a commission from that website. I can’t tell you how many of our friends she’s signed up.”
Andrea laughed along with him, her head bobbing with excitement. “As if Kat doesn’t know that. She’s been listening to me go on about our great home exchanges for years.”
“Yup,” agreed Katherine. “James always thought you were crazy for allowing strangers to stay in your place. He wouldn’t have considered it in a thousand years.”
“Isn’t it nice you can make up your own mind about these things without having his overbearing influence?” Terrence asked. “Sorry, Kat, perhaps I shouldn’t have said that, but honestly, the more I hear how he controlled your lives, the happier I am you are out of that marriage. You have a lot of living to do!”
Katherine stood and hugged him.
“I’m not sure about the ‘lot of living’ part, but I have to admit I’m not having a hard time accepting that I’m the one who makes all the decisions about my life now. There’s no question I really miss my mom, but I do not miss my former husband. Period. Full stop!”
It had taken Katherine almost six months to say that out loud, and as soon as she did, it felt right. Not that it removed the hurt, but she felt a certain degree of success at being able to banish good memories of him from her thoughts.
Pausing briefly as her words sunk in with everyone, Katherine turned the subject back to home exchange.
“Putting Andrea’s chronic optimism aside—seriously, Terrence, how do you feel about these exchanges? Any problems ever?”
“Nope,” he answered without hesitation. “Each one has been great, although there’s no question you have to be flexible.”
“Meaning?”
“For example, our first exchange was to Portugal—a holiday house in the Algarve, with a pool—we always look for a property with a pool. The exchange family went to the condo we have at Blue Mountain. They wanted to go in the summer to see that part of Canada after they visited relatives in Toronto.”
Andrea added, “But remember, this was in 2000, and they didn’t have all the listings on the Internet yet, so we just saw photos in the catalogue. Most communication then was by fax or phone! Seems kind of archaic now, doesn’t it?”
“Right,” Terrence continued, “it’s so much better and easier today since you can see exactly what you are getting.”
“So what was the problem?” Katherine asked.
“Well, it turned out there wasn’t a comfortable chair to sit in anywhere! It was all wicker with thin cushions! Looked nice, but felt terrible!”
“And the bed in the master bedroom had a sag in the middle so enormous we would immediately roll into it.”
Terrence and Andrea both laughed at the memory.
“So we went to the nearest local housewares store and bought a couple of fat cushions! Besides, the weather was so fantastic we were out by the pool or at the beach most of the time anyway.”
“Not a big deal,” Andrea said, “and we fixed the problem with the bed easily by stuffing our empty suitcases under the
Andrea nodded. “We often make choices in life that amaze us when we consider them later. As they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty, huh?”
“Twenty-twenty indeed! You can’t imagine how much my vision has improved in the last few months! Thank you for doing this. I know how I’ll spend my spare time for the next while.”
Grinning at each other, they looked up as Andrea’s husband, Terrence, came into the kitchen from the garden, where he had been taking stock of the winter’s effect. As he washed his hands in the mudroom adjoining the kitchen, Andrea told him what they had been doing.
Terrence chuckled. “Andrea should be receiving a commission from that website. I can’t tell you how many of our friends she’s signed up.”
Andrea laughed along with him, her head bobbing with excitement. “As if Kat doesn’t know that. She’s been listening to me go on about our great home exchanges for years.”
“Yup,” agreed Katherine. “James always thought you were crazy for allowing strangers to stay in your place. He wouldn’t have considered it in a thousand years.”
“Isn’t it nice you can make up your own mind about these things without having his overbearing influence?” Terrence asked. “Sorry, Kat, perhaps I shouldn’t have said that, but honestly, the more I hear how he controlled your lives, the happier I am you are out of that marriage. You have a lot of living to do!”
Katherine stood and hugged him.
“I’m not sure about the ‘lot of living’ part, but I have to admit I’m not having a hard time accepting that I’m the one who makes all the decisions about my life now. There’s no question I really miss my mom, but I do not miss my former husband. Period. Full stop!”
It had taken Katherine almost six months to say that out loud, and as soon as she did, it felt right. Not that it removed the hurt, but she felt a certain degree of success at being able to banish good memories of him from her thoughts.
Pausing briefly as her words sunk in with everyone, Katherine turned the subject back to home exchange.
“Putting Andrea’s chronic optimism aside—seriously, Terrence, how do you feel about these exchanges? Any problems ever?”
“Nope,” he answered without hesitation. “Each one has been great, although there’s no question you have to be flexible.”
“Meaning?”
“For example, our first exchange was to Portugal—a holiday house in the Algarve, with a pool—we always look for a property with a pool. The exchange family went to the condo we have at Blue Mountain. They wanted to go in the summer to see that part of Canada after they visited relatives in Toronto.”
Andrea added, “But remember, this was in 2000, and they didn’t have all the listings on the Internet yet, so we just saw photos in the catalogue. Most communication then was by fax or phone! Seems kind of archaic now, doesn’t it?”
“Right,” Terrence continued, “it’s so much better and easier today since you can see exactly what you are getting.”
“So what was the problem?” Katherine asked.
“Well, it turned out there wasn’t a comfortable chair to sit in anywhere! It was all wicker with thin cushions! Looked nice, but felt terrible!”
“And the bed in the master bedroom had a sag in the middle so enormous we would immediately roll into it.”
Terrence and Andrea both laughed at the memory.
“So we went to the nearest local housewares store and bought a couple of fat cushions! Besides, the weather was so fantastic we were out by the pool or at the beach most of the time anyway.”
“Not a big deal,” Andrea said, “and we fixed the problem with the bed easily by stuffing our empty suitcases under the
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