My Best Friend’s Girl
by Dorothy Koomson
Summary
How far would you go for the best friend who broke your heart? This internationally bestselling novel tells an enchanting tale of life’s most unpredictable loves and heartaches, and the unforgettable bond between a single woman and an extraordinary five-year-old girl. From the moment they met in college, best friends Adele Brannon and Kamryn Matika thought nothing could come between them—until Adele did the unthinkable and slept with Kamryn’s fiancé, Nate. Now, after years of silence, the two women are reuniting, and Adele has a stunning request for her old friend: she wants Kamryn to adopt her five-year-old daughter, Tegan….
In My Best Friend’s Girl, Dorothy Koomson takes us on a warm and wondrous journey through laughter and tears, forgiveness and hope—and the enduring love forged by the unlikeliest of families.
Excerpt
The postman jumped as I snatched open the front door to my block of flats and eagerly greeted him.
Usually when we came face-to-face, he’d have buzzed up to my first-floor flat and I’d come shuffling down to the ground level, pulling on my dressing gown as I tried to rub dried sleep drizzle off my face. Today, though, I’d been hanging out of my window waiting for him. I was in my usual dressing gown and had sleep-sculpted hair, but this time my eyes weren’t barely open slits, I’d washed my face and I was smiling.
“Special day, is it?” he said without humor.
He clearly didn’t like this reversal of roles. He wanted me to be sedate and disorientated when he handed over my post. It was probably the only power trip he got in a day. Ahhh, that’s not fair. He was lovely, my postman.
In fact, everyone in the world was lovely today.
“It’s my birthday.” I grinned, showing off my freshly cleaned teeth.
“Happy birthday,” he commented, dour as a priest at prayer time, and handed over the post for the four flats in our block. I keenly took the bundle that was bound by a brown elastic band, noting that almost all of the envelopes were red or purple or blue. Basically, card-colored. “Twenty-one again, eh?” the postie said, still unwilling to be infected by my good humor.
“Nope, I’m thirty-two and proud,” I replied. “Every birthday is a bonus! And anyway, today I get to wear gold sequins and high heels and brush gold dust all over my cleavage.”
The postie’s small brown eyes flicked down to my chest area, then he immediately snatched his gaze away. It’d probably occurred to him that he shouldn’t be eyeing up the women on his delivery route—especially when said lady wasn’t even undressed enough to make it worth his while.
He started backing away. “Have a good day, love,” he said. “I mean, dear. I mean, bye.” And then he legged it down the garden path far quicker than a man of his girth and age should be able to….
In my bedroom I had already laid out my birthday breakfast feast: fresh croissants with smoked salmon, three chocolate truffles and a glass of Mo‘t….
I…took a swig of champagne before I tore through my cards like a child. Around me the pile of brightly colored envelopes grew as I tugged out the cards and smiled at the words written inside.
It wasn’t dim of me, then, not to notice it. It was like all the others. Slipped in among the bundle, innocuous and innocent-looking. And, like all the others, I didn’t really look at it, didn’t try to decipher the handwriting on the envelope, ignored the picture on the front. I simply opened it, eager to receive the message of love that had been scrawled inside. My heart stopped. I recognized the handwriting before I read the words. The words I read with a racing heart.
Excerpted from My Best Friend’s Girl by Dorothy Koomson. Copyright © 2007 by Dorothy Koomson. Excerpted by permission of The Bantam Dell Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
Reviews
“Koomson’s U.S. debut is a three-hankie delight”—Publishers Weekly
“I was laughing and crying from page one. Koomson deals with grown-up issues: friendship, death, betrayal and forgiveness” —Adele Parks, author of Still Thinking of You
Author's Biography
Dorothy Koomson is another year older (which she’s very happy about), but not much wiser. She is still a journalist as well as a novelist, and now lives in both London and Sydney, Australia. My Best Friend’s Girl is her third novel. She is currently working on her next novel and a screenplay.